Mar 26 - Miraculous Provision
Lessons in the Life of Moses: Miraculous Provision
By Jim Laffoon
[The LORD said,]"Tell the people: 'Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you wailed, "If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!" Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month--until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it--because you have rejected the Lord, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, "Why did we ever leave Egypt?"' "
But Moses said, "Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, 'I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!' Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?"
The Lord answered Moses, "Is the Lord's arm too short? You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you."... Now a wind went out from the Lord and drove quail in from the sea. It brought them down all around the camp to about three feet above the ground, as far as a day's walk in any direction. Numbers 11:18-22; 31
The people were stunned; everywhere they looked, quail were piled three feet high. No matter which direction you started to walk from the center of the camp, you could walk for hours without seeing bare ground. The supply of quail was so abundant it took the children of Israel thirty-six hours to collect it. Even Moses was amazed.
Although he had seen God part the Red Sea and provide bread and water, day after day, for a whole nation in the heat of the desert, this new miracle was beyond his comprehension. If God had done this in response to the wailing and whining of His unbelieving people, how much more would He do when they would finally learn to cry out in faith?
What lessons can you and I learn from this incredible story of God's "miraculous provision?"
First of all, the most amazing thing about this story is not that God covered the ground with millions of quail. Rather, it is the fact that God released this abundant provision despite the unbelief and ingratitude of His own people--people He would later punish for their attitudes while they were eating the very quail for which they had lusted.
Even Moses, the greatest man of faith on the face of the earth, struggled to believe that God could bring this level of provision to His people.
If God could provide this type of extraordinary provision in response to the wailing and whining of unbelief, how much more could He do when He found the true cry of faith? Do you see it yet?
No matter what type of need you are facing today, whether it is financial, relational, or health related, God is well able to meet it.
According to Paul in Philippians 4:19, "God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus." This means, if you will only live by faith, the unlimited resources of God are at your disposal through Christ.
Second, from this miraculous story we also learn that no matter how much faith we are apprehending at the present time, there are always new levels of faith God desires for us to experience. Even Moses, who had to believe on a daily basis for the needs of two and a half million people and their animals, had not yet achieved the place of faith God had for him.
That's right; despite everything he had seen God do, Moses could not comprehend or even imagine the extent of God's power and provision. This should not surprise us. In Ephesians 3:20, Paul makes this astonishing statement: "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us ..."
This is amazing; no matter how much faith you have, there are levels of abundant provision beyond anything you could ever imagine.
Today, whether you are in desperate need of God's provision or you are being challenged by circumstances to enter a new level of faith, do not be afraid.
God is well able to meet every one of your needs as you cry out to Him in faith.
