Manna

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Good morning Chapel family. We are taking the summer of 2021 to walk through the book of Exodus. The word Exodus literally means “a way out.” And the last two weeks, we’ve seen a major turning point in the story, because after 430 years living as slaves in Egypt, God has made a way out. God raised up Moses; he parted the Red Sea; and the Israelite people are free. So picture these hundreds of thousands of people, standing on the other side of the Red Sea, carrying all their possessions with them…Now what?

If I had never read the book of Exodus before, here’s what I would expect: they would walk straight to the Promised Land. That would make sense, right? I mean, they’ve been through so much already; it seems like it’s time to draw the story to a close. Maybe one more chapter—possibly two—a nice little hike to their new homeland, and it would be a very happy ending. Wouldn’t that be nice? That’s not what happens. In fact, there are a lot of chapters left. Why? Well, because they’re not ready yet. They’ve lived all their lives as slaves, and they’ve developed some habits and some ways of thinking that God needs to work on. And that’s going to take some time.

You know what this means for us, right? We’ve been saying every week that the story of the Israelites is our story. So just like God was bringing them from here to there—from where they were to where he wanted them to be—God does the same thing in our lives: right now, God is working in you and around you to lead you to where you need to be. But just like with the Israelites, it’s not an instant process. It’s a journey. And along the way, God works on those habits and those ways of thinking that need to change. And you can look at that as a negative thing, like, “Oh, man—God keeps picking on me!” Or you can look at it as a privilege, like, “God cares enough about me to train me and develop me? This is amazing!”

So today we come to Exodus 16, which is the famous story of God providing manna in the desert. And through this event, God is teaching his people how to handle something that’s very human—something we can all relate to. He’s teaching them how to respond to their hunger.

Let me take a quick poll: how many of you have had something to eat already, today? Just put up your hand—you ate something. Most of us. How many of you will have something to eat after church? How many of you snuck food into church, and you’re secretly eating something right now? It’s probably safe to say that every one of us will eat multiple times throughout this day. And what happens if you don’t eat? If five or six or eight hours go by, and you don’t have any food? Your body starts to let you know it, right? Your blood sugar drops, and you get that combination of hungry and angry that’s called… everybody? Hangry. We are so dependent on food. And here’s what I’m saying: that experience of hunger can lead us to understand ourselves and understand God on a much deeper level.

So as we open up Exodus 16, the people of Israel are getting hungry, because they’re human. And God uses that moment to teach them something incredibly important. Exodus 16, starting in verse 1. I invite you now to hear the Word of God…

1 The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. 2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 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.” 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. 5 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.”

Verse 13: 13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 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. 16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer 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. 19 Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.” 20 However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.

Verse 31: 31 The people of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey. 32 Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the wilderness when I brought you out of Egypt.’”

And verse 35: 35 The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan. This is the Word of the Lord.

So through this event, God is teaching us three things. He’s teaching us about Our Physical Hunger, Our Deeper Hunger, and Our Deepest Hunger. Our physical hunger, our deeper hunger, and our deepest hunger.

So, first: Our Physical Hunger. This event takes place exactly a month after the departure from Egypt. So whatever supply of food they had carried with them when they left was used up. So despite the miraculous things they had experienced, that didn’t change the fact that they were human. And they got hungry. And their hunger turned into anger. So it says the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. And they started to reminisce about life back 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.” Now: is it possible they were romanticizing the past? Sure. I doubt the food in Egypt was that great. But the fact is, they didn’t starve to death back there. It seems like they had plenty to eat. So even though they didn’t miss the slavery, they missed the food. They needed food.

And here’s the thing: God was fully aware of that! God is the one who created humans with their need for food. So in response to their complaint, God speaks. He says to Moses I will rain down bread from heaven for you. And Moses probably thought, “I don’t really know what that means.” But the next morning, he understood. Because when the morning dew evaporated, it says there were these thin flakes like frost all over the ground. And when the Israelites saw it, they said, “Manna?” Which means, in Hebrew, “What is it?” Don’t you love that? For the next 40 years, nobody could think up a better name. They kept calling it “Manna.” What is this stuff? And maybe that always reminded them

how strange and supernatural God’s provision was. They couldn’t look at the ingredients label. They couldn’t say, “Oh, we understand how the moisture of the dew interacts with the minerals in the soil…” It defied human explanation, and I think that’s how God wanted it. “What is it?” God only knows—but it tastes good and most importantly, it satisfies our hunger.

