26th June 2024

26th June 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (Exodus 16:1-36 focus v13-30)


Message (Alan Burke)


The people were hangry, the Lord though provided again miraculously in abundance for his people so that they would know that he is the Lord. The quail came and covered the camp in the evening and dew in the morning that left thin flakes like frost. They called it manna meaning what is it. Look down to v 31, because this was bread like wafers made with honey, they had sweet bread every morning, they might not have had the honey nut cornflakes or the coco pops or Frosties, but this was sweet wafer like bread, some of you are porridge people, every morning, you might add a bit of sugar or salt, but the Lord was providing not just something bland but something enjoyable for the people and it could be baked or boiled. 


This was a gift of God to his people, new every morning, fresh every day, all they are being asked to do is to trust his provision towards them, to learn to trust him, and there is a sense that they should have already learnt but the Lord is patient with them. They were to gather what they needed, keep none of it until the morning. What the Lord was doing in this was testing his people whether or not that they would have faith in his provision and they couldn’t even trust him that he would provide for him.


While they were to only gather what they needed and to eat it all that day they had a backup with all the livestock that they had and had a big BBQ in the wilderness the people or rather some couldn’t even trust the Lord that they would be provided for. Look to what comes in v20, for some paid no attention and kept some of the manna until morning. They couldn’t obey the simple instruction, like if you cant follow the simple things how are you ever going to follow the big stuff, the Lord knew how they would respond before he tested them but still provided. 


For those who kept the food until morning they experienced the consequences. It was full of maggots and began to smell. Again are we so different, maybe we are, maybe you are told something and on the first time you are good at hearing and responding, doing what you are told, sadly though I’m still like I was as a child and many of us are, I find it hard to hear and listen even when I know the consequences. Often we’ve been told, we know and understand but we do our own thing anyway just as the Israelites did. 


God here provides in abundance, he was providing for his people even though they had failed to trust him, that the condition of their hearts known to him, he shows that wherever they are that he will provide for him, he tested them, but it wasn’t so he could point the finger, that he could pounce on them when they failed, no it wasn’t that. God was testing his people to teach his people he could be trusted, the Lord could have given them enough at the beginning of the week to do them but he didn’t, he did it daily, so that they could learn that he would provide for them. And he does the same with us, he tests, gives us trials, puts temptations in our way to help us to learn to trust in him, to shape us to the people he wants us to be. 


In all of this, the daily provision the Lord’s prayer comes to mind. The fourth petition says, give us this day our daily bread. Alright you might have an intolerance to wheat, you might need gluten free, but there Jesus teaches us to pray for our daily bread, it is a physical request not a spiritual request. We are to pray for our daily bread, for what we need. The Israelites were to gather enough for each day and double on the sixth day for the Sabbath and he was teaching his people through it that h would provide for their daily needs, day by day. What we are asking God in this petition is that he would give us those daily necessities for life in this life. But what is more he gives us the only thing we truly need, not the necessities of daily bread but of salvation through his Son.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q 75. What is forbidden in the eighth commandment?
A. The eighth commandment forbiddeth whatsoever doth, or may, unjustly hinder our own, or our neighbor’s, wealth, or outward estate.
​