Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 26 · January 26
He Humbled Thee
“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.”
"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." That is Jesus in the wilderness, forty days without food, answering a suggestion about stones. He is quoting this verse, and he is quoting the second half of it.
Stay with the first half, and with one word in it. He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger. Humbled translates a Hebrew verb that has nothing to do with a modest self-assessment; it means to press down, to bring low, to afflict, and it is the same word used of what the Egyptian taskmasters did to Israel. Here the subject of the verb is God and the object is his own people, and the sentence does not apologise.
The purpose clause follows, and it is the only reason given: that he might make thee know. Not teach them, or remind them, or offer them the option. Make them know. There is a kind of knowledge that arrives no other way, forty years is what it cost, and the chapter says as much again further down: that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end. To do thee good. The humbling is given a destination before anyone can accuse God of enjoying the process.
Take the thing you have been treating purely as an obstacle, the one you have only ever prayed about as something to be removed. Write out what you would know about God if it stayed. Then go on praying for it to go, if you want to. Both prayers can be honest at once.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 26 is Your Keeper (Psalm 121:5).