So you want to go back to Egypt….

Shiloh UMC
Sept. 24, 2017

Exodus 16:2–15 (CEB)

2 The whole Israelite community complained against Moses and Aaron in the desert. 3 The Israelites said to them, “Oh, how we wish that the Lord had just put us to death while we were still in the land of Egypt. There we could sit by the pots cooking meat and eat our fill of bread. Instead, you’ve brought us out into this desert to starve this whole assembly to death.”
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I’m going to make bread rain down from the sky for you. The people will go out each day and gather just enough for that day. In this way, I’ll test them to see whether or not they follow my Instruction. 5 On the sixth day, when they measure out what they have collected, it will be twice as much as they collected on other days.”6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “This evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 7 And in the morning you will see the Lord’s glorious presence, because your complaints against the Lord have been heard. Who are we? Why blame us?” 8 Moses continued, “The Lord will give you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning because the Lord heard the complaints you made against him. Who are we? Your complaints aren’t against us but against the Lord.”
9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole Israelite community, ‘Come near to the Lord, because he’s heard your complaints.’” 10 As Aaron spoke to the whole Israelite community, they turned to look toward the desert, and just then the glorious presence of the Lord appeared in the cloud.
11 The Lord spoke to Moses, 12 “I’ve heard the complaints of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat. And in the morning you will have your fill of bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’”
13 In the evening a flock of quail flew down and covered the camp. And in the morning there was a layer of dew all around the camp. 14 When the layer of dew lifted, there on the desert surface were thin flakes, as thin as frost on the ground. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” They didn’t know what it was.
Moses said to them, “This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.”

In this passage, the Hebrew slaves had been freed from the rule of Pharaoh, and were moving through the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land. But when we pick up the story, the Israelites are beginning to complain. Yes, we’re no longer slaves, but the food seems to be running short and we’re out here in the middle of nowhere. Maybe we were better off back in Egypt, where at least we had bread and meat. The slaves remembered sitting next to the “flesh pots” — which were big kettles that were used by the Egyptians to boil meat — and eating their fill.

Of course, the Bible doesn’t tell us that anyone was actually dying of hunger. I suspect that what the Israelites were worried about wasn’t anyone going hungry today — it was more that they were worried about where the food would come from tomorrow. They were living on the edge, from day to day, and it scared them.

There’s a great old movie that I saw once on Turner Classic Movies: “The Way West,” with Kirk Douglas and Robert Mitchum. It was set during the frontier days, about a wagon train headed west on the Oregon Trail. Even though it was a work of fiction, set in an age thousands of years after the time of Moses, you could see some similarities between the two stories. Kirk Douglas’s character is kind of like Moses, and he had to keep urging people on despite the setbacks. There were times when the people despaired and didn’t think they were going to make it, and Kirk Douglas’s character had to rally them on and give them the vision again, and keep them from turning back or turning aside. In fact, even though the wagon train was headed for the Willamette Valley in Oregon, Kirk Douglas’s character kept referring to it as “the new Jerusalem.”

It’s easy for us to look down our noses at the Israelites in the wilderness. How stupid they were! After all, God sent the plagues and parted the Red Sea and did all of these amazing miracles, and the people were freed from slavery, and now here they are complaining again. But the fact of the matter is, just as the people in the movie complained, and the real-life people on the Oregon Trail probably complained, I imagine that you and I would probably have found something to complain about on our journey through the wilderness. The need to whine and moan and lose faith seems to be a part of our sinful nature.
But in this case, the Lord heard the people’s complaints, and he gives Moses a response. He tells the people that he’s going to give them a sign — a miraculous supply of food in the wilderness.

Various scientists and Bible scholars have tried, over the years, to speculate about some natural phenomenon which would have produced something like the manna described in the Bible. They have come up with a few possibilities, but there is no complete agreement.

Tamarisk trees used to be found throughout the southern parts of the Sinai Peninsula, which is where this wilderness was located. Their resin is similar to wax, it melts in the sun, it’s sweet and aromatic like honey, and it has a dirty-yellow color, fitting somewhat with the biblical descriptions of manna. However, this resin is mostly sugar, so it wouldn’t have been nutritious enough to feed the people over large periods of time, and it would be very difficult for it to have been pressed into cakes, which is one of the ways that the Bible describes manna being used.

Some scholars think that manna might have been the crystallized honeydew of certain scale insects. In the environment of a desert, this kind of honeydew dries out very quickly, becoming a sticky solid, and later turning whitish, yellowish, or brownish; this kind of honeydew is considered a delicacy in the Middle East, and it’s a good source of carbohydrate.

Another widespread theory is that manna was made up of the bodies of certain lichens. Lichens are often used as a substitute for corn in the steppes of central Asia. Lichens are light, often drifting in the wind, and the particular kind they’re talking about has a yellow outer coat with white inside, somewhat matching the biblical description of manna. It would have taken additional drying, however, and it would not have tasted anything like honey.
Some scientists say that the characteristics of manna are similar to a particular type of mushroom which first appears as small fibres (called mycellium) which resemble hoarfrost. The trouble with this theory is that this type of mushroom is quite … psychedelic.

Whatever manna was, whether it was something known to modern science or whether it was created just for this occasion by God, it was a powerful symbol of God’s provision and protection of the Israelites on their journey. It was also a miraculous test of the Israelites’ obedience. The manna appeared every day — just enough for that day’s use — except on the day before the Sabbath, Friday morning, when there was twice as much. That way, the Israelites would not have to work gathering manna on the Sabbath.

The Israelites had been complaining about living hand to mouth, and day to day, and yet in some ways God’s response to their complaints still forces them to live day-to-day.

