Daily Bread

Daily Bread
Words of Faith 11-28-2022
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2022
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL
www.faithfellowshipweb.com
<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><

Exodus 16
[20] However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.
[21] Each morning everyone gathered as much as he needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away. [22] On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much--two omers for each person--and the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses. [23] He said to them, "This is what the Lord commanded: 'Tomorrow is to be a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.' "
[24] So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it. [25] "Eat it today," Moses said, "because today is a Sabbath to the Lord. You will not find any of it on the ground today. [26] Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any."
[27] Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none. [28] Then the Lord said to Moses, "How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions? [29] Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where he is on the seventh day; no one is to go out." [30] So the people rested on the seventh day.

There is probably nothing worse than rotten manna. We don't know this from experience, but one can only imagine biting into a snack expecting to taste "honey wafer," only to be spitting out maggots and stinking crumbs. There must be a Hebrew word for "Yuck." Maggots and stink are what people got when they tried to gather more than they needed. It was a lesson that did not need to be repeated.
The Lord had given clear instructions. The lesson was to live in daily dependence upon Him. We have a similar instructions from the Lord without the same tool to teach us. Most of us do not live hand to mouth. If we gather food daily, it is because we choose to have fresher fruits and vegetables, and we buy them with money saved.
Yet the Lord Jesus instructed us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." Our focus and recognition are to be upon the daily provision of the Lord feeding us. We are not told to gather only for one day at a time, but to recognize the hand of the Lord each and every day.
The food or material we gather beyond a daily supply does not rot on the second day. That is a good thing. But, in a sense, that food or material becomes "rotten" to us when we fail to acknowledge daily the hand of the Lord in providing.
Part of our human problem is that if we gather and store something with our own hands, we tend to think that it came from our own hands rather than from the hand of the Lord. Such an "unacknowledged" supply does not edify us because it builds a sense of independence from God. The more we accumulate without acknowledging the Lord, the more independent we feel. We can become proud of our gathering, trust our accumulation, and forget about God's provision. We may even talk boldly about what "I will do with MY money." It often takes a crisis to shake us out of this.
The Lord's provision for the Sabbath was reemphasized here. The extra manna gathered on the sixth day would not rot, and then there would be nothing on the ground to gather on the seventh. It was a mandated rest. Life would undoubtedly be clearer if this still were the case today! Before any of the Law was given to Moses, the Sabbath was given. This provision was a gift to the people both as a day of rest and a day "unto the Lord." Both were for the benefit of the people.
Jesus later clarified that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27). The Sabbath was holy and "set apart" but for the purpose of edifying man. We need both rest and time with the Lord. This is what refreshes and renews us. But this is a difficult pattern to learn. It is often out of either greed or mistrust of our Provider that we work on the seventh day, failing to rest and draw near to the Lord.
The point of this was not legalism but joy! The seventh day was set apart to be an exceedingly joyous day of rest and rejuvenation in communion with the Lord. Yet many times, we run from that joy because of fear.
How is your daily walk with the Lord? Are you acknowledging daily your dependence upon Him? Are you praying for daily bread and acknowledging your daily gratitude and reliance upon the Lord? How is your Sabbath? Are you finding joy in one day of rest unto the Lord out of seven? Or are you running from that joy?

Father God, I give thanks for Your daily provision for me. Even when I have gathered plenty for many days, I acknowledge that it is not my hand but Your hand that is my source of provision. I thank You for every blessing. Thank You for the blessing of Sabbath. Teach me not to run from that joy. In Jesus' name.

<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><
© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2022
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)
2820 Business Center Blvd.
Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
SUBSCRIPTIONS - To receive the Words of Faith devotion five days a week, send an e-mail message addressed to join-words-of-faith@hub.xc.org. To stop receiving Words of Faith, send an e-mail message addressed to unsubscribe-words-of-faith@hub.xc.org. The daily devotion and archive are posted at https://www.faithfellowshipweb.com/blog
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail, excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2022 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.