The Manna Principle

Exodus 16:14-30

J.E. Rose

Israel complained about lack of food in the wilderness so God provided manna. However, it is important to dig into the specifics for they contain important principles Jesus himself referred to 1500 years later and which can impact our lives today, especially when we expand the idea of daily nourishment to God’s provison of “strength in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12).

The Source: God 

Exodus 16:14 When the dew that lay had gone, behold, on the surface of the wilderness was a small round thing, small as the frost on the ground. 15 When the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they didn’t know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread which Yahweh has given you to eat. 

Israel was to remember above all that this bread came from God’s own hand to sustain them. Over time, many forgot this and gave Moses credit. Thus, Jesus had to rebuke them (John 6). When we forgot the actual source of strength in our own weaknesses, God has to remind us, often by withholding until we cry out to him. 

The Gift: Provision 

Specifically, God provided a gift we know as “manna”. It was “bread from heaven” created by God to meet their nutritional needs and it was provided in exact proportion to those needs, no more or no less than each person needed. :

16 This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded: ‘Gather of it everyone according to his eating; an omer[a] a head, according to the number of your persons, you shall take it, every man for those who are in his tent.’” 17 The children of Israel did so, and some gathered more, some less. 18 When they measured it with an omer, he who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no lack. They each gathered according to his eating.

Categories of Gatherers:

In the story there are specific details about the provision especially indicating the different categories of gatherers themselves. There is application for us today as we consider God’s gift of grace to us lest we fail to receive it as God commands. 

Slackers - I have other things to do today…

God required that each house collect their own manna. We can imagine that there were some Israelites who would be naturally inclined to either forget or ignore the command to go out each day. We can call these the Slackers. And, even today, Christians can follow their bad example when it comes to God’s promised provision of grace. We cannot presume upon God’s grace either when things are going well or when they are not. When we do, it’s often because we do not realize how dependent we really are upon God and imagine we have other more important things to do. Grace Slackers usually neglect the ordinary means of grace unless and until their own strength is gone. 

Hoarders - The more I get today the less I have to do tomorrow

We can imagine that there were some in Israel who viewed the manna as some kind of investment strategy. We can call them the “hoarders.” They may also have been motivated by the possibility of doing work today so they could take a break tomorrow. This abuse of God’s grace is of special concern to those of us in the western world for whom the “protestant ethic” of hard work and saving for the future is almost treated as the Eleventh Commandment. Hard work is of course good. The Fourth Commandment requires it. But saving for the future is “tricky business.” It can become a secret form of self-control that undermines our trust and dependence on God’s grace. 

The Manna-Hoarders required God to do something unusual with his provision: it had a very limited shelf-life! If they tried to hoard it for later it would rot and stink. 

Worriers - There may be no bread tomorrow 

No doubt there are a few Manna-Worriers in every crowd. They may seem similar to the hoarders but in fact their motivation is quite different. It not just to “build more barns so I can take my ease” rather to vainly try and manage anxieties and trust issues. Grace-Worriers are everywhere today also. Some try to hoard today’s manna to deal with the worry about tomorrow, others are so fraught with anxiety about tomorrow they don’t even go out and gather it for today. Jesus said bluntly, “do not worry about tomorrow.” But, he literally said, “Do not think about tomorrow.” Specifically, the admonition was anxious thought. It isn’t wrong to have plans. It is wrong to imagine we are in control of them. Grace-Worriers don’t just think too much about tomorrow, they focus more on their own ability-inabaility to control tomorrow that they fail to see “he who holds tomorrow.”  

Workers - I’m picking up my bread basket and going to get my omer

The Daily Pattern: Gather Each Day 

 19 Moses said to them, “Let no one leave of it until the morning.” 20 Notwithstanding they didn’t listen to Moses, but some of them left of it until the morning, so it bred worms and became foul; and Moses was angry with them. 

“My God shall supply all your needs…” Do we believe that? The Manna-Workers did. We can imagine how they faced the morning, before breakfast, picking up the bread basket each morning. If it was the husband, he would perhaps say to his wife as he left the tent: “I’ll be back in a bit after I collect the daily-omer (two quarts). 

The  Weekly Pattern: Day of Rest

There is another lesson to consider in the Manna Principle, related to the creation command of sabbath. 

21 They gathered it morning by morning, everyone according to his eating. When the sun grew hot, it melted. 22 On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one; and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. 23 He said to them, “This is that which Yahweh has spoken, ‘Tomorrow is a solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to Yahweh. Bake that which you want to bake, and boil that which you want to boil; and all that remains over lay up for yourselves to be kept until the morning.’” 24 They laid it up until the morning, as Moses ordered, and it didn’t become foul, and there were no worms in it. 25 Moses said, “Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to Yahweh. Today you shall not find it in the field. 26 Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath. In it there shall be none.” 27 On the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather, and they found none. 28 Yahweh said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? 29 Behold, because Yahweh has given you the Sabbath, therefore he gives you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Everyone stay in his place. Let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.” 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.31 The house of Israel called its name “Manna”,[b] and it was like coriander seed, white; and its taste was like wafers with honey.

Throughout the “ordinary” routine of the week, there was only enough manna for each day and as we’ve seen, that meant gathering it daily. However, there was something extraordinary because of the importance of the sabbath. They were not required to gather on the seventh day but could actually gather twice as much on the sixth day to get them through the seventh–rest. 

Does this have any application to Grace-Gatherers today? Does this mean we can reasonably take a “day off” from the daily means of grace? The answer probably requires a careful understanding of sabbath, especially what it means to us today. Though much theological debate surrounds the issue, it seems (from Hebrews 4 et al) that we best view the sabbath-rest promised to Israel in the wilderness as our eternal destiny more than the day off at the end of the week. Of course, there is ongoing benefit from a day of rest and, in ecclesiastical language, there is a need to set apart one day in seven for worship, for preaching, for the sacraments. 

Note, however, that the seventh day sabbath is not a day to neglect grace but a special day to receive means of grace–not just personally but corporately. So, the Manna Principle applies every day of the week. However, this is not the entire story of grace and that is where the eschatological dimension of sabbath points to the “day” when we no longer have to labor in gathering manna each day.