God’s Provision
For Meditation
Our longing in this sermon series, “Taste and See,” is that we would each experience God providing for us in fresh ways, like a tasty meal both refreshes and delights us. God’s desire is that we would know and enjoy relating to Him. Let’s be praying for each other to have that experience!
This week we will study God’s provision. Read the Exodus 16 passage and put yourself in the sandals of the people of Israel. Is their complaint unreasonable? Why does God call it grumbling? Notice how many times the word grumbling is used. Why do you think God is making such a big deal of their gripe? Think about the things you complain about? In what way might they be like the way Israel grumbled?
Notice the purpose that God states for what He is doing with the people through this part of their journey. He focuses twice on their seeing God in His glory. As Aaron speaks to the congregation they look, and the glory of God appears (verse10). Then the Lord tells Moses to speak to the people to tell them that God will provide the food they long for and that they will know that Yahweh is the Lord God (verse 12).
God’s purpose in the issues we face of unmet longings, needs to be met, and difficulties we face is always about more than the things we need itself. He wants to feed us with all that we need and that starts and ends with knowing the Lord God and seeing His glory. The passage tells us that He meets our needs in unexpected ways – He provides. However, through life’s journey as we regularly wonder how we will get what we need, God is always working to get us to see Him, His love, His goodness, His faithfulness so that we will love and enjoy Him more and more.
As you prepare for this Lord’s Day, think back over the issues of your life that lead you to wonder, question, and doubt if God will take care of you. Look to see how God has provided for you and has showed you His goodness and care for you. Give Him thanks!
Exodus 16:1-18
1 The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. 2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 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.”
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”
6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In the evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, 7 and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?” 8 Moses also said, “You will know that it was the Lord when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.”
9 Then Moses told Aaron, “Say to the entire Israelite community, ‘Come before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.’”
10 While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud.
11 The Lord said to Moses, 12 “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.’”
13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.
Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. 16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.’”
17 The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 18 And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.