Jul 25, 2023
Ex.16:1-5,9-15; Ps.78:18-19,23-28; Mt.13:1-9)
“I will now rain down bread from heaven for you.”
He gives us bread to eat; He gives us wine to drink. All our food comes from His hand. He provides for our every need. It is not by our own strength we are fed. It is not by our own strength we produce fruit to feed others. All our grain is from His hand and grows only with His blessing.
The Israelites find themselves in a barren desert and begin to fear for their empty bellies. “Can God spread a table in the desert?” they ask in doubt, and begin to dissemble before the Lord. But it is God’s will to teach them a lesson, to show them from whom their sustenance comes, for even when in Egypt their “fleshpots” were provided by Him. But they are a blind and ignorant race, and so He must show them the power of His grace, of His providence. He thus gives them a food they have never seen before, whose very name, “manna”, reveals its mystery. And so they partake of this food of the angels; “even a surfeit of provisions He sent them,” though their flesh shall not be long satisfied with this heavenly food.
And we, do we realize all our food comes from the Lord? Do we see His hand at work in all things? Or do we go blindly along through this desert as well, listening too carefully to our grumbling stomachs while ignoring His Word in our hearts and presence in our midst? Do we, too, forget all He has done for us? Or do we turn faithfully to Him for His heavenly provisions and find ourselves satisfied with the food from His hands? And thus, do we ourselves yield grain from the good soil He sets us on, increasing “a hundred- or sixty- or thirty-fold” His word in our hearts, that others might be fed too by our God? Jesus sits before us today and calls us to such fruitfulness in His name. Let us not be choked by the cares of this world or fail to have depth of faith within our souls, but let us take the blessed food He provides in His Word and in His Body and His Blood and so be nourished well to provide for others.
The desert in which we find ourselves, by which the Lord tests our faith, can seem to overwhelm us at times. May it never cause us to act as the Israelites, who “tempted God in their hearts by demanding the food they craved.” Let us remember that only the “heavenly bread” rained upon us by Him will save us from the temptations and emptiness of this life. I pray He fill you with His bread of eternal life.
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O LORD, you give us bread to eat;
yes, you provide holy seed –
and we must produce fruit unto Heaven.
YHWH, our trust in you increase this day; let us know it is by your hand we are fed. And what food is ours by your grace! Even the Body and Blood of your Son.
Bread from Heaven you give us, LORD, feeding us with the flesh of Christ. As once you gave the Israelites bread in the desert, so now you open the doors of Heaven and provide for us our daily food.
Plant your Word in our souls, dear God, that it might grow and nourish us well, that we might bear fruit a hundredfold in the Name of Jesus. Our ears open to hear His voice, let us be faithful to His call.
All the distractions of this world take from us; save us from the rumblings of our belly. Let us understand that you care for all our needs if we but trust in the Word you send us.