...keep praying and reading the Word...

“10 And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked towards the wilderness, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. 11 The Lord spoke to Moses and said, 12 ‘I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, “At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.”’

13 In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, ‘What is it?’ For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, ‘It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. 16 This is what the Lord has commanded: “Gather as much of it as each of you needs, an omer to a person according to the number of persons, all providing for those in their own tents.”’ 17 The Israelites did so, some gathering more, some less. 18 But when they measured it with an omer, those who gathered much had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage; they gathered as much as each of them needed. 19 And Moses said to them, ‘Let no one leave any of it over until morning.’ 20 But they did not listen to Moses; some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul. And Moses was angry with them. 21 Morning by morning they gathered it, as much as each needed; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.

22 On the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, two omers apiece. When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, 23 he said to them, ‘This is what the Lord has commanded: “Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy sabbath to the Lord; bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.”’ 24 So they put it aside until morning, as Moses commanded them; and it did not become foul, and there were no worms in it. 25 Moses said, ‘Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. 26 For six days you shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is a sabbath, there will be none.’

27 On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, and they found none. 28 The Lord said to Moses, ‘How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and instructions? 29 See! The Lord has given you the sabbath, therefore on the sixth day he gives you food for two days; each of you stay where you are; do not leave your place on the seventh day.’ 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.

31 The house of Israel called it manna; it was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. 32 Moses said, ‘This is what the Lord has commanded: “Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, in order that they may see the food with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.”’ 33 And Moses said to Aaron, ‘Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the Lord, to be kept throughout your generations.’ 34 As the Lord 

commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the covenant, for safe-keeping. 35 The Israelites ate manna for forty years, until they came to a habitable land; they ate manna, until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. 36 An omer is a tenth of an ephah” Exodus 16:10-36.

Dear friends, God was testing his people throughout the exodus. God lead them in odd directions without fully explaining why, surprising them with potentially destructive enemy attacks even after they had left Egypt, requiring them to walk through deep ocean water, and taking them to locations that lacked the necessities of life. All of these challenges were part of a plan to develop a people's willingness to trust Him and to put their daily faith in Him! Explaining everything in advance would have run counter to that plan. It was necessary for Israel — as it is for all of us — to learn faith while confused, while afraid, while desperate — not just in theory but under pressure of actual conditions where our life is uncertain and our faith is tested to the limit.

But dear friends, isn’t it a shame that such wonderful blessings of God should come about as a result of faithless grumbling on the part of us all. How much better it would be that we would pray diligently — including the Israelites — trusting in God's answers to all our daily struggles and temptations. Frankly, our grumbling doesn’t fit at all in the face of the Lord.  And yet, God still hears our grumbling, as He did Israel’s, and graciously responds — not as we always wish, but as though we had prayed faithfully in the first place. The goodness of God to his people is not dependent on our willingness to respect Him as we ought. Our hope and prayer, is it not, that God’s eternal rewards will not correlate with our daily behavior and sinful natures.

So today, I can only beg you to spend some time in prayer. Open your bibles and continue reading and think deeply (meditate) on what you read. There is no substitute for this!

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.