Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the Sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Alright, guys, day two. All week this week, I am aiming to increase the hunger that all of you have for the word of God. So, as men, we hunger for a lot of earthly things, but I want to elevate your desire to know God more by studying his word. And I'm doing that by looking at different stories from the Bible that can help us see why that is important. So today we're actually going to be in Exodus 16. But to set the foundation, so far in the book of Exodus, we've seen Israel's enslavement in Egypt, the birth and calling of Moses, Moses' confrontation with Pharaoh, which leads to the Ten Plagues, Israel's exodus from Egypt, God parting the Red Sea to protect them, and the early testing of God's chosen people in the wilderness. So a lot's gone on. And then we get to Exodus 16. Israel is free from Egypt, but they're not settled yet, right? So they're traveling through the wilderness, they're getting restless, and now they're getting hungry because they're beginning to run out of their provisions. All right, now Exodus 16, starting in verse 1. They set out from Elam, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elam and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the fool, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you. So pause. Okay, this is pretty awesome. The Israelites are running out of food, and then God tells Moses, Don't worry, my guy, I'm just going to rain down some food from the sky. Okay? I mean, come on, that's pretty sweet. But there is a bit of a catch, so let's go back to the middle of verse four. And the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily. So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, At evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. For what are we that you grumble against us? And Moses said, When the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat, and in the morning bread to the fool, because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him, what are we? Your grumbling is not against us, but against the Lord. Now verse thirteen. In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. 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. 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. 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 its tent. And the people of Israel did so. They gathered, some more, some less, 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. So, guys, this is literally a miracle provision directly from God. Okay? They were getting low on supplies, and God took care of them, right? There was no lack anywhere. We see that from the text. The Israelites should be good to go now, right? Right? I mean but not so much. Verse 19. And Moses said to them, Let no one leave any of it over till the morning. 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. Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat, but when the sun grew hot, it melted. So the natural inclination of the hearts of the Israelites is to rely on yourself, right? To store up as much as you can and complain as much as possible, right? But that's not what God is trying to teach them. You see, God is not wanting their bodies to starve. God is starving their self-reliance. Why? Because he doesn't want them to be self-reliant. He wants them to be dependent. Dependent on like a nation or a state. No. Dependent on their leaders, Moses and Aaron? Nope. Dependent on him. God was trying to teach his people to rely on his words and to let his words provide for them and guide their steps. And that's what God wants for you as well. He gives you his word. We have it conveniently in one volume now called the Holy Bible. But if we don't consume it, then how in the world can we rely on it? And if we consume it but don't believe it to be true and don't do what it says, then we're ultimately just wasting our time. We must heed what he tells us in his word, and he is faithful to provide us manna for today and every day thereafter. Amen.

Thank you for listening to today's episode. Before you go, if you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five star rating and review. Stay sharp.