Hunger and manna
This week's verses are Deuteronomy 8:1-5:
It's fashionable in some Christian circles to believe that we can never have hardship unless our faith is weak. They have all sorts of theological gymnastics to explain the persecution of the early church, sickness, etc. But here God comes out and basically tells the Israelites that he threw a bunch of stuff in their path to make them stronger. If you accept that perspective, hardship is a gift that shapes us into who God wants us to be (if we let it) and teaches us more about the goodness of God's character. If you've gone for forty years and never struggled or been afraid for your life or your future, what have you really learned about yourself, or about God?
God took the Israelites out of a land of safe paychecks, consistent work and familiar surroundings, and basically made them sleep in the park and live off the land for forty years. (Who preaches that as one of God's promises? Or manages to still sell books afterwards?) God claims that it was to test them, to know what was in their hearts. I've also heard Christians say "God doesn't test us because that's cruel and God isn't a cruel God." But here God comes right out and says he's testing them, and it's not cruel at all! If you can't fail because of the blood of Christ on the cross, testing is nothing but useful feedback. The early church practically begged to be tested at times. The book of Revelation starts off with the midterm grades, basically.
We all know that God provides, but here God says he made them hungry first. If you read about the exodus from Egypt to what would become Israel, there were times when God's chosen people were hungry or thirsty. And yet we find out that that was by design, so that they would learn to trust and not take setbacks so seriously. He mentions that their clothes didn't wear out and their feet didn't swell during those forty years. Has anyone had clothes last for forty years without wearing out? So God was obviously providing miraculously for them, but not in the areas they were worried about at the time.
God starts his message off telling them to obey the commandments, and ends it explaining that he disciplines them the way a man disciplines his son. Boot camp is discipline. Exercise classes are discipline. Athletes talk about disciplining their bodies to do the things they want them to do. People discipline themselves to study and get good grades. Discipline isn't bad. Discipline comes from the same root as the word "disciple." And God says that he disciplines them the way a man disciplines his son, which implies love and familiarity.
I don't have any kids but I know plenty of parents, and I've done some mentoring of professionals with less experience than me. A solid way to help someone younger learn is to present them with challenges, watch them struggle, and then sometimes give them hints on how to overcome them. They then collaboratively learn to achieve victory. If you step in and just do it for them, they don't really learn anything.
Have you ever met people whose parents overprotected them, or who grew up rich and pampered? They're useless and fragile compared to the kids who had challenges and hardships. Or people who memorized enough to pass the tests in a field but never had any hard experience? Most of the time they're worse than useless. I wonder if, in this modern age of privilege, we expect God to be a helicopter parent like those we see all around us, and miss the point of discipline.
We're eternal creatures. Our life here on Earth is only a tiny part of our total existence. Don't you want to be in the best shape possible for whatever comes after this? From that perspective, hardship is a good thing. It strengthens us, and teaches us, and shows God's love. He made the Israelites hungry so that he could provide the manna. He took them away from the sure thing of Egypt in order to bring them into the promised land a generation later. And all the while, while they weren't paying attention, their clothes held up and their feet didn't get sore.
Thank God for how good we live, and for the miracles and luxuries and good moments we get to enjoy. But if you pray for all of those things and occasionally something doesn't go your way, thank God for that too. Hardship produces hunger, and God satisfies hunger with his manna, the unexpected blessing that you would never anticipate on your own.
Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.
It's fashionable in some Christian circles to believe that we can never have hardship unless our faith is weak. They have all sorts of theological gymnastics to explain the persecution of the early church, sickness, etc. But here God comes out and basically tells the Israelites that he threw a bunch of stuff in their path to make them stronger. If you accept that perspective, hardship is a gift that shapes us into who God wants us to be (if we let it) and teaches us more about the goodness of God's character. If you've gone for forty years and never struggled or been afraid for your life or your future, what have you really learned about yourself, or about God?
God took the Israelites out of a land of safe paychecks, consistent work and familiar surroundings, and basically made them sleep in the park and live off the land for forty years. (Who preaches that as one of God's promises? Or manages to still sell books afterwards?) God claims that it was to test them, to know what was in their hearts. I've also heard Christians say "God doesn't test us because that's cruel and God isn't a cruel God." But here God comes right out and says he's testing them, and it's not cruel at all! If you can't fail because of the blood of Christ on the cross, testing is nothing but useful feedback. The early church practically begged to be tested at times. The book of Revelation starts off with the midterm grades, basically.
We all know that God provides, but here God says he made them hungry first. If you read about the exodus from Egypt to what would become Israel, there were times when God's chosen people were hungry or thirsty. And yet we find out that that was by design, so that they would learn to trust and not take setbacks so seriously. He mentions that their clothes didn't wear out and their feet didn't swell during those forty years. Has anyone had clothes last for forty years without wearing out? So God was obviously providing miraculously for them, but not in the areas they were worried about at the time.
God starts his message off telling them to obey the commandments, and ends it explaining that he disciplines them the way a man disciplines his son. Boot camp is discipline. Exercise classes are discipline. Athletes talk about disciplining their bodies to do the things they want them to do. People discipline themselves to study and get good grades. Discipline isn't bad. Discipline comes from the same root as the word "disciple." And God says that he disciplines them the way a man disciplines his son, which implies love and familiarity.
I don't have any kids but I know plenty of parents, and I've done some mentoring of professionals with less experience than me. A solid way to help someone younger learn is to present them with challenges, watch them struggle, and then sometimes give them hints on how to overcome them. They then collaboratively learn to achieve victory. If you step in and just do it for them, they don't really learn anything.
Have you ever met people whose parents overprotected them, or who grew up rich and pampered? They're useless and fragile compared to the kids who had challenges and hardships. Or people who memorized enough to pass the tests in a field but never had any hard experience? Most of the time they're worse than useless. I wonder if, in this modern age of privilege, we expect God to be a helicopter parent like those we see all around us, and miss the point of discipline.
We're eternal creatures. Our life here on Earth is only a tiny part of our total existence. Don't you want to be in the best shape possible for whatever comes after this? From that perspective, hardship is a good thing. It strengthens us, and teaches us, and shows God's love. He made the Israelites hungry so that he could provide the manna. He took them away from the sure thing of Egypt in order to bring them into the promised land a generation later. And all the while, while they weren't paying attention, their clothes held up and their feet didn't get sore.
Thank God for how good we live, and for the miracles and luxuries and good moments we get to enjoy. But if you pray for all of those things and occasionally something doesn't go your way, thank God for that too. Hardship produces hunger, and God satisfies hunger with his manna, the unexpected blessing that you would never anticipate on your own.
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