It has now been two months since the Israelites had made their break from Egypt and the novelty of being free has worn off, probably because they are wandering around the Sinai Desert, which is easily one of the most miserable places on earth. Now the Israelites have become a nomadic people in the desert which essentially means two things: one, they aren't in any one spot long enough to do any agriculture and two, since they are in the desert, there isn't any grain to be found. So in short, they are running out of food.
You would think that after all that they had seen Yahveh do in Egypt, they wouldn't be too worried. Maybe casually mention it to Moses or something and then let Yahveh take care of it. But no, the Bible says that the whole community grumbled (get used to hearing that) against Moses and Aaron. "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt," they whined. "There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."
One thing that you could count on the Israelites for was melodrama but today we're not going to deal with that. That will be dealt with in the next post. Suffice it to say that the Israelites are just about the whiniest group of people I've ever read about.
Regardless, Yahveh listens to their pleas and tells Moses that he's got something in mind. The basic idea goes something like this: Yahveh is going to cover the earth in the morning with Frosted Flakes for the Israelites to eat.
Okay, so that's not exactly what happened. But Yahveh did cover the earth with a white, wafer like substance that was apparently both highly nutritious and still quite tasty. That is easily the most unbelievable thing in the entire Bible. I mean, whoever heard of something that tastes good and is good for you?
At any rate, the Israelites woke up to see the ground covered with something that from what the Bible says looked an awful lot like Frosted Flakes. The Israelites called it "manna", which literally means "what is it?" Needless to say, the whole healthy and tasty combo confused them too.
Now they were to gather as much as they needed for that day and no more. Yahveh assured them that they would be provided manna as long as it was needed. So naturally what did a good share of the Israelites do? They hoarded it of course.
The next morning when they went to get their stash, to their astonishment, these Israelites found it to be moldy and maggoty, which is a disturbing visual. The manna had gone bad overnight.
This went on until Friday rolled around. Then Moses told the Israelites that there was one more caveat to the manna. On Friday, they were to gather twice as much because there would be no manna on Sabbath. This was the first direct introduction of the Sabbath to the Israelites, which has its own significance but is not entirely relevant to this discussion. The point is that there wasn't going to be any manna on Sabbath because Yahveh did not want them to be spending their time on Sabbath gathering food.
Of course, a bunch of them ignored Yahveh's instructions (probably the same bunch). So early on Sabbath morning, they went outside to get their daily manna only to find nothing there. Tony the Tiger had not made his nightly delivery.
This whole episode earned an exasperated eye roll from Moses and Yahveh. "How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions?" groaned Yahveh to Moses, which was a fair question. How many times would Yahveh tell the Israelites to do this and they wouldn't do it?
Reading about the Israelites is a strange exercise. From the benefit of hindsight and an armchair, it is easy to see how stupid they could be, constantly relying on their own "judgment" and "wisdom" instead of simply doing as they were told. But how often do we do the same thing?
The Bible is rife with instructions about how to live life from what we should and shouldn't to what to do with our money. The vast majority of these instructions are basic and simple, much like the instructions that Yahveh gave the Israelites with the manna. All that is required is a little trust and frankly not even that much.
Yet routinely, I gather too much manna. I ignore the dietary principles in the Bible; I don't properly prioritize my time; I don't use my money wisely. These instructions are so simple yet for some reason I just don't follow them. And like the Israelites, I find myself in awkward places mostly because of my own stupidity. More than once I've earned a divine facepalm with Yahveh looking at me and saying, "Seriously dude?"
Now I'm not talking about the big things. Was what the Israelites did a sin? No, not really. They simply didn't listen to Yahveh's advice about how best to use the manna. Yahveh gave them instructions as to how the manna worked and if they chose to ignore them, that was their business. It was stupid, but not necessarily wrong.
The same is true with many of the instructions in the Bible. They are not hard and fast rules like the Ten Commandments or many others. Instead they are simply guidelines that Yahveh has given us to live fuller and more complete lives. If we chose to ignore them, we aren't necessarily sinning but why short change ourselves?
The Bible, despite what many say, is not a manual. It doesn't give us detailed directions for every situation we come across, although the principles in the Bible should cover just about everything. No, the Bible is the written revelation of Yahveh and his character. This is important to remember.
But that doesn't mean that the Bible doesn't have useful information on how to live the best life possible. After all, as Jesus put it, he came to give us life to the full. While we may live in a miserable world, Yahveh doesn't want us to be miserable. And so in the revelation of his character, he had left guidelines for how to live the best life allowable on this planet.
It is our choice whether or not we listen to these instructions. As Yahveh didn't kick out the fools who gathered too much manna, he won't deny us salvation just because we made our lives more difficult than necessary. But again the question is why would you want to? Why would you want $100 when you could just as easily have $1,000,000?
So as you study Yahveh's word, pay attention to the little things. Following them will give you a much better life. And remember not to gather too much manna!
No comments:
Post a Comment