I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lends; and his descendants are blessed. (Psalm 37:25-26)
At an aged point in life, David made the above observation; God will never forsake those who commit themselves to serve Him. We are never guaranteed a carefree life; to the contrary, the Messiah said that we would experience tribulations and times of loss in this life. However, in the midst of life’s trials, God does not forsake His people but always sustains them in the midst of the crisis. When Jacob fled from Esau, he made a vow to the Lord that “If God will be with me … and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God” (Genesis 28:20-21). At that time, the Lord promised never to forsake him (Genesis 28:15). Years later, before He brought famine upon the world, God initiated a process by the hand of Joseph whereby His people would have bread in the days of lack.
In the days of Ahab and Jezebel, when famine came upon the land of Israel, God provided means of sustenance for the righteous. Specifically, He prepared a place for Elijah where he could be fed daily, and by ravens no less. When the brook dried up and he was forced to move, God had already orchestrated an encounter with a widow in Zarephath. As the story goes, not only did Elijah continue to eat, the widow and her son “ate for many days” (1 Kings 17:15). In other words, God will always provide our daily bread and will not allow His faithful children to descend so far as to beg bread from another; He alone will be our provider.
This doesn’t mean that we are promised a life of wealth and luxury; sometimes we will experience impoverishment. There are times God will allow us to experience hunger so that we might better appreciate His gifts and provision. In other words, He doesn’t always give us what we want but will always provide what we need. Furthermore, if we do experience hunger and are then satisfied with our earthly bread, it is to amplify that we should all hunger for the bread that comes from Heaven. As it is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3). Therefore, let us be thankful for the blessing of provision given by His hand, and most importantly, the blessing of forgiveness and reconciliation provided through the suffering of the Messiah, the true bread from heaven.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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