You can’t live on yesterday’s manna.

If you are at all familiar with the OT story of the Israelites journey through the wilderness for 40 years, then you probably know how God sustained them during that time. Remember now…best estimates at the number of people who traversed across that inhospitable land is somewhere between 1-2 million folks; and they had to eat somewhere. So God provided ‘manna’ for the people to eat.

The Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day, they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.” (Ex. 16:4-5)

Sure enough…just as God had spoken…the people woke up each morning and there laying on the ground was a bread wafer like substance which was to be gathered up by each family, as much as they might need for that day’s provision, depending on the size of the family.

Important note here: Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.” However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.” (20)

Also…since God did not want them gathering their own food up on the Sabbath day, He made provision to gather up a double portion on the sixth day that would stay fresh on that seventh day. Those who were skeptical after the maggot experience and didn’t follow instructions…went hungry on that last day given there was nothing to gather up…just like God had told them. (27-28)

The key point in this story that I’d like to emphasize here today can be summed up in one word: ‘Daily’.

Daily…they were to begin each morning by gathering up this heavenly substance that would sustain them throughout the day. There was no need to ‘worry about tomorrow …for tomorrow will take care of itself’. (Matt. 6:34). And if they thought…they could live on ‘yesterday’s manna’…they quickly discovered otherwise. Care to glean a practical lesson for us today when it comes to spending time ‘daily’ at the feet of Jesus and nourishing your soul as you take in the sincere ‘milk of His word that you may grow thereby’? (1 Pet. 2:2)

Thinking you can ‘live off last Sunday’s sermon’…let alone what you gleaned from a daily devotional three days ago…is a deceptive assumption, at best… for any believer to fall prey to.

When we read and study what was taking place in the early days of the church’s inception, the believers were gathering ‘daily’ in the temple and going from home to home, breaking bread and studying the apostles’ teachings; and God was ‘adding to the church daily’ as more and more people began to repent and turn to Jesus (Acts 2:46-47). The Bereans were known to ‘search the scriptures daily’ as they too were learning more about God’s kingdom (Acts 17:11)

If you have the time or interest, you might do a word search with a concordance on the word ‘daily’, or maybe just give attention to some passages like Psalm 68:19; Prov. 8:34; Isa. 58; and Jer. 7:25 for further study.

But there is one particular verse found in Hebrews 3, that I’d like to draw your attention to. I know I spend much time addressing the topic of ‘sin’; and for good reason. Have you ever heard people discuss the ‘pros and cons’ of going to church and whether their pastor ‘preaches against sin’…enough? I’m sure that phrase ‘preaching against sin’ may mean different things to different folks, depending on how they were raised and what their ‘church life experience’ has been. And I suppose some could make a good case that they, as most people would…might grow ‘weary’ of going to church every Sunday and hearing their preacher ‘rant about sin’.

So when was the last time you heard an in-depth sermon at your church that addressed the dangers of sin and the importance of overcoming ALL sin in your life, empowered by the power of God’s Spirit since we can indeed…’do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us’ (Phil. 4:13)?

And if that was the case at your church, maybe as recently as in the last week or two, then clearly…it’s probably time to address other topics, right? But look at what we read in Heb. 3:12-13: “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another DAILY, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”

Doesn’t that sound a bit like ‘overkill’? It does to me; until you begin to see why so many of God’s people continue to be ‘destroyed for a lack of knowledge’ (Hosea 4:6).

Years ago, when we first moved up to NE Texas, into a ranching/farming community, I still remember being in awe to learn of one of the many chores that cattle ranchers had to carry out in the winter time. The only source of water for the cattle were ‘stock ponds’ or ‘pools’ as they were called up there. And yes, we had winters where the temps could drop, and stay below freezing for days on end. This meant the ranchers had to drive out with sledgehammers or axes and break up the ice on the pools so the cows could drink the water. And this was a much needed and DAILY task to be carried out. To neglect such a responsibility could be detrimental to the livestock, especially in such harsh weather conditions.

Are you aware how ice begins to form on the surface of unfrozen water? It starts with a very thin layer…and thickens gradually… the longer it goes untouched.

And we wonder how people can begin to ‘drift or fall away’…from following Jesus (Heb. 2:1)

“Let us not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Heb. 10:25) Just keep in mind…it’s an easy trap to fall into where we do a lot of ‘gathering’ and yet never feed on the daily manna, or ‘bread’ that God is wanting to feed us. Beware lest we find ourselves ‘walking in a form of godliness…always learning yet never coming to the knowledge of the truth’ (2 Tim. 3:5-7)

And we better ‘take heed that we think we’re standing firm…lest we fall’ (1 Cor. 10:12; 2 Cor. 13:5)