TEXT: Exodus 16:3-5
3 And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
4 Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.
5 And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.
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Gregory the Sinaite said, “There are three degrees in eating: temperance, sufficiency, and satiety. Temperance is when someone wants to eat more food but abstains, rising from the table still somewhat hungry. Sufficiency is when someone eats what is needed and sufficient for normal nourishment. Satiety is when someone eats more than enough and is more than satisfied. Now if you cannot keep the first two degrees and you proceed to the third, then, at least, do not become a glutton, remembering the words of the Lord, ‘Woe unto you that are full now, for you shall hunger.'”
According to ABC News, “A Yale study found that weight is the number one reason people are bullied at any age and those who are bullied have lower self-esteem, higher levels of depression, and increased risk of suicide. The main source of ridicule, according to the Yale researchers, is loved ones. Rebecca Puhl, the study’s lead author, said, ‘More than 40 percent of children who seek treatment for weight loss say they have been bullied or teased by a family member. When we asked obese women who stigmatized them the most, 72 percent said it was someone in their family.'”
This is an uncomfortable subject for many of us, but if you listen and take heed, this particular series can not only change your life spiritually, but it can save your life physically.
One of the things we see in this passage is that God views how the children of Israel respond to the food that He is providing them and the way in which he is providing it as a test of their obedience to Him. He tells Moses, “The people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.” The children of Israel were given specific rules on how they were to handle the manna that they were given.
First, no one was to gather more than they needed for a single day during five days of the week. No one was to hoard the manna or try to stockpile it. But some tried to do this anyway. Verse 20 tells us that the people “hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them.”
The children of Israel were forced to trust God for their daily bread. Those who did not trust God were exposed. Many of us today would be just as upset if our food source were taken away and we had to rely on an invisible God to drop previously non-existent food out of the sky. But God’s test of the children of Israel reminds us that our trust for our daily bread ought to be in Him, not in Wal-Mart. He is the provider; and His dealings with Israel show us that He does not like it when we try to gorge ourselves excessively on His provisions or place our trust in the provision and not the source of the provision.
If the Lord tarries his coming and we live, next time, we will continue looking at what this passage tells us about God’s plan for man’s eating habits.
PRACTICAL STEP: In “The RAVE Diet and Lifestyle,” Mike Anderson continues sharing why he recommends refraining from eating animal foods. He writes, “The contamination in fish is reason enough not to eat them. Fish and shellfish contain toxic chemicals at concentrations as high as 9 million times more than what was found in the polluted water in which they swam. Tests of fish from U.S. rivers have revealed they contained enough estrogen-mimicking chemicals to promote breast cancer growth.”
Now, we are going to look at “How Intermittent Fasting Helps You Lose Weight” from Healthline’s “Intermittent Fasting 101 – The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide”:
Weight loss is the most common reason that people try intermittent fasting. By making you eat fewer meals, intermittent fasting can lead to an automatic reduction in calorie intake. Additionally, intermittent fasting changes hormone levels to facilitate weight loss. In addition to lower insulin and increased growth hormone levels, it increases release of the fat burning hormone nor-epine-phrine.
Because of these changes in hormones, short-term fasting may actually increase your metabolic rate by 3.6-14%. By helping you eat less (fewer calories in) and helping you burn more (more calories out), intermittent fasting causes weight loss by changing both sides of the calorie equation.
Daniel Whyte III has spoken in meetings across the United States and in over twenty-five foreign countries. He is the author of over forty books including the Essence Magazine, Dallas Morning News, and Amazon.com national bestseller, Letters to Young Black Men. He is also the president of Gospel Light Society International, a worldwide evangelistic ministry that reaches thousands with the Gospel each week, as well as president of Torch Ministries International, a Christian literature ministry.
He is heard by thousands each week on his radio broadcasts/podcasts, which include: The Prayer Motivator Devotional, The Prayer Motivator Minute, as well as Gospel Light Minute X, the Gospel Light Minute, the Sunday Evening Evangelistic Message, the Prophet Daniel’s Report, the Second Coming Watch Update and the Soul-Winning Motivator, among others.
He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology from Bethany Divinity College, a Bachelor’s degree in Religion from Texas Wesleyan University, a Master’s degree in Religion, a Master of Divinity degree, and a Master of Theology degree from Liberty University’s Rawlings School of Divinity (formerly Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary). He is currently a candidate for the Doctor of Ministry degree.
He has been married to the former Meriqua Althea Dixon, of Christiana, Jamaica since 1987. God has blessed their union with seven children.
BCNN1 WP 