Living On One Day's Rations
Sermon
LIVING ON ONE DAY'S RATIONS
First Lesson Sermons For Sundays After Pentecost
Preparing for an outdoor adventure of hiking, camping, mountain climbing, or canoeing includes planning how the food supply is to be managed. This will require deciding how much food is needed in order to last the entire trip. It's critically important to know how much food can be carried in a back pack or stashed in a canoe. Of course the food supply for a camping venture may be much less difficult to plan, if there just happens to be a grocery store within easy traveling distance of the campsite! However, careful planning for a hiking expedition over the many miles of the Appalachian Trail may require figuring how packages of food can be shipped to certain pickup points along the route. Can you imagine an experienced hiker, camper, mountain climber, or canoe paddler being satisfied with whatever food supply arrangements had been set up for the Israelites out in the wilderness headed on their way from Egypt back toward their home country?
Nearly two months had passed since the Israelites had left Egypt, they had completely run out of food, and they had absolutely no idea where the next meal was coming from. The Israelites complained bitterly to Moses and Aaron, "If only we had died by the hand of God in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the kettles full of meat and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger" (Exodus 16:3). But God's response to the moaning and groaning of the Israelites was not to have an angel or a helicopter fly in with a big supply of food guaranteed to last several days until the next scheduled drop--off. No, God's response was simply to provide one day's rations one day at a time!
God told Moses that each day there would be just enough food provided to last for one day, while on the sixth day there would be enough food for two days. The arrangement for the sixth day made it possible for the people to have enough food to make it through the holy sabbath when there would be no gathering of food allowed. The daily ration would include a fresh supply of meat in the evening and a fresh supply of manna or "bread from heaven" in the morning. The meat consisted of small birds, quails that flew into the Israelites' camp. These quails were on their regular migratory route northward, and migration for these little birds was an exhausting trip done in separate stages giving the quails a chance to stop and rest. When these small birds stopped at the Israelites' camp, they were so exhausted that it was very easy to catch them and gather them off the ground.1
The manna or the "bread from heaven" has been described and explained two different ways. A longstanding traditional explanation has been that the manna was a sticky substance produced by the tamarisk bush. However, a scientific study has led to the conclusion that what was called manna is actually a liquid honeydew substance released by two types of insects which thrive on the sap they extract from certain plants. This sap is rich in carbohydrates but low in nitrogen content, and so the insects must consume a large amount of sap in order to get enough nitrogen needed to maintain the insects' body metabolism. The extra sap is released by the insects as a liquid honeydew substance which quickly changes in the dry desert air into drops of sticky solids that accumulate on the ground with a gritty, chrystallized texture. This "bread from heaven" has been collected from the ground since ancient times and referred to as "manna." The Israelites learned very quickly that manna could not be stored indefinitely, because it would spoil very quickly and attract worms. This is one reason why, according to Old Testament tradition, the Israelites had to be content with living on one day's rations one day at a time, with the one exception that God provided an extra supply of manna to last through the sabbath day.2
The familiar request in the prayer of our Savior, "Give us this day our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11), probably has some historic roots in Israel's understanding that one day's supply of bread and meat, available only one day at a time, was completely sufficient to guarantee the Israelites' survival in the wilderness.3 God wanted to give the Israelites only one day's supply of food each day as a way to test their willingness to become totally dependent upon God and to put their complete trust in God's faithfulness. God said to Moses, "In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not" (Exodus 16:4b). So when we pray in the prayer of our Savior, "Give us this day our daily bread," we are indicating our complete trust in God's faithfulness to take care of our bread and butter survival needs just one day at a time.
