Recently my family has been studying the story of the exodus from Egypt, how the Lord led the Israelites out of slavery, through the Red Sea, and eventually to the Promised Land. I’m sure you’re familiar with the story and the grumblings of the Israelites even in the midst of God’s miraculous workings. Grumble, grumble, grumble…it seems like that is all the Israelites do! First they grumbled that the plagues were making their lives worse. Then they grumbled that the had be led to a dead end on the banks of the Red Sea.

In our most recent study, the Israelites have now started grumbling about the lack of food. They wish they were back in Egypt, “when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full.” Apparently, they quickly forgot about their previous complaints of the misery of their enslavement and making bricks without straw!

But we know that this also true of us. How quickly we forget the saving grace and provision of the Lord. How many answered prayers and blessings from the Lord have I forgotten in the face of a present difficulty?

Thankfully for us, and for the Israelites, the Lord is not like us. He is gracious and merciful, and instead of the judgment we deserve for our grumbling, he shows mercy. The Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.”

How amazing is that? I know our food budget would certainly benefit from the promise of bread raining down from heaven! But it was not just bread from heaven. It was also a test. God said, “the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.”

God was using this bread from heaven to teach the Israelites not to trust in their own stores of provisions, not to cling onto their own 5-year plan of what God should do. He was using this bread to test whether the Israelites would truly trust him to provide each day what they needed. Would they go to bed with an empty pantry trusting that there would be food in the morning? God knows us, he knows our hearts, and he knows we would much rather be in control ourselves instead of submitting to his control.

I’m sure the Israelites would have much preferred if God had said, “Behold, I am about to rain a year’s supply of bread for you, my 40 year plan, and a healthy retirement savings.” I’m sure they would have much rather been able to store up a stockpile of food, and be able to say, “Ok, we’ve got our food for the rest of the week.” I know that is what I would have liked to have heard. We like to feel that we are in control, that we are the fulfiller and supplier of all of our own needs. If I’m honest, I don’t know that I would have passed God’s test! So maybe I shouldn’t be so harsh of the Israelites and their sometimes lack of faith.

How often have you and I said the words, “Give us this day our daily bread”? A few hundred times? A thousand times? Maybe multiple thousands of times? When we say these words, may we think of the Israelites and how God truly gave them their daily bread, and just their daily bread, so that they would learn to trust his provision and goodness, and not put their faith in their own provisions.

In Proverbs 30:8-9, the writer says, “give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.” In this season of Thanksgiving, I encourage us all to make this our prayer.