Brent Horst
Exodus 16
Just listen to those Israelites! Here they are safe and no longer slaves to the Egyptians, but they complain and whine. There are many examples of this and Moses (and God to some degree) are often frustrated with their complaints. God love ‘em and lucky for them, God did! Still, it must have been tiring hearing all their complaints and the many times they showed their humanity and lack of faith.
To be fair, it’s easy for me to stand here today and call out their complaining. I know that I am blessed beyond belief and still have the nerve to forget Who is blessing me some days or worse yet maybe even complain a bit myself! I don’t really blame the Israelites and we are often much like them. It was at least six weeks since they left Egypt and I’m sure any food they took with them or were able to find along the way was long gone. I wouldn’t have wanted to be in their shoes. They were hungry, tired and upset – Hangry you might say!?!
As they complained to Moses about the lack of food, they even had the nerve to talk about it being better back in slavery!! So, Moses goes to God. God, as always, is there to answer their calls for whatever they need. In this case, food. God gave them meat in the form of quail in the evening but we’re going to focus on the manna this morning.
The best that scholars can figure, the name Manna comes from the Hebrew for “What is it?”. They asked for food, it falls from heaven and appears on the ground for them to gather and eat. Yet they wonder what is it? Well, now that is actually a pretty good question, and we’ll spend a bit of time considering that.
There are many aspects of this miracle of Manna from heaven that could be explored. It points to trusting in God for our physical needs. The Israelites were totally dependent on God and their leaders for 40 years. God provided them safety, water, meat and then this manna from heaven to keep them alive. Additionally, this physical food symbolized spiritual food from God. There is much to this story and many layers to explore.
The first thing I noticed is maybe the key to this whole Manna from Heaven miraculous story. It happened every day. Exodus 16 verse 21:
21 Each morning everyone gathered as much as they needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away.
This food from God truly had a best before date!! God set up the gathering of manna very intentionally and the daily aspect of it is foundational to its meaning and significance, both for the Israelites and for each one of us today.
Manna came from above each day, except for the Sabbath. This day of rest is an important theme from Creation to God’s covenant with us. Every working day, manna is available for the people to gather. God’s rules around the gathering of Manna ensures that each morning all the families were up early and out getting their food for the day. I believe that this is part of God’s plan for us and the world.
The Israelites got up every morning and gathered manna from God. It fed them and kept them alive, and it tasted quite good too. Exodus states that manna tasted like “wafers that had been made with honey.” Good thing since it was their daily bread for 40 years. In the account of Manna in Numbers chapter 11 it says:
7 The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin. 8 The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a hand mill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot or made it into loaves. And it tasted like something made with olive oil.”
If they didn’t gather it every day, they went hungry. If they were late in gathering, it disappeared in the sun. If they tried to save it up because they wanted to skip a day of gathering, it rotted, got wormy and they couldn’t eat it anyway. But if they spent the extra time to gather twice their share the day before the Sabbath, it didn’t rot, and they could still eat on their day of rest.
In the Lord’s Prayer we are told to pray “Give us this day our daily bread”. We are asked to trust God to provide us bread every day. We are asked by God to get up every day and be present in our world. We are asked to look to see where God is already at work and do our part in God’s will. If we do this, we will be fed and blessed. The many daily blessings we receive are the Manna from God. Thank you, God, for giving us our daily bread.
Some days it seems easy to forget about God. Especially when things are going well for us, we start to think we’re doing just fine on our own. We might not consciously ignore God, but we may not find time for God every day. We may not look for God every day. We might mistakenly think we can “fuel up” with God’s love once a week on Sunday and then we’re good for the week! That’s a rotten idea just like old Manna rots!
We need God. God wants us to look to God daily, to trust God in all things and to be God’s love to others, every day. Being a Christian is not a weekly attendance obligation, it is a daily walk with our God.
Micah 6:8 says:
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly[a] with your God.
