Give us today our daily bread……

Water, food and a fair bit of grumbling……that’s what we’re looking at today in Exodus 15:22 – 17:7.

God has just done an amazing thing for the Israelites and they have celebrated with singing and dancing……now three days on, three days without a drop to drink and they are desperate. When they do find water, it is too bitter to drink. They are struggling to trust God and struggling to trust Moses –

So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”  Exodus 15:24

God tells Moses to throw a specific piece of wood into the water and it becomes drinkable. All is good. God has provided.

They then spend a few days at Elim with 12 springs and 70 palm trees – a real oasis, a respite and retreat.

As they travel on, the grumbling starts again. The people are hungry. There is not enough food. They are struggling to trust God and struggling to trust Moses –

The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”  Exodus 16:3

Just in case anyone fancies trying it!

So God rains down bread from heaven in the morning and sends quail in the evening, on the understanding that the Israelites only take what they need for that day.

“I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’”  Exodus 16:12

It’s that whole ‘Then you will know that I am God’ thing all over again.

And human nature being what it is, some gathered much bread and some gathered little – but when it was measured, they all had exactly the same! How I wish we had a system like that in this world, where the food was shared out equally and we all had exactly what we needed instead of the screwed up inequality that we see in our world today where some of the people in half of the world are dying of hunger and some of the people in the other half of the world are dying of obesity.

The other part of the deal is that no one was to keep any food until morning. It’s back to the whole trust issue again (saving for a rainy day and all that!)  And of course, human nature being what it is, some of them kept some of the food back and by morning, it was full of maggots and not smelling so great. Everyone got the hang of it in the end, even saving and preparing food on the sixth day to eat on the Sabbath (and this time, no maggots!).

And of course, human nature being what it is –

Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none.  Exodus 16:27

Trust is really, really hard. Being dependent on someone else (especially a God you cannot see or understand) requires trust and is really, really hard.

The Sabbath matters. One day a week is set aside to be different from all the other days. Everyone needs to take a break. Everyone needs to rest.

And the Israelites eat manna for forty years!

When the community camps at Rephidim, there is no water again. They are struggling to trust God and struggling to trust Moses –

So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”

Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”

But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”  Exodus 17:2-4

God tells Moses to strike a rock with his special staff and water comes flowing out of it.

And he called the place Massah (testing) and Meribah (quarreling) because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”  Exodus 17:7

Do you get the picture? Can you see what is happening? As soon as something starts to go wrong, the Israelites lose all faith in the God who has set them free. Every setback proves that they should have stayed where they were, that God cannot be trusted, that Moses cannot be trusted……and how often do we react like this when we set out on a scary, exciting new undertaking and then let every hindrance knock us back and discourage us and make us lose faith in the God who has set us free?

This reminds me of my younger children. The girls struggle to feel secure in my love (stemming from separation issues when younger) and therefore use everything I do and say as a measure of whether I love them or not. If I give them what they want/need, then I love them and if not, it is absolute proof in that moment that I do not love them and will not care for them and am not capable of looking after them.

This morning’s exchange for example –

C: Fancy giving us a lift?

Me: No

Two minutes later….

Me: Bye…Love you.

C: No, you don’t.

I try to assure them that I love them always and will love them always, whatever my decision is, but they do not feel it, they cannot believe it, they do not accept it. With Courtney, it is as primal as having enough food and drink sometimes – when she feels hunger or thirst, she panics and needs a loving parent to provide something there and then to prove their love and care for her. If they could only trust in my love, trust that I will provide everything they need……..then they could relax into it and enjoy the ride a little more…….do you see where I’m going with this?

In the Lord’s Prayer, we say ‘Give us today our daily bread….’  For most of us, it is not bread that we need to pray for , although it is good to remember that all good things come from God and thanking Him for that donut or cooked breakfast and Indian takeaway is always worth doing! We do have needs in our daily lives though – grace to get through the day, peace to survive that meeting at work, patience to cope with our kids, love to help a friend in need……..and sometimes more physical needs too.  Trusting that God will provide will help us to relax and enjoy the ride a little more……..life will have its ups and downs: these are not proof that God exists or does not exist, that God cares or does not care, that God is worthy of our trust or not worthy of our trust……these absolutes do not need to be proven every step of the way. They just are. God exists. God cares. God will provide.

So chillax and stop the grumbling!