Reading

• Ex. 15:22-18:27

Devotional

Forty-five days after the children of Israel left Egypt they came to the Wilderness of Sin. The people began to complain to Moses because they were hungry. They even accused Moses of bringing them into the wilderness just so they could die there! What a terrible attitude to have. It hadn’t even been two months since they saw GOD part the waters of the Red Sea, yet it seems that they had completely forgotten that GOD was with them and would provide for them.

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.”
(Ex. 16:4-5 NKJV)

So it was as GOD said. In the morning when the people awoke there were small seeds on the ground everywhere. They gathered the seed up and made bread for that day. GOD told the people to only gather enough food for that day, except on Friday where they were to gather enough for Friday and Saturday. Most people obeyed, but some kept some of it until morning, and it had grown worms and stank.

GOD was testing the children of Israel to see if they would trust Him that He would provide enough for them each day. GOD wants us to have faith in Him—in fact, He requires us to have faith in order to please Him.

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
(Heb. 11:6 NKJV)

But what is faith exactly? And what does faith look like in action? Heb. 11:1 defines faith as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith is having complete confidence in GOD and what He has told us so that we do what He told us to do, without doubting.

There are numerous examples of faith in the Bible, but one of my favorites is found in Matt. 14:22-33. Jesus told his disciples to get in a boat and cross the Sea of Galilee while He went up on the mountain to pray. It was evening and as the apostles made their way across the huge lake a terrible storm quickly arose. Jesus came walking on the water and the apostles thought He was a ghost. Jesus told them to not be afraid, and Peter said, “Lord if it is you, command me to come to You on the water.” Jesus said “Come.” And Peter proceeded to get out of the boat and for a moment he was walking on water just as Jesus had done. Peter’s faith prompted him to get out of the boat.

GOD expects us to have faith in Him just like He expected the children of Israel as they were journeying from Egypt to Canaan.