September 28, 2011

Manna – Exodus 16

And Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.” Exodus 16:15

It defied everything they had ever understood. It came with the dew and melted with the sun, yet they could successfully bake and boil it. Six days a week it would spoil overnight. On the Sabbath it stayed fresh for two days. Somehow there was always enough for everyone. It was a bright white, and tasted like wafers with honey. They called it manna, the Hebrew word for “What?” Although they did not realize it at the time, it was to be their primary source of nourishment for forty years.

The children of Israel were two and a half months into their journey. Apparently whatever supplies they had carried with them were now depleted, and they had just entered into the Wilderness of Sin where there was nothing to gather for food. Hunger can make you lose your spirituality pretty quickly. So they began to complain to Moses and Aaron, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

From their perspective, it was about living vs. dying. God, however, saw it all very differently. His word to Moses was this: “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.” Ah. A test. Funny, isn’t it, how we don’t realize these when they come? And why can’t God give us our tests when we’re not so hungry?

But the Lord wanted to teach these people (and us) an extremely important lesson. Moses figured it out right away. After explaining God’s plan to the congregation, he adds this point. “The Lord hears your complaints which you make against Him. And what are we? Your complaints are not against us but against the Lord.” Our leaders (as Paul would later explain in Romans 13) are merely God’s ministers to us, His hand to do good or to punish. When we complain to them, God hears it—and takes it personally.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’”

You see, when all the details are stripped away, that’s the goal of every test. God wants us to know that He and He alone is the Lord our God. His will and His authority stand above everything else. He made the manna behave differently on the Sabbath because He wanted them to understand that His law (which had decreed the seventh day to be sacred) transcended the laws of their logic (which expected the manna to behave the same way every day of the week).

As I pondered this passage, I began to realize that I too am presently in a wilderness, taking a somewhat similar test. Mine is far less dramatic than a living vs. dying situation, but the principles are the same. For all my life since I was a child, I have been provided with the “meat” of something I have to do. After the constant requirements of school and college, there was a steady regimen of jobs, and then (for decades) the assignment of raising a family. I was content to be very, very busy. It gave me a sense of stability and order and significance.

Now, for reasons I can only partially grasp, God has me in “pause” mode. I have good things to do here and there, but there is no “grand plan” that I can yet see. My human logic would suggest that I should try to make something happen—perhaps seriously look for a job or volunteer for some worthwhile organization. My flesh hints that it’s my time to begin to reward myself with some recreational pleasures. But my spirit has quietly guided me to the understanding that neither of these are what God wishes for me.

So the story of manna has today become a comfort to me. My complaint (which, like all complaints, is against God) has been heard by Him. And what He would show me is that I will be given—and truthfully, I am being given—daily, supernatural provision of both things to do and a purpose for life. Rather than finding my identity and worth and even my security in some larger ongoing role or task, I now can awaken each morning to find and gather the “dew” of duties He has miraculously prepared only for this specific day.


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