Exodus 16: 2-16 Pentecost 11 – B
Rev. Charles F. Degner August 24, 2003
Are you familiar with this picture? [An old man bowed in prayer over a piece of bread and a bowl of soup.] You will find it hanging in many Christian homes as a reminder to be thankful for our daily bread. There is a story behind this picture. I cannot verify how accurate the story is, but this is how it was told to me. In a town in northern Minnesota, an old, homeless man knocked on the door of the home of a struggling artist and begged for food to eat. The man was about to sit down to a simple lunch of soup and bread. He invited the old man into share what he had. As he was getting something from the refrigerator, he turned back and saw the old man bow his head in prayer and thanksgiving. This picture of simple contentment and thanksgiving was frozen in his mind, and he painted what he saw.
Can you imagine being homeless, having no money in your pocket, no roasts in the freezer, no canned goods in the pantry, and no way to earn enough money to provide your most basic need, which is food? Can you imagine living off the charity of others, not worrying about what you will eat tomorrow, but trusting that somehow there will be food to eat?
Well, we’ve just described the situation for about two million people in our text who were traveling through the desert to their new home. What do you do when you can’t go to the store, you can’t stop long enough to plant a garden, and there are lots of hungry mouths to feed? I wish I could say the people prayed to God, but they grumbled to Moses instead. Yet God in his goodness and love provided for them for the next forty years. Every evening, quail came into the camp to give them meat. Every morning, there was something lying on the ground that could be boiled or baked or fried and used for food. “What is it?” the children of Israel asked. In Hebrew, the question is “man hu,” where the daily bread of Israel got its name. Manna. We can learned something from the manna God put on the table for the families of Israel, and from the manna that God puts on our tables every day.
Manna – What is it?
I. It is the food on our tables
We can sympathize with the families of Israel in our text. They had plundered the Egyptians when they left Egypt and carried the wealth of Egypt with them. The problem is that there is only so much you can carry. When we pack into the Boundary Waters, it’s not easy to carry the food you need for even four days with all the stuff you need to prepare it as well. How long did that food last? It was forty-five days since they left Egypt, and they were out of food. Even the gold they plundered from Egypt didn’t do they any good. There were no stores in the wilderness. What would it have been like to be a mother or father with children to feed, and no way to feed them?
We can sympathize with the families of Israel in their desperate situation, but we cannot excuse them for their behavior. "In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death." They made it sound pretty nice in Egypt, didn’t they? Did they forget the beatings and the hard labor in the brickyards? Did they forget how many children were thrown into the Nile River and drowned by Pharaoh’s soldiers? But instead of simply praying to God to meet their need, they grumbled.
Friends, I would like to believe that we have no reason at all to grumble or complain about our situation in life. We live in huge houses. We eat the best foods that the world market can provide us. We have heat for the winter and air conditioning in the summer. Most of us could live for weeks and months with what we have frozen in our freezers or stored in our shelves.
Unfortunately, prosperity isn’t a cure for grumbling, is it? Grumbling is what we do when we stand in front of a closet full of clothes and say, “I have nothing to wear!” Grumbling is sitting down to a wholesome dinner of Mac and Cheese and saying, “Why don’t’ we have pizza more often?” Grumbling is looking at the bills and complaining about how much it costs to feed a family, or to pay the dentist, or to go to the doctor.
Parents, just imagine for a moment that you’ve taken your children on an end of summer trip to Valley Fair. You rode rides all day. You ate all that expensive, greasy food. You really wondered if you could afford it, but you just wanted to give your kids an end of the summer treat. And then, all the way home, you heard, “But dad, we didn’t get to ride on the big monster roller coaster. We could have stayed a little longer. The line was only a mile long. What’s going to Valley Fair if you can’t ride the monster roller coaster!” If you listened to that for forty-five minutes, would that hurt your ears? It is the same with us and our heavenly Father. When we grumble that what he gives us isn’t enough, or that it isn’t good enough, it hurts his ears. It offends his holiness.
How did God react to their grumbling? “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. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days." God’s answer to their grumbling was that he provided for their daily bread on that day, and on every day for the next forty years, even when they grumbled! How good and forgiving the Lord is!
Luther said in his explanation to the First Article. “All this he does only because he is my good and merciful Father in heaven, and not because I have earned or deserved it.” Every time we put food in our mouths, we should remember that God loves us for Jesus’ sake and does not treat us as our sins deserve. Every time we put our shirt on or tie our shoes, we should thank him not only for our clothes, but for not listening to our grumbling and complaining.
