Mt. Carmel UMC
Sept. 21, 2008

Exodus 16:2-15
16:2 The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.
16:3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
16:4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not.
16:5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.”
16:6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In the evening you shall know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
16:7 and in the morning you shall see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your complaining against the LORD. For what are we, that you complain against us?”
16:8 And Moses said, “When the LORD gives you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning, because the LORD has heard the complaining that you utter against him–what are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the LORD.”
16:9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, ‘Draw near to the LORD, for he has heard your complaining.’”
16:10 And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.
16:11 The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
16:12 “I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.’”
16:13 In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.
16:14 When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground.
16:15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.”

In this passage, the Hebrew slaves had been freed from the rule of Pharaoh, and were moving through the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land. But when we pick up the story, the Israelites are beginning to complain. Yes, we’re no longer slaves, but the food seems to be running short and we’re out here in the middle of nowhere. Maybe we were better off back in Egypt, where at least we had bread and meat. The slaves remembered sitting next to the “flesh pots” — which were big kettles that were used by the Egyptians to boil meat – and eating their fill.
Of course, the Bible doesn’t tell us that anyone was actually dying of hunger. I suspect that what the Israelites were worried about wasn’t anyone going hungry today – it was more that they were worried about where the food would come from tomorrow. They were living on the edge, from day to day, and it scared them.
There was a great old movie on Turner Classic Movies last weekend with Kirk Douglas and Robert Mitchum called “The Way West.” It was set during the frontier days, about a wagon train headed west on the Oregon Trail. Even though it was a work of fiction, set in an age thousands of years after the time of Moses, you could see some similarities between the two stories. Kirk Douglas’s character is kind of like Moses, and he had to keep urging people on despite the setbacks. There were times when the people despaired and didn’t think they were going to make it, and Kirk Douglas’s character had to rally them on and give them the vision again, and keep them from turning back or turning aside. In fact, even though the wagon train was headed for the Willamette Valley in Oregon, Kirk Douglas’s character kept referring to it as “the new Jerusalem.”
It’s easy for us to look down our noses at the Israelites in the wilderness. How stupid they were! After all, God sent the plagues and parted the Red Sea and did all of these amazing miracles, and the people were freed from slavery, and now here they are complaining again. But the fact of the matter is, just as the people in the movie complained, and the real-life people on the Oregon Trail probably complained, I imagine that you and I would probably have found something to complain about on our journey through the wilderness. The need to whine and moan and lose faith seems to be a part of our sinful nature.
But in this case, the Lord heard the people’s complaints, and he gives Moses a response. He tells the people that he’s going to give them a sign – a miraculous supply of food in the wilderness.
Various scientists and Bible scholars have tried, over the years, to speculate about some natural phenomenon which would have produced something like the manna described in the Bible. They have come up with a few possibilities, but no one is in complete agreement.
Tamarisk trees used to be found throughout the southern parts of the Sinai Peninsula, which is where this wilderness was located. Their resin is similar to wax, it melts in the sun, it’s sweet and aromatic like honey, and it has a dirty-yellow color, fitting somewhat with the biblical descriptions of manna. However, this resin is mostly sugar, so it wouldn’t have been nutritious enough to feed the people over large periods of time, and it would be very difficult for it to have been pressed into cakes, which is one of the ways that the Bible describes manna being used.
Some scholars think that manna might have been the crystallized honeydew of certain scale insects. In the environment of a desert, this kind of honeydew dries out very quickly, becoming a sticky solid, and later turning whitish, yellowish, or brownish; this kind of honeydew is considered a delicacy in the Middle East, and it’s a good source of carbohydrate.
Another widespread theory is that manna was made up of the bodies of certain lichens. Lichens are often used as a substitute for corn in the steppes of central Asia. Lichens are light, often drifting in the wind, and the particular kind they’re talking about has a yellow outer coat with white inside, somewhat matching the biblical description of manna. It would have taken additional drying, however, and it would not have tasted anything like honey.
Some scientists say that the characteristics of manna are similar to a particular type of mushroom which first appears as small fibres (called mycellium) which resemble hoarfrost. The trouble with this theory is that this type of mushroom is quite … psychedelic.
Whatever manna was, whether it was something known to modern science or whether it was created just for this occasion by God, it was a powerful symbol of God’s provision and protection of the Israelites on their journey. It was also a miraculous test of the Israelites’ obedience. The manna appeared every day – just enough for that day’s use – except on the day before the Sabbath, Friday morning, when there was twice as much. That way, the Israelites would not have to work gathering manna on the Sabbath.
The Israelites had been complaining about living hand to mouth, and day to day, and yet in some ways God’s response to their complaints is to continue this day-to-day existence. The manna could not be stored up (except for that extra day’s supply on Friday). You had to trust that God would send each day’s supply on the day it was needed. At factories, they call this “just-in-time management.”
We as human beings have a lot of different ideas about the way in which God provides for us.
Jimmy Stewart’s character in the movie “Shenandoah,” Charlie Anderson, isn’t a very religious man, but he gets pressured into saying grace over a meal. Here is the prayer he recites::
“Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it, sowed it, and harvest it. We cook the harvest. It wouldn’t be here and we wouldn’t be eating it if we hadn’t done it all ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you Lord just the same for the food we’re about to eat, Amen.”
Of course, Charlie Anderson was missing the point. It was God who provided the seeds, and the soil, and the water, and the sunshine, and the mechanics by which food is available and by which we can digest it.
We are meant to work for a living. We are meant to be good stewards of the resources that God has given us, and preserve them for future generations. But in the end, we can’t take credit for the result. Every mechanism by which we are supplied belongs to God, in one way or another. It may be something that we can explain and understand, or it may be something beyond explanation.
The ultimate lesson is that God is in control. Sometimes that’s a hard thing for us to accept. We want to be in control. The Lord’s Prayer says “give us this day our daily bread,” but we don’t want to take it one day at a time. If we don’t know where next week’s bread is coming from, or next month’s, or next year’s, we get nervous. We borrow trouble from the future, and we worry and we complain and we live in a fear that comes from lack of faith.
When I was in college, I had several albums by a Christian singer-songwriter named Keith Green. He died, tragically young, in a plane crash, along with several of his children. But during his life, he was a remarkable, unique personality. He got fed up with the Christian music industry and at one point he was giving his albums away for whatever the listener thought he could afford to pay. If you couldn’t send him a red cent, he would still send you an album. But if you could afford to send him a little extra, he’d use that to make up the difference. He trusted in God to provide, through the generosity of others.
The title cut from one of Keith Green’s most famous albums – which was also the first album he gave away after leaving his old record label — was a song called “So You Want To Go Back To Egypt.” It was sort of humorous – using funny voices and tongue-in-cheek lyrics, almost like a novelty song, a comedy song – but it had a serious message. The song was about the Children of Israel complaining in the wilderness. Let me read you some of the lyrics:
“So you wanna go back to Egypt
Where it’s warm and secure
Are sorry you bought the one way ticket
When you thought you were sure
You wanted to live in the land of promise
But now it’s getting so hard
Are you sorry you’re out here in the desert
Instead of your own back yard

