Exodus 16:4-5 “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. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.’”

The Lord didn’t fire the nation of Israel as his chosen people after grumbled about a lack of food. In spite of their less than grateful attitude, he promised to feed them better. Their bread would literally rain down from heaven in the form of the manna they ate for the next forty years.

But their complaint had exposed a problem. They didn’t trust him properly. They didn’t politely ask for help. They accused him of trying to kill them. So he wove a test of their trust into the gift of bread from heaven. Five days a week they had to gather just enough food for that day: no hoarding, no bulk storage, just as much as you need. He wanted them to trust he was sending them food tomorrow.

One day a week they were to gather enough for two days, so that they could take a day off on the Sabbath. Though the food appeared for six days, they had to trust him when he said there would be nothing to pick up on the seventh. He was teaching them to depend on him, and trust his word, and recognize his generosity, instead of complaining when they didn’t get their way.

We don’t live under the same system exactly. The Lord doesn’t rain supernatural food down from heaven on us. He just provides us a standard of living those people in the desert couldn’t even dream was possible. The wealthiest Pharaoh of Egypt never lived in a house as comfortable as mine or rode in a chariot as fast as mine.

But our abundance also comes with a test, doesn’t it? God asks us to share. He asks us to live at a lower standard of living than we might afford voluntarily, so that we can help send missionaries around the world, send aid and relief to people who have suffered some natural catastrophe, and make sure people are clothed and fed who aren’t able to get these things themselves for some reason.

He asks us to trust we won’t miss what we give away, and that he will keep giving us what we need, and even more. Then we might even learn to appreciate how much we have compared to so many, because we can see how God has rained our bread and every other good thing down from heaven on people who complain too much about what they have.

He asks us to trust his promise, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). He has rained down on us the Bread of Life in the person of Jesus Christ. We can trust our daily bread will follow.