While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho. And they day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. And the manna ceased the day after they ate the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. ~ Joshua 5:10-12
When Moses had led the people out of Egypt, it wasn’t long that they began to grumble and complain. Though they had seen the mighty works of God manifested in the ten plagues, the pillars of cloud by day and fire by night, and the crossing of the Red Sea, they feared starvation when they grew hungry.
In response, God provided in the form of bread from heaven, known as manna. With this bread, God miraculously sustained the people for 40-years as they wandered through the wilderness. (Exodus 16)
When the disobedient generation died and a new generation stood on the doorstep of the Promised Land, the provision of the manna ceased. This was not the end of the Lord’s provision for his people, rather it was the beginning of something better. The bread from heaven was only meant to be temporary. In fact, if the older generation had not rebelled against God in the wilderness, it wouldn’t have even lasted for 40 years.
God, before the exodus from Egypt, made a greater promise. He told Moses, “I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8). Now the people were ready to enter that land, so they ate of its fruit and the manna ceased.
God’s promises to us work the same way. He provides many good things for us, in fact all the goodness we see in our lives comes as a gift of God (James 1:17). But even the best things we receive in this life pale in comparison to the glories to come in eternity. He has promised us the inheritance of unspeakable riches in glory with Jesus our Savior-King.
So, we trust that God does provide for his children, and if God ever pulls back one provision it’s because the time has come for a better gift.
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