Humbled and Tested

He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good. He did all this so you would never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’ Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath.

—Deuteronomy 8:16-18 NLT

God tested His children with “manna” (daily provision) in a very simple way. The children of Israel were given directions concerning this manna: They were told not to store up more than a day’s worth of manna (except on Friday’s, which was the day before the Sabbath day of rest). In spite of these simple directions, Exodus 16:20 says, “some of them didn’t listen and kept some of it until morning. But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell.” We see that God used the manna from heaven as a way of establishing the humility and discipline that comes with following simple directions.

The other day, I was reading a saying Jesus spoke in Luke 16:10-11 that said: “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?” We see in the verses above that the manna from heaven was like training ground that taught the children of Israel how to be trustworthy with worldly wealth. This is what caused them to be able to enjoy their life with diligence in their Promise Land (true riches of heaven). The blessing of that Promise Land was not only that these people had come into abundance but, also, that abundance was not able to destroy or bring chaos to their lives. The children of Israel were set up with a firm foundation of discipline, obedience, and humility. This allowed them to be able to live in peace with joy, love, endurance, etc., even in an environment of great success.

The scriptures above say that God humbled and tested the children of Israel on purpose and He did this so that when they finally attained success (success they had to work hard for by defeating the inhabitants of their promised land and then harvesting their own food on that land) they would not become prideful or brag about becoming successful all on their own merits. Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction and haughtiness before a fall.” Humility and discipline is needed for one to be able to manage success without destroying it. For this reason, when it is God who uses situations to “humble” us or “test” us, let us remember that those situations are being used to challenge us for our “own good” (as stated in the verses above). This is just what God did for the children of Israel before bringing them to a land of abundance.

Lots of Love, XO