And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

Joshua 5:12 (ESV)

Early this year, Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina preached a sermon titled He Took Manna of the Menu. One little chunk of scripture that usually gets passed over, got a lot of much needed attention.

We talk a lot about the provision the nation of Israel received on their journey from Egypt to Canaan, but we don’t talk a lot about what happened once they got to the Promised Land.

The manna stopped.

The food that had sustained an entire nation for forty years stopped the day after they arrived in the place God had promised to them.

Did the provision stop? Certainly not. The provision changed. They were now in a land that could (and would) sustain them for many years to come. They didn’t need the manna any longer.

How often do we look at our lives and see where good things have ended and complain about it? Look harder. Maybe there was provision disguised as work.

For Israel, food was no longer harvested from the ground like dew in the morning. Suddenly provision required work. They had fields, flocks and vineyards to tend do. Did God stop taking care of them? No. But the supply changed.

When kids start to grow up, parents give them more and more responsibility. They learn to do things on their own. A parent doesn’t stop doing things for their child out of spite or to take things away, but rather to teach them that they are able to do things on their own.

The next time you’re faced with what looks like lack, look again. Maybe the supply you’ve been given looks like work.

Daily Bible reading: Joshua 4-6, Luke 2:1-24