Our Daily Bread
By Rev. William Dohle
I would not have made a good ancient Israelite. I just wouldn't.
In my cupboard at home there is enough food to last for a week. Maybe more. Our freezer has meats and veggies and other things in it that would feed us for almost a month. And we have enough stockpiled in our house that, if push came to shove, we wouldn't have to go out to the store, at least for a little while.
In other words: My "bread" isn't gathered daily but bought weekly. I store up my bread.
Now, to us 21st century people, we might not think that's a big deal. You probably do the same. Seldom to people go to the store every day for that day's meals. We usually go for a few days, a week, or even a month at a time. We stock up our fridges and our cupboards and only go out when we need to. We don't "gather our bread" daily.
But for ancient Israel on their way to the Promised Land, stocking up wasn't possible. Not because they didn't have food or were starving, but because God had designed their manna to last just for that day.
(God said) "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days."(Exodus 16:4-6)
Do you hear what God is saying? Each day he would rain manna down on Israel. And each day the Israelites would gather it up. The only day they'd have enough for two days would be the day before the Sabbath, so they'd have enough the next day to carry them through.
Just enough for that day? Wow! I don't know if I could do that! I don't know if I could gather just enough for me and my family that day, trusting that God would provide enough for the next day. I think I'd be tempted to gather just a little more. Just in case God forgot about us the next day. Or just in case I needed a little more than I thought.
Some Israelites thought the same thing. Some of them didn't listen to God's instruction and decided to "stock up."
"However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell."(Exodus 16:20)
They learned the hard way. Manna doesn't keep until the next day. God will provide what is needed for each day, our daily bread, and anything more will just go to waste.
We live in a world set between the two. On the one hand, we store up enough food in our homes to feed a small village. On the other hand, there are some things that we enjoy day to day. Our "daily bread" blessings.
At the center of the Lord's Prayer is the petition: "Give us this day our daily bread." It's an odd thing to pray for, daily bread, but it harkens back to the ancient Israelites. Each day their daily bread was sent from heaven. And each day we too are given our daily bread as well.
And what might that bread be? What might we need to be given daily from God? It's not food perhaps as we've seen. It's something more.
Martin Luther, who lived at a time between as well, a time when gathering your food each day was unnecessary, expanded out "daily bread" to include other things we need. He asks, "What is meant by daily bread?"
Everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as meat, drink, clothing, shoes, house, homestead, field, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful magistrates, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.
These are all things we need to be given daily. They are not things that we can store up for ourselves. Our cupboards cannot contain them. Our freezers cannot hold them. But they, like the manna the ancient Israelites gathered, are gifts from above, given to us daily by our God who loves us enough to provide for our every need.\
Give us grace, Lord, that we might see and know your good gifts and give you thanks each and every day. Amen.
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