Exodus 16

On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. And the Lord said to Moses, "How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day."

Exodus 16:27-29

The people of Israel are not keeping God's commandments. They lack trust when it comes to what God says He will provide. He tells the people on the sixth day to gather twice as much bread so that it will last them through the Sabbath, but some still go out and search for bread anyway. A thought that comes to my mind when reading this is what happens when we don't take the Sabbath today. When we go out and try to do things and get stuff done, are we effective? Or are we like the people of Israel who go out on the seventh day and find nothing. God doesn't like it when we refuse to keep His commandments and ignore His law, because what He gives us is designed for us. He gives us the commandments and the law because they are designed for us, not for no reason. So I wonder, when we try to do work on the Sabbath, how many times do we end up empty-handed and just don't see it in this context? I think it is an interesting and worthy question to ask ourselves. Is our Sabbath actually restful? Are we stressed? And how can that help inform us about the way that we are taking it?

Verse 29 is also a good reminder because it says, "See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath." The Sabbath is a gift. God will set us up for success so that we can take the Sabbath. He will provide before the Sabbath so that we may rest on the seventh day, but we do need to help ourselves go in this direction. We need to organize our lives around this, truly work for six days, and then on the seventh day rest. I think the Sabbath is a really good thing for rest, renewal, and glorifying God, but I also think it is a really good exercise of trust. It is putting one day into God's hands and saying today is yours. If we have never done it before, use it as an experiment of trusting in God and seeing His providence, because with the people of Israel, He provided twice as much so that they had extra for another day.

This section of Exodus excites me because it shows how God is so faithful, even when we are faithless. Even when our faith wavers and we are very human and fleshly and don't understand what is going on, God is faithful and will still provide. It just shows that He always has open arms for the people that are coming to Him and that He always wants us to come back.