What Blessing is He Offering?

The blessing God offered required their trust in his faithfulness.

In Exodus 16 we find the Israelites in the wilderness just a few short months after God had brought them out of slavery in Egypt. He had parted the sea so that they walked on dry ground and then the waters had rushed in and drowned the Egyptians. Now two months later their supplies are running thin and they are hungry. They began to complain and even had the audacity to say they would have been better off dying in Egypt! God heard their grumbling and gave them meat (quail) at night and bread (manna) in the morning, every day for 40 years. The only requirement was that they only gather what they needed for that day. They were not to take more and try to save it for the next day.

The blessing God offered required their trust in his faithfulness.

God then introduced a completely new concept. A day of rest. He wanted to bless them with a day off from work. The Israelites had been working slaves for 430 years in Egypt. The idea of having a day off was unheard of. God wanted to bless them and give them time to rest and reflect on all the blessings he had given them. God told them to gather their food on the sixth day like always, but told them that it would be enough for two days and would not spoil. They were to rest and not gather food on the seventh day. This blessing required them to trust that he would supply their needs during that day of rest.

There is a lot of meaning that can be taught from this chapter and the principles in it, but I am not going to get into that today. I want to focus on the big picture instead of all the implications in the details.

How many times has God had a blessing for us, but in order to receive the blessing, it required faith and trust on our part?

I challenge each of us to examine our lives and see where God has offered a blessing but we weren’t willing to trust him for it.

We as people haven’t changed much since the days of the Israelites in the book of Exodus. God shows his faithfulness and love and helps us out of our bondage. After a little time passes, we are faced with another problem and many times, instead of trusting that God will help us, we complain and doubt.

In scripture we see this scenario over and over again. Each time God shows his faithfulness and comes to their aid.

Just as people have not changed, neither has God! He is still faithful. He is the same yesterday, today and forever! (Hebrews 13:8)

How many times does he have to prove his faithfulness before we will have the faith to trust him and expect his faithfulness?

The good news is, that how ever many times it takes, that is how many times he will be there, showing us his faithfulness. What is his agenda? “Then you shall KNOW that I am the Lord YOUR God.” Exodus 16:8

What blessing is he offering you that requires you to trust his faithfulness?