So with this miraculous provision, God gave the people some guidelines—and these are really helpful for us as we think about our own hunger.

First, Personal Responsibility. God says, “The people are to go out each day and gather.” If you think about it, God didn’t have to do it that way. Right? I mean, if this is a miracle, why didn’t God just miraculously zap food into their stomachs while they slept at night? They wake up in the morning, “Wow—I’m full! That was delicious!” But God didn’t do it that way. He says, “You have to get up, and go out, and gather it.” Personal responsibility.

And all through Scripture, you see this value reiterated. In the Proverbs, it says hard work leads to success and having enough to eat. Proverbs chapter 6 points us to the example of ants, who diligently store up supplies during harvest so they have enough to eat during the winter. In the New Testament, Paul himself says, “I worked with my own hands to provide for my needs.” He says in 2 Thessalonians, “If anyone refuses to work, he shall not eat.”

This is really the origin of the famous Protestant Work Ethic. Because when people really read the Bible and take the Bible’s teachings seriously, they tend to become diligent, hardworking people. I just met a guy last week who runs a non-profit ministry in Paterson. And he said, “I grew up in a Dutch Christian home, and I learned you work five days a week, you volunteer one day, and you rest on the 7th.” And he said, “That thinking is so in my blood, I can’t shake it.” Not a bad habit to have.

So, yes—God provides it. But he says we’re responsible to go out and get what he provided. So allow your hunger to develop your sense of personal responsibility. And all the capitalists said, “Amen!” But don’t get too comfortable yet. As you’re going to see, God has a way of challenging our neat categories.

Here’s the second guideline: Daily Dependence. Why didn’t God provide a whole week’s worth of manna? It would have been much more efficient, right? They could have just gathered it all up, stored it in Tupperware, and they’d be set for the week. Lots of leftovers. But what does God say? “I want you to go out every day (except on the Sabbath), and gather just enough for that day.” Some people just couldn’t seem to follow that rule. They said, “Let me just get a little extra for tomorrow.” And when they opened up the leftovers the next day, what’d they find? Worms. Maggots. Spoiled.

Why did God set it up that way? Because he was teaching them daily dependence: moment-by-moment reliance on Him. Remember how Jesus taught us to pray? “Give us this day our daily bread.” Not even “this week!” This day. Because God knows us! He knows the human heart drifts toward self-sufficiency—especially when we have too much. And he wants to develop in us a real-time, daily dependence on him. Like Jesus said in that same passage, “Your Father knows what you need—so keep asking him every day. Don’t worry about tomorrow. Trust God for today.” Daily dependence.

Third guideline: Communal Sharing. When the people went out to collect the manna, some of them were young and healthy and could cover a lot of ground; some people were older and slower and had a hard time stooping down to pick it up. Some people could carry a day’s worth of manna for their whole family easily; other people struggled to do that. So apparently they came back to some central location, and they measured it out by the omer—which was a day’s worth of food. And God said,

“Make sure those who gathered a lot don’t have too much; and make sure those who gathered little don’t have too little.” In other words, “Watch out for each other. This is not just about you.”

So this is where God takes that good, Protestant work ethic, and he says, “Okay, but make sure that doesn’t become self-indulgence. Make sure it doesn’t become materialism. Make sure your success doesn’t come at the expense of the weaker members of your community. You’re all in this together.”

It’s interesting: when you keep reading the Old Testament, and you look at the laws that God gives his people, you can see this same value showing up. For example, God says, “When you get into the land, and you’re harvesting your fields, don’t harvest everything. Leave some grain on the edges and the corners.” Why? So needy people can come and glean in your fields—“gleaning” was when poor people would follow behind the harvesters and pick up what they had left behind. Well, those people should get a real job! Maybe some of them should. But God was saying that for some people, in some seasons, for a variety of reasons, it’s hard to get a “real job.” So those who have more should show love and compassion and generosity to those who have less. Because we’re all in this together.

