Manna

Exodus 16:13-36

Previously, expecting to be led to a land of milk and honey, the Israelites found themselves in the desert with no water. They complain to Moses and Moses prays to God, and God reveals a solution to Moses by turning bitter water into sweet, as well as finding them a place to rest with twelve springs.

Now they find themselves with no food, and they again complain to Moses, declaring that in Egypt they were slaves, but they had food to eat. The LORD declares that He will bring meat to them in the evening and bread in the morning, and He wants the people to know that it is He that is causing this.

It happens just as the LORD declared – Many quail appear to them in the evening, and in the morning, they find manna on the ground.

Just like when they lacked water, hunger was a real issue, and the people were not complaining just for the sake of complaining, so, again, the LORD does not bring any judgement against them.

The parallel between the plagues of Egypt and the blessings of Israel continues. Earlier, for Egypt, water became undrinkable, but for the Israelites, bitter water became sweet. And now, although it rained hail on Egypt, it rains food on Israel.

Manna has some curious nature to it. Regardless of how good of a collector one is, when what was collected is measured, it all comes out to be one omer, which was the amount the LORD had determined sufficient to sustain one person. Human nature being what it is, there were undoubtedly those who thought this as unfair – Especially those who were willing to put in more effort or more time or both in collecting manna. But for those who could not compete with some of the stronger younger collectors, it was probably seen as grace from God.

Another feature was that manna would not keep overnight. If someone wanted to get a head start and collect more than a day’s worth, they found that in the morning it had bred worms and became foul.

The exception to this was on the day before the sabbath. On the sixth day, the people were to collect two days’ worth, since there would be no manna to collect on the sabbath. And when left overnight on the sixth day, the people found that the manna was still good to eat. God made this happen so that the people could rest from collecting on the sabbath.

Verse 35 gives us a preview of what will happen – That Israel will end up eating manna for forty years, until they enter the promised land.

It is also interesting to note that a jar of manna was one of the three items that were placed inside the ark of the covenant, along with the second set of stone tablets with God’s handwritten Ten Commandments and the staff of Aaron that miraculously budded.

Let us look more at the “unfair” nature of manna. No matter what effort one put into collecting manna each morning ended in the same amount for each person. A young and strong person gathering at maximum effort ends up gathering the same amount as an elderly person with bad hips and knees that barely seems to be gathering. On the surface, this seems unfair, especially to the ones with the greater capacity to gather.

A typical question someone asks about salvation is about two types of people – One who devotes her whole adult life to help others and to make things better for this world, but just could not believe in Christ, and a second person who lives a terrible life, hurting and killing others and ends up in prison but comes to accept Christ as his savior and Lord. Is it fair that the “good” person will not receive salvation, but the bad person does? I used to ask this type of question before becoming a Christian, and I have also been asked this sort of question after I became a Christian by people who are seeking.  And from a human point of view, it does appear to be “unfair”.

However, we must realize that salvation is not reached by working towards it. It is a gift, just like manna was a gift from God. God knew that until the Israelites were able to eat off of the land in the promised land, they needed to be sustained by manna. He made sure that regardless of one’s physical condition or abilities, that each person could gather the exact amount of manna necessary to sustain life. In the same way we cannot earn salvation by working. Anyone, regardless of the lives they have lived or the physical condition they are in, can gain salvation by simply accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Another thing to keep in mind is how important God sees that we all get rest. Without rest, we cannot refresh ourselves. Without rest, we cannot continue to work well, either in our secular work or for the LORD.

Although salvation is a gift and there is nothing we can do to earn it, once we are saved, then we have Kingdom work to do. Now that the great gift of salvation has been given to us, we should be filled with appreciation and be willing to do the good works that God has assigned to us.

God was teaching the Israelites to depend on Him daily. Whether through more natural means like the quail, or miraculous like manna, God had the power and the will to sustain them. Jesus also promised us a similar thing in Matthew 6:25-34 – That if we seek first the kingdom of God, then God will provide to us daily what we require to live. And we need to keep in mind that God has the power and the will to keep his promises.

(The above is a summary of the message shared by Shun Takano during our worship on July 28, 2024.)