But the idea of one day's rations one day at a time may not go over very well today. It has been said that our prosperous society is afflicted with a "social disease" known as "Affluenza,"4 the insatiable, greedy, self--centered desire to make our affluent way of life one big shopping spree for every luxury and convenience possible - digital cameras no longer requiring film to take pictures, the computer's Internet advantages of online banking, stock market trades, or online catalog purchases. It's not enough for a car simply to drive you where you want to go. Now automobiles can be loaded with all kinds of electronic controls for giving travel directions for the route you wish to follow or setting each passenger's individual air temperature comfort level. The wish list for greater luxury and greater convenience goes on and on and on. Some economics experts have said that there are simply not enough available resources in the world that can be redistributed so that the residents of the poverty--stricken areas of the world could ever be elevated to our own superabundant standard of living. Now this may be a hard piece of bread for us to chew on or swallow, but the prayer "Give us this day our daily bread" could come to mean this: "O God, let the world's prosperous people become willing to lower their standard of living and become content to live on just what is absolutely necessary to thrive and survive each day, so that extra resources can then be reallocated to the world's poverty--stricken people whose daily rations are far less than even the bare minimum of what is required for anyone to thrive and survive." After all, the prayer "Give us this day our daily bread" refers not just to you and me. "Give us this day" refers to all God's children as "us," including especially those children of God who have to scrounge each day through garbage dumps to find the huge heaps of food wasted and thrown away by restaurants, cruise ships, school cafeterias, and all the rest of us.
We might wonder just how satisfied the Israelites were with the daily rations provided by God. When the Israelites saw the manna on the ground, they were puzzled and wondered what it was. The Israelites asked the question "What is it?" which, translated into Hebrew, is to ask the question Man hu? According to ancient tradition, this question Man hu? explains how the Hebrew name "manna" was given to the "bread from heaven" that appeared on the ground each day, so strange and so unfamiliar in its appearance the Israelites asked themselves, "Man hu? What is it?" And so the word "manna" eventually became a well--known metaphor in the Bible and in Christian tradition referring to the blessings of God's grace and providence as "manna" or "bread from heaven."5
We know that the Israelites had been a group of unhappy campers out in the wilderness, and unhappy campers often are picky eaters not easily satisfied with what is served on the dinner table. Anyone who has ever been in charge of a group of kids at summer camp knows that the favorite indoor sport in the dining hall is complaining about the food in one way or another. When the Israelites saw the unfamiliar manna, really weird--looking stuff, lying on the ground, the Israelites asked, "What is it?" Likewise, when young campers in the dining hall take just one look at something unfamiliar the cook has served up which in no way resembles anything in Mom's kitchen back home, immediately there is the disgusted look and the horrified question, "What is that?" Any cool drink made from Kool--Aid or some other powdered drink source has often been given the name "bug juice" by a young camper crowd of dining hall gourmet critics. So perhaps the Israelites' children as typical picky eaters said to each other, "What is that?" when they saw this really weird--looking bread from heaven. And who knows what kind of colorful, yukky name for this food these finicky kids may have come up with, especially if this manna came from "bug juice" actually produced by bugs! Although a lot of freeze--dried or dehydrated food prepared for camping expeditions is really very tasty and very flavorful, many adults, nevertheless, have unpleasant memories of various kinds of field rations served in outdoor situations. Many a veteran of the armed services has said after discharge and return home, "Don't ever serve up any of that miserable tasting stuff! I had my fill of that in the military!" Grown--ups, as well as children, have been heard to complain if the "same old thing" is served up again and again at the dinner table! So we might well wonder whether the Israelites out in the wilderness continued to be a bunch of unhappy campers, especially if every meal day after day after day featured the same old thing - roasted bird and sticky bread.
Moses and Aaron made it very clear to the Israelites that all their moaning and groaning was not really directed against Moses and Aaron. No, the Israelites needed to realize that it was God who was the target of the people's complaints. During the Israelites' journey through the wilderness, the presence of God was made known to the Israelites in the form of a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Very soon after the Israelites have made their loud complaints to Moses and Aaron, the radiant glory of God then appears like sunlight breaking through a cloud as a fiery, glowing indicator that God is definitely near at hand. After the Israelites have seen this powerful evidence of God's presence, God speaks to Moses and says, "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 your God, the God who is truly in charge of your life' " (Exodus 16:12).
