When God lets you be hungry
2. You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.
3. He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.
4.Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. 5.Thus you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. (Deuteronomy 8:2-5)
We struggle to see meaning sometimes. Especially when we don’t like what happens to or around us. Israelites were like us too. A generation of them grew up in the wilderness, wandering for forty years. Many times a man or a woman stared out into the hazy distance, past the tents in the sands of the desert… and got lost in the questions. “Why?, Why have we been wondering around for decades? Has the Lord forgotten us, and left us in the desert? Can we be sure it is the Lord leading Moses and Aaron? This is not a normal way to live, no homes, no gardens, no advancement… what’s the point?”
Meanwhile, God has been leading them, humbling, testing, and looking closely at their hearts. God let them be hungry, yet provided manna for them. In all their waking, their clothes did not wear out, or feet swell from the constant hike. God was carefully tending to them, as a father watches and disciplines a child. So today or tomorrow, when the questions come again, remember, how God led and disciplined the Israelites. And realize, too, that if you are a child of God, God is leading you, watching your heart, and molding you. If God is letting you be hungry, He might be providing manna.
Liya Abramova