FBT Daily Devotional: Exodus 16

FBT Daily Devotional

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Terms. All right. So welcome to another Faith Beyond Trauma episode. I titled Bread in the Wilderness. It's Exodus 16, verses 1 through 36. Now, previously on this channel in Exodus 1 through 15, Israel was enslaved. Pharaoh, and he crushed them in slavery, but they were multiplying by the numbers. God raised up Moses and confronted Egypt with plagues and shattered Pharaoh's grip. Blood marked the door. The Red Sea split with over a million people, elders, kids, and animals crossing at the narrowest point, most likely 16 miles across on the wet bed of the Red Sea. They walked out free, but now deliverance has happened. But trust is about to be tested. So as we open, scene one. So freedom has granted, but comfort has been lost. Exodus 16, 2 verses to 3. And the whole congregation murmured, Would to God we had died when we set by the flesh. The same people who just saw the Red Sea split are now wishing they were back in bondage. The thing is, they didn't just complain, they romanticized their prior captivity. They remembered Egypt, but re-wrote it. Do you know people who've done that in their past? Rewrote it? Okay. Yep. They were suffering from cognant dissonance. Wow, cognitive dissonance. The mental discomfort felt when holding two or more contradictory beliefs, their behavior was conflicting with what they say is their belief. Okay. So you know when discomfort sets in, pain has a way of editing our memory. Okay. Oh, the tension, the mental gymnastics people do. Israel.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

At least we had food back there.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

God, no, you had chains. So, family, it's like a person who finally leaves a toxic situation. But when life gets uncertain, they start saying, hmm, maybe it wasn't all that bad back then. Listen, never let temporary discomfort make you reconsider your permanent deliverance. Okay, so in Galatians 5:1, it reminds us to stand fast and be not entangled again. All right. So as we move on to the next scene in the desert, God, God hears their complaint and does something unexpected. He responds with provision, not punishment. Verse 4: Behold, I will rain bread from heaven. Wow! You see that? They complained and he provided. God said in verse 4, that I may prove them whether they will walk in my law or no. But wait, wait a minute. The provision was a test, not just a blessing.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

What God gives you can test you just as much as what he withholds.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

So say yes. God had spoken in verse 4 I will feed you, but I will also watch how you handle what I give you. Uh-oh. So in comparison, that's us. When God gives us a new opportunity, a financial increase, a relationship, a platform, the question then becomes, will you trust Him daily or try to control it yourself? So in Matthew 6:11, it says, Give us this day our daily bread. That's speaking daily dependence, not stored independence. Okay. So morning falls, the ground is covered. Verse 15, they said, It's manna, which literally means, what is this? What this, y'all, what this? Okay. God's provision didn't look familiar to them. And sometimes God's answers, but it's not in the form we expect. Okay, or that you expected. Get ready. There are rules to manna. Okay. So God gives them instructions. Take only what you need, don't store it overnight, except before the Sabbath. Okay. There were those who tried to hoard it. Yahweh won. Verse 20, it bred worms and stank. So what God gives for our daily trust will not rot under his control.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

The Israelites, let me save just a little bit. I can case, I can have it in the morning. I just need a little extra bread. But why does it stink? Is that me?

SPEAKER_01 6:38

God said, because I didn't design provision for fear, I designed it for faith. Amen. So it's a problem. It's a problem when you try to control outcomes. God told you to trust Him for. You overmanage what God said to release. You store anxiety instead of walking in faith. Fear hoards. Faith trusts. Okay. Verse 23. Tomorrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath. This was the first time Sabbath was practiced as a people before the law is formally given. God introduced rest in the wilderness. I was like, wait a minute. Not in the promised land. Moses hadn't gone back up the mountain yet to the burning wood. He ain't gone back up there. God, I will provide you enough for two days so you can learn to rest. Who keeps working, striving, stressing, even when God says, trust me enough to stop? In Hebrews 4:9, there remaineth therefore a rest. So rest is not laziness, it is trust in God's sufficiency. You can't and shouldn't be all places, all the time, or everywhere into everything. You'll wear yourself out. And that's what that is when you feel it. I like lay down a lot. Okay. In verse 33, take a pot and put omer full of manna therein. Lay it before God, the Lord, to be kept for your generations. Aaron did what Moses told him, and the children of Israel ate for 40 years until they came to the borders of Canaan. So an omer is a measurement of dry goods. A unit is about one-tenth, which is what they ended up being allowed to have each. So for us, that's like 4.8 gallons worth, a little less than a five-pound bag. And an ephah is just the Egyptian word meaning to measure. So it must have been not only tasty, but very filling to satisfy all to the next day. Honestly, answer how much complaining would you do eating manna wafers with a head of honey? Every day. Every day. Wow. That same manna that rotted daily was then preserved supernaturally when placed before God before the Sabbath. So what you try to control decays. Okay. So, family, this is the testimony you keep, the reminder of how God provided you before. So when you face the next wilderness in your life, you don't panic. You remember. My main point is God is teaching dependence, not just deliverance. Exodus 16 is not just about food, it's about trust. There's always more to it when you read His word. Always. Jacob's people, the Israelites, were delivered back in Exodus 14. But now there must they must learn daily dependence. Daily. So remember these things. Freedom does not eliminate the need for faith. God's provision often comes in unfamiliar forms. Daily trust is greater than stored control. Rest is part of God's provision. What is surrendered to God is sustained by God. Nail. Okay. So as we prepare to go into breakout rooms, will you trust him or complain again? And what about you? When provision looks unfamiliar, when resources feel limited, when tomorrow isn't clear, will you hoard or will you trust? So because the same God who split the Red Sea for them, now asking you for daily faith. Amen. We can go to breakout rooms.