In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “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.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “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 16:2-5 NIV
Warrior;
Who are you trusting in? Where do your blessings come from? Are you truly TRUSTING IN THE LORD, or are you TRUSTING IN THE WORLD and the ‘god of this world’? 2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us: The god who rules this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers. They cannot see the light, which is the good news about our glorious Christ, who shows what God is like. The ‘god who rules this world’, sounds somewhat startling as a description of the devil, but it has parallels in “the prince of this world” (John 14:30), “the prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2) What do you trust in- who is your GOD? You need to know this day- “Who DO YOU FOLLOW”?! Because, every God requires a sacrifice!
Leader, in the old testament EGYPT represents the world and PHARAOH, represents the devil. The Israelites were used to being dependent on PHARAOH- the devil for their provisions. ( see Luke 4:6-7) They were slaves of pharaoh-the devil. They were beaten, abused, they were VICTIMS of the world and GOD sent them a SAVIOR- Moses, a picture of JESUS- to remove them from their slavery- but when they didn’t have their guaranteed Jobs, their guaranteed health insurance and their guaranteed income and their guaranteed housing and their guaranteed food from their MASTERS TABLE they cried out to go back into bondage, back into slavery, back into EGYPT! God got the Israelites out of EGYPT, but He couldn’t get the EGYPT OUT OF THE ISRAELITES!
Conduit, the enemy always HITS US at what SUSTAINS US- what sustains you? In the book of Judges, 6:3-4, the enemy shows us his WILES: the Midianites, Amalekites, and other people of the East would come up and invade them, encamping against them as far as Gaza and destroying the produce of the land. They left Israel with no sustenance. God’s first lesson that He wanted to teach HIS people was to depend on HIM for everything that sustains them. What sustains you? For the Bible is clear, man does not live by BREAD ALONE, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. God wants us to trust in HIM, not in our 401K, not in our job, our family or our PRESIDENT. He wants us to TRUST IN HIM and let HIM be our portion! “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever,”. (Psalm 73:26) In the 16th chapter here of Exodus God told them to only take enough for the day, do NOT STORE ANY for tomorrow and if the did if was rotted, full of maggots- except on the Sabbath, when the double portion they took the day before was fine. And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. (Deuteronomy 8:2) Do you trust in the LORD, or do you trust in what this WORLD has for you? Are you storing up your treasures in your retirement, bigger houses, nicer cars, more expensive vacations- MORE TOYS and PLOYS from the slave master who runs this world? The time is NOW to trust in the LORD and share what HE has given you to the GLORY of HIM and HIS people! Are you still in EGYPT and still trusting in PHARAOH as GOD has called you OUT and into HIS KINGDOM, HIS FAITH WALK, HIS PROVISION? Are your blessings from God or from pharaoh? Is your stuff yours, or is it GOD’s? God’s economy is GOD’s people, using GOD’s resources for GOD’s people, for GOD’s GLORY! Amen.