Eating leeks and onions by the Nile
Ooh what breath for dining out in style
Ooh, my life’s on the skids
Building the pyramids

Well there’s nothing do but travel
And we sure travel a lot
‘Cause it’s hard to keep your feet from moving
When the sand gets so hot
And in the morning it’s manna hotcakes
We snack on manna all day
And we sure had a winner last night for dinner
Flaming manna souffle

Sometimes, even when God provides for us in miraculous ways, we find ways to complain about it. We don’t just want food, we want steak – or breakfast in bed, or what have you.
God has promised that he will be with us, that he will meet our needs, that he will not put more on us than we can bear. But – despite what you hear from some of the TV preachers – he didn’t promise that everything would be easy or convenient. God’s blessing isn’t measured in Rolexes and private jets. It’s measured in the little miracles that get us through the day, the little joys of discovery, the hug of a four-year-old child, a friendly hand on your shoulder from someone who believes in you.
It would be reckless for us not to make plans, not to try to be responsible, not to save money and work hard and try to provide for the future. God wants us to do these things. But the fact of the matter is, we don’t know what the future will hold. This week, with all of the news on Wall Street, a lot of people wondered if all of their planning and saving and hard work was for naught.
God wants us to live responsibly. I have made many mistakes in that regard, and I regret every one of them. But God also wants us to trust him, and to try to see his priorities for what constitutes a blessed life. Whether the stock market is up or down, whether we’re working or laid off, whether we’re the picture of health or in the grasp of a terrible, life-threatening disease, God is there. God gives us the grace and the courage and the strength to get through this day, and the next one, and the next one. And God tells us that there will be a Promised Land at the end of our journey.
The Psalmist recalled the story of the Israelites in the wilderness on his way to giving thanks to God for many blessings. I want to close with that Psalm of thanksgiving, in the hope that it will help all of us to recognize and be grateful for the ways that God provides for us:
Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45
105:1 O give thanks to the LORD, call on his name, make known his deeds among the peoples.
105:2 Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wonderful works.
105:3 Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.
105:4 Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually.
105:5 Remember the wonderful works he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he uttered,
105:6 O offspring of his servant Abraham, children of Jacob, his chosen ones.
105:37 Then he brought Israel out with silver and gold, and there was no one among their tribes who stumbled.
105:38 Egypt was glad when they departed, for dread of them had fallen upon it.
105:39 He spread a cloud for a covering, and fire to give light by night.
105:40 They asked, and he brought quails, and gave them food from heaven in abundance.
105:41 He opened the rock, and water gushed out; it flowed through the desert like a river.
105:42 For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham, his servant.
105:43 So he brought his people out with joy, his chosen ones with singing.
105:44 He gave them the lands of the nations, and they took possession of the wealth of the peoples,
105:45 that they might keep his statutes and observe his laws. Praise the LORD.