Exodus 16.17-18 NLT




'So the people of Israel did as they were told. Some gathered a lot, some only a little. But when they measured it out, everyone had just enough.'
God’s miraculous provision of food for the people of Israel throughout their 40 years in the wilderness is breath-taking. I particularly love these verses because of this wonderful detail that, although the families had very different needs, everyone had just enough. Enough is a precious word and we should long that our world would come to love it. Sadly, although there is plenty of food for everyone in the world, there are millions of people who go to bed hungry at night. At the same time food wastage is on a colossal scale and it is reckoned that on average people in the UK waste more than £350 worth of food every year.
It is impossible to know the exact number but it is said that about nine million people in the world die of starvation every year. It is a distressing statistic that a child dies of hunger every 10 seconds. If this were an unavoidable fact then we would need to find a way of accepting these grim statistics. But the truth is that it is completely unnecessary in the modern world. We have the means of producing the right quantity of food and transporting it to the places where it is needed. What is lacking is the political will to take the necessary action. No lover of God, the creator of the World, could possibly live comfortably with these sad facts. In the name of our loving God we have to respond.


By ourselves we cannot change the world, but we can control our own lives and we can respond by living with contentment when we have enough. Always straining for more of everything isn’t good for us, our families, our society or our world.




QUESTION: Are you content with having just enough?
PRAYER: Lord God, thank you for the way in which you perfectly provide for our needs. Help us to enjoy the provisions that you give us and not to be forever straining to acquire more. Amen

Released on 10 Nov 2021