A favourite song says,
“Just a closer walk with Thee, Grant it, Jesus, is my plea, Daily walking close to Thee, Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.”
Another song:
“Day by day, Day by day, Oh Dear Lord
Three things I pray
To see thee more clearly
Love thee more dearly
Follow thee more nearly, Day by day”
We can collect our Manna from God each day in many ways and other sermons and services have explored those. We can be in God’s nature, we can read God’s word, we can sing, we can meditate, we can pray, we can listen, we can walk, we can volunteer, we can work, we can play, we can go to school, we can be anywhere and do anything or maybe do nothing and God is there. God is dependable, God is consistent, and God is always with us. We just need to look, to take time to gather the manna of the day and to praise God for providing for us, for caring for us and for loving us. We can end each day thanking God for the Manna of the day, for the experiences of the day, for being with us each day and for loving us at the end of the day as much as the start of the day, no matter how the day was lived out. Day by Day, these things I pray.
The second thing that struck me in the Manna from heaven story is the call for obedience to God. God set a number of rules for this manna gathering. Daily of course, except not on the Sabbath but also time of day, amount to gather, who gathers it and when it is eaten. God set very precise rations for each person. An Omer each per day. I love that this ration is explained in the last verse. An Omer is 1/10th of an Ephah. Glad that’s cleared up! Actually, they tell us that an Omer is about 3.5 litres, so that’s a lot of manna over 40 years.
The point though is that the people cried out to God for food and God provided it. Not on a silver platter and not without some strings attached. We know God’s love is unconditional since we don’t deserve or earn God’s love but that doesn’t mean that God has no expectations for our behaviour!! We all love our children and grandchildren unconditionally but again we do expect certain behaviours. Similarly, we are asked to be obedient by our heavenly parent. Before God provided the people their Manna, God said to Moses that this will be a test of their trust and obedience.
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.
And there was a thread of equity in this story as well. They didn’t gather equal amounts, but they all had “enough”.
16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer[a] for each person you have in your tent.’”
17 The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 18 And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.
I like the tongue in cheek story about the man during a huge flood in his community. This man knew he was in serious trouble and prayed to God to save him. The police came to the man’s house and offered to evacuate him before the waters got too high. The man told them he’s staying because he has faith in God to save him. After the water levels kept rising, a boat came and asked the man to get into their boat to take him to safety. The man replied that he was fine because God will protect and save him. The boat moved on. Then as the man was trapped on his roof, a helicopter came and called down to the man to climb their rope ladder to fly him to dry land. Once again, the man refused, declaring his faith in God. Unfortunately, the man drowned and when he got to heaven, he asked God why God didn’t save him. God said, “I sent the police, the boat and the helicopter, but you refused to go with them!“
We need to do our part in God’s plan. We have God’s word to study. We have the example of Jesus to follow, and we have God’s Holy Spirit to guide us. We don’t always know how God works and we shouldn’t assume we know God’s will. Sometimes we just have to take steps ourselves that feel “right to the Spirit and to us”. Go, get in the boat or the helicopter and see where it takes you! To gather God’s Manna we need to obey.
I found this statement in my research but not sure who said it: “Sometimes we pray for things expecting God to move; when in reality, God is waiting on us to walk through a door God has already opened.”
Finally, Manna was more than food, more than just meeting the physical needs of the Israelites. As mentioned, it was a bit of test of obedience and a way to understand daily dependence on God. Manna also symbolizes the spiritual food that only God can provide. God can be mysterious at times. God is all-knowing but not everything God knows and sees is evident to us. We are children of God but don’t have the full vision of God.
1 Corinthians 13 ends with: 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears…. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
God provided Manna to the Israelites as they were hungry in the desert. God provides us with our daily bread. Our daily needs, physically but perhaps more importantly spiritually.
When God’s people couldn’t seem to get God’s full plan right, God sent his only Son to help show the way to God.
