New Every Morning

It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not.  They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness (Lam 3:22).        

Bread From Heaven

The title of this chapter is special to me.  It brings me a sweet sense of nostalgia and a vivid memory of those sweet Holy Ghost meetings of the Seventies when we sang the song containing the words of the passage above, and the refreshing breeze of the Spirit seemed to fill and flow across the room.  What a time of refreshing that was! The song goes this way:

The steadfast Love of the Lord never ceaseth
His mercy never comes to an end
They are new every morning, New every morning
Great is Thy faithfulness O Lord, Great is Thy faithfulness

The composer of the song must have been meditating on the words of Jeremiah when he was reminiscing on God’s faithfulness in the third chapter of Lamentation quoted above.  

My prayer for you and me is that we would always remember and believe the message of this song in times of trouble. That we’ll remember to sing of His faithfulness, even when passing through the valley in a waterless wilderness; that we will not be found in the company of the murmurers and complainers, but with those who sing of His faithfulness.  

Each of us can surely identify with these encouraging words from the mouth of Jeremiah the prophet: “That it is because of the mercies of the Lord that we are not consumed.” We are not worthy of all the blessings that we receive from Him, but the Lord is gracious and full of compassion.  The book of Hebrews admonishes us to enter the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.  Apostle Paul knows very much how much we need the mercies of God. That’s why he opened many of his epistles with these words: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord be with you.  The Apostle of love opened his second epistle in a similar way, saying,“Grace be with you, mercy, and peace from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love (2 John 1:3).

The most comforting part of this message is that His mercy can always be counted on. His love and mercies are new every morning.  Even when we are unfaithful, He remains faithful; His faithfulness is forevermore. 

We see a great demonstration of this in our daily life, as we see the underserved favors that we receive from Him. This is why the children of Israel were not consumed in the wilderness, in spite of their rebellion, ingratitude, and lack of trust in God.  You would think that the miraculous deliverances they received would be convincing enough as proofs that God could and would always help them, but they still distrusted Him and provoked Him to anger. Though they were a murmuring, rebellious, and ungrateful people, the Lord dealt kindly and bountifully with them. He did not rain fire and brimstone upon them, even though they deserved this, but did what was kind to them. God would have been just if He had said, “I will rain fire and brimstone upon these murmurers, and consume them because of their ingratitude and provocation,” but on the contrary, he rained bread out of heaven upon them.  His love and mercies are inexplicable.  

This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating: an omer for every man according to the number of your persons, take ye every man for them who are in his tents. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. 

And when they measured it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack: they gathered every man according to his eating (Exo 16:16-18).

God Has an Inexhaustible Portion Reserved for You

God gave the children of Israel explicit instructions to gather the manna for their households at a quantity of an omer per person. While God provided the substance, they still had to gather and prepare it for eating.  God could have simply supernaturally sustained them without their having to gather and prepare food, but He did not.  They had a part in this work. Theirs was to trust and obey Him.  God provided, but they had to reach out in faith to receive.  Whether they gathered more than their share to hoard, or whether they gathered too little, no one lacked.  Each had his or her daily allotment met. God had given each of them a portion.

Dear child of God, let this be an encouragement for you: that as the true meaning of manna signifies, God has allotted a portion for you which no man can hoard or take from you.  Even when it seems that others have plenty and you have very little, the El-Shaddai is your portion. He that gathered little shall have no lack, because the One who is more than enough is his everlasting portion.

There is also a New Testament principle here in the manna, as the Apostle wrote in his Epistle to the Corinthians:

But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be an equality: as it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack (2 Cor. 8:l4-15).

Our Almighty God is at work in His people to bring us to that kind of equality that He desires in the New Covenant people.  The Holy Ghost, through the Apostle, is setting forth this manna principle. The Father God will continue to discipline His children until we have learned to wisely use what God has provided for our daily needs and to make the rest available to those who stand in need, that there may be an equality. He will continue to work in us until we truly know that it is more blessed to give than to receive, and that true ministry is not in the wealth we acquire through our faith, but in what we are able to give and sacrifice for others.

The children of Israel did as they were told, some gathered much and some little. But when they measured it, those who had gathered much had no excess, and those who had gathered little had no lack. The heavenly bread is indeed miraculous.  God is also showing us here that if we just do the best we can, He will do the rest.  If we just obey Him and do our parts, He will make it measure up. We cannot do it right or measure things perfectly right using our own strength or ability, but if we just obey His commands, He will perfect it. In reality, we cannot do it right without Him.

And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.

Nothwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank; and Moses was wroth with them.

And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted [Exod. 16:19–21].

