Courtney Gilmore Is it hard for you to depend on others? Do you like to take care of things yourself? Often independence is a good thing. But sometimes it leads to pride & going our own way instead of depending on God. Dependence on Him is essential & a good skill to develop early. Teach yourself to look to Him first. You can depend on Him! He is worthy & can be trusted with our lives.
“The children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness… ‘You have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.'” Exodus 16:2-4
God was teaching them to depend on Him. They just didn’t realize it. He wanted them lacking in the wilderness, with no ability to provide for themselves, so they would have no choice but to turn to Him. He demonstrated that desire by only giving them enough food for one day. They literally had to depend on Him every single day if they wanted to eat. They also had to do the work though, right? God provided them meat in the evening & bread in the morning. But they still had to catch the quail when they landed to rest from their migration & they had to be responsible to gather the manna before it melted. They had to follow His instructions too. He knew how much each person needed for the day & told them to gather 2 quarts each. If they demonstrated any doubt that the bread would come the next day & tried to store some just in case, it would stink & collect maggots. But on the 6th day only, God preserved the bread & it kept an extra day, so they could rest on the Sabbath.
Their hunger wasn’t a punishment or God’s inability or lack of desire to give them good things. It had a purpose, an important lesson that God knew they would need as they started their own nation. They needed to see that He was still present & able to provide for them. If they would have walked straight into the luscious promised land, they would not have seen their own helplessness and the Lord’s power. Just before they entered the promised land, God warned them not to forget who gave it to them. “Lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water, who brought water for you out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end— then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.‘” (Deuteronomy 8:11-17) You see, God knew that they would have a tendency to think that everything they had was of their own doing and He was trying to teach them dependence on Him before they got there. It was for their good that they were lacking at the moment.
Depend on the Provider that truly can provide. Don’t forget where your blessings come from.
Excerpt from Episode 60 “Depend on God” Exodus 16-17 on Podcast & YouTube
