So at evening they had quail and in the morning they found
some stuff, some flake-like fine as frost stuff and wondered what is it. We get the quail, we know what to do with
that, but what is the stuff on the ground and are we supposed to eat that? Moses' response is, it is the bread the Lord
has given you to eat. Excuse me? The good news is that Moses has the instructions
of how much to gather, an omer for each person.
The bad news is that it doesn't keep very well, overnight worms infest
it and it stinks. With one exception, on
the Sabbath it keeps perfectly well so that they gather enough on the sixth day
that they can eat on Sabbath without working to gather. It might have been interesting and something
to celebrate on day one but after forty years it would get a bit old wouldn't
it? It wasn't His fault they ate it for
so long. They chose to lose faith.
Have we gotten it wrong over the last fifty years? Have we made friends with the world, roughly
on its terms? Jesus said that if we obey
Him the world will hate us. We are to be
a contrast in the world, not taking on its shape but being conformed to the
image of Christ. We live in a world in
rebellion against God and who have opted for their own way rather than God's
ways. He has always been clear that His
ways are not our ways nor His thoughts our thoughts and that following Him will
have a cost in the disapprobation of the world.
The reason they need to love one another is that they will be comfort,
support and encouragement to one another when there is persecution against the
community. I wonder if we have been too
little trusting in Him and too much trusting in our own cleverness to make
friends with the world in order that it won't persecute us for preaching the
truth.
The antidote for our dilemma is to remember our true status
in the world is exiles and strangers. If
we go to another country for a visit we tend to stand out by way of our habits
of dress, eating, drinking, speech, and attitudes. People say that it is easy to spot an
American in a foreign country and I don't doubt it, there is something
distinctive about us. As Christians we
should be equally distinctive all the time when we are among
non-believers. Jesus was among us as one
of us and yet there was something very distinctly different about Him and for
that the world hated Him. His suffering
and death with not only dignity but also with love, understanding the way of a
sinful, busted and broken world was not the way it was intended to be and
sorrowing over that not cursing it. Our lives
are to be obedient in faith in all things.
The resurrection sets us free from fear of the world and love of the
world, we know these things are passing away, as perishable as manna.
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