They were commanded to leave none of it for the next day.  They were to eat all of what they had prepared or gathered that same day and not make provision for the future.  God’s part was to supply them a fresh allotment every morning.  He did not want them to live on stale food, but on fresh provision every morning; it was bread they had to gather daily and bread they had to eat daily. It had to be gathered in the morning, because the heat of the sun would cause it to melt away. It wasn’t something they could store up.  Each man was to gather it. It was to be a personal experience.

Beloved, if God’s Word is to be to us a living Word, it must come to us fresh every morning. It is not enough that I can prove it’s in the Bible; I am not going to derive any life from it unless it is the Living Word that He is saying to me today. It must be a Word that ”proceedeth” out from the mouth of the Lord.

We must hear His voice daily. We cannot live on the revelation of yesterday, but must receive fresh anointing from the Head daily. We must ask and receive fresh oil from our High Priest on a daily basis. Is it any wonder, then, that when Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, He began with, “Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread…”?  This is perhaps the most famous prayer in the entire world.  Hallowing our Father and seeking His will and Kingdom, the Lord Jesus taught us to pray for our daily bread. This daily dose of bread out of heaven is what will make us overcomers each day in this wilderness. It will keep our bodies and souls healthy on this arduous wilderness journey. We must gather and eat the manna afresh every single day of our lives.

God Provides Fresh Manna for His People Every Morning

God had commanded them not to save any of the manna for the next day.  While they slept, Jehovah prepared their meal, loaded with all the vitamins and necessary ingredients to make them strong. The Israelites were to gather each day the amount of food they needed for that day; no more, no less. 

His promise to them was that He would provide a fresh portion for them every morning. He wanted them to rely on Him and sleep, knowing that when they woke in the morning, their Jehovah-Jireh would have prepared a table for them in the wilderness. So they were never to worry about tomorrow, but gather food just for the day, because He holds tomorrow.  However, some of the children of Israel saved some of the food till the next day, and surely as the Lord God lives, the leftovers bred worms, became rotten, and stank.  This is what happens when we do not put our complete trust in Him and try to help God help us.  You hear people say, “Heaven helps those who help themselves.”  That’s what those “smart” Israelites who saved some of the manna for the next day were doing.  They probably did this “just in case” God didn’t come through for them. A lack of trust in God is displeasing to Him. 

They never really learned God’s way.  However, we shouldn’t criticize them at all.  After all, we in this day and age have not come any further than they did, when it comes to truly trusting God for our Daily Bread.  Don’t we also grumble and complain?  Don’t we still worry about tomorrow? Yes, some of the Israelites gathered more than a day’s worth of manna, which speaks of worrying about what will happen the next day.  It speaks of a lack of trust that He will be there to meet your needs tomorrow.  It speaks of hoarding and greed.  The Lord Jesus, speaking to us about this in the gospels, said: 

Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?  So why do you worry about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore, do not worry, saying ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For after all these things the Gentiles seek.  For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  

Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matt. 6:24-34).

And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun became hot, it melted (Exo 16:16-21).

Natural man, being made out of the earth, gets his food out of the earth. He walks by the senses, and he has to know and see where his provision is coming from.  He needs to know where his food for tomorrow will come from, for he cannot walk by faith; he walks by sight.  But the people of God, the church of the firstborn written in heaven and born from above, whose laws were given by the disposition of angels, receive their food from heaven; for they eat angels’ food. 

The bread out of heaven given to the people of God is designed to prove them, to see if they will learn to walk by faith and not by sight.   God caused them to hunger and then gave them manna to prove them, whether they will walk in His law or not. Thus, it was a test to see whether they would trust him and walk in the law of faith or not; whether they could live from hand to mouth, day by day, and could rest satisfied with the bread of the day and depend upon God for fresh supplies for the next.  

And so, for each day, God would give them that day’s supply. They were to trust him daily for their fresh provision. On the sixth day, they were to gather twice as much; the extra was to be used on the seventh day, when there was to be no work.  This extra food did not rot.  Some of them, hard of hearing, still went out on the Sabbath day to look for manna, but found none. It seems that man never stops testing God’s patience with his rebellion.

Partake in God’s Sabbath of Rest

God had told His people again and again to remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.  Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work:  But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work,;.. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath-day, and hallowed it (Exo 20:8-11).

And here He told them not to go out looking for manna to gather on the Sabbath, for that is the day of His rest. There was no one preparing manna for the people on earth on the Sabbath day, and so on the sixth day, they were to gather a double portion.

”There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God“ (Heb. 4:9). God was ”resting“ on that day; and because God’s people were partaking of His rest, the manna of the sixth day would be sufficient. Our manna is a spiritual food; and our Sabbath is a spiritual Sabbath. Man’s working day is drawing to a close, and God’s Sabbath of Rest is at hand. The people of God in this wilderness must therefore partake of the double portion, so as to have enough to supply the needs of their households in the day of His rest.  We must partake of it so that that we might have ample supply for the people of God, so they don’t go looking for manna on the day of God’s rest.