So, how do we respond to the physical hunger that we feel as humans? Let your hunger make you a person of personal responsibility—let it drive you to go out and get what God provides. Let it make you a person of daily dependence on God: your hunger shows up every day, so trust God to fill you every day. And let it make you a person of communal sharing—realizing that you’re surrounded by other hungry people, and some of them are in tough circumstances, so gladly sharing what you have with them. This is how our physical hunger can make us better and wiser and more godly people.

And if the message stopped right there, it would be worthwhile! But it doesn’t stop there. Because I am so convinced this whole manna event is also pointing us to Our Deeper Hunger. Something deeper than just the physical. Why would I say that? Am I over-spiritualizing? I don’t think so. Years later, just before Moses died, he reflected back on this time. Listen to what he said to the people—this is Deuteronomy 8:2. Moses said 2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Isn’t that interesting? He says, “Yes, of course the manna filled your stomach and kept you physically alive, but it was also teaching you that in a deeper sense, you have a need that can only be filled by a different kind of bread: the Word of God.”

Remember when Jesus was fasting, and he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness? And Satan said, “If you’re really the Son of God, why don’t you turn this stone into bread? (in other words, “Go ahead and satisfy your physical hunger!”) Remember how Jesus responded? By quoting this same verse—from Deuteronomy. He says, “It is written, ‘man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.’” Somehow, the Word of God has a similar effect on our heart that physical food does on our bodies. Somehow, it can fill us in ways that physical food can’t.

So here’s the invitation—here’s the teaching of the manna: learn to feast on the Word of God. And as you do, the same three guidelines apply. Remember what they were? Personal responsibility, daily dependence, and communal sharing. The same things that guide our physical hunger apply to our deeper hunger.

So first, learn to feast on God’s Word with Personal Responsibility. Just like the Israelites had to go out and get what God had provided, it’s the same thing with his Word. You say, “I didn’t get fed in church today.” Okay. But only babies have to be always spoon fed by other people. Go out and get it! Learn to feed yourself. Carve out 20 minutes in the morning—this is a choice you can make. Read a short

passage of Scripture; and here’s the key: learn to turn that truth into bread. Chew on it; taste it; digest it. That’s how you go and collect the manna. It takes some effort.

Let me give you an example. One morning I was at a place where I was worried about a few things. I was feeling anxious and fearful. And that morning, I happened to read Psalm 112, which talks about people who deeply trust God. And here’s what it says: They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the LORD. And that verse so jumped out at me, that I wrote it on a little piece of paper. And through the day, I just chewed on it, and thought about it. And I thought, “Okay—this doesn’t promise me that I won’t get any bad news. But it says if I’m trusting God, I won’t be living in fear of it—I won’t always be bracing for bad news and dreading bad news. Because when I’m looking at God rightly, He’s going to make my heart settled and rooted and strong. I don’t have to let the uncertainties of the future rob me today.” And I just chewed on that all day long…and it became sweet to me. It became manna for me.

You know what we do sometimes? We take a quick bit of God’s Word, and we spit it out. Right? Grab a quick verse on the way out the door, and quickly forget it. I’ve done that a lot, and it doesn’t do much good. So decide to take personal responsibility and feast on the Word. It’s so worth the time.

Secondly, feast on the Word with Daily Dependence. Don’t try to live today off of last year’s spiritual insights. Does that make sense? Sometimes our spiritual development is frozen in time, because we’re not discovering anything new from the Word of God. We’re just regurgitating the same stuff over and over. “Oh—I remember that thing I learned back in college!” Okay—but how about this week? Come to God fresh every day—and of course you’ll skip a few days; you won’t be perfect—but come to him regularly, and you will keep discovering new things. Lamentations 3 says his mercies are new every morning. New stuff! Pray the prayer of Psalm 119, verse 18: Open my eyes, that I may see wonderful things in your law. Daily dependence.