Moses and Aaron had tried again and again to get the Israelites to realize that their unhappy camper complaints reflected a lack of trust in God's ability to provide what truly was needed in order to thrive and survive. One of the symptoms of the societal disease of "Affluenza" may be the symptom of complaining like unhappy campers whenever our affluent existence has its kinks and its quirks. We live in an affluent age when our technology is expected to speed things up for our convenience. But we all fuss and fume about that slow--as--molasses traffic light that always gets stuck on red forever during our usual travel route from home to the office. The telephone becomes especially irritating when a recorded message says, "If you want a statement of your account, press one. If you want to order a new product, press two," and finally, after several more options, if you really want to speak to a live body instead of a frustrating machine, "press zero." It really doesn't take very much in an affluent society for even the petty inconveniences and the minor irritations of an imperfect world to become absolutely intolerable. Whenever our justifiable and yet trivial complaints about the flaws of our technology begin to get the best of us, we very easily become unhappy campers who have lost touch with the God who watches over us at all times to make sure that our real survival needs are being met.
There are times God has absolutely nothing new to say to us in answer to our prayers. Instead God often says, "My grace is sufficient for all your daily needs." The verse of a familiar hymn says very clearly what God may want to say to us if we really are so aware of our biggest bellyaches that we have completely forgotten our biggest blessings: "How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word! What more can he say than to you he hath said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?"6 What more could God say to the Israelites who were grumbling and groaning like unhappy campers about their miserable lot out in the wilderness? What more can God say to us whenever our irritable complaining is a tell--tale symptom of that addictive ailment known as "Affluenza"? God patiently but firmly says to us over and over and over again, "You can learn to thrive and survive on your daily bread from heaven one day at a time."
____________
1. Cf., W. S. McCollough, "Quail" article in The Interpreter's Dictionary Of The Bible: K--Q (New York: Abingdon Press, 1962), p. 973.
2. Cf., J. L. Mihelic, "Manna" article in The Interpreter's Dictionary Of The Bible: K--Q (New York: Abingdon Press, 1962), pp. 259--260.
3. Cf., J. Edgar Park, "Exposition" for Exodus in The Interpreter's Bible Volume 1 (New York: Abingdon Press, 1952), pp. 952--953.
4. Cf., Affluenza, television show, PBS, 1997.
5. Cf., J. Coert Rylaarsdam, "Exegesis" for Exodus in The Interpreter's Bible Volume 1 (New York: Abingdon Press, 1952), p. 953.
6. "How Firm A Foundation," "K" in John Rippon's A Selection Of Hymns, 1787, alt.; FOUNDATION, Early American Melody, harmonized by Charles H. Heaton, 1928.
Nearly two months had passed since the Israelites had left Egypt, they had completely run out of food, and they had absolutely no idea where the next meal was coming from. The Israelites complained bitterly to Moses and Aaron, "If only we had died by the hand of God in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the kettles full of meat and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger" (Exodus 16:3). But God's response to the moaning and groaning of the Israelites was not to have an angel or a helicopter fly in with a big supply of food guaranteed to last several days until the next scheduled drop--off. No, God's response was simply to provide one day's rations one day at a time!
