The Sabbath - Worthless Manna?

by Kenneth Westby, BSA First Vice President

To complain is to be human. Long lines, cold french fries, bad weather, high prices, and rotten traffic are a few of the things that I instinctively complain about. Occasionally, I find myself among a chorus of fellow complainers crowing about the same things, apparently drawing comfort from shared dissatisfaction.

If my life were threatened by sickness, starvation, or an attacking enemy, none of these petty complaints would likely come to mind. Cold French fries to a starving man would be an indescribable, lifesaving treat. Would we complain about a gift of free food that keeps us from starving in the desert? This makes the manna/murmuring episodes of our forefathers the more striking.

Recall how the newly freed slaves of the Exodus were quick to complain to their benefactor - God. One would expect these ex-slaves to be appreciative of every gesture their deliverer made. Some were, but it appears a large number were not.

Old Testament scholar Brevard S. Childs notes: "In the books of Exodus and Numbers the murmuring traditions occupy a large portion in describing the complaints, rebellions and unbelief of the people in the face of the threats from hunger, thirst and attack. The gracious gifts of God of food, drink and protection are all turned to dust."

God's Gifts Turned To Dust!

What was wrong with these people? How could they complain about a gracious gift of God like manna. What were their choices? Where was the Wilderness Supermarket? How could they take this miracle bread for granted? God even made it taste good - something like honey wafers or butter cakes.

Not all were so stupid. This food evoked great wonder in and praise from the faithful. The Psalmist describes the manna as bread of angels from the heavenly granary - divine ambrosia fit for gods.

"He rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven. Men ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat."

But a loud, complaining element of rabble within Israel rejected "this worthless manna" and craved the diet of melons, meat and garlic like they enjoyed in the good old days as slaves in Egypt.

"But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!" (Numbers 11:6)

Manna, was it ambrosia or appetite-ruining worthless food? Surely everyone could see the value of fresh food in the desert. How could manna be viewed as anything but a marvelous gift from God? How could people view the same thing so differently? How could the people be so divided over what clearly was a blessing from God?

The Sabbath Manna Crisis

Some of us see the Sabbath as a divine gift from God that sustains and promotes a relationship with Him and our fellowman. Others see the same day as a dinosaur relic from an ugly past - a day of freedom-robbing restraints and legalistic burdens. Some see it as ambrosia, while others view it a worthless thing to be ignored or forgotten. Again, how can people be so divided over what clearly was and is a blessing from God?

In fact, it was the Sabbath which prompted the first manna crisis in Israel. God precisely laid out the food schedule and rules: daily manna delivery, gather what is needed for that day only, and don't try to store it. Naturally, people gathered more than they needed and attempted to hold it over until the next day - apparently not confident God would provide tomorrow's daily bread. However, this miraculous bread from heaven would not allow its owners to use it beyond the day of delivery: if saved, it quickly rotted and began to smell. It was as if manna possessed an intrinsic timing device that couldn't be boiled or baked out of it.

Yet when Friday arrived God added one more important instruction concerning manna. "Tomorrow is to be a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning." Numbers 11:8 indicates that manna was hard, like grain and could be milled and used in a variety of ways. It should be noted that manna wasn't Israel's only food. They had small amounts of meat and some milk from their flocks and probably some grain from planting or trading. Manna was the daily staple. But as we'll see, Israel wanted more meat than their herds could supply.

So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it. "Eat it today," Moses said, "because today is a Sabbath to the Lord. You will not find any of it on the ground today. Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any."

Now here it comes, true to form... "Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none. Then the Lord said to Moses, 'How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions? Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he give you bread for two days' So the people rested on the seventh day. (Exodus 16:23-30).

"Bear In Mind" Two Great Gifts

Did you notice what Yahweh told the people (via Moses) to "bear in mind"? "The Lord has given you the Sabbath." God is drawing a relationship between two of his great gifts - manna and the Sabbath. The Sabbath was to take precedence over the need to spend hours out on the desert floor gathering little grains of manna. God knows people have to eat, but He knows better that they need to rest and to learn from Him the purpose of life. This was not an either/or situation. The Sabbath, after all, was a feast day. So God provided both food and rest - His way.

The test wasn't over whether to eat or to keep the Sabbath. It was whether to simply take God at His word and trust Him enough to obey Him. God would then provide a double manna portion on Friday and give them Saturday off for worship and rest.

In order for His people to enjoy His Sabbath gift, God had to perform another miracle with the manna. That imbedded timer which made it rot and stink after 24 hours was programmed to ignore that parameter set for Friday deliveries only. Consider that. Additionally, the angels who send the manna are instructed to drop a double portion on Friday in order for the nation to enjoy a restful Sabbath. Fathom God's elaborate Sabbath preparations!

This was no minor event, but a major episode featured prominently in the Torah . Consider how God marshaled the heavenly host and the physical elements to provide a way for his people to keep the Sabbath - and still be nourished by grain grown in heaven. Utterly amazing! God graciously gave His people two gifts - the Sabbath and manna - and He was determined they would enjoyed both. Can we ever doubt God's willingness and ability to involve Himself in all the details necessary for us to obey Him?

