pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

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What We Needed

Reading: Exodus 16:13-15

Exodus 16:15 – “This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.”

Photo credit: Kate Remmer

The things that God and Moses and Aaron have been talking about for our first two days of reading in Exodus 16 finally happen. In the evening, quail covers the camp. They can gather as much meat as they desire. God provides in abundance. But in the morning there is a layer of dew all around the camp. I imagine this looking like a very, very low-hanging layer of thick fog. It is enough to hide the “thin flakes” lying on the desert floor. The quail they recognized. There were quail in Egypt. But this flaky stuff? They ask one another, “What is it?”

The Israelites felt a need for food. They turned to their intermediary with their complaint. God also heard their grumbling too. Most of the time, we do not feel like we need a “Moses” to bring our prayers to God. We bring our prayers and our complaints, cries, and pleas directly to God. Sometimes we pray in community, trusting others to also lift our prayers to God. And sometimes we do want someone to pray for us on our behalf. But overall, we are good at bringing our prayers and petitions to the Lord our God.

But like the Israelites, we are not always good at seeing God’s answers to our prayers. Yes, they’d even been told that God would give bread in the morning. Moses still had to tell them, “This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.” While most of the promises to us in scripture are not this specific, we are told that God hears and responds to our prayers. But when the “bread” doesn’t look like what we’re used to or when it is not what we expected, we can misunderstand the answer or we can be disappointed in it. Sometimes we miss the answer altogether. And yet, God is faithful. When we too choose to remain faithful, we can consistently look back and we can see that God’s response was exactly what we needed in that moment. For these truths, we say, thanks be to God!

Prayer: Lord God, we are so willing to lay our wants and needs before you. Help us to be just as willing to see how you provide and to trust in your wisdom and plan. Guide us to seek your will and way just as eagerly as we await your answers to our prayers. Amen.


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Faithful Provider

Reading: Exodus 16:2-5

Exodus 16:2 – “The whole Israelite community complained against Moses and Aaron.”

As we begin a few days in Exodus 16 we join the Israelites in the desert or wilderness, depending on your translation. They haven’t been gone very long – just long enough to run out of the food they took with them as they hurried out of Egypt. Because of this, “The whole Israelite community complained against Moses and Aaron.” Finding themselves in an uncomfortable position, a mix of fear and anger and longing rises up. They look back at their time in slavery and wish that they were still there. At least there was meat and bread aplenty. They wonder if Moses brought them into the wilderness to “starve to death.”

We too will find ourselves in desert places or in the wilderness of life at times. This is never an easy place to be and it is seldom a place of our own choosing. Unwanted change or loss or death or illness creates these experiences. We feel out of control. We feel unease, discomfort, disorientation. We often cry out, complain , grumble, and/or question God.

In our text, God hears Israel’s complaint. God will rain down what they longed for and remembered from their time in slavery: meat and bread. Each day, God will provide what they need for that day. Day by day, Israel’s trust in God will grow. In the same way, God hears our cries, our grumbles, our questioning. And because God is faithful, God provides what we need. God usually does not yank us out of our desert places, but becomes present to us in these places. It might be through meat and bread brought by a friend or neighbor. It might be through the comforting presence of our faith community. It might just be the strength to get through one more day. When we turn to God, yes, God is faithful. God will provide.

Prayer: Lord God, you are always with us. We always need you – especially in our desert or wilderness moments. Thank you for your faithful provision in our times of need. Continue to work through these experiences, building us up, growing our faith. Amen.