"And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.
"And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.
"Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years." (Deut. 8:2-4)
God knows our every need, what we need and when we need it. For forty years He provided the Israelites with the necessities of life, from food and water to clothing which was preserved during all their time in the wilderness. None of us could imagine wearing the same clothes for forty years but the Israelites did. As they entered the promised land which 'flowed with milk and honey', the dynamics of God's miraculous care immediately changed; manna ceased to grace the earth and as other options became available the Israelites were no longer totally dependent on God. Able to now take care of themselves, all that was asked of them was to remember what He had done for them when they could not do for themselves. A good lesson for anyone's books; the Lord will not abandon us in our time of need and He will not disable us in our time of plenty by unnecessary indulgence. The following is a story of a 'modern day manna' that illustrates this point related by Hyrum M. Smith:
"I was raised in San Bernardino....during the Depression. I was taught a marvelous lesson in faith when I was about nine years old. We were living in what could best be described as a converted chicken coop. We owned a piece of ground that bordered a very busy highway. On one occasion our father called us together and said: 'I have been impressed that we should spend a day fasting and praying to see if the Lord can't direct us in a path that will help us have enough money to build a home' (as told by Gerald Quinn).
His father had a job and all that job paid during the Depression was enough for food and clothing for a family and that was all. At the end of this day of fasting, Bro. Quinn approached his children again. Remember Gerald Quinn at this point was about nine. And he said, 'I have been impressed that if we will go out in front of our house on this busy street, that we'll be able to find enough change dropped from passing motorists to feed our family. Then I can take the money I get at work, buy the materials for the house and we can build the house ourselves'. Sister Quinn was very supportive and she said, 'If that's what you think is right, we'll do it'.
Gerald and his young sister were assigned the task of going out and searching the highway. The next morning they went out and spent about 45 minutes walking up and down this highway about 600 yards on either side of the house. They came back with 75c that they had found. Those of you that remember the Depression, 75c was a lot of money. It bought food for the day.The next day they went out and did the same thing and brought back about $1.23. This was nickles, dimes and pennies. Brother and sisters, this went on for four years. Every day they would come back with anywhere from 25c to $1.50 in change.
Brother Quinn did exactly what he committed to the Lord he would do; took his money from work, bought the materials and they built a home. It was not a palatial place, but it was home. Gerald Quinn said, 'I'll never forget the day we finished the home. We had a ceremonial burning of the chicken coop out back. Mom fixed a really neat meal and we all had just kind of a special day'.
He said, 'the next day, because it had become our habit, my sister and I went out to the street to collect our 'daily manna'. We spent an hour and didn't find one penny. We came back to the house frantic, approached our mother and said, 'Mother, there is no money out there today'.
Mom sat them down and taught them a powerful lesson and said, 'you didn't expect there to be any money today, did you?' And Gerry not really understanding this whole process said, 'well, it's been there for four years, why not today?' And then his gracious mother said, 'because we don't need it anymore. And there won't be any money anymore. The Lord provided that while we were building our home. Our home is completed. There won't be any money anymore'.
Gerry Quinn had to prove that. For the next three weeks he went out every day and never found another dime.
(From an audio recording by Hyrum M. Smith, "A Testimony of the Principles of Faith")
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