manna

The story of manna feeding the Israelites in the desert is one that everyone knows. I'm sure I have learned the lessons from it before, hearing in Sunday school and sermons preached on it. But in this time of learning to trust God it really shows how He only led them day by day, never giving more than they needed but just enough.

I picture myself in their situation where in Exodus 16 they are given specific rules for the weird little white flakes that appear on the ground in the morning and melt away by the end of the day. They are told to gather enough for each person but not to store any of it for the next day. How crazy is this? If you are in the barren desert, is it not instinct to collect all the food you can while you have the opportunity? Who knows when its going to stop or when you are going to come across food again? But, Moses became angry with those that disobeyed because by the following morning it stunk, had molded, and maggots were crawling around in it!

God led these people here with wondrous signs along the way. The plagues, the swallowing up of Pharaoh's army by the sea, the pillar of fire or cloud to guide them. The very manna itself is a miracle. Yet it strikes me that God keeps people on edge, hanging on by the skin of their teeth. Moment by moment, day by day, forcing them to give full trust to God because they can do nothing else.

We face decisions each day and do not usually take the time to consult God with them, usually just the ones where we aren't sure what to do. Can you imagine, trading places with the Israelites? I think about how hard it is to trust God now, asking him what he has in store for my future. It is good to think about the future, but what about each day? Are we taking the small steps of trust? Honestly, thinking like this makes me nervous. I don't particularly enjoy crazy spontaneity (planned spontaneity is cool though haha) or not knowing things ahead of time so the idea of trusting that God is going to leave manna with the morning dew each day is frightening. It does give me insight into what believing, trusting, putting absolute faith looks like. Just enough for each day. Don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own (Matt 6:34). This solidifies Jesus nifty little message about not fretting, bringing it to life showing how the Israelites lived. Crazy.