Bread From Heaven

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.” Exodus 16:4-5

Behold! The local grocery store shall open this day and there shall be no charge! But, each must take only what he or she needs for one day and no more.

You and I can imagine the brief period of chaos in and outside of the grocery store that announcement would cause. It would be quite difficult for any of us to obey the law with so many piling up cart after cart and hauling them out. Fights would ensue with shelves inside the store quickly emptied, and the police would have to be called in to restore order. Even with trucks lined up out to the highway to restock the shelves, it would take quite some time before people would gather only according to their daily needs, and some few would still attempt to gather more and sell it on Ebay. We know this would happen because we feel the temptation too.

Like the Israelites of ancient times, we do not have it in our fallen selves to obey the law. Therefore, as I cannot trust myself to only gather what I need, I shall go on a diet and not participate in that gathering. Nope, obedience to the law means not skipping my daily quota as much as it means not gathering too much. We cannot escape the law that way. Some have tried to move away from our Lord's command to love our neighbors by living where they have none. It seems once more that the answer to obedience comes from our Lord much like that manna did back in the day: daily, free of charge, and only available from Him. Maybe the answer is Him!

Yes, Jesus our Lord is the Bread from Heaven. How do we gather our daily quota of Him? The same way Paul and Silas did: prayer, singing hymns, thanksgiving, fellowship, loving, and the study of His word.

Bucky