Did you know that obedience brings rest? When the children of Israel were wandering in the desert, they got hungry and complained. God heard them and answered in the form of manna. Wouldn’t you love to try manna!
Even the receiving of manna was a test. Exodus 16:4 “Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people will go out and gather the amount for each day, so that I may test them. Will they walk in my law or not? 5 On the sixth day they will prepare what they bring in, and it will be twice as much as they gather every other day.”
Here’s the setup: God is giving them free provision. On the 6th day, IF they obeyed, they received twice as much, then rested on the 7th day. This is the first time in Scripture that God initiated a Sabbath day of rest for his people. Rest! If we obey, we enter into rest! And that’s not all, they received a double portion from the Lord.
How many times have we overlooked double blessings from the Lord because we won’t obey? Such a simple thing, really. Pick up twice as much manna. Come on, you know you can do it. But, I’m really hungry now, and that will take extra time. The kids are waiting. My husband has other things for me to do. The manna is always there. It’s probably not even God. It will be there tomorrow. We talk ourselves out of God’s double portion with lame excuses that seem so valid at the time. We don’t obey. We miss the double blessing. We don’t enter into Rest. “Thus we must make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by following the same pattern of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:11).
What is God asking you to do right now? Did something come to mind? Do it. Before you miss the double blessing. Before you miss the Rest.