So why did God only give them what they need for each day, one day at a time?
II. It is a test from God
Why do teachers give tests? The simple answer would be to find out whether or not a student has studied and learned what needed to be learned. God said he was giving the children of Israel a test by giving them manna every morning. “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. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days." Was the LORD testing the children of Israel to find out if they had learned their lesson? God doesn’t have to give tests to find out what is in our hearts. God KNOWS what’s in our hearts. God will never give us more than we can handle.
There is another reason why teachers give tests. In fact, it’s the main reason I give tests to children in my confirmation class. The most important reason I give a test to my students is to help them learn more. By testing their knowledge, they can find out for themselves if they have learned everything. When they have an answer wrong, I don’t just mark it wrong. I put in the correct answer. We always go through the test in class and review each question so that everyone has a chance to look at their answers more carefully. Tests are learning experiences.
In this way, God tested the children of Israel. Every day they went out and picked up just enough for that day. If they tried to pick up enough for several days, it would rot in the bin. Except on Friday. Friday they could pick up enough for that day and the Sabbath Day, and the manna would keep over an extra day so that they would not have to labor on the Sabbath Day. So every day was a test. Every day, they went to bed at night without a bit of bread in the house. There were no stores, no marketplaces, no gardens. There was only God’s storehouse – manna in the morning and quail in the evening.
Dear friends, isn’t every day a test for us as well? God has promised us that he will provide for us; he will send his angels to watch over us; he will make everything work out for our good. Do we pass the test when we let our sixteen year old drive to Mankato by himself for the first time? Do we pass the test when our employer lays us off and there is no job in sight? Do we pass the test when three weeks of heat and dry weather devastate the crops in the field when we were expecting a bumper harvest?
Why do we doubt? We have no reason. God has proved himself faithful. For forty years in the wilderness, the bread truck came every morning and the meat delivery arrived every night. For fifty two years of my life, I can say with David, “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.” (Psalm 37.22) And if anything happens in my life where I might be tempted to question God’s faithfulness, then I will turn to what Paul wrote in Romans 8: 32: “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” How could God not watch over those whom he has made his own dear children through the blood of his own Son? How could God not provide for those who are heirs together of eternal life with his one and only Son?
Learn from those little tests that God gives you every day. God has not and will never fail you.
III. It is a sign of God’s grace
So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, "In the evening you will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of Egypt, and in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?" Moses also said, "You will know that it was the LORD when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the LORD." Then Moses told Aaron, "Say to the entire Israelite community, ’Come before the LORD, for he has heard your grumbling.’" While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the LORD appearing in the cloud. The LORD said to Moses, "I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ’At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.’" That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, "It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat."
I want you to notice how often the name LORD in capital letters was used in these verses. That’s that special name of God in the Old Testament. It is his covenant name. It is the name the rings clearly that our God is a God of free and faithful grace. Why was the manna a “sign” of God’s free and faithful grace?
First, because they didn’t deserve it. The LORD says, “I heard your grumbling, and this is what I am going to do.” Instead of punishing them, he provided for them. Instead of forsaking them and leaving them to their own devices to provide for themselves, he gave them a daily reminder that he was close to them, always watching over them. He even showed his presence visibly to them in the cloud of glory that hovered over the camp. God’s grace to us – like the manna in the wilderness – is totally free.
It is also faithful. Think of it. For forty years, God didn’t miss a morning when the dew lifted from the grass and there was bread on the ground. There were no crop failures when God provided. There were no missed days. Can you picture the morning routine in the camp of Israel? Two million people scattered over the desert before breakfast and went about the task of picking up their food for the day! What a marvelous sign of God’s faithfulness!
Have you ever thought that it would be so easy to believe if you were one of those Israelites in the wilderness? Wow! What evidence of God’s grace and presence! Every day you picked up you food on the ground, from God’s hand to yours. Every day you hunted quail with a stick that came into the camp and sat at the ground by your tent. You got to see God’s glory in the cloud, hovering over the camp. How could you not believe when you had God so close to you?
But dear friends, we have more than our daily bread to convince us that God is gracious and faithful to us. We have Jesus. What did Jesus say in our gospel lesson today? "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." "Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread." Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." The bread on our table is a sign that God is good and merciful to us. But even if we should go hungry, we still have Jesus. We have the bread of life, and we are satisfied for this life and for eternity.
