Morning Manna by Rufus Parker: 2014 March 20

Thursday, March 20, 2014

2014 March 20 - Morning Manna

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.
(Numbers 20:7-12)

Today's Morsel: One would think that Moses; having seen God face to face, receiving, hearing, and seeing the things that God had done; would have done exactly what the Lord told him to do. But Moses was so fed up with the people's complaining and murmuring that he called them a bunch of rebels. At this point, Moses is angry with them. And so he took matters into his own hand. Solomon says, "He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly..." (Proverbs 14:17) Notice, Moses was angry and he dealt foolishly by smiting the rock instead of speaking to it as God had commanded him. How many time would you say that you do things against God's commands because you are angry with someone or the people He has given you to lead? I often wonder how many times I may have hurt someone or did wrong because someone made me angry. I have come to realize that the antidote for anger is to get away or just be quiet. How would you have handled the situation if you had been Moses? If you will notice, after this incident, Aaron and Moses lose their leadership roles and are told that they cannot lead the children of Israel into the promise land. Paul tell us, "Be ye angry, and sin not..."(Ephesians 4:26) Are you one that gets angry quickly? Are you one that holds grudges and bitterness in your heart? Well, let me encourage you to work on removing it. It's not worth your peace of mind and your salvation.

Sing: Peace, peace, wonderful peace, coming down from the Father above; sweep over my spirit forever I pray, in fathomless billows of love.

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About Morning Manna

And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God. And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat (Exodus 16:10-15).

“Morning Manna” is a short daily devotion which began in 2002, with just a short note of encouragement to a friend who was facing difficulties at the time. Through their response, I was encouraged to begin a daily devotion via email and send it to people who asked to be put on the distribution list. It is now reaching around the globe. Its birth came about during Morning Prayer. The Lord revealed to me that I should forward my friend a word of encouragement, since it is through patience and comfort of the scripture that we find hope. Thus, I forwarded him the words the Lord had given to me for him, and he forwarded it on to someone else who was having difficulties in their life as well, and thus the original list began.

The goal of “Morning Manna” is to provide people with a quick, thought provoking Word from the Lord, as well as provide encouragement from His Word that can help them through the day and during unexpected trails and circumstances in their daily lives.

Several years ago, Jesus moved on my heart to start writing daily devotions; thus began “Morning Manna”. Today, many people are receiving these daily devotions and many of these people are forwarding it on to their family and friends. It is my hope to encourage even more through posting the devotions to this blog-page.

I pray that you, too, will enjoy reading the manna from this site.