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.

Bitter Waters Made Sweet

Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood.  He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.  Exodus 15:25

Bitter Waters Made Sweet
By Rev. William Dohle


There is a patch of highway every person should drive at least once in their life.  It stretches from Las Vegas, Nevada to Barstow, California and it is one of the most desolate and barren roads you will ever take.

Between these two cities lies a wasteland of nothing.  Nothing but high desert mountains and dry desert plains and lots and lots and lots of Joshua Trees!

My wife and I use to travel this desert often in the year we spent in Victorville, California, going to and from one of our favorite vacation places: Las Vegas!  In the midst of this two hour drive, my mind would often wander.  Staring out at the freeway before me, my thoughts would wander onto the mountainsides around me and out into the plains. I'd wonder, even in the midst of the scorching heat of a hundred degree day, what life would be like walking through the wilderness, stranded out in the middle of nowhere, with no gasoline-powered vehicle to keep you cool.  What would that be like?

I never wanted to find out, and thankfully I never had to.  Being stranded anywhere is no fun, especially in the desert, where your biggest worry isn't the wild animals, but water!

That's what Israel faced as it moved on from the Red Sea.  They had seen God's power at work.  They walked over the sea as if it were dry land.  Pharaoh's army was defeated.  No one was coming after them.  The "God-car" had taken them from slavery in Egypt, through the Red Sea, and now out in the desert.

But just like that, the hope they had ridden this far suddenly gave out on them.  Now, just a short ways from the Red Sea, they had already spent three days traveling in the desert with no water.

No wonder the people got cranky!  No wonder they started forgetting what God had done.  This God, who they had relied on more than we rely upon our cars today, had suddenly given out on them.  And here they were stranded without water!

And then they found it.  A pool of water!  They came to a place called Marah, but alas we are told they could not drink.  They couldn't drink the water because the water itself was bitter!

But God doesn't leave them in a ditch.  God doesn't leave them stranded again.  Instead, with a simple piece of wood, and the power of God, the water becomes sweet!  The bitter water is transformed into good water for all.

How often we have struggled in our own lives with thirst?  And how often has the water we thought would be our salvation turned out to be bitter?  Even if God has worked his wonders just a few weeks ago, we may start to feel like stranded, as if this God we've trusted in has abandoned us.

"Why, God?  Why have you taken this from us?"
"Why is my family falling apart?  I thought you were here to keep us together!"
"Why did the bank foreclose on my home?  I thought you were here to keep me safe!"
"Why am I facing this disease now?  Haven't I suffered enough?"
"Why did I lose my job?  I thought you wanted me secure!"

We can start to feel like the Israelites did, grumbling against God, saying "What are we to drink?"

And yet God still provides.  Even at the bitter springs of our lives, there is hope.  Even there, there are those people who act like that piece of wood, throwing themselves in the middle of the bitterness to make it sweet.  At the bitter springs of life, there are people who act in extraordinary ways to bring us food and drink and comfort in our time of need.  They are God, coming to us in the flesh and bone of our neighbors and friends.  They are our miracles.

Back at Christmas 2003, my father-in-law passed away in Phoenix.  Driving down to the funeral, I felt lost.  I couldn't imagine what my poor wife was feeling.  At the service itself, I don't remember much.  I don't remember what the pastor said or anything.  But I do remember one vase of flowers.  It was from our church back in Colorado.  "A little comfort in your time of sorrow." It said.

That was it.  That little vase of flowers was God's piece of wood, thrown into the bitterness of loss.  It did nothing for the grief, but it did everything for our spirits.

I wonder what that piece of wood Moses threw into the water look like.  I wonder... did it look like a cross?  Because God, faced with the bitter waters of life, threw a piece of wood with his Son out into it.  And, because He did, our waters are sweet.

God of life, have mercy on us.  Even when we feel stranded in the desert without water, give us hope that, through your Son, our bitterness may become sweet.  Amen.

