The Lord's Prayer Part 4-Oh, Manna.

Matthew 6:11 Give us today our daily bread. Jesus was not a wealthy man. And He habitually spoke against greed and the abuse of wealth. He said later in this sermon not to store up treasures on earth. But He did understand the need for provision and here instructs His disciples to ask God to give them what they need. For today. Enough for today, not enough for the year. This idea is beautifully illustrated in Exodus 16, the story of God giving the Israelites bread from heaven. It is highly likely that Jesus was nodding to this story in his request for daily bread. The story talks about the Israelites complaining about being in the desert without what they considered to be adequate provision. These guys had already forgotten that they were in an abusive and inhumane situation in which they were slaves to a cruel dictator. Their grumbling against Moses and Aaron was actually grumbling against a compassionate and merciful God who is all too ready to help. The good ole days are usually not what we remember them to be. The bad stuff we simply choose to forget. Just like Barbara Streisand. Anyway… God promises to “rain down bread for heaven” and He does just that. The Israelites saw the substance, which was “thin flakes like frost on the ground,” and exclaimed, “Manna!” which means “What is it?” They had never seen frosted flakes before. The name stuck and the Israelites had breakfast. Lunch and dinner to boot. And even quail meat as a main course for dinner. God gave them enough for today, but not enough for tomorrow. If they were greedy and gathered too much it would spoil (except on Friday night, when they could also gather enough for all day Saturday, the day of rest.) A story about frosted flakes and a prayer about days and bread speaks strongly to us. I went to school in a town where I heard a lot of preachers say that Jesus wants us rich. Once I was actually in a Bible study led by a guy who taught that we should have faith for everything we want. Piles of money, cars, TV’s, etc. This type of biblical interpretation could only be birthed in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. The good ole U.S. of A. Jesus does tell us to pray for provision. Don’t be satisfied that less than what you need. But we may need much less than what we think. But He never instructs to pray for what we do not need. Bread for today, not for the whole year. Not even for next week. Today. Further, He instructs us to pray for bread. Not cake. We are to pray for sustenance, not luxury. No place for extravagance and greed in the kingdom of God. And let us not forget the bread is a gift. We think that we work for our money and that we deserve it because we’ve earned it. Wrong. What an arrogant and thankless way to think! Those who gather manna didn’t produce it. Didn’t supply it. They just went and got it. God gave it from a heart of caring for His children. If you build houses (sorry that work is slow for you right now) you didn’t grow the trees that make the lumber, or create the clay that the bricks are made of. And it is God that gave you the strength and the ability to acquire the appropriate skills. All you’re doing is gathering manna. The farmer plants the seed but God supplies the growth. The hunter seeks the prey but God provides it. If you work on computers or are in a helping profession it may be a bit less obvious. But we have no materials to create that did not come from God’s creation, and no knowledge and skill that didn’t come from His generosity. When my wife and I spent a decade on the mission field we saw this demonstrated clearly. Our support came from gifts, not a salary. And though we worked hard, our finances were in no way connected to the work we did. We did what God called us to do, and He provided for us. When we moved back to the states and ‘got jobs’ nothing really changed. We still must do what god calls us to do and trust Him (not ourselves) to provide. Nothing we do to provide for ourselves really provides for anything. It is all simply receiving a gift. And recognizing this fact changes everything. All our possessions and finances are suddenly meaningful. Even holy. We no longer have to worry because it is God who supplies everything. Pressure to perform and overachieve takes its proper place as sinful and anti-kingdom motivation. And we are free to give because we know that it is all from God in the first place. Asking God to give us daily bread is recognizing the way that the world really works. If our nation is facing hard economic times, we must trust God who gives us enough manna for today.