God provided for his people in the wilderness (manna) – Exodus 16: I-36

The people of Israel complained that they ate till they were full by the pots of flesh in Egypt, but now God has brought them to die in the wilderness. God told them that He would give them bread and meat each day, but on the seventh day, they would not receive any because He had provided enough on the sixth day. They were also not to gather on that seventh day, as it was the Sabbath.

The words full and seven were used in this account, and these two words look the same in Hebrew. In other words, they are homonyms. So they claimed to have food to fill themselves in Egypt, and God gave them a test on the seventh (full) day.

You can see how difficult it was for them to trust Him. He said each day to take only this amount, yet some still took more, showing that they did not fully trust Him. On the seventh day, they were not supposed to go out to gather food, but still some did, showing their distrust. When put into a similar situation where you are out in the wilderness and have no idea when you will return, you can see how easy it is to try to put aside as much as you can.

But God wanted them to trust that He would take care of them. They were to trust that he would fill them. He knows what we need, and with him, we can be confident that He will provide for us beyond these mortal bodies and physical hunger. He can fill us so that we will never hunger again.

This seven-day scenario also takes us back to the seven days of creation, where God sanctified the seventh day and rested. That last day of completion, he rested, and he has asked his people to set it aside for rest with Him.

Were they able to trust Him enough that even though they were in this barren wilderness, they could set apart that one day for rest with God? If we trust in Him, then we are not anxious about anything and only then can we truly be grateful to God and rest in Him. We are not called to keep the sabbath anymore, but we are called to spend time with Him, learn about and build a relationship with Him, and then we can truly trust Him. As we grow closer to Him, we will realise how enormously he loves each of us and how much he wants to bless us, and it becomes easier and easier to trust Him. However, we must demonstrate this trust.