Our Daily Bread

"I will rain down bread from heaven for you."  Exodus 16:4

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.

Brown Grass Here Too

"If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt.  There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death!" Exodus 16:3

Brown Grass Here Too!
By Rev. William Dohle

They say "The grass ain't always greener on the other side..."  But as much as we know that this is true...we live like it isn't.

Think about how often we complain about things.  We complain about politics: our President isn't going things right, our governor is botching things up, and don't get us started about Congress!  At work it's our boss, or a fellow employee.  At church, it's the pastor or another parishoner.  At school, it's the teacher, another kid in the room, or perhaps even the principal.  At home it's our kids or our spouse and the attention(or lack of attention) they pay to us.

There's always something to complain about!

And, when we complain, we always wish things were different.  "If only..." there were a new president, a new pastor, a different employee THEN, we say, things would be better.  Then I'd be happier, content, fulfilled.

But even when things change we still find something to complain about.  A short time after the change has happened, we look fondly backward across the fence again.  We're never happy!

We're as bad as the people of Israel were back at the time of the Exodus!  They hadn't spent any time at all in the desert when their hunger pains brought complaints to their lips.

"If only we had died by the Lord in Egypt.  There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted..."

Funny part about this complaint is...just like everything else we complain about...it's just not literally true!

The people weren't sitting around pots of meat.  They were slaves of Pharaoh.  They weren't eating whatever they wanted.  They were starving!  The Pharaoh had even ordained that their children be put to death.  Sure, God had blessed them in Egypt, but now God was taking them to their promised land.

Surely they could see the good in that...right??  Surely they could see the journey God had taken them on and that the place they had just left wasn't all that great.  Surely the could see that, right?  Not hardly!

This is the first time the people complain, but this isn't the last.  The people constantly complain against Moses.  They have a short memory, so they can't see how God could provide for them here, out in the wilderness, just as God provided for them in Egypt.

We too fall into that trap.  Literally!  We too forget the blessings we've been given and focus instead on the "greener grass" we're sure we'll find on that other side of the fence.

"When we get a new President...then..."
"When we get a new pastor...then..."
"When my kids graduate from high school...then..."
"When I finally quit this job...then..."

Then, what?  Then life will be better?  Life will be grander?  Then our problems will all fade away?

Maybe... but even then I wager we'll find other things to complain about.  Even on that other side of the fence, we'll realize there's still brown spots...and be looking for someplace even better.

Instead of looking for greener grass there or anywhere, perhaps we should focus on what God has done here, remembering even the small things are gifts from God.  The food we ate was a gift from God.  Our family, as messed up as they are, are gifts from God.  Even the air we breathe has been given to us.  Maybe if we realized what we've already been given we can truly step away from the people of Israel and say:

"Yes I'm hungry, tired, confused, frightened NOW...but I'm sure that God will provide as God has provided in the past!"

Thank you, God, for listening to my complaints.  Thank you for understanding my humanity and forgiving my sinfulness.  Help me trust you more fully for everything.  Amen.