I am reading through the Bible in a year with the help of a student reading plan that we are working through with our Edge kids. Those are my fifth and sixth grade students on Sunday mornings at church. It is a very doable schedule and really focuses in on the main point of God's Word.
During the last week we have spent time in the book of Exodus where Moses is called to lead the Isrealites out of Egypt. It has really captured my attention! God did amazing miracles during the ten plagues to force Pharaoh to allow the people to leave. Can you imagine gnats and locusts covering your home and body?! Yet in all these God protected his people. He loved them and was working, however slow it seemed to Moses and the people, to save them.
Once out in the desert the grumbling starts. The Isrealites have actually witnessed God in the form of a cloud and been following him to freedom and they have the audacity to complain! I am always wishing God would appear in bright lights and lead me down the right path! They find water but it is bitter so low and behold God makes it sweet. They need food to God allows manna (bread) to fall from heaven each morning in just the amount each person needs. They get greedy and try to take more but in the morning it is filled with maggots and moldy. God provides this manna for 40 days so they will not go hungry and they wish they were back in slavery in Egypt becuase at least there they had meat. Reading this enraged me at first. Then I read it again trying to put myself into the story and try to gleen what God is teaching me...
Would I complain about eating the same thing for 40 days? Oh yes, I can barely stand left overs one night. Can you imagine bread for a month? (Don't just focus on the carbs here either.) I also find myself understanding how one could take more than they needed and try to prepare for the next day. I am constantly trying to be on top of things and buying gorceries on salem, even when I am not sure I have the resources, to prepare for the future.
I believe the manna became moldy and full of maggots to teach them a lesson. They must be content with what God has given them and even dare I say, thankful for God's provision?! There is nothing wrong with planning ahead but God's command was to take what you needed for one day. We must obey our Lord! He has the BIG picture in mind. He wants to share the BEST with us and we often will complain about it and reach for more and in turn be given maggot filled bread.
Here is where it really hits close to the heart: This week we are feeling the financial struggle as illness kept us from working and a few other expenses are starting to overwhelm. We received a refund check from the energy company for the work we had done on the house - energy savings or something they call it. Anyway, that check is a miracle and yet my first response was to grumble that it was not enough to pay the Visa bill. God sent manna from heaven and like the Isrealites, I complained instead of thanking Him for his amazing provision. What a jerk I was. I have since tried to be more thankful and remind myself that God will provide for all of my families needs in His time!
Reach for God's best by believing that HE will give you His best if you only put your trust in Him. There is my sermon for today....
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