WATCHWORD:
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:15-17
21 Each morning everyone gathered as much as they 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 sabbath 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? Exodus 16:21-28
Meditation:
The Lesson of the Manna
In verse 28 of the above passage, God raises a rhetorical question with Moses, “How long will the people of Israel refuse to follow My instructions and commands?” But God is not talking only to Israel, He is addressing us, and that question is not rhetorical at all, as it is recognizing the sinful nature of humans acting like humans. If you had been there in that vast crowd of Israelites being fed on a daily basis by manna falling from heaven, wouldn’t you be curious if the manna would be there on the Sabbath, on the day of rest?
Tell a child not to touch the hot stove, and guess what? Ouch! Tell a feckless human being thou shalt not, and guess what? Tell that silly First Man not to eat from the fruit of that tree, and you know what happened. Thanks, Eve. Disobedience, sinful behavior.
God never speaks to us in ways that are confusing and hard to understand. In fact, His clarity of purpose is striking. “Thou shalt not eat…” “Thou shalt not gather…” We understand, Lord, and yet we wonder if that’s what you meant, or we say I wonder if that is God’s voice. We say that nothing touches our lives that doesn’t pass through God’s hands, and yet we question that, as we experience adversity, those rough bumps in the little road that we’re trying to travel.
We do have a dilemma of obedience. We disobey God by becoming amateur providences, because what we hear God saying to us may cause discomfort on the part of people that we like, and so we translate God’s word to our own preferred direction. We may ask, “What would Jesus do?”, while at the same time we know what he would do, and yet we don’t…do! So, has your burned hand healed? How are you with the “thou shalt nots…”? How about you and me and our “foot-in-mouth-disease”
Oswald Chambers tells us, “Never ask the advice of another about anything God makes you decide before Him. If you ask advice you will nearly always side with Satan. Do not confer with flesh and blood.”
God’s question remains there, before us: How long will you people refuse to follow My instructions and commands? How long, indeed. So be it.
Closing Prayer:
Heavenly Father, Sometimes we wonder about obedience. After all, it feels difficult at times. It requires selflessness, serving, unconditional love and grace. It’s sacrifice and many times, it can feel painful! Father, we can’t do all these things on our own. We so desperately need you. Lord, we desire to live a life in obedience to you, but it gets confusing when our wants get pushed to the side. If it feels uncomfortable, we make excuses. Bring in suffering and we question your will. Father, we understand what it means to follow Christ—we need to set aside our own desires, “pick up our crosses” and follow Jesus. As of today, we have yet to discover “carrying crosses” as fun, exciting or even pleasurable. Yet, that’s what you want us to do. You want us to live our lives in submission to your will. How can we honestly say we love you if we ignore what you say?
Help us to understand obedience produces faith that sets our hope on your mercy. And mercy means our obedience does not have to be perfect; it only has to be penitent. We thank you for your mercy and for this wonderful truth! Father, help us not to just wonder about obedience but to continue to pursue it. When we submit to your will, we produce fruit, we have our prayers answered and we experience a deepening love for Christ and for other believers. We also experience an overflow of joy. So help us and show us how to do all things according to Your will. In Jesus name we pray, through the power of Your Holy Spirit, Amen.
