We’re thrilled to hear devotional thoughts from Elisabeth Buono this week! You can stop by the contributors page to learn more about her.
This year, my husband and I have been reading through the Bible beginning in Genesis, and it has been a wonderful study so far. Although we haven’t even touched most of the magnificent truths in Scripture, having only made it partway through Exodus, there is already much to see in these early chapters about the character of God, His willingness and ability to use sinful people, His gentleness and care for people even when they fail, and so much more.
As I was reading through Exodus 16 recently, I was struck by several verses talking about the Israelites when God began blessing them with manna in the wilderness. In verses 15-17 and 19-20, we read: (my bolding added)
“When the sons of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: Everyone gather as much as he will eat; you shall take an omer apiece according to the number of people each of you has in his tent.
The sons of Israel did so, and some gathered much and some little. Moses said to them, “No one is to leave any of it until morning. But they did not listen to Moses, and some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank; and Moses was angry with them.
A little further down in verses 26-27, Moses is finishing explaining the different guidelines for manna with the Sabbath and says: Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none. Yet it came about on the seventh day that some of the people went out to gather, but they found none.
I suppose these things ought not to have been surprising. The God Who miraculously delivered them from Egypt by throwing back the very waters of the sea, Who had also miraculously provided them quail to eat, and now had given instruction as to how to handle the second miraculous provision of manna- He actually meant what He said. When they were not to keep the manna overnight, yet did, it rotted.
When they were told there would be no manna, yet went and looked anyways, they found none. Reading through these verses so straight-forwardly shows the Israelites’ obviously silly and also sinful behavior. Yet how often in our lives do we know an instruction of the Lord from His Word, or know what path we think He’d have us to take, yet decide to live in our own wisdom and realize the results are not what we desired? Or how often do we know something is wrong, but think, “Well this isn’t really so bad,” or, “One time and I won’t do it again”?
The Lord was displeased by the disobedience of the Israelites and did not overlook or tolerate their sin, yet He also didn’t stop giving manna. He didn’t change His plan for them as His covenant people. And in that, we see His grace and faithfulness and covenant-keeping nature. And in that we see the kindness and patience of the God Who also loves us, Who is also patient with us, and Who – though He is perfectly holy and just- is also a God of grace for sinful people. Praise God for that!:)
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