Celebrating the Good

"Then Miriam, the prophetess, Aaron's sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her, with tambourines and dancing."  Exodus 15:1

Celebrating the Good
By Rev. William Dohle

How do you celebrate??

When life is going good, when you've received good news on a stress test, or when things aren't quite as bad as you thought, how do you rejoice?

Is it a quiet celebration?  "Horray," you say to yourself.  Is it a simple Facebook post?  "Hey everyone!  Good news!"  Or is it a full-on, drag your friends and neighbors and family out of their homes, celebratory event?

How do you celebrate the good?

And who do you give credit to?  It is: "Yeah!  I did it!"  Or "Thank goodness."  Or is there a God-element there?  Did God do the good thing in your life?  Is there someway that you acknowledge His hand at work?

As much as I roll my eyes when someone catches a touchdown and then kneels down to thank God, there is something to be said about giving credit where credit is due, especially when things are going well for you.
  
The people of Israel, as the Red Sea was coming down on the Pharaoh's army, took time out to praise God.  In the first psalm of the Bible, written well before the psalms of David were, the people of Israel stop to celebrate what God has done and to anticipate what God will do.  They bring out tambourines, lead by Miriam, and they sing praises to God for all that God has done!

"The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.  He is my God and I will praise him...The Lord is a warrior; the lord is his name...Who among the gods is like you, O Lord?  Who is like you--majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders? ..The Lord will reign for ever and ever."(Exodus 15)

Israel could have gone on without praising.  Or they could have limited their praise to Miriam's song, "Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted.  The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea."(which is, by the way, the oldest Hebrew song in the Bible!)

They could have limited their praise...or not given praise at all.

But they didn't.  Instead, they sing on the shoreline to the Lord for all that He has done.  They sing to God because they know that God is the one who delivered them.  God is the one who sustains them.  God is the one to whom praise and glory and honor is due, for everything good and bad is from God's hand.

I wonder if we see our own good as God's work how that might change our celebration.  If we can just notice that...

• The cancer in remission was defeated by the Lord!
• The good test score was because God helped us learn the knowledge.
• The peaceful family is because of his peace that passes all understanding.
• The long life we enjoy is because God has blessed us with it.
• The job promotion came from the gifts God has given us.

If we see the good coming from God(and not just the bad that we so often attribute to him)...maybe then we might find ourselves like the Israelites singing God's praises as the waters cover both horse and rider and we are redeemed once again.

For God has acted in this world.  Acted in ancient Israel.  Acted in Jesus Christ.  And through the Holy Spirit, God is still acting in our lives today.

So rejoice!  Give thanks!  For there is good that God is doing in all the crazyness around us.

Open my eyes that I may see your deliverance, O Lord, and that I, like the ancient Israelites, may sing your praises for all you have done.  Amen.

Fear Before Redemption

They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?  Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” Exodus 14:11-12

Fear Before Redemption
By Rev. William Dohle

The past month I chaperoned my oldest son's class on their class trip to the high ropes course outside of town.  And what an eye-opening experience that turned out to be.

The course was simple...or so it looked from our vantage point.  All you needed to do was walk one rope over to a pad, transfer your cables, walk over a few swings, transfer your cables, and do the same just two more times.

It all looked simple...until you tried it yourself.  Only then did you discover what fear truly was.

Our guides told us it would happen.  Despite the ropes course being "the safest place in all of camp", our brains told us otherwise.  And my brain said, quite loudly as the rope was swinging back and forth each and every time I took a step, "What in the world are you doing up here, Bill?!"

I tried not to look down.  Keep your eyes fixed ahead, I thought.  Fear gripped my every step.  I made it to the first post.  And then to the second.  The third one I almost didn't make it over.  Using a jump-rope style rope to walk across is not as easy as it looks.  But I made it there.  And I made it over the ravine to the ladder that led up to the zip line.

And I never was unafraid.  Not ever!

