New Every Morning

I have a confession to make: I have terrible short-term memory. How is it that I can remember the phone number of the bass player of the garage band I was in 17 years ago, but I can’t remember where my car keys are half the time? Car keys, wallet, cell phone . . . they all seem to disappear into a black hole when I’m in a hurry to get out the door. The same is true for me with names. Once someone’s name gets into my long-term memory, it’s there and easy to remember. Yet I am consistently embarrassed when someone tells me their name, and five minutes later I can’t remember it. I have issues with short-term memory.

I think the people of Israel had a short-term memory problem, too. Here we are in Exodus 16, just two chapters after one of the greatest, most powerful miracles in history. Remember the Red Sea? God’s deliverance? Walking across the sea on dry ground? Remember how God revealed himself in such an awesome way, rescuing His people from slavery? According to the passage, those events were a mere 2 months and 15 days ago. 10 weeks. Half a semester. And already the people are complaining.

Not even three months from one of the most incredible displays of God’s power and presence, God’s people approach Moses saying, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in Egypt” (v. 3a, NRSV). Why were they complaining? It turns out they were running out of food.

I guess hunger is a pretty powerful thing. It’s hard to think straight when one’s stomach is growling. Part of me wants to cut the Israelites some slack because they were hungry. But at the same time, I have to wonder, didn’t they remember what happened at the Exodus? Didn’t they remember the plagues and the Passover? Did they really think God had brought them out of Egypt only to let them die in the desert? Maybe it was just short-term memory loss.

Sometimes I wonder about our own memories as well. When a crisis hits, or we get bad news, sometimes I wonder if we don’t act just like the Israelites did. Sometimes we tend to doubt God’s plan for our lives. We worry about how we’re going to make it. We begin to think maybe God isn’t with us after all, and we’d be better off living life taking care of ourselves. Maybe it’s memory loss, but do we really think God has brought us this far just to let us die in the desert.

God’s answer to the people’s complaint is classic. In order to provide for their needs, He sets up the manna and quail system. Each day the people will receive, directly from God, the food they need for that day. The day before the Sabbath they receive double so they can eat during their day of rest. They receive only what they can use in one day. If they try to hoard it, it will only spoil.
It’s classic, really. It’s almost as if God knows they have a short-term memory problem. He sets up the system so that each day they are reminded of their total dependence on the Lord. If the Lord did not provide for them the next day, they would starve. Their very lives depended on God’s gracious gifts which were new every morning. Each day, during the decades-long journey to the promised-land, God’s people ate directly from God’s table. Each day was a fulfillment of God’s promises. Each day God revealed himself anew as He provided for His people. It’s as if God really did want His people to live in radical, life or death dependence on Him.

I am convinced God still wants that kind of life for His people. Whether we’ve been walking with Him for decades or days, God wants us to live in radical obedience and trust in Him. Just as Israel would have perished without God’s gifts, so we would perish without His grace. God overcomes our short-term memory problem by reminding us we need His touch every day.
What would it take for us to come to the place where we understand our very life comes as a daily gift from God? Nothing is really ours. All of our money and property, our family, our church, and even our bodies: they’re all on-loan from the Lord who is faithful to give us what we need, every day.

This kind of daily dependence on God is what we Nazarenes call a “life of holiness.” It’s a life that does not take godliness for granted. This life doesn’t rely on the grace of God given 20 years ago. Instead, it recognizes our need for God’s grace on a moment-by-moment basis.

The founder of our theological tradition was a pastor named John Wesley. He spoke and wrote a lot about the holy life. Of those who were living the holy life, Wesley said, “None feel their need for Christ like these; none so entirely depend on Him.” When we live out of daily trust in the Lord, we see His faithfulness more clearly. We will not die in this desert. We’re on our way to the promised-land of His grace.