Ep. 32. Exodus 16 | Manna

EPISODE 32

MANNA: EXODUS 16

The story of Manna in the wilderness is one of the absolute most incredible images in the Bible. The people of God are in the wilderness outside Egypt, and God miraculously supplies them with daily bread from heaven. There are several important rules to follow. First, the manna is perishable. It melts away in the day's heat and rots if kept overnight. This was to ensure the Israelites trusted God for their daily bread. If you were to distrust God and keep manna overnight, you would find that it had a foul odor and had bred maggots. There was one exception to this rule. On the Sabbath, there would be no manna on the ground. The day before, you were allowed to gather a double portion, and that manna would stay fresh for two days rather than one.

In addition, God commanded Moses to tell Aaron to take some manna and put it in a gold jar to be kept "for all generations" to show how God had graciously provided for his people. This manna would last forever and never rot or spoil.

The people were to eat manna for the forty years they wandered in the wilderness. Only when they entered the Promised Land would the manna cease to appear. All of this was to test the people to see if they would obey God and trust him. He who gathered much didn't have too much, and he who gathered little didn't have too little because they shared all things in common.

Now, when we get to the New Testament, there are several beautiful things to draw out from the text. First of all, the gathering of manna is used by Paul to talk about how the church should give. Paul says, "I do not mean others should be eased, and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness, your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there be fairness. As it is written, 'Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.'" I was taught growing up that a Christian should give "until it hurts." Paul says something different in his teaching, "Give out of your abundance into the lack of someone else so that at a later time in your lack, someone else's abundance can meet your need." He quotes Exodus 16 to point out that we should care for one another and calls our attention back to manna. Regarding manna, what you had today in surplus wouldn't be viable for tomorrow, so share with your neighbor to meet their lack. Remember, the aim was to see if people would trust God for their provisions. Similarly, we ought to be generous with the abundance of our wealth today and pay it into the lack of our family in Christ. James mentions something similar to this concept in the fourth chapter of his book. Our lives are vapors, so be generous. And when we have lack, hopefully, the body of Christ will supply our needs from their abundance.

Second, and more significant, in John 6, the unbelieving Jews ask Jesus for a sign proving him to be the Messiah. They ask for him to supply manna as Moses did. Taking up this idea of manna, Jesus insists that he is "the bread of life that came down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die." Jesus refers to himself as manna. It is an interesting thing, considering the perishable nature of manna. But maybe we aren't thinking about it completely right. Not all manna was perishable. There was the manna kept in the presence of God as a sign for all time of what he had done in saving his people. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Jesus is in the presence of God for all time, bearing witness to the salvation he brought about.

Furthermore, we find in Revelation 2, "To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden (kept) manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it." In the last days, the overcomers, the people of faith, get to partake of the kept manna, not the perishable manna, but the manna that remains. Jesus is that which remains.

In this, we see another comparison between Law and Grace. The manna the people gathered day after day never endured. Similarly, we could never do enough work to make ourselves righteous. All our work and all our labor rots and spoils and fades away. But that manna God commanded be put aside remains forever. Christ remains. The work of God lasts. Our works are futile; the work of God is a finishing work. So we read about manna, and we turn our minds to generous giving to our fellow believers, the worthlessness of our works for righteousness, and the kept manna that is Jesus our savior.

ADDITIONAL READING: Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 2 Corinthians 8:1-15; Hebrews 9:4; John 6; Revelation 2:17; Joshua 5:12