Numbers 17-19

Mark 6:30-56

“The LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything.” Deuteronomy 2:7

What a comfort the opening verse of this devotion is! Moses delivered this message, reminding the Israelites of God’s faithfulness to them when their journey through the wilderness was ending. This verse is reassuring to us because God provided everything—manna, water and meat—for the Israelites despite their lack of obedience, faithfulness and trustworthiness.

The rest of the Old Testament continues to trace this steadfast love that remains faithful to a people that seem to be constantly straying. The book of Judges is a painful repetition of the cycle of the people falling away from God, and His gracious provision of a deliverer each time they cried out to Him. There were also prophets who constantly brought God’s warning to His people and pleaded for them to return to Him up until they were forced into exile. Even in exile, the people were given the bright glimmering hope of the Day when God will bring about His Kingdom, headed by His Chosen One, so that His people could dwell with Him forever in a land of plentiful provision. Hence, when Jesus stepped onto the scene in the New Testament with the proclamation that the kingdom of God was at hand, He was not introducing a new idea, but fulfilling an old promise.

Jesus said, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?...See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them” (Matthew 6:26-32).

Instead, Jesus reminded us where to place our focus: “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). While we live with the reality of needs, how can we lean into what Jesus is calling us to do—to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness—in the midst of our current circumstances? May we reorient our attention to the God who has proven Himself as the only truly faithful Provider, who sees and knows what we need, and graciously works in our lives in the midst of the unknown.

Dear Gracious God, thank You for the provision that You have provided all my life, whether I realize it or not. I ask for You to remind me daily to keep seeking first Your kingdom and Your righteousness above my own wants.