Get a Jar

God works in mysterious ways, to be sure, but He also has a process that is ultimately for our good.  We may not think so at the time, but once we slow down and think about how He has carried us so beautifully in the past, trusting Him should for the future should be a piece of cake.

Or should I say, "a piece of manna"?

We talked about God's provision in the previous blog.  God isn't just interested in having His children eat, as crucial as that is. He is providing His children with an identity based on Him, not on Pharaoh.  

Pharaoh gave them food, but it was to keep them strong as slaves to build his monuments. God gives  them food, but it is to keep them strong in believing that God is sufficient in every aspect of their lives, as His children.  

Jesus later will use the idea of manna to make an analogy.  It illustrates who He is, and how His body, broken for those who call upon His name, will nourish them spiritually, and prove that God is sufficient for every aspect of their lives, as His followers.  

So, let's explore the idea of manna for a bit.  

First of all, it's from God. The people didn't have to grow crops, mill the seed and use the flour to create it. In fact, this bread not only comes from heaven, it's God's response to their grumbling:  

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.'" (Ex. 16:8-9)

Did you catch that?  God didn't show up because the people bowed their hearts in prayer and asked Him to provide.  He could have been furious with them, to the point of abandoning this "Let's Build Children Out of These Slaves" project, but He didn't.  (If anyone says that the God in the Hebrew Scriptures is cruel or vengeful, you might want to point out, and this is one of many examples, where God could have abandoned or struck down the Israelites, but He did not.) 

Then, when Aaron is telling the community what God is going to do, He shows up and tells Aaron how and what He is providing for the Israelites: 

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.'"(Ex. 16:10-12)

God shows up even in the midst of our grumbling, discontentment and downright unbelief:  "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom. 5:8)

Yes, He is the God of overwhelming holiness, but He is equally a God of love.  Jesus showed us this very majesty and very intimacy on the Mount of Transfiguration.  He revealed His glory: bright, radiant and overwhelming.  But this glory then disappeared as quickly as it came, and Jesus was right back to being the humble rabbi from Nazareth, talking to His disciples. 

Then God makes a promise to the people via Moses that He will provide their nourishment. They can't.  Why?  There is nothing that the desert can provide to sustain the people.  Only God's provision, and not some pitiful rendition of it by human beings, must come from heaven alone. 

This is analogous to works. The world, like the desert, cannot provide what we need to sustain us.  We can try to gather worldly rituals, ideas, and organizational structures to further our walk, but they cannot nourish our hearts, because they were never meant to.  God alone does that.  Even if the world could provide some kind of deep soulful fulfillment, it wouldn't last, because the world and everything in it is temporary.  Only God and His Word last forever: 

The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of our God endures forever. (Is. 40:8)

Only a holy God can provide the spiritual manna as embodied in His Son, to satisfy the sacrifice that God requires for sin, with Christ's blood cleansing our hearts. Jesus showed us how paltry works are, for it was only the cross that satisfied God. 

Our works are like using Monopoly money to pay our bills.

The manna comes down from heaven, and the people are flummoxed by it: 

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. (Rom. 16:13-15)

Hence, the "what is it?" is where the word "manna" comes from.  Jesus, too, as the Bread from Heaven, made people wonder who He was and what He was all about.  

Moses is very specific as to what the people must do to get the manna:

 Moses said to them, "It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. 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.'''

The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 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.

Then Moses said to them, "No one is to keep any of it until morning." (Ex. 16:15-19)

If God provides, His rules are to be followed. We don't add to them, subtract them, or reframe them in ways that make sense to us. Even Paul, a man of seemingly infinite patience, becomes very concerned when the Galatians started adding works to God's provision of Jesus Christ, and not accepting that He  alone is enough.  He reminded them that no works are to be added to Jesus' death on the cross. 

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? So also Abraham "believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (Gal. 3: 1-6)

Notice what happens when the people gather more manna than they are instructed to, when they go beyond the omer's worth: 

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. (Ex. 16:20)

Works stink.  Adding to the Christ's death on the cross corrupts its efficacy, and fills it with spiritual maggots, which you could argue is a more graphic way of saying, "pride."  Pride stinks to high heaven, because we take God's all-sufficient work on the cross and try to add our own ____________ to make it, what?  More understandable?  More culturally relevant?  More appealing? 

James makes it clear that works do not save us, but are the evidence God is working in us:  

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? (James 2:14-20)

We don't add to the cross; we testify to the cross. 

Of course, because the Sabbath is to be kept holy by the people, they are not to gather any manna.  But some do, and surprise, surprise, it rots. (Ex. 16: 24-30)

Finally, one last comment.  I found this interesting: 

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.’”

So Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar and put an omer of manna in it. Then place it before the Lord to be kept for the generations to come.”

As the Lord commanded Moses, Aaron put the manna with the tablets of the covenant law, so that it might be preserved. 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. (Ex. 16: 32-35)

The cross is an everlasting memorial to how God sent His only begotten Son to die for us.  Communion is where we remember that sacrifice, how Jesus's body was broken and His blood was shed to save us.  He used bread at the Passover and I cannot help think that it was to be a memorial analogous to the manna saved in the jar.  His body, broken for sin, is shown in the bread to remind us of what He did.  The manna in the jar likewise reminded the people of God's provision in the wilderness, and how they never went hungry.

When we have Christ, we do not go hungry.

The manna went hand in hand with the old covenant, and the Bread of Life went hand in hand with the new covenant. Thus, Jesus' words, "Do this in remembrance of Me" echoes deeply from the desert.