SOLICITING MONEY FOR MINISTRY SERVICES IS NOT EVIDENCE OF TRUST
God is always testing his people to see what is in their hearts and learn whether they will obey his commandments or not. Essentially, God tests us to see if we will submit to religion or not. We find this principle in Jesus’ testing (i.e. temptation) in the wilderness where Jesus resists temptations to have kingdoms under his authority.
Deuteronomy 8:1-8 1 “All the commandment which I command you this day you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your clothing did not wear out upon you, and your foot did not swell, these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you. 6 So you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey,
COMMENTARY: Manna is spiritual food for spiritually hungry people. People who are materially and worldly minded desire the kind of physical food (symbolically represented as bread) the world provides. They also desire the food that the world calls spiritual but is in fact void of Godly, spiritual content. This fake spiritual food comes packaged in a deceptive wrapper that promises to deliver spiritual nutrition but is really only religious junk food that is detrimental to spiritual health.
The fathers of those who came out of Egypt did not know about spiritual manna. All they knew was the religious practices (i.e. bread) learned while in Egypt. They did not know that real spiritual bread comes only by listening to the voice of God — not the voices of religious false prophets.
Israel despised the spiritual food that God provided for them and wanted to go back to Egypt. God satisfied their desire for meat with an abundance that made them sick. He subsequently sent a plague because they were not satisfied with spiritual manna. Symbolically this means that because Israel preferred religion to listening to God’s voice, he gave them so much religion (i.e. meat) that it made them vomit.
People who really believe this scripture would not seek financial reward for ministry. The world deals in commerce where people pay money for worldly food of various kinds. Some worldly religious professionals promise to provide spiritual food if they receive payment for it. Both providers and consumers of spiritual food should avoid making payments of any kind in of the discipling process. They should be satisfied with the spiritual food and material food that God provides.
Deuteronomy 8:16:”In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end.
COMMENTARY: This says that learning to trust in God’s faithfulness to provide spiritual food is a test. Those who need material rewards for ministry fail the test. They think that the material rewards are their due payments for being in ministry. God will be faithful to provide whatever is necessary in terms of material needs, but connecting ministry with satisfaction of those needs is man’s idea — not God’s idea.
It is important to keep in mind that God’s daily provision of manna ended when Israel entered into the promised land. This signifies the fact that the wilderness is where people physically work for their spiritual food. This is Old/First Covenant religion. When they enter the Promised Land, however, they do not work anymore for spiritual food because God feeds them by his spirit.