Manna Becomes "That Worthless Bread"

A year after the "bread from heaven" (Exodus 16:4) began falling, the people were tired of it, as we read at the beginning of this article. The initial source of complaint was the "rabble": that group which followed along but didn't know God or his mercies. Their complaints incited those who knew better than to take up a rebellion against the diet God provided. All that God had done to liberate the nation from slavery sunk into the shadows and on center stage was this dreadful, monotonous, appetite-ruining bread. Who cared if it rotted or came in double portions in preparation of the Sabbath! Diet now defined their lives and people were getting more worked up by the day:

"Moses heard the people of every family wailing, each at the entrance to his tent," (Numbers 11:10). Wailing!? Israel's rejection of their heavenly bread and their demand for a changed diet pushed Moses to the breaking point. The fomenting complainers had successfully romanticized the pleasures of Egyptian cucumber salads and effectively minimized the discomforts and misery of slavery.

"We were better off in Egypt!" they cried (vs. 18). God was angry. Moses, disgusted and at wits end, was throwing in the towel, saying to God,"put me to death right now..." (vs 15). As it turned out, God put the complainers to death.

Again I ask, how could such a crisis erupt over a gracious gift of God? Didn't these unfaithful, ungrateful people realize that when they rejected the manna, they were rejecting the God who gave it?

The Deeper Meaning

I'm struck with the several similarities between manna and the Sabbath. Both came as divinely created "miracles," the Sabbath when God created the world, and manna when God created a nation. Both picture deliverance and salvation. Both point to Christ who is the "bread of life" and "Lord of the Sabbath," the way to life and rest in the Paradise Kingdom of God.

When Christ walked through the grain fields on the Sabbath his disciples ate and fellowshipped with their master. When criticized, he justified his actions by David's eating of the "consecrated bread" that symbolized God's provision of daily bread, like the manna. It was on that occasion that he declared himself Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:23-28).

The deeper meaning of the manna episodes was not lost on Moses. To the new generation about to enter the land of promise, Moses reviews the highlights of the forty years of wandering that tested the hearts of God's people. "He humbled you causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers 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. (Deuteronomy 8:3).

This manna was a new thing God did. A surprise with no precedent. It behaved "strangely." It "kept the Sabbath," even if the people did not. It responded to its maker. To enjoy it the people had to follow God's words regarding its harvesting and handling. Following God's words proved key to having enough to eat. Living by, trusting, and believing God's words proved the only path to the promised land.

Manna, like bread, sustains but does not guarantee life-even though it comes from heaven. God had a greater point to make with manna - a fundamental truth - that life comes from God, from His obeyed words, imparting life to those who follow Him. Jesus, like Moses, understood the profound spiritual meaning of the manna. At His great temptation, when hunger threatened His life, the devil challenged Him to do as Israel did: give in to His food cravings, forget trusting His Father, demand food now, command the desert stones to become bread. Do it now...Eat!

How did Jesus, in the grip of starvation, respond to this overwhelming temptation? He gives as His answer the words of Moses concerning the lesson of the manna. "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" (Matthew 4:4).

Manna here becomes the Word of God. At that very moment Jesus was living God's words by loving His Father with all His heart (Deuteronomy 6:5): a single-hearted trust that God would sustain Him - and God did. After the battle was over and Christ was victorious, angels were sent to feed Him and attend to His health and needs. He too received manna from heaven in the wilderness.

Later, during His ministry, Christ would perform many "food miracles" to demonstrate that He was like the manna that saved Israel in the desert. He had compassion upon the crowds that often followed Him to remote places. He would feed them by miracles of multiplying a little into a lot - a new thing never before done. New manna miracles. Christ revealed the profound spiritual meaning they contained by declaring: "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty." (John 6:45).

The Manna That Is and Is Not

As a reminder to Israel of God's daily food, Moses had some of the manna put in a jar and kept in the ark. The ark is long lost and we can assume the manna is too; no matter - there is no present power in either. Three-and-a-half millennia ago, manna was a life-giving gift from God that many in Israel treated with contempt, calling it "that worthless manna." They choked on the meat they craved, never entering the land of promise.

The manna of Moses' day no longer is. An eternal manna sustains us today: the Son of God, the living bread of life - the Word. Living by every word of God was and remains the only Way to life.

That other gift of God, the Sabbath, unlike manna, was not lost in history, but continues its weekly cycle. It is time: it doesn't spoil and can't be put in a jar and saved. Yet, it passes and can be wasted.

Still, the Sabbath comes fresh again every week, open to be enjoyed with God or ignored as common. Like manna, it too contains a great and profound lesson - a fundamental truth: God is the Creator and Deliverer (Exodus 20:11; Deuteronomy 5:15) - our ultimate calling is to be at rest and in fellowship with Him. The Sabbath pictures that future rest as the Kingdom of God.

Jesus confirmed the Sabbath was made for man (Hebrew, adham). It was made when man was made and was the first holy thing, a gift from God to man, with love. The Second Adam, Christ, has declared Himself Lord of the Sabbath. Through Christ the Sabbath becomes our day of rest and a symbol of His promised Kingdom. He calls, "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).

It disturbs me that many people regard the Sabbath as undesirable, like our faithless forefathers did of the manna. I believe they disrespect a gracious gift of God - rich in meaning and abundant in benefits. They deprive themselves. Perhaps we in the BSA can help those folks change their view. Isn't that why the BSA exists? Would that please our leader, the Bread of Life and the Lord of the Sabbath?

TSS

March - April 2000 The Sabbath Sentinel