Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Daily Manna

Nothing like getting ahead of the game, right? I'm preaching on Exodus 16:2-15 this Sunday...God providing quails and manna. I'm emphasizing God's desire that we trust God for our daily bread. The Israelites had to harvest the manna every day except the sabbath. What does it look like in a world of refrigeration and canning to trust God for our daily bread? Is it merely acknowledging God's provision, or is it more than that? Couldn't the Israelites have given thanks for manna that lasted more than a day? What do you say to people who have no food, especially at the end of the month? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

3 comments:

mark said...

yo..i think you're right on about the ideas of food, etc. Maybe even compare the price of meals at various resturants. Does God care where we go to eat?

and leave it to one from the evangelical tradition to spiritualize the text but..

what about God providing enough love for one day? God giving enough value and worth for the full day? and each God we have faith that God will come again and fill us up..and so we dont need the newest make-up or clothes, etc., because God comes and gives us enough worth and value for the day..more love and value than we ever could imagine..

what happens when we try to hoard God's love??

Anna said once..dont save anything for next week. Preach it all (without spewing it all)..dont hold anything back..

hmm..

mark

Alan Bancroft said...

Thank you to my two baptist brothers for helping me with this text. I think i'll be using thoughts from both of you. Jeff-the freedom to serve others. Mark-God providing love and worth. By the way, Mark, I loved the hmm at the end. It took me back to the old seminary days (you know, last spring), when the room would be full of such sounds when "truth" was spoken. Thanks, guys.

Andy said...

I think God gives enough manna (food) for everyone. If we look around just in this country, it is obvious we have enough to go around but the problem is, we don't distribute God's manna to everyone, to the least of these...We take more than what we need and it spoils (just like in the text) we are a wasteful society and when we've wasted what we have, we moan that it is gone and get angry at God for not giving us more.
God gives the manna but we don't let others have it and we horde it for ourselves.
Yet God calls us to break, literally break bread with others, to share that manna. Everyone would have exactly what they needed if we just stopped consuming for ourselves and shared with others.