{"id":5116,"date":"2014-03-11T00:05:15","date_gmt":"2014-03-11T07:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=5116"},"modified":"2014-03-10T17:45:21","modified_gmt":"2014-03-11T00:45:21","slug":"edible-rain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/03\/11\/edible-rain\/","title":{"rendered":"Edible Rain"},"content":{"rendered":"

The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, \u201cIf only we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.\u201d <\/p>\n

Then the LORD said to Moses, \u201cI am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.\u201d So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, \u201cIn the evening you shall know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your complaining against the LORD. For what are we, that you complain against us?\u201d And Moses said, \u201cWhen the LORD gives you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning, because the LORD has heard the complaining that you utter against him\u2014what are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the LORD.\u201d (Exodus 16:2-8)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s easy to have a bad attitude. After four hundred years of slavery in Egypt, after ten plagues, after passing through the Red Sea, as soon as they felt the barest hint of hunger, the people of Israel told Moses and Aaron that they wished they were back in Egypt. They were certain that the only thing left for them was a miserable death by starvation.
\nGod didn\u2019t get mad. He simply took care of their needs, since he had never intended for them to die in the wilderness by starvation. In fact, the food they had so worried about getting continued to show up, day after day, for the next forty years. <\/p>\n

We worry so much about our circumstances, that like the Israelites, we doubt that God will actually take care of us. It\u2019s far easier for us to believe instead that he intends to maximize our misery. Despite our irrational ingratitude, despite our nasty attitudes, God will still take care of us, just as he took care of the Israelites. Why? Because that\u2019s God\u2019s actual intent. God does not depend on our good mood, our ephemeral emotions, to care for us.<\/p>\n

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The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, \u201cIf only we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5116"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5116"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5117,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5116\/revisions\/5117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}