God told Moses that each day there would be just enough food provided to last for one day, while on the sixth day there would be enough food for two days. The arrangement for the sixth day made it possible for the people to have enough food to make it through the holy sabbath when there would be no gathering of food allowed. The daily ration would include a fresh supply of meat in the evening and a fresh supply of manna or "bread from heaven" in the morning. The meat consisted of small birds, quails that flew into the Israelites' camp. These quails were on their regular migratory route northward, and migration for these little birds was an exhausting trip done in separate stages giving the quails a chance to stop and rest. When these small birds stopped at the Israelites' camp, they were so exhausted that it was very easy to catch them and gather them off the ground.1
The manna or the "bread from heaven" has been described and explained two different ways. A longstanding traditional explanation has been that the manna was a sticky substance produced by the tamarisk bush. However, a scientific study has led to the conclusion that what was called manna is actually a liquid honeydew substance released by two types of insects which thrive on the sap they extract from certain plants. This sap is rich in carbohydrates but low in nitrogen content, and so the insects must consume a large amount of sap in order to get enough nitrogen needed to maintain the insects' body metabolism. The extra sap is released by the insects as a liquid honeydew substance which quickly changes in the dry desert air into drops of sticky solids that accumulate on the ground with a gritty, chrystallized texture. This "bread from heaven" has been collected from the ground since ancient times and referred to as "manna." The Israelites learned very quickly that manna could not be stored indefinitely, because it would spoil very quickly and attract worms. This is one reason why, according to Old Testament tradition, the Israelites had to be content with living on one day's rations one day at a time, with the one exception that God provided an extra supply of manna to last through the sabbath day.2
The familiar request in the prayer of our Savior, "Give us this day our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11), probably has some historic roots in Israel's understanding that one day's supply of bread and meat, available only one day at a time, was completely sufficient to guarantee the Israelites' survival in the wilderness.3 God wanted to give the Israelites only one day's supply of food each day as a way to test their willingness to become totally dependent upon God and to put their complete trust in God's faithfulness. God said to Moses, "In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not" (Exodus 16:4b). So when we pray in the prayer of our Savior, "Give us this day our daily bread," we are indicating our complete trust in God's faithfulness to take care of our bread and butter survival needs just one day at a time.
But the idea of one day's rations one day at a time may not go over very well today. It has been said that our prosperous society is afflicted with a "social disease" known as "Affluenza,"4 the insatiable, greedy, self--centered desire to make our affluent way of life one big shopping spree for every luxury and convenience possible - digital cameras no longer requiring film to take pictures, the computer's Internet advantages of online banking, stock market trades, or online catalog purchases. It's not enough for a car simply to drive you where you want to go. Now automobiles can be loaded with all kinds of electronic controls for giving travel directions for the route you wish to follow or setting each passenger's individual air temperature comfort level. The wish list for greater luxury and greater convenience goes on and on and on. Some economics experts have said that there are simply not enough available resources in the world that can be redistributed so that the residents of the poverty--stricken areas of the world could ever be elevated to our own superabundant standard of living. Now this may be a hard piece of bread for us to chew on or swallow, but the prayer "Give us this day our daily bread" could come to mean this: "O God, let the world's prosperous people become willing to lower their standard of living and become content to live on just what is absolutely necessary to thrive and survive each day, so that extra resources can then be reallocated to the world's poverty--stricken people whose daily rations are far less than even the bare minimum of what is required for anyone to thrive and survive." After all, the prayer "Give us this day our daily bread" refers not just to you and me. "Give us this day" refers to all God's children as "us," including especially those children of God who have to scrounge each day through garbage dumps to find the huge heaps of food wasted and thrown away by restaurants, cruise ships, school cafeterias, and all the rest of us.
We might wonder just how satisfied the Israelites were with the daily rations provided by God. When the Israelites saw the manna on the ground, they were puzzled and wondered what it was. The Israelites asked the question "What is it?" which, translated into Hebrew, is to ask the question Man hu? According to ancient tradition, this question Man hu? explains how the Hebrew name "manna" was given to the "bread from heaven" that appeared on the ground each day, so strange and so unfamiliar in its appearance the Israelites asked themselves, "Man hu? What is it?" And so the word "manna" eventually became a well--known metaphor in the Bible and in Christian tradition referring to the blessings of God's grace and providence as "manna" or "bread from heaven."5
We know that the Israelites had been a group of unhappy campers out in the wilderness, and unhappy campers often are picky eaters not easily satisfied with what is served on the dinner table. Anyone who has ever been in charge of a group of kids at summer camp knows that the favorite indoor sport in the dining hall is complaining about the food in one way or another. When the Israelites saw the unfamiliar manna, really weird--looking stuff, lying on the ground, the Israelites asked, "What is it?" Likewise, when young campers in the dining hall take just one look at something unfamiliar the cook has served up which in no way resembles anything in Mom's kitchen back home, immediately there is the disgusted look and the horrified question, "What is that?" Any cool drink made from Kool--Aid or some other powdered drink source has often been given the name "bug juice" by a young camper crowd of dining hall gourmet critics. So perhaps the Israelites' children as typical picky eaters said to each other, "What is that?" when they saw this really weird--looking bread from heaven. And who knows what kind of colorful, yukky name for this food these finicky kids may have come up with, especially if this manna came from "bug juice" actually produced by bugs! Although a lot of freeze--dried or dehydrated food prepared for camping expeditions is really very tasty and very flavorful, many adults, nevertheless, have unpleasant memories of various kinds of field rations served in outdoor situations. Many a veteran of the armed services has said after discharge and return home, "Don't ever serve up any of that miserable tasting stuff! I had my fill of that in the military!" Grown--ups, as well as children, have been heard to complain if the "same old thing" is served up again and again at the dinner table! So we might well wonder whether the Israelites out in the wilderness continued to be a bunch of unhappy campers, especially if every meal day after day after day featured the same old thing - roasted bird and sticky bread.
