A Lesson of Unselfishness
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
THE apostle Paul refers to the gathering of the manna, to enforce a lesson of unselfish giving. When he was pleading for a liberal collection for the poor saints, he wrote: “I mean not that other men be eased, and ye be burdened: but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality; as it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack.” 2 Cor. 8: 13-15; compare with Ex. 16: 16-18. Some in reading the words, “He that gathered much had nothing over; and he that gathered little had no lack,” have supposed that in some miraculous manner the manna shrank if one had gathered more than a certain quantity, and increased if he had not gathered enough; but the fact is that those who had more than they needed for the day9divided with those who had an insufficient quantity. There was the same condition that existed after Pentecost, when all the believers had all things common, and none laid up for the future. The lesson of the manna is not only that God gives us bread, but that he gives it to us as we need it. We can trust him to provide for our wants, even as little children trust their parents. The Lord feeds us from his own table, and naught of that which we have belongs to us. Therefore we are to consider that all of his children have the same right to the Lord’s table that we all have. If we find more “under our hand” than we need for the time, it is not to be hoarded up to spoil, but passed on to be used while it is fresh. So as we live by faith in the “God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all,” he will give day by day our daily bread, supplying all our need according to his riches in glory, and his kingdom will come, and his will be done in earth as it is in heaven.