Marcia's Poem of the Week 3.03.2023

 Marcia's Poem of the Week 3-3-2023 

THE HARD TIMES Exodus 1-5; 17-18, 35

Exodus 16: 1 Then the whole community of Israel set out from Elim and journeyed into the wilderness of Sin, between Elim and Mount Sinai. They arrived there on the fifteenth day of the second month, one month after leaving the land of Egypt. 2 There, too, the whole community of Israel complained about Moses and Aaron. 3 “If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.” 4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they will gather food, and when they prepare it, there will be twice as much as usual.”

Exodus 16: 17 So the people of Israel did as they were told. Some gathered a lot, some only a little. 18 But when they measured it out, everyone had just enough. Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough. Each family had just what it needed.

Exodus 16: 35 So the people of Israel ate manna for forty years until they arrived at the land where they would settle. They ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.

Exodus 3:8 NLT: So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey—the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live.


THE HARD TIMES

After arriving in the wilderness alone,
Israel feared starving to death there,
Crushed was their spirit and life's goal,
Being scared and hungry was everywhere.

But the Lord promised them a new land,
Flowing with milk and honey and more,
And blessed them with everything grand,
As well, a thriving future with their Lord.

What's the promise you hope to see,
What causes doubt enough to complain,
What do you think the right should be,
And what do you hope to gain?

End doubt and let the Lord fill your hunger,
And gather manna on which you can depend,
And enjoy the texture of its humble flavor,
And share some with a needy friend.

The Lord's manna will keep on coming,
As He looks for your faith in Him,
As He rains down food from the heaven,
Until time for milk and honey again.

And the Lord promises you a new land,
Flowing with milk and honey and more,
And blessed are you with everything grand,
As well, a thriving future with your Lord.

Marcia Riehle 2023


Poem of the Week for my great grandsons: Jeremiah, Tobias and Elijah.

CHOCOLATE MANNA (YUM)

People like chocolate,
We may like it everyday,
But forty years of chocolate,
We too would start to pray.

How tired we would grow,
And complain to another,
Of how stuff grows old,
And how we want better.

Though, we have all we need,
God sends His manna down,
To satisfy hunger as decreed,
Giving abundance all around.

For God blessed them then,
And He blesses us today,
He wants us to trust in Him,
So He can show us His way.

GG 2023