Exodus 16:2-15
The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, ‘If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’
Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.’ So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, ‘In the 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 complaining against the Lord. For what are we, that you complain against us?’ And Moses said, ‘When the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning, because the Lord has heard the complaining that you utter against him—what are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the Lord.’
Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, “Draw near to the Lord, for he has heard your complaining.” ’ And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked towards the wilderness, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. The Lord spoke to Moses and said, ‘I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, “At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.” ’
In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, ‘What is it?’ For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, ‘It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.
Reflection
The Lord comes to our rescue and we are glad and happy. But how short lived is our sense of joy and satisfaction. Soon we become complacent and begin to grumble and complain. It seems we always want things to be better than what they are. We want and demand for things to continuously improve.
There is a system of management around continuous improvement. This is a very effective set of values that create increased quality of materials, products, processes and workflow. A process that does work and has brought many manufacturers back into greater sales of goods and processes. There seems to be no reaching the goal of "good enough." But, this is a process that works within the realm of imperfect goods, services, people and processes.
What the passage above questions is just this. The end result of God leading the Israelites into freedom and the relationship the Chosen People have with God is not limited to imperfection. God IS perfection in all ways. God is perfect in love and compassion and understanding and caring. It's just that our human sense keeps us from returning that love with the same trust and understanding and caring and love and compassion. And in this failure, we are the sinners. It's not that God doesn't care... it's that we don't trust God to take care of us completely.
This difference in trust is our sin. This difference in trust is our failure. Oh, how easy it becomes to blame it all on God. God didn't love me, care for me, have compassion for me in my hunger, my sickness, my poverty, my homelessness, my addiction, my...
None of this is true! These are all the things that we tend to unjustly blame God for a lack of something. God DID save us after all. Why can't we trust God even in the dark times? We rejoice in the good and awesome times with God and celebrate the power and love of God, so why not trust and have faith even in the darkest of moments?
It's in these moments, the dark moments of life, that we find God. We find God's love IS caring and understanding and loving and compassionate. God even comes to us in the midst of our mistrust and doubt and faithlessness and shows us his unending love and compassion and understanding. God is with us in the good times and comes to our rescue in our moments of doubt.
In this we see a God that doesn't need continuous improvement. God is perfect in love and compassion and understanding. Nothing can get any better than this God we have that loves us to death. So, as we live our lives God works on us to make us into what God wants us to be through love, compassion, understanding and salvation from the very sin that we do that separates us from God. God takes our sinful separation and closes the gap and comes to us anyway.
With God we can look forward to a new glory and a new life. We can look back to remember what it was but always look forward in the trust and hope that God's perfection in love, compassion and understanding far surpasses any notion that we can achieve our own salvation through our own efforts of continuous improvement. With God we see the vision of perfect love in Christ Jesus.
"...in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.” ’"
Yes... each and every morning... God comes! So, we live in this trust and hope and faith.
Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjVgm9-XTqQ
Prayer
Come, Lord Jesus, come. Come to me as the bread, the body, the blood, the wine. Come to me in your Spirit that I may see you in the midst of my sin, repent and return to you. For you are always there, even in the midst of my complaints you are there to save me from myself and sin and death. Yes, dear Lord come... I need you... today... tomorrow... and forever. --- Amen
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