NL 405: God Provides Manna

image: Germany, 15th century - Nüremberg Bible- Manna Falling from Heavenhttps://clevelandart.org/art/1928.764, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

October 10, 2021

Exodus 16:1-18

Initial Thoughts

Bible Study

  • v. 1 - Leaving Elim

    • Elim was an Oasis of water, food and rest in the wilderness.

    • They left Egypt 45 days-2 months ago

    • In the wilderness, “The prophets Hosea (2:16–20; 11:1; 13:4) and Jeremiah (2:1–3) regard the sojourn as a time of singular blessing, the veritable honeymoon of YHWH’s marriage to Israel.” Steagald, T. R. (2009). “Theological Perspective on Exodus 16:2–4, 9–15.” Feasting on the Word: Year B Vol. 3, p. 290.

  • People Complain

  • Reject Moses and Aaron

    • The people complain against their leaders, not against God

      • They wish God has killed them in Egypt and blame Moses for bringing them out

      • They forgot who brought them up out of the land of Egypt- not Moses or Aaron, but God.

    • “It would have been better” (echoes Jonah 4:1-3)

    • Selective memory - we wish we were back in Egypt

    • How quickly they have forgotten their groaning under the Egyptians

    • It is easier to doubt than to trust

    • The people do not doubt more than once about each thing (Egyptians, Water, Good Water, Food)

  • God Provides

    • Raining of blessing (contrast with the 7th Plague - raining of hail Exodus 9:13-35)

      • More ordinary than extraordinary:

        • A type of plant lice punctures the fruit of the tamarisk tree and excretes a substance from this juice, a yellowish-white flake or ball. During the warmth of the day it disintegrates, but it congeals when it is cold. It has a sweet taste. Rich in carbohydrates and sugar, it is still gathered by natives, who bake it into a kind of bread (and call it manna). The food decays quickly and attracts ants. Regarding the quails (see Num. 11:31–32), migratory birds flying in from Africa or blown in from the Mediterranean are often exhausted enough to be caught by hand.” “Fretheim, T. E. (1991). Interpretation: Exodus (p. 182). Louisville, KY: John Knox Press.

        • Fretheim goes on to point out the importance of looking for God in the natural ordinariness of the everyday. While we can experience God on the mountaintop, God is also present in the natural blessings which surround us everyday

          • This can have wonderful eco-justice implications - God is not one who works only in the supernatural or extraordinary, but also in the everyday ordinary beauty of creation which surrounds us.

    • God’s response

      • “I am about to rain down” - “This promise of divine benefaction may have a double edge because previou uses of this verb, mamtir, have been associated with God’s showering destruction on humanity - in the Flood story, the Sodom story, and the Plagues narrative.” (Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, The Five Books of Moses, p. 279)

        • God “rains down” bread. Using the same terminology that we may use in war. Bombs “rain down” on cities. Brings to mind the Berlin Airlift, when bomber planes were used to “rain down” food on the city of Berlin.

      • God always provides- each time, no matter how often the people complain or misunderstand, God still provides

      • In providing - there is no question of deserve- everything is a gift

      • God is not a capitalist, there is no working on the Sabbath, there is no storing up riches, there are no manna-rich and manna-poor

    • Points to God

      • Saving from the Egyptians, providing water, purifying water, providing manna by day and quails by night - all point to who God is

      • “Cannot live by bread alone” Deut. 8:3

  •  Dependence on God

    • “By this point, in the second month of the departure from Egypt, the supply of unleavened bread… may well have been exhausted. Commentators have puzzled over the nostalgia for meat because the Israelites have taken large flocks with them. Perhaps, as a people whose principal wealth is their flocks, they are loath to make heavy inroads into their livestock for the purpose of food on the journey. In any case, there seems to be a note of panic in the claim that they are on the point of death from starvation.” (Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, The Five Books of Moses, p. 279)

    • The Israelites are utterly dependent on God and they don’t like it

    • Perhaps one of the problems with the Church today is that we forgot to be dependent on God

    • We are so separated from many things we take for granted: electricity, clean water, clean air, food - we forget the gifts they are and the many people that make them possible.

    • Are we still content with our “daily bread”?

  • Deborah Block: People complain - God Hears - God Responds-People Respond

    • How are we responding to God’s gift?

Thoughts and Questions

  • How do we balance pride/ self esteem with God’s generosity? All that we have is a gift from God- does that leave room for pride?

  • Why is it so hard to think of all that we have from our 401K to our toaster ovens as being a gift from God? Where does this notion of “what I deserve” come from?

  • Are we still content with our “daily bread”?

  • How can we reorient ourselves and others to see God already blessing us with natural miracles around us?

  • There are a lot of connections to the Lord’s Prayer - “Give us this day our daily bread” which can also be translated - “Give us the bread needed for this day”. In other words we are given what we need-but not any more than that. What does it mean to embrace the concept of enough and  limit ourselves?

Year 4Eric FistlerExodusComment