In our devotion yesterday from Numbers chapter 11
we saw the Israelites were really good at complaining about how hard the journey was.
Today in the very next verses from Numbers chapter 11
we see that the Israelites are really good at,
well, still complaining;
except complaining about something different.
They’re complaining about the lack of food options
and they compare it to what they had in Egypt.
They said, “Ah, remember when we were back in Egypt
“and we had all the fish that we wanted at no cost to us
“and we had cucumbers and we had melons and we had onions
“and we had all these different things
“and now all we have is this this manna
that we have to eat day after day after day?”
A couple of things jump out there.
First of all,
that they said that the fish came at no cost to them.
While their backs were being ripped open by a whip
as they were forced into hard labor day after day that killed many of them;
as they were ripped away from their families, their spouses, their children;
on the days when they were begging and begging
that God would set them free from their slavery;
there was a cost.
The past wasn’t as glorious as they wanted everyone to believe.
And there’s a temptation there that we need to be aware of as we get into an election.
We’re just a couple of days away from another presidential election taking place.
There’s a temptation to say, “Boy, things, things were better back when.
“Remember the good days in America when things were,
“when things were the way we all wanted them?”
There have always been challenges,
but the reality of today, and next Tuesday, and next Wednesday,
how the Israelites described, you know, the better life of what they had.
They had fish, and they had melons, and cucumbers, and onions.
You know, what they described there?
Any grocery store that you are free to go into.
You’re going to have those options and so many more.
They longed for what we will have no matter who gets elected.
And then when they complained about the manna they said,
they said, “All that we have here is this this manna
“that reigns down from heaven
“and we don’t even have to do anything to make it happen.”
This manna, from what we know about it,
seems to be something that God invented just for the Israelites.
There’s never been anything on earth like it.
He knew it was exactly what they needed to keep them going in a desert.
This manna that was there day after day after day for 40 years
and God never failed to give it to them
because he knew that’s all they needed to keep going.
And so what they could have said is,
“All we have here is
everything we need day by day by day.”
And whatever happens in this election,
whatever is currently missing in your life that used to be here,
wherever good you perceive things used to be
compared to how they are right now,
or no matter how challenging,
no matter how hard your journey,
God has promised you the same thing.
That your manna will be here day by day.
And your manna probably won’t be food raining down from heaven,
but it will be everything God knows you need
whether or not you asked him for it.
Just like he put Jesus on a cross without us ever asking for it.
Just like he knew how to produce manna and how to give it
without any Israelite giving him any instructions on how to do that.
He knows your life.
He knows the desert you’re in.
He knows the needs that you have.
And he promises day by day by day
he will meet all of them.
So rest well tonight, my friends.
Your God is in the process of meeting all of your needs.