John 3:
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
We are to follow Jesus, the bread of Life, the one wholly divine and wholly human. When Jesus died and ascended to be with God, God sent the Holy Spirit so that God could continue to be our daily Manna.
God is Love. God’s love is available to all. We just need to get up each day, go out and gather it as obedient followers of Jesus, filled with God’s Spirit.
What are we commanded to do? Mark 12 asks,
“Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a
30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[b] 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[c] There is no commandment greater than these.”
God provides daily manna in the form of love, the example of Jesus and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. All we must do is Love God back with every part of our being and to love others.
The only question is whether we will obey and get up each day to collect that Manna, to accept that manna and to share it with others. The good thing about the story of those whining Israelites is that it shows how patient and loving their God, our God is. We so often walk right by the manna that God provides. God is patiently waiting for us to see and accept the manna that is offered us every day.
On May 28th Kevin Derksen preached an excellent sermon on experiencing the Holy Spirit. Check it out if you missed it. In a recent column in the Canadian Mennonite, Troy Watson also spoke about experiencing the Holy Spirit. Troy ended his column this way:
“I realize we all experience God’s presence in our own ways. We are awakened by, and to, the Spirit differently. Yet I struggle to understand why many Christians have no sense or awareness of the Divine around them or within them. Do us “weaker” Christians receive more tangible experiences of Divine Spirit because our faith needs it? I don’t have answers. What I have are questions.
Have you experienced the Spirit in some way, at some point in your life? Do you have an awareness of the Divine around you and within you? Have you asked for the gift of the Holy Spirit, to no avail? Is the Spirit real to you?
I invite you to share your stories with me.” End quote.
Troy asked people to send him their experiences, so I did. As I pondered where I had sensed God’s Holy Spirit in my own life, it was often in particular, intentional settings. Conferences whether that was the local Mennonite Church of Eastern Canada sessions, national events for Mennonite Church Canada or Mennonite World Conference in India in 1997. Also taking courses at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary or training for The Living in Faithful Evangelism process for this congregation many years ago. More recently at the Tending the Soul retreats over three years. As I thought about why these types of events brought me closer to God and more able to feel God’s Spirit, I think it was my intentionality, my expectations, and my openness. I intentionally participated in these events, sometimes even feeling called to be there. I expected to be blessed, to grow and to experience God, so I was open to new things, new ways to see and feel God and maybe most importantly I was focused. I was not distracted by daily tasks, work or whatever usually takes my attention. I was present and open to God.
We can’t attend these types of events every day unless we want to become a monk or a nun or maybe a pastor! And I have also experienced God in our worship services and other church events and at times in my daily living. Sometimes it’s spontaneous and unexpected but when we intentionally look for God, we can expect to see God at work. We can be open to new things that will bring us closer to God and God’s spirit. We can focus on God each day and see where God has dropped Manna for us to gather. I come to think of these holy times, these special connections to God, as Manna Moments. Moments when we see what God has provided us in as tangible and obvious way as Manna was to the Isrealites.
I chose “All who hunger, gather gladly” as a hymn of response this morning. I know it’s a communion song, but the words fit well.
“All who hunger, gather gladly. Holy manna is our bread. Come from wilderness and wand’ring; Here in truth we will be fed.”
Without manna (which I see as symbolic of God’s love, God’s Son, and God’s Spirit) we will not survive the spiritual wilderness. We were created by God to have a hunger for a relationship with God and to live in God’s will. That’s the hunger of the heart that Janet spoke of last week. We continue to be created by our encounters with God in our daily walk. Those Manna Moments of our day. One writer called this a Divine Diet.
We need Manna to fill our souls and we are blessed every day so we can be a blessing to others.
Manna is love. God is love. May that Love feed us, sustain us and guide us, day by day. May you experience many Manna Moments in your days and weeks ahead. To remind you to look for Manna Moments (MM for short), I want you to have an M and M or two along with your Rice Krispie square this morning. May it be a sweet reminder for you.
“Taste and see that God is good”.
Amen.