Genesis 16
Manna from Heaven

In today’s Old Testament reading, we find the Hebrews, in spite of all that God had done for them, complaining about their food situation. They spoke with nostalgia of the “fleshpots” of Egypt and the abundance of food they had when they lived there. Apparently, all the hardships from which they were so anxious to escape, were now all forgotten. And, once again, they laid all the blame on Moses for bringing them to a place where they could only die of starvation.

A patient God heard their complaint and told Moses of his plan to rain down ‘bread’ from heaven on them every day. As a gift from God, the manna was said to come from the sky. It may, in fact, have been something similar to a natural substance still found in small quantities on the Sinai peninsula, but here it is, at least in part, clearly miraculous.

However, there were some rules to test their obedience to God’s law. Each day they were to pick just what they needed and no more; and, on the day before the Sabbath, they were to pick a double portion. Clearly, there was to be no gathering of manna on the Sabbath.

This message was passed on by Moses to Aaron who announced it to the people. The message was clearly understood by the Israelites and intended to put a stop to their grumbling.

Moses was told to tell the people that, from now on, in the evening they would have their fill of meat and in the morning their fill of ‘bread’. Sure enough, that evening a flock of quails came and covered the camp and, in the morning, they saw what looked like hoarfrost all over the ground. When they first saw it, they asked: “What is that?” and were told by Moses, “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.” ‘What is that?’ is represented in Hebrew as man hu and is taken to be the origin of the word ‘manna’.

God said this was to be a test for the people. How was it to be a test? The instructions were clear and unambiguous. Gather only as much as could be consumed in one day but on the 6th day enough for 2 days was to be gathered. Pretty simple. What could wrong? Well, for one thing, it did not take long for some smart person to suggest that if they picked enough Manna to last for several days, they could sleep in the next few days and have more time for dominos or just laying around in the shade.

Of course, they screwed it up. God, in response, made sure whatever food was left over at the end of day would became “wormy and stank” overnight except on the day enough was to be gathered to be consumed on the Sabbath. It was not “legal” of course to “work” on the Sabbath by collecting Manna.

What lesson is there for us to learn? God wanted the Hebrews to rely on his blessings every day. He would not permit them to turn their back on him by drifting away if they had plenty of food so he made sure they had to work for their daily bread every day. We should also realize that we need to rely on God’s blessing every day. It is not enough to worship and honor him on the Sabbath or on Tuesdays and alternating Thursdays. We need to renew our commitment to him every day because every day we don’t we drift further away from him and, before we know it happened, we become separated. This separation is where the sin of prideful self-reliance takes root. We don’t need manna every day to physically live but we do need God’s blessing every day to live spirituality.

Like the ancient Hebrews, we can fall prey to our grievances and to forget the wonderful blessings we have received in life, blessings which are showered down us every day.

Let us count our blessings today and say a big Thank You to our God and Lord.