Someone said that while you can take the slaves out of Egypt, it's much harder to take Egypt out of the slaves. If there is one thing that characterizes the people of Israel on their journey from slavery to the promised land, it's grumbling. It began at the shores of the Red Sea when they accused Moses of bringing them there to die. No sooner had the songs of celebration died down than "the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron."

Instead of being overwhelmingly thankful for their deliverance from slavery and excited about their journey to freedom, in spite of God's amazing act of deliverance, the Israelites could never see beyond the needs of the moment.

They had to learn to trust in God even in the inhospitable and barren environment of the wilderness. This, of course, is one of the main lessons we need to learn in our Christian life: trusting God to provide for our needs. Whether we're little children afraid of thunder or strangers or we're adults afraid of cancer or of losing our jobs, the lesson is the same.

Notice how God answers the people's grumbling with grace and generosity: "I will rain down bread from heaven for you" (16:4). God's answer will far exceed the people's request. They will "see the glory of the Lord" (16:6-7).

We see that glory in the Lord's lush provision of the delivery of meat at twilight, as quail flew in and covered the camp, and of bread in the morning, as the manna (the word means, "What is it?") appeared on the ground.

One aspect of the gift of manna takes up a lot of room in the story, but it's often neglected. While God provides an abundance of quail, the gift of manna is more measured. Each household gathers as much as they need. If, however, they greedily hoard too much, it becomes infested with maggots.

This measured allotment becomes even clearer on the Sabbath. People are told to gather for six days, but not on the Sabbath. On the sixth day they were to gather double what they needed, and this time it stayed fresh for use on the Sabbath.

In this way the gift of manna displays God's economic principles. The first is that enough is enough—greed and hoarding display a lack of trust in God. The second is the Sabbath principle. We tend not to think of it as being an economic principle, but it is. Sabbath economics teach that everything needs a rest: the land, the animals, and people. It is not first of all our work that saves us, but our trust in God.

We pray, as Jesus taught us, "Give us this day our daily bread." That prayer and that way of life are anchored in the experience of the Israelites in the desert. Each day they received from God their daily bread, and each day we receive what we need from the hand of God.