I made it up the ladder where, my feet dangling over the edge, I was to lean myself over the edge and down the zip line.

In those moments attached to the zip line, as the rain started coming down again, I wondered: Does fear always come before redemption?  Is it necessary to experience the terror of falling before you can enjoy the exhilaration of the zip fall down?

Fear was exactly what the people of Israel were experiencing moments before God parted the sea to let them through.  Stuck between the water on the one hand and an advancing army on the other, they wondered aloud(as they would often do in the desert to come) why God had led them to this cliff.  Why would God make them experience this terror before he redeemed them?  Why not leave them be, either in Egypt or in their promised land?  Why would God put them through this mess?

Moses answers them, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

But still that doesn't calm them down.  "Why are you crying out to me?" God says.  "Tell the people to move on!"

And yet, despite the assurance of God's redemption.  Despite having seen that power first-hand in all the plagues that had struck the Egyptians, the people of Israel still feared the danger all around.

I know many believers who ask the same questions of God the people of Israel did.  "Why are you putting us through this mess?"  These people face fears just as real as any mortal danger would be.  Fears like... "Will I lose my job today or tomorrow?"... "What will I do now that my house has been repossessed?"... "Why does our health keep getting worse and not better?"..."Will my son or daughter ever find gainful employment?"..."Why can't the doctors figure out what's wrong?"

These fears can paralyze us if we're not careful.  Trapped on the "high ropes" of our lives, we can feel hopeless, abandoned, and strung out.  With no one to care for us, we become like one little girl was in my son's class...a mess!  We start to cry and flail about and forget that God is there for us, keeping us from falling into the abyss.  For, no matter what happens to us here, we are Christ's forever and ever!  And his love will never let us go!

So...when if you feel like you're stuck between a Red Sea and an Egyptian army, do not fear.  And if you've already fallen in fear, do not worry.  And if you're worrying...well, just hold on tight.  "The Lord will fight for you..." and nothing can or will ever separate you from God's love.  NOTHING!

I am afraid, O Lord, and I seek your aid.  Help me in times of fear to overcome and hold on, knowing and believing that you do care and will come rescue and save me.  Amen.

Whatever It Takes

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea.  Exodus 13:17-18

Whatever it Takes!
By Rev. William Dohle

"I'll do whatever it takes!"  What would you say that for?

Not everything for sure.  We wouldn't do "whatever it takes" for the things that don't matter.  Cars, homes, and material possessions don't really matter in the long run.  When push comes to shove, we abandon these things to save what we would save with "whatever it takes."

Times to do "whatever it takes" don't present themselves often for us.  Usually only in dire emergencies, but you can imagine what you would do if...

• ...your son or daughter were sick with cancer.
• ...your family depended upon you...or upon your job...to survive
• ...you worked in a life-or-death profession where the lives of other people were in the balance.
• ...you could save only yourself and your loved ones from a raging fire.

In fact, most of us don't understand "doing whatever it takes."  Not really.  Most of us have never in a position to have to do "whatever it takes."

But God was in this position.  As God led the people of Israel from Egypt, God was certain to do "whatever it takes" to get them out of there.

First he sends plague after plague to show his wonders.
Next he strikes down the firstborn to free his people from Pharaoh.
And now, he does "whatever it takes" to make sure they're free.

First... he leads them away from war.  "If they face war, they may change their minds..."
Then... he leads them on their way...with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
Later... when he leads them to the Red Sea, he parts the waters before them.
Then... when Pharaoh sends his soldiers in pursuit, he brings the waters down against them.

All because God loved them!  All because God chose them!  All because God will do "whatever it takes!"

Sometimes I think we forget that God's love knows no limits.  We'd like to limit God, by our own choices or free will or by the actions of others.  We think: "Surely God won't go there!  Surely God will stop loving us if we reject him, abandon him, or deny him!  Surely God will turn his back if we turn away, right?"

