Daily Bread
September 26, 2021Today's message was the third in a 6-part series about the Lord's Prayer. Today's section of the Lord's Prayer was "Give us this day our daily bread." The message is here (starting about 26:00).
Our small group will not meet this week. I've posted these thoughts in my usual essay form for you to consider as if we did meet. Also, please feel free to send questions/comments to me (see email address at right). I'll add your thoughts to the bottom of this essay for the benefit of others (unless you ask otherwise).
Pastor Patrick covered the topic quite well, including the Old Testament reference to manna (Exodus 16). I'll add just a couple thoughts...
In addition to providing only one day's worth of food each day, God gave 2-day's worth on the 6th day. Why? So the people could rest on the 7th day, the Sabbath. I wrote quite a bit about the Sabbath which I won't repeat here (the reference is here). God does want us to work, too; but he also wants is to rest and keep the Sabbath. The human task is to bring God into your life as well as food into your body.
Here's the one tangent I'll take today... Why was Moses not allowed into the Holy Land? Food wasn't the only issue for the Israelites in the wilderness. Water was a problem, too. At least twice, Moses was called upon to bring water from a rock, the second time in Exodus 17 and told again in Numbers 20:10-13. Many say that because Moses struck the rock with his rod rather than speak to the rock as God instructed, God punished Moses by not allowing him into the Promised Land. Prager offers another explanation. He suggests that it was not because of striking the rock. After all, Moses had been instructed before to take his staff and strike the rock and this time again he was told to "pick up his rod." God was not setting Moses up to fail. Rather, the issue was that Moses claimed he and Aaron brought water from the rock, not God. Moses took credit for God's work. That was the sin.
We'll meet together for session #4 next week - yeah!