S239P3 – Doing much with little: a few crumbs

Exo. 16:31-35

Now the house of Israel called its name manna.  It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.  Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’”  And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the LORD to be kept throughout your generations.”  As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept.  The people of Israel ate the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land.  They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan.

Ask any medical or nutritional professional, and you will get the same answer.  The key to a good diet is balance.  For example, unless you are allergic to them, carrots are good for you.  They have vitamin A, which can help keep your eyes healthy, and their nutrient density surpasses their caloric density.  That does not mean, however, that a diet comprised only of carrots will keep you healthy.  A person who eats only carrots will suffer deficiency in whatever nutrients are not found in that single food.  Even though the food industry likes to throw around catchy terms like “superfood”, we have yet to find one thing we can eat that meets all of our needs.  

This manna from heaven was incredible for many reasons.  Obviously, the way that it appeared and lasted for only a specific amount of time is pretty unusual.  It showed up when the people needed it, and it lasted just as long as they needed it.  All were satisfied; no one went hungry.  What is most amazing is the fact that this food kept these people healthy and alive for forty years.  If ever there was a superfood, it was this manna from heaven.  Yet, it looked like anything but a miracle.  It was not shiny or glittery or bright.  The manna looked like nothing more than any normal little seed, but its power was great.  It was the perfect food, lacking nothing and able to sustain a people for decades. 

There was a purpose behind the manna beyond nutrition, and Moses would share this with the Israelites.  This was a picture of what it means for us to live not by bread alone. [Deu. 8:3]  Some might argue that these people indeed lived by bread alone, but they have missed the point.  The point is that the manna did not keep these people alive but the power of God did through that manna.  The food did not sustain them; the Lord sustained them.  It is the same for us today when we do not have enough and yet somehow it is enough.  Father, remind us that the things You provide are not what keep us but that it is You who keeps us.