Devotional on Joshua

2014 – Oregon 101 – along the southern coast

Give us this day our daily bread.
Joshua 5: As soon as they started eating food grown in the land, there was no more manna for the People of Israel.
All their lives they’ve eaten manna that appears every morning. It’s God’s provision for them, meeting their needs in places and under circumstances in which that need could be met in no other way. They eat other things too but it’s manna that’s the staple in their diet. Now they have a toe hold on the land God promised to them. There’s much to be done: wars to be fought, land to be claimed, but finally they are here. Apparently, they’ve camped at Gilgal long enough to plant and harvest their first crop of grain. What a great Passover, remembering not only deliverance from Egypt but also now beginning to receive the land God promised them. With the harvest of this first Canaan crop the manna stops. The end of the manna isn’t an indication that God’s no longer going to provide for them. It’s simply a change in how he’s going to do it. Now the Lord’s providing for them in a new (only to them) way. Sometimes God does things in miraculous ways but most of the time he uses common tools for that purpose. Either way, it’s God who’s supplying the need. This concept works not only with manna and crops, but also with my health, job, and the many other concerns of life. I thank God for “the manna” but also for the ordinary, everyday provision for life.
Take Away: The Lord does, indeed, “give us this day our daily bread.”

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