From his study of the Old Testament, Paul realized that God takes care of His people’s needs. God is able to feed His people in a miraculous way. There were more than two million children of Israel in a barren wilderness, in a wasteland where nothing grows. The wilderness was not a place suitable for farming or ranching. But throughout a period of forty years, God fed His people by miraculously raining down manna from heaven. I do not believe that anyone can explain what manna was or where it came from. But it is a fact of history that God fed His people with manna in the wilderness for forty years. It certainly was a miracle that more than two million people could survive in the wilderness for such a long time.
Both the raining down of the manna and the application of the manna were miraculous. Paul refers to this in 2 Corinthians 8:15 where, quoting Exodus 16:18, he says, “He who gathered much had no excess, and he who gathered little had no lack.” According to Exodus 16:18, an omer was used to measure the manna. Both those who gathered much and those who gathered little eventually had an omer. This is God’s heavenly balancing of the manna gathered by His people. No matter how many omers certain ones may have gathered, after the manna was measured, the result was that miraculously there was an omer for every person (Exo. 16:16).
On the sixth day of the week, the children of Israel were allowed to gather a double portion of manna to provide a supply for the Sabbath. But on other days of the week, they were not allowed to gather more than what they needed for one day. Those who tried to save manna for the next day found that it bred worms. This indicates that it is not God’s principle for His people to save up something for themselves. To save in that way is to be motivated by greed.
No doubt, as Paul studied the Scriptures, the thoughts and concepts of the Scriptures entered into him, inspired him, and governed him. Eventually these thoughts motivated him to write chapters eight and nine of 2 Corinthians. In chapter eight he was encouraging even the poor saints to give to the needy ones in Judea. Because he had a deep knowledge of God’s economy, he had the courage to ask the saints to do this. In this chapter Paul seems to be saying, “You don’t need to consider your poverty. Simply give to take care of the needy ones. Actually, you do not take care of your own needs. Your heavenly Father is the One who supplies your needs. He supplies the manna, and in this way He takes care of you. I can assure you that you don’t need to worry about the future. Because your future is under the care of the Father, I encourage you to give to the needy ones. In a miraculous way, the Father will send manna.”
From the children of Israel’s experience of gathering manna in the wilderness, we learn that our income is actually a kind of manna. The supply of manna did not depend on the gathering by the children of Israel. On the contrary, it depended on God’s raining. If God had not sent down the manna, how could the children of Israel have gathered anything? Their gathering of manna was altogether dependent upon God’s raining of the manna. The principle is the same with your income. You may think that your income depends on your working or on your job. But who gave you that job? The job was provided by God. But if you think that you obtained that job through your ability or education, God may cause something to happen in your company so that you lose your job. Then you may realize that your income does not depend on your ability, but depends on God’s sovereignty. It is very important for us all to understand this. If we think that our income depends upon our education, ability, or skill, we are superficial and shortsighted.
By using the illustration of sowing and reaping in chapter nine, Paul shows that God also uses natural law to feed His people. Sowing and reaping are matters of natural law. To give is actually to sow. But where do we get the seed used in sowing? The seed is supplied by God. The source of seed is God Himself. According to 9:10, He bountifully supplies seed to the sower.
We should not think that just because we sow seed, we are sure to have a rich harvest. Rather, we need to pray, “Lord, I have sown the seed. But whether or not I have a good harvest depends on Your mercy.” The growth of the seed sown depends on God. If He changes the weather, what we have sown may not yield anything. As a result, we would not have any food. Therefore, we need to worship the Lord and say, “Lord, even if my supply seems to come from reaping, the food is actually given by You.”