The Lord Will Provide

_

Occasionally I get frustrated with myself, how inept I feel like I am at being Christ-like and following His commands. It’s amazing how straight-forward something can seem, and yet we often fail to follow His instructions for us, to our own hurt. Currently I’m in Exodus, reading through the story of God’s deliverance of His people from the hand of Pharaoh, and all the Israelite’s hardships, which we can clearly trace back to their own disobedience. But through it all, God also very clearly had an incredible plan, and He very carefully watched over His people and provided for them. Exodus 16 talks about how He gave them quail in the evening, and manna in the morning, instructing them through Moses and Aaron that they were not to take more than a specified portion. Some, however, were not satisfied with His plan, they thought they needed or deserved more than God gave them…

“This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.” – Exodus 16:16-18

We see here that some of the Israelites took more than their portion, but in the end they still had the same amount as everyone else, and those who had gathered less also had their fill, an “omer”. It crossed my mind as I was reading this passage that perhaps they had pooled their collection and thus evened out the amount that each would get, but I believe this is dispelled by the fact that God said, “…take ye every man for them which are in his tents.” Matthew Henry suggests that this was also a way of emphasizing that each man is responsible for providing for his own family and household.

Later in the chapter, God tells the Israelites that they are to gather twice the normal portion on the day before the Sabbath, and that their food will not spoil overnight (as it would do the other days of the week), so they would have food on the Sabbath day without having to gather the manna. But some people weren’t satisfied with that…

“And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the LORD: to day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none. And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day.” – Exodus 16:24-30

Evidently some people weren’t satisfied with the filling provision that God had given them, they wanted more! The connection here with today’s modern society is all too clear – the constant lust for more things, more possessions, etc. Even in our own lives, it’s also easy to lose track of just how much God has given us, how He always unfailingly provides for us, and to lust for more “niceties”. I’ll be the first to admit, niceties are a very nice thing to have! And God does bless us with nice things. But just because we don’t think we have enough of them doesn’t mean that we’re not getting our “fair share”. Quite the contrary, God will always give us just what we need. And this is something God has been impressing on me lately, the reality of truly seeking God first in our lives. We definitely need to be always seeking the things of God, but at the same time, we have to be clear on what the things of God are, and be careful not to lust after temporal comforts. With those, we must be content with what God gives us, as Paul was:

“Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” – Philippians 4:11

With regards to us as men, leading a family, we see the same things come into play that I mentioned in an earlier article. It can be easy to let the pursuit of the provision to become dominating in our lives, such that we are no longer pursuing true provision but mere comfort. Again, not that comfort is wrong to have, but it isn’t what we should be seeking, because the pursuit of those things distracts us. We need to be following God’s commands in our lives, leading our families, and providing for every one of their needs: physical, spiritual, and emotional.

When we have our eyes on Christ, and seek those things that are pleasing to Him, all the while being grateful for those things He has given us already, and trusting in His ever-constant provision, the Lord will provide!

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” – Matthew 6:33

_