And then, third, feast on the Word with Communal Sharing. Yes, I just told you to carve out time in the morning to meet with God alone. But don’t do just that. Because just like with the Israelites, it’s not every man and woman for themselves. We grow and get fed in the context of relationships. Leaning on other people. We need to spend time and share meals and get together in small groups with people and talk about what this Scripture means, and what in the world did Pastor Dave mean when he said this thing in the sermon, and argue about it, and pray about it, and talk about what it means to live it out that day. That’s community.

Let me show you a picture. This is from last Saturday morning. It’s me with some friends from our Chapel family. My small group is taking a break for the summer, so this was a new experiment. We gathered in the parking lot of a local hiking trail, we read a passage of Scripture together, and then we spent the next hour and a half just hiking the trails and talking about the Scripture. It was really rich. It was a little bit challenging when you were in the front of the line and someone was talking from the back, but when we got to the summit, which was a spectacular view, we read the same Scripture again, and we talked about it on the way down. Chewing on it…reflecting on it…digesting it. I gained insights on the passage that I never would have come up with on my own. So other people shared their manna with me. It was great. What an awesome way to spend a Saturday morning.

So Moses says, “Listen: God gave you the manna to teach you that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God.” So let your physical hunger remind you that you also have a deeper hunger, and learn to satisfy that hunger with the Word of God.

And if the message ended now, it would be worthwhile. But I have to give you one more point—and not just because I like three points. We’ve talked about our physical hunger and our deeper hunger;

we have to talk about Our Deepest Hunger. Did you know there’s one main place in the Gospels where Jesus talks about the manna? Listen to this—starting in John 6:32…

32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, 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. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

The deepest hunger—the most satisfying bread—is the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ. He is the one—whether you know it or not—he is the one your soul hungers for. So you can fill your stomach with physical bread, and still be empty. You can even fill your mind with the Word of God—you can memorize a thousand Bible verses—and still be empty. Just ask the Pharisees. Because the human heart needs more than information. We are built for a relationship with the eternal God, and we find that relationship in Jesus Christ.

So let your physical hunger point you to your soul hunger, and let your soul hunger lead you to Christ.

Years ago, a friend of ours came to visit. And when it was time for her to leave, she needed a ride to the airport. This was way before Uber. And she said, “Oh, by the way, I’m flying out of LaGuardia. That’s not too far, is it?” Don’t you love that—people who aren’t from here? “I looked at the map—it’s not far.” “Oh, you have no idea.” This was about 20 years ago—before the days of GPS. So I printed directions off of Mapquest—remember that? Like a caveman. And we got in the car, and I still don’t know how this happened, but we wound up smack in the middle of Manhattan. And I’m not geography expert, but that didn’t feel right. So I saw a New York police officer, and I said, “Can you tell me how to get to Laguardia?” And I still remember her response. She said, “LaGuardia?” I said, “I know. Can you tell me how to get there?” So she started telling me what streets to turn on, and what bridge to cross, and what exits to take… She gave me all the right information. But you know what I would have loved? If that police officer would have gotten into the car. I would have paid her $200. Just get in the car, and guide us. Step by step; turn by turn; just lead us to LaGuardia. I’ll make it well worth your while. But of course she didn’t do that. And it took us a painfully long time to get to the airport. By the way, we don’t have that friend anymore. Ever since that day.

See—the officer gave us the information! She gave us truth! But what we really needed was her.

Sometimes, when we’re in the desert between here and there, and we’re feeling lost, we think all we need is the right information. So we go to a counselor or we read certain books or we take notes from sermons. And that’s all good! It’s all valuable! But what we need most deeply is Jesus. So it’s not, “Hey God—just give me all the manna I need, and I won’t bother you anymore. I’ll be good.” It’s, “God, I’m going to keep coming to you every day—every moment. And through your written word, I’m going to go deeper in my relationship with the Living Word—the living Bread of Life. And I’m going to learn from experience what it means that Jesus is alive and with me. I’m going to experience this Jesus who walks with me and holds my hand and guides me through the desert.

That hunger you feel in your soul, that nothing else seems to satisfy—that is your heart crying out for Jesus Christ. So come to him; walk with him; let him fill you. He’s the true manna your soul needs.