What Jesus Meant By "Daily Bread"
Exodus 16:13-21
13 In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. 14 And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. 15 When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. 16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer, according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.’” 17 And the people of Israel did so. They gathered, some more, some less. 18 But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat. 19 And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over till the morning.” 20 But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. 21 Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.
When Jesus teaches His disciples the model prayer that we now call The Lord’s Prayer, He includes this phrase:
“Give us each day our daily bread.” [Matthew 6:11]
Jesus is, of course, drawing on this story about the wonderful supply of manna that the Lord provided to the Israelites during their forty-year sojourn in the desert. The point is that just as the Lord provided for the Israelites, so does He provide for us what we need each day.
Just think about the lessons the Israelites are learning as they gather the manna each morning:
• The Lord sees their need and meets it;
• The Lord gives them just what they need for that day—tomorrow it will happen again;
• There is no need to hoard, because there is just the right amount for all;
• They must learn to focus on the day at hand;
• They have to learn to control their desires for excess and their fears for the future.
There is plenty for everyone. And God provides just because; not because people deserve it.
If you don’t use the manna, it spoils! Financial plenty is meant to be used!
“In all these respects, the provision of manna in the wilderness stands as a correction of agricultural Egypt, where land ownership was centralized, inequalities were everywhere, acquisitiveness knew no respite, excesses were hoarded, the multitudes sold themselves into slavery to survive, neighbor fought with neighbor, and one man ruled over all as if he were god—eventually leading his entire people to destruction.” -Leon Kass, Founding God’s Nation
Those are lessons worth learning today, aren’t they?