4 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.
Do you ever get frustrated with your children because they don’t ever seem to listen to what you say? You remember telling them very clearly what you wanted, say cleaning the dishes before you get home, and when you get home the dishes are still piled on the table and they are melting into the couch. And then they say they want the car to meet friends at the mall. Are you inclined to give them the keys? Of course not! When they prove to be faithful with the small things, then they can be trusted with the larger things. The Israelites have just been delivered from Egypt. They have no idea how to govern themselves. They have been slaves all their lives. Other people made decisions for them. Now they are under new leadership, leadership that has their best interest in mind. The Lord wants them to learn that lesson. His Laws are in their best interest. He knows what is best for them. If they will but obey, their lives will be better. He has lessons to teach if they will be His students. This lesson seems so simple: gather enough food for today. There will be food tomorrow, so you don’t need to hoard. But not hoarding requires trust, trust in the Lord who provided the food. That is what the Lord wanted to teach: trust. The Lord cares about us. He wants us to trust, just like the Israelites. When we become Jesus-followers we need to learn to trust. The Lord will put small opportunities in our lives so that we can develop trust, but so many of us flunk these lessons. We sometimes think that this is too small a thing for the Lord to care about, so I had better take care of it myself. We think we can solve it rather than waiting for the wisdom of the Lord. And when we do that, we stop our spiritual growth. We must learn to trust in the smallest areas in order to be found faithful to be trusted in the larger areas. The Israelites flunked this test. How are you doing with your trust test?
The Arnold Journey 