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March - April 2000 The Sabbath Sentinel
President's Letter . . .
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
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