The manna could not be stored up (except for that extra day’s supply on Friday). You had to trust that God would send each day’s supply on the day it was needed. At factories, they call this “just-in-time management.”

We as human beings have a lot of different ideas about the way in which God provides for us.

Jimmy Stewart’s character in the movie “Shenandoah,” Charlie Anderson, isn’t a very religious man, but he gets pressured into saying grace over a meal. Here is the prayer he recites:

“Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it, sowed it, and harvest it. We cook the harvest. It wouldn’t be here and we wouldn’t be eating it if we hadn’t done it all ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you Lord just the same for the food we’re about to eat, Amen.”

Of course, Charlie Anderson was missing the point. It was God who provided the seeds, and the soil, and the water, and the sunshine, and the mechanics by which food is available and by which we can digest it. It is God who gives us the ability, and the opportunity, to do that work that Charlie Anderson mentioned.

We are meant to work for a living. We are meant to be good stewards of the resources that God has given us, and preserve them for future generations. As John Wesley said, “Earn all you can, give all you can, save all you can.” But in the end, we can’t take credit for the result. Every mechanism by which we are supplied belongs to God, in one way or another. It may be something that we can explain and understand, or it may be something beyond explanation.

The ultimate lesson is that God is in control. Sometimes that’s a hard thing for us to accept. We want to be in control. The Lord’s Prayer says “give us this day our daily bread,” but we don’t want to take it one day at a time. If we don’t know where next week’s bread is coming from, or next month’s, or next year’s, we get nervous. We borrow trouble from the future, and we worry and we complain and we live in a fear that comes from lack of faith.

When I was in college, I was a fan of a Christian singer-songwriter named Keith Green. He died, tragically young, in a plane crash, along with several of his children. But during his life, he was a remarkable, unique personality. He got fed up with the Christian music industry and at one point he was giving his albums away for whatever the listener thought he could afford to pay. If you couldn’t send him a red cent, he would still send you an album. But if you could afford to send him a little extra, he’d use that to make up the difference. He trusted in God to provide, through the generosity of others.

The title cut from one of Keith Green’s most famous albums — which was also the first album he gave away after leaving his old record label — was called “So You Want To Go Back To Egypt.” It was humorous — using funny voices and tongue-in-cheek lyrics, almost like a novelty song, a comedy song — but it had a serious message. The song was about the Children of Israel complaining in the wilderness.

Let me read you some of the lyrics:

“So you wanna go back to Egypt
Where it’s warm and secure
Are sorry you bought the one way ticket
When you thought you were sure
You wanted to live in the land of promise
But now it’s getting so hard
Are you sorry you’re out here in the desert
Instead of your own back yard

Eating leeks and onions by the Nile
Ooh what breath! But dining out in style
Ooh, my life’s on the skids
Building the pyramids

Well there’s nothing do but travel
And we sure travel a lot
’Cause it’s hard to keep your feet from moving
When the sand gets so hot
And in the morning it’s manna hotcakes
We snack on manna all day
And we sure had a winner last night for dinner
Flaming manna souffle

Sometimes, even when God provides for us in miraculous ways, we find ways to complain about it. We don’t just want food, we want steak — or breakfast in bed, or what have you.

God has promised that he will be with us, that he will meet our needs, that he will not put more on us than we can bear with his help. But — despite what you hear from some of the TV preachers — he didn’t promise that everything would be easy or convenient. God’s blessing isn’t measured in Rolexes and private jets. It’s measured in the little miracles that get us through the day, the little joys of discovery, the hug of a four-year-old child, a friendly hand on your shoulder from someone who believes in you.

It would be reckless for us not to make plans, not to try to be responsible, not to save money and work hard and try to provide for the future. God wants us to do these things. But the fact of the matter is, we don’t know what the future will hold. When disaster happens, as it has for people in Texas and Florida in these past few weeks, people wonder if all of their planning and saving and hard work was for naught.

God wants us to live responsibly, and to be good stewards. But God also wants us to trust him, and to try to see his priorities for what constitutes a blessed life. Whether the stock market is up or down, whether we’re working or laid off, whether we’re the picture of health or in the grasp of a terrible, life-threatening disease, God is there. God gives us the grace and the courage and the strength to get through this day, and the next one, and the next one. And God tells us that there will be a Promised Land at the end of our journey.
The Psalmist recalled the story of the Israelites in the wilderness on his way to giving thanks to God for many blessings. I want to close with that Psalm of thanksgiving, in the hope that it will help all of us to recognize and be grateful for the ways that God provides for us:

Psalm 105:1–6, 37–45 (CEB)

105 Give thanks to the Lord;
call upon his name;
make his deeds known to all people!
2 Sing to God;
sing praises to the Lord;
dwell on all his wondrous works!
3 Give praise to God’s holy name!
Let the hearts rejoice of all those seeking the Lord!
4 Pursue the Lord and his strength;
seek his face always!
5 Remember the wondrous works he has done,
all his marvelous works, and the justice he declared —
6 you who are the offspring of Abraham, his servant,
and the children of Jacob, his chosen ones.
—
37 Then God brought Israel out, filled with silver and gold;
not one of its tribes stumbled.
38 Egypt celebrated when they left,
because the dread of Israel had come upon them.
39 God spread out clouds as a covering;
gave lightning to provide light at night.
40 The people asked, and God brought quail;
God filled them full with food from heaven.
41 God opened the rock and out gushed water —
flowing like a river through the desert!
42 Because God remembered his holy promise
to Abraham his servant,
43 God brought his people out with rejoicing,
his chosen ones with songs of joy.
44 God gave them the lands of other nations;
they inherited the wealth of many peoples —
45 all so that they would keep his laws
and observe his instructions.
Praise the Lord!