“When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, ‘What is it?’ They did not know what it was, and Moses said to them, ‘It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.'”
– Exodus 16:15
Exodus 16:15 summarizes what happened when God provided food for his people when they were hungry in the wilderness. He sent bread from heaven in a way that shocked and surprised them. In this, we see so many things but one of the things we see is the daily provision of God for his people. We are reminded that God sees himself as the sustainer of his people on a daily basis, in a way that really supersedes even natural processes and natural things in this world.
What God later said about this circumstance he said part of what he was doing was teaching people that don’t live on bread alone but on every word that comes from his mouth, meaning there’s sustenance that comes from God that is greater than even the bread we eat in this world. Even that is a gift from God. That’s the message here in Exodus 16:15, this is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.
This Verse Reminds Us God Is Our Provider
God is our provider and our ultimate source of sustenance.
We see all throughout the Bible that God is our sustainer, every good gift we have comes from him. This is why it makes total sense before we eat a meal to bow our heads, not just in a sense of rote religious routine, but in a heart that it is grateful, that realizes there is no way I would have this bread right now unless God provided it. So I am gonna pause and just thank God for it and at the same time, I am gonna be reminded that my ultimate sustenance doesn’t come from breakfast, lunch or dinner. My ultimate sustenance comes from God. I look to him, not ultimately to the things of this world, for sustenance in my life.
Exodus 16:15 Leads Us to Ask God For Help Seeing Him Rightly
God, we pray that you would help us to have this perspective. One, to see you as the giver of all good gifts, and God in this, help us to avoid idolatry, help us not to seek gifts over you as the giver of those gifts. Help us to see you and worship you and thank you and praise you and trust you as the giver of all good gifts and when gifts are taken away from us, God we pray that you would help us to still trust you and praise you and worship you.
We think about Job, when he lost his children and possessions and even health. He said, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. May the name of the Lord be praised.” God, help us to praise you as the giver, even when the gifts are scarce. Even when the gifts are not what we want, help us to worship You. You sustain us even when we don’t have certain things in this world. You sustain us when we lose certain good gifts on earth. God, we still look to you. We still trust in you as our sustainer, as our helper, as our provider. You are the one who takes responsibility on a daily basis for our care.
This Verse Leads Us to Praise God
All glory be to your name as the one who gives all good gifts, and we praise you, oh God. We praise you that when the day comes and all the our good gifts are gone. Even when our breath itself is gone, we will still have you as the giver. So we can say to live as Christ and to die is gain. All glory be to you oh God, the giver of all good gifts. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
