The Day the Manna Stopped

For 40 years of wilderness wandering God provided a miraculous supply of heavenly bread, the Israelite's  clothing and shoes magically never wore out; they probably grew right along with their bodies. Water came from a rock, quail fell from the sky...

Then they got to where they were going and it all stopped. I don't know why but this struck me the other day. I know there was something more to this account in scripture than what I've read or heard taught from a pulpit. The Apostle Paul said, "For the spiritual did not come first, but the natural. After that the spiritual". So there was a literal meaning then, but a spiritual principle remains.

I ask: Lord, why did the Manna stop? What principle do you wish to speak to me and to us at this moment in time about the end of the rain of this miracle bread?

As He so often does, the Lord answers me even as I write this and ponder. His answer is:
"What happens when the blessings stop reveals your heart"   Wow, Lord.

Now, I know that in the biblical account the manna, quail and water-from-rock stopped ostensibly because, now, in the land "overflowing with milk and honey" the children of Israel would be able to sustain themselves agriculturally. But in our lives today and mine in particular, I can be riding a wave of blessings in various parts of my life and then hit a brick wall: relationships strain, bills pile up, illnesses threaten. I am haunted thinking about His words, "What happens when the blessings stop reveals your heart".

If God was good yesterday, is He suddenly bad today when I got the medical report? If God was almighty last week, was He weak this week when I suffered from depression?Will I be faithful even if it appears that God has left me?

Perhaps what seems like a cruel twist of fate is the continual proving process of growing us up: Yes, says the Lord. You are dependent on me as a sucking child. Now I am withdrawing the easy milk so that you have to secure it for yourself. Now you have to learn to live with hunger pains and thirst for the first time and learn that though it may tarry, your supply will come and your supply is Me.

Jesus said that He was, in fact, the spiritual manna from heaven. Scripture also says that even the rock from which supernatural water flowed was Christ. Perhaps it takes times of famine to make us cling to His every word and search the desert for His water of life. Maybe the desert mirage that makes us believe that the blessing was in the financial security, the marriage or the achievement is finally exposed when only the true blessing is left.

When the manna seems to end, I can comfort myself in these words of God's faithfulness: He humbles you, causing you to hunger and then feeds you...(Deuteronomy 8:3) 
Your next meal will come.