God had asked the Israelites to trust Him to provide free food for them in the desert when they came out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses more than three thousand years ago. The reality was that a group of over two million people could not have survived naturally in that arid environment as there would have been insufficient resources to go round. However, would the Israelites accept the deal God put to them? How willing are we to trust God to provide for our needs? If we are honest most of us have some times when we do really well in placing our faith in God regarding our daily needs, but at other times, and not necessarily in tougher times, we really struggle.
Living by faith is easy to proclaim, but because of our sinful humanity little (or big!) doubts can creep in and cause us problems. Exodus 16:16-27 gives the details of what happened with the Israelites following their exit from Egypt under the leadership of Moses:
16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Each one is to gather as much as he needs. Take an omer [an ancient unit of measurement equal to one person’s daily food needs] for each person you have in your tent.’ “17 The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 18 And when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little. Each one gathered as much as he needed.
19 Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.”20 However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.21 Each morning everyone gathered as much as he needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away.
22 On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much—two omers for each person—and the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses. 23 He said to them, “This is what the Lord commanded: ‘Tomorrow is to be a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.’ “24 So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it.
25 “Eat it today,” Moses said, “because today is a Sabbath to the Lord. You will not find any of it on the ground today. 26 Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”27 Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none.
There are two examples here of a lack of trust. First of all in verse twenty there were people who did not dare eat all the food in their tent in case there was none tomorrow, despite the assurances they had received from God through Moses. What is this example saying to us? The first group of people were extremely risk averse. They didn’t want to exercise trust in Moses and by implication in God, to provide for their needs in this very different time.
Stepping outside their comfort zone was to be avoided at all costs. Well we could as individuals and as a church take the same approach in the current Covid-19 virus crisis and do very little indeed. Or, by contrast, we could entrust ourselves to God and say what can we do, while obeying the public health guidelines for social distancing and limited interaction in the physical world?
In our communities it is inspiring that so many individuals have taken this latter attitude and offered to help in any way to serve other people. Think of Captain Tom Moore aged 99, for example, who walked on his zimmer on laps of his garden to raise money for the NHS. If anyone was entitled to ‘put his feet up’ and rest surely he qualified. He aimed to raise £1,000 but it is over £23 million pounds.
It is also remarkable how many businesses and charities and indeed churches within an incredibly short space of time set up online meetings and activities to continue their work. Within our own congregation, I am extremely grateful to those who have creatively in different ways helped us rise to the challenges we face and for those who gave many hours to set up our meetings and services on the zoom video conference platform.
Then there were a second group of Israelites in Exodus 16:27 who did not collect twice as much on the Friday, as God had suggested because He would not send any on the Saturday. These people were unwise in a different way. They were unwilling to plan for the future. They expected God to do for them miraculously what they could easily have done for themselves.
Sometimes there is no substitute for sheer hard work and putting in some long hours. Anyone who has achieved significant success in starting a business or honing a musical or sporting gift, for example, will have spent years of effort to prepare for future success. Gary Player, one of the greatest golfers of all time, once remarked that the more he practised the luckier he became in professional golf tournaments.
We are genuinely in unprecedented times and seeing ways forward will take steps of faith for churches and businesses as well as individuals and families. Church buildings are closed, but churches are alive. Four times as many people have participated in a Christian worship service (on-line) since the covid-19 crisis began than attended in person in the months before it.
The majority of churches through their members are in contact with more unchurched people in their communities than ever before. Neighbourhood conversations have flourished at a safe distance! Our lives will be demonstrably different for the foreseeable future, of that there is no doubt. However, let us seize the opportunities to build friendships, care for those in need and develop forms of Christian service and ministry that will in the future be significantly better than what we left behind.
Our church Bible verse for the year is Ephesians 3:20-21: Now unto Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us.. What are you and I praying for and what are you seeking to do to help make this a reality to the glory of God here in the place where God has placed us? I hope when we are finally back together as a church in one physical place that we will have so many stories to tell of amazing things that have happened… What might your story be? Amen.
Our song for reflection today is ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death’
Brian Talbot