Yearly, our church hosts an Easter Eggstravaganza that includes an Easter egg hunt. After hiding about 450 eggs all around our small church, we open the doors and loose basket-wielding children eager to fill them with as many eggs as quickly as they can. As you can imagine, some are better gatherers than others. Some are quick with a keen eye; they fill their baskets, their pockets, and soon enough are handing surplus eggs off to parents and friends. Some come back with a comparatively meager haul. For some reason, we never do seem to find as many as we hide.
I couldn’t help thinking of this Easter scene when reading how God rained bread from heaven for the children of Israel (Exodus 16:4). Similar to the problem of thirst at Marah in Exodus 15:22-27, the desert conditions of the land where they sojourned simply could not provide sustenance for such a large number of people. When the hunger pangs were severe enough, they again grumbled to Moses. Moses again cried out to the LORD, and the LORD again promised provision.
“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘I am going to rain bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. This way I will test them to see whether or not they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days’” (Exodus 16:4-5, emphasis mine).
In their hunger, the children of Israel are tested by God to see whether or not they would follow His instructions. The test wasn’t their hunger, but their obedience. And God’s instructions, described throughout the rest of Exodus 16, boil down to three principles:
Only gather what you need, sufficient for the day.
Don’t hoard extra.
On the Sabbath, rest from gathering.
In the midst of the manifold ways Israel failed all three of these tests (Exodus 16:20 & Exodus 16:27-29), we read an interesting principle for daily bread application:
“So the Israelites did this. Some gathered a lot, some a little. When they measured it by quarts, the person who gathered a lot had no surplus, and the person who gathered a little had no shortage. Each gathered as much as he needed to eat” (Exodus 16:17-18).
Much like our Easter egg hunt, when the children of Israel begin to fill their baskets with manna, some are better gatherers than others. But in the end, we read that one person’s surplus meets another person’s need. What if we thought of our daily bread in this way? “I have what I need for the day; to whom can I give my surplus?” “My quart jars are full for the day; whose aren’t?”
Such was the posture of the earliest church following Pentecost. We read that they “held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need” (Acts 2:44-45). Not out of compulsion, to satisfy a law, but because their hearts were moved to be part of the daily bread provision for their brothers and sisters in the faith.
Sufficient unto the day is the manna thereof. Sufficient: enough to meet the demands of a situation or proposed end; occurring in such quantity, quality, or scope as to fully meet demands, needs, or expectations. Sufficient, not surplus. Whose sufficiency is lacking for want of our freely offered surplus?
“Give me neither poverty nor wealth;
feed me with the food I need.
Otherwise, I might have too much
and deny you, saying, “Who is the LORD?”
or I might have nothing and steal,
profaning the name of my God” (Proverbs 30:8-9).
Sunday School for all ages begins weekly at 9:45 AM. All are warmly welcome.
