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S (Scripture): Exodus 16:2-5
2 There, too, the whole community of Israel complained about Moses and Aaron. 3 “If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.”
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they will gather food, and when they prepare it, there will be twice as much as usual.”
O (Observation): The Israelites are willing to sacrifice their unknown future of promised land for a known life of slavery.
A (Application): As the people complain against God, they want to see what God is leading them into because it appears their unknown future might look worse than the already known slavery. Heck they even wished the Lord would have killed them. It is difficult to trust God sometimes. Yesterday, St. Mark's had a difficult discussion of changing our Sunday morning worship times in order that we might combine our two worship services for future growth. Since that growth is unknown, many people expressed their anxiety and want and desire to stay with the known rather than trust that God is leading this process. Much like the Israelites before them it is human nature to prefer the known over the unknown. But trust in God is not always seeing for the sake a believing but believing for the sake of seeing. If God is truly leading God will provide vision for our future together. It just might not be what we think it should or how we might get there (40 years?...really?).
P (Prayer): Lord, we trust in your word of promise. Continue to lead us even through our mistrust and inability to see our future that you are providing.