Trust in God’s Provision

The duty of every believer in every age is to trust God and to obey His commandments. This was true in Israel and it is true in the church today. As children under His care, we must walk by faith, trusting that He will provide what we need for our daily sustenance, both physically and spiritually. And as subjects in His kingdom, we must obey His Law, for this is His command, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deut. 6:5). This is the sum of the law, to love the Lord by obeying His commands. As New Testament believers, we are not freed from the law as the standard and rule of our lives, but we are bound to it in love. Jesus Himself emphatically stated: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” This is our duty and our privilege.

This was also what God expected from His people in the wilderness. He tested them to see if they would obey Him, and He did this in a basic level. They had to trust Him from day to day for the very provisions that would sustain their physical health. He promised that every evening He would send quail for meat, and every morning He would send manna, bread from heaven. They could not save the food from one day to the next, for it would rot. Instead, they had to trust that God would provide each day.

This would be a hard lesson for Israel because when they first found themselves without food, they said they would rather die in Egypt with full bellies than live under the guidance of Providence in the wilderness. They even welcomed the same judgments that had befallen Egypt rather than go without food! How they needed to learn to put their faith in God and not in their stomachs! How they needed to learn that it is more important to seek first the righteousness of God than to worry about the needs of the body! Let us consider carefully the words of our Lord Jesus: “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things” (Matt. 6:31–34).