Pause for Thought

Michael Thorner, Reborne Church

Recently, I went out for a Sunday lunch with family to a local pub. We started with a carvery followed by a delicious dessert. It made me realise how much I like food – I’m sure I’m not alone when I say it’s one of our favourite pastimes.

The Bible is a book that can give advice on all sorts of subjects, food included. That may sound surprising but Jesus solved 5,000 people’s hunger by miraculously multiplying a boy’s small lunch – John 6:9.

Lately, I’ve been reading about the Israelites’ departure from Egypt, led by Moses through the Red Sea into the wilderness. This account can be found in Exodus. They were in the wilderness for 40 years and were given a daily diet to sustain them during that time until they reached the Promised Land. This is a remarkable truth to consider. As Moses led the Israelites in extremely testing circumstances – unaware of where providence was going to come from. Exodus 16:16 tells us ‘Each person was instructed to collect 1 Omer (6 pints) of manna in the morning’. There were 2 million people so that equates to 12 million pints gathered daily or 4500 tons and over one million tons annually. This continued for 40 years!

We in 2022 may not be in transit between 2 countries but we’re all travelling in life and difficulties arise occasionally, but whatever our lives are like we can sometimes feel we’re in our own wilderness.

There’s a saying I like to remind myself of from time to time which is helpful:

We look around – we get distressed We look within – we get depressed We look up – we’re at rest

Jesus said ‘I am the Living Bread that came down from Heaven if anyone eats of this bread he will live forever’ John 6:51. The Israelites were instructed how to gather food to survive – they had to pick up the manna and didn’t have to travel far – it was right where they were, outside their tents. If we look outside in the morning over the grass it’s unlikely that we’ll find manna from Heaven. The Bible may be a peculiar book for some but by reading it we believe it’s God’s way of providing for His people. May we be encouraged to feed on God by looking up.

rebornechurch.org