Exodus 16:4-17:7

Exodus 16:4-17:7

God once again heard the requests of His children and was ready to provide for them. He was doing this not only to meet their needs, but to also show them His glory and power. He wanted them to know who He was and what He was capable of yet again. Just days or weeks after seeing His power in splitting the Red Sea, it appeared as if the Israelites had forgotten what He had done, forgotten what He could do. So He was ready to once again prove who He is. He met the needs of His people by providing them with meat and manna from Heaven.

Yet as many times is the case, this provision came with a set of commands. God was providing for His children, but He also wanted them to honor Him in the process. So He told them to only gather enough for what they needed each day. Any excess manna would instantly spoil and be of no use the next day. What is amazing however; is that those who gathered more than enough for one day would find that it was plenty, and if someone gathered less than enough to fill them, they were filled anyways. This latter case reminds me of the feeding of the 5,000 when it was obvious that there was too little food for all of them, yet God made it enough to fill everyone. The last command God gave the Israelites was to not gather food on the Sabbath. From Genesis 1-2 it is obvious that God had a purpose for the seventh day of the week. It was to be a day of rest, a day where His children could truly focus on Him. Knowing that the food rotted each day, the Israelites may have wondered if their food would last on that seventh day. That is where they had to once again learn to trust God, that He would take care of them, and He did. On the sixth day of the week, they gathered enough food for two days so that they would not have to work on the seventh.

God lays out instructions for us like this all the time, but we too have trouble fully trusting Him at times. He tells us or shows exactly what He is about to do, and yet we tend to forget His commands or forget how He has provided for us in the past. That is how some of the Israelites reacted near the end of Exodus 16. They went out on the seventh day to gather food after being told there would not be any there. God was rightfully upset, asking Moses how long they would ignore Him and refuse to trust and obey Him. So Moses had to once again remind the Israelites what God’s commands were. God also set up a reminder for them and future generations of His provision by commanding Moses to keep some of the manna in a jar for all to see. This was a testament of God’s provision for the Israelites until they arrived on the edge of the land of Canaan (40 years later). Instances of disobedience such as this one is what kept the Israelites from entering the Promised Land, but God was still there with them, drawing them back to Himself every time they messed up.

After moving on to the next leg of their journey, they arrived in a land with no water. Now if you remember, back in Exodus 15, they encountered this very problem. God provided for them then, provided manna for them, and yet they still thought they would not survive in this new land. I am still amazed at how forgetful these people were. How could they immediately turn from seeing God’s power at work, seeing God in all His glory, and then wonder if He would let them die before they arrived in the land that He promised to give them? It is unimaginable! So Moses once again prayed for help. God had Moses strike a rock which in turn supplied the Israelites with water to drink yet again. Once more, they were satisfied and were more than ready to follow God. But here is one problem I have with this “obedience.” It appears as if many of the people of Israel were only willing to follow God when their physical needs were met. When trials came up in their life, they wanted to turn to God first, asking where He was. Sadly, this is not only an Israelite problem; this problem is around today as well. It is so easy to trust God when life is going well, but the minute a trial enters our lives, we want to blame God, asking if He even loves us anymore. We forget that He is more powerful than our trials and that He can actually use that trial for our benefit. Unlike the Israelites, we need to learn to trust God during these hard times rather than blame Him for them.

Matt