Moses and Aaron made it very clear to the Israelites that all their moaning and groaning was not really directed against Moses and Aaron. No, the Israelites needed to realize that it was God who was the target of the people's complaints. During the Israelites' journey through the wilderness, the presence of God was made known to the Israelites in the form of a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Very soon after the Israelites have made their loud complaints to Moses and Aaron, the radiant glory of God then appears like sunlight breaking through a cloud as a fiery, glowing indicator that God is definitely near at hand. After the Israelites have seen this powerful evidence of God's presence, God speaks to Moses and says, "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 your God, the God who is truly in charge of your life' " (Exodus 16:12).
Moses and Aaron had tried again and again to get the Israelites to realize that their unhappy camper complaints reflected a lack of trust in God's ability to provide what truly was needed in order to thrive and survive. One of the symptoms of the societal disease of "Affluenza" may be the symptom of complaining like unhappy campers whenever our affluent existence has its kinks and its quirks. We live in an affluent age when our technology is expected to speed things up for our convenience. But we all fuss and fume about that slow--as--molasses traffic light that always gets stuck on red forever during our usual travel route from home to the office. The telephone becomes especially irritating when a recorded message says, "If you want a statement of your account, press one. If you want to order a new product, press two," and finally, after several more options, if you really want to speak to a live body instead of a frustrating machine, "press zero." It really doesn't take very much in an affluent society for even the petty inconveniences and the minor irritations of an imperfect world to become absolutely intolerable. Whenever our justifiable and yet trivial complaints about the flaws of our technology begin to get the best of us, we very easily become unhappy campers who have lost touch with the God who watches over us at all times to make sure that our real survival needs are being met.
There are times God has absolutely nothing new to say to us in answer to our prayers. Instead God often says, "My grace is sufficient for all your daily needs." The verse of a familiar hymn says very clearly what God may want to say to us if we really are so aware of our biggest bellyaches that we have completely forgotten our biggest blessings: "How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word! What more can he say than to you he hath said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?"6 What more could God say to the Israelites who were grumbling and groaning like unhappy campers about their miserable lot out in the wilderness? What more can God say to us whenever our irritable complaining is a tell--tale symptom of that addictive ailment known as "Affluenza"? God patiently but firmly says to us over and over and over again, "You can learn to thrive and survive on your daily bread from heaven one day at a time."
____________
1. Cf., W. S. McCollough, "Quail" article in The Interpreter's Dictionary Of The Bible: K--Q (New York: Abingdon Press, 1962), p. 973.
2. Cf., J. L. Mihelic, "Manna" article in The Interpreter's Dictionary Of The Bible: K--Q (New York: Abingdon Press, 1962), pp. 259--260.
3. Cf., J. Edgar Park, "Exposition" for Exodus in The Interpreter's Bible Volume 1 (New York: Abingdon Press, 1952), pp. 952--953.
4. Cf., Affluenza, television show, PBS, 1997.
5. Cf., J. Coert Rylaarsdam, "Exegesis" for Exodus in The Interpreter's Bible Volume 1 (New York: Abingdon Press, 1952), p. 953.
6. "How Firm A Foundation," "K" in John Rippon's A Selection Of Hymns, 1787, alt.; FOUNDATION, Early American Melody, harmonized by Charles H. Heaton, 1928.