And yet the Bible reminds us, over and over again, that God will do whatever it takes to rescue us, to save us, to redeem us, and to have us as His own.  God will even send His Son, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law so that we might become God's children!  That's how far God will go...and has gone...to save us!

So...the next time you are faced with such a decision...a decision to do (or not to do) whatever it takes, remember that God has done and continues to do whatever it takes to claim you as His own.  He's done it in the past...and He continues to do it into the future!

God of Israel, you show us time and again how far you're willing to go to rescue your children.  Remind us too of your unfailing, unchanging love through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Faith of our Fathers

Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear an oath.  He had said, "God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up with you from this place." Exodus 13:19

Faith of our Fathers
By Rev. William Dohle

Someday...  Someday...

I am one to try to prepare my children for things.  The more they know beforehand, the better they will be.

So this winter, when I was driving my oldest down to school for basketball practice, I took time to talk and prepare him for the future.

"Someday, William, you'll be dating...and then..."
"Someday, William, you'll face temptation...and then..."
"Someday, William, you'll be living on your own...and then..."

I try to prepare him, knowing that he will face much the same things that I have faced in my life.  Without some preparation, some vision of the future, life can sometimes surprise you or challenge you in ways that you didn't expect.  My father always taught me to be ready and have a plan to get through.

But for all my preparation, my vision of the future hasn't yet extended past his life...or his kids' life...or their kids' life.  Not like Joseph's vision did!

In a strange side-note to the exodus, as the people of Israel are making their way out of Egypt, Moses we are told stops to gather the bones of Joseph.  Why?  Why would Moses need or desire the bones of his distant, deceased relative Joseph?  Because... long ago the sons of Israel promised Joseph.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die.  But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."  And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath and said, "God will surely come to your aid and then you must carry my bones up from this place." (Genesis 50:24-25)

Besides the fact how strange it is that Joseph's brothers (and we assume his nieces and nephews) would promise to do anything with Joseph's bones.  Besides the fact how strange it was that generations later Moses remembered...what strikes me as more odd in this passage is that Joseph believed!

"God will SURELY COME TO YOUR AID!"

Joseph, that inigmative character we learned about in Genesis, believed God would come and deliver his people.  Joseph believed that God will fulfill the promise he made with his ancestors, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give him the promised land.  Long before his people were made slaves, Joseph trusted that God would come to their rescue.

That's some faith!  To see the deliverance of God from a distance and to welcome it!  Wow!

Do we believe that strongly?  Do we have such faith?

Do we believe that God will come to deliver us...even if we ourselves don't see it?  Do we see God's hand of mercy extending past our lifetimes, so that someday, when God does act, our descendants will remember our words and carry us with them? 

Are we that sure of God's grace?  Of God's providence?  Of God's steadfast love and faithfulness?

Joseph's faith humbles me because I, like many, find my own view of God obscured by the end of my life.  I can't imagine God doing anything past the time when I'm gone.  God's action is reduced to healing my physical ailments, keeping my life comfortable, and doing what I ask.  To be assured of God's grace, not just for me, but for my descendants and those after me, that is a faith that I aspire to have.

When I try to prepare my son, I prepare him because I've been there and experienced it.  But to prepare him for something that I have no vision of, something that I can only trust in, that's harder.

Perhaps if we allowed our faith to look beyond ourselves, to look beyond our own lifetimes, and to see the future ahead.  Perhaps we would prepare our children differently.  Perhaps we might say...

"When disappointments come in your life...you need to trust God.  God will get you through."
"When you have children, you need to love them and bring them to God.  God will help you raise them right."
"When you have grandchildren, you need to love them and bring them to God too.  God will see you through."
"And when you come to the end of your life, when you can see no future in store for you, trust that God has a plan.  For God will come to your aid."

Maybe that's a start at helping us reach in faith past beyond our petty concerns of today to the new horizon and the future that only God knows.

Give us faith, Lord, that we may hear your promises and believe them, trusting that you will do what you say you'll do, even if we can't see it.  Amen.