Manna from Heaven

A couple of weeks ago, Rachel went to South Carolina for a Pastor’s Wives retreat.  She stayed there a week and then spent 3 days in Costa Mesa.  She was gone about 10 days.  It was just me and Ellie.

The day she left I made this big pot of Mexican rice and chicken.  It is actually my favorite dish.  So, night one.  I ate chicken and rice.  For lunch the next day, I ate chicken and rice.  Night two, I ate chicken and rice.  Lunch 2, I ate chicken and rice.  

By the forth or fifth day, Ellie was letting me know that she had some gift cards other places and was requesting different food.  But honestly for 6 days straight, all I ate was chicken and rice. And if I had to be perfectly honest, there were a couple of breakfast chicken and rice’s.

Once Rachel got home, I was so thankful because we could eat something different.

Now, you laugh because you are thinking about how poor my nutrition choice was.  But, in a couple of weeks, you will sit down at the thanksgiving table and cannot wait to eat turkey, stuffing, gravy, maybe some yams, or ham and you will top it off with some pumpkin pie.

But, by the time Sunday after thanksgiving, you are begging for something else.

Now, truth be told, I could survive on chicken an rice if I was stranded on a deserted island, but the problem is could I be happy with it.

And really, that is the question I really want to look at today:

Can we be content with what we have?

Or rather, what stops us from being content?

Paul says this:

BIBLE VERSE

I Timothy 6:6

6 But godliness with contentment is great gain, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.

Sounds good right.  You will gain a lot if you can be godly and content.  Right?

Then, why is it so hard to find contentedness?

Well, I think it has to do with the concept of envy.  So, let’s talk about envy. 

Envy is a condition that deeply poisons us that makes us unable to enjoy what’s in front of us ever, unable to ever sit down and live in the moment and rejoice in what we have, but to find fault with it and to say, “This isn’t enough. This isn’t good enough.” (TIM KELLER)

Now, we see this really amplified in the children of Israel.  I want you to go to Numbers 11.  We are in a series where we are learning new things from Old Lessons…this is why we entitled the series as Retold.

Now, let me set the seen.  The children of Israel were a slave people.  They were enslaved for 430 years to the Egyptians.  

They were in Egypt, and they helped build, under the lash, the many great works of architecture in ancient Egypt. But they were slaves. They were cruelly oppressed. They were beaten. They were killed.

When they got too numerous, many of their children were slaughtered. It was a terrible situation, but God, through Moses, led them out through miraculous signs. They passed through the Red Sea.

And God would lead them through the desert to their own land…what you may know as the promised land.  And, it was a land that was said to flow with milk and honey.  It was this idea of abundance.  They would have everything in abundance.

But before they could get there, they had to traverse some terrain as a nomadic people.

Well, in this traveling nation, there was quite possibly a million people.  

How would God’s servant Moses organize enough groceries to feed the people?  No worry, God would take care of it in the form of something called Manna. 

Manna was a very odd phenomenon. It came down with the dew, we’re told, every morning, six mornings of the week … not the last morning. It lay on the ground, and we’re told it looked like coriander seed and it looked like resin. It was light. It could be made into cakes. It was the only thing they had to eat, but it’s what they were able to sustain themselves with.

It was something the children of Israel would sing about:

BIBLE VERSE

Psalm 78:25      

25 Man ate of the bread of the angels; he sent them food in abundance. 

So you get the picture.  They were provided food for their short journey to the promised land, and right as they were getting close, they decided…many of them at least…that manna was not good enough. 

BIBLE VERSE

Numbers 11:4-6

4 Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. 6 But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” 

Now, I want to show you two things in this passage as we talk about envy.  The first thing is this word rabble…it is the only time we see this phrase in the Old Testament.  It seems they were a group of outsiders…maybe they were foreign slaves…maybe they were scoffers or doubters…we are not quite sure, but we do know these outsiders got all of Israel stirred up to think that the manna was not good enough.  

Now, I want you to write this down…

Envy comes from listening to outsiders more than listening to the voice of God.

This whole mutiny started with people trying to mix it up.  Now, it doesn’t have to be a person….it can come in a form of an object…a thing…a fantasy…

But it is something coming from the outside that speaks to you and says that what you have been given by God is not good enough.  

Now, you don’t have to turn there because we have spent a lot of time in Genesis 3, but I want you to see this briefly.  Adam and Eve are placed in the midst of paradise.  They were given everything they could possibly want.  Yet the serpent deceived them thinking that God was holding something back from them by not letting them eat from a particular tree.  

I am sure in a way, the serpent even convinced them that the forbidden tree was the best tree and so they began to doubt or distrust God’s highest and best for them.

Which leads me to the next thought I want you to look at in Number 11.  In verse 6, it says that “Our strength is dried up.”

The way this reads in the Hebrew is “Our souls are dying…God you are killing us”

This free food you are giving us is not enough.  We are not content with what we have, so we do everything we can do to get more.

Well, this complaining persistently gets to Moses, and Moses cries out to God…

BIBLE VERSE

Numbers 11:14

14 I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. 15 If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.” 

Now, God hear’s Moses cry and sends him help in the form of seventy leaders to shoulder some of Moses burdens…to help him not lose his mind from all the complaining and then God sends a message to all the people.  Look at what he says:

BIBLE VERSE

Numbers 11:18-20

18 And say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the LORD, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was better for us in Egypt.” Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you shall eat. 19 You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, 20 but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you,

God basically says…ok…you want meat…you will eat it until you are sick of that too.

Now, as you read through this narrative, you wonder why God is so angry at his people.  After all, God rescued them out of slavery.  Well, it is because of their envy.  

Remember:

Envy is a condition that deeply poisons us that makes us unable to enjoy what’s in front of us ever, unable to ever sit down and live in the moment and rejoice in what we have, but to find fault with it and to say, “This isn’t enough.

And by saying it wasn’t enough here is what they were really saying:

Envy makes us forget what we were rescued from.

Look at the comments from the Israelites…

BIBLE VERSE

Numbers 11:5

“Oh that we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. 6 But now our strength is dried up,

What a foolish statement they are making.  What are they omitting from their memory…SLAVERY…which was not figuratively killing them but quite literally killing them.

BIBLE VERSE

Exodus 2:11

11 One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. 

BIBLE VERSE

Exodus 2:23-25

23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

They were literally in bondage and literally in slavery and yet they forget all of that because of the food.  They were envious for something that would put them back into slavery.

Many of us behave this way.  We are radically set free…God has transformed us, but we look back at our past life forgetting our terrible bondage and long for slavery.

Its why Jesus tells us…

BIBLE VERSE

Luke 9:62

Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Because as you look back…you forget your bondage.

But another reason why their envy angered God is because…

Envy says God your blessings are not good enough.

Just think of the unbelievable things that had happened in their recent memory:

BIBLE VERSE

Exodus 12:36

And the LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

BIBLE VERSE

Exodus 13:21-22

21 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. 22 The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people. 

BIBLE VERSE

Exodus 14:21-25

21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 22 And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 23 The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 And in the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, 25 clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.” 

Over and over and over again they saw the Lord’s hand at work, but it wasn’t satisfying.

They wanted something else.  They wanted something more.  They were envious for something when they had God who would fight on their behalf.

It still wasn’t good enough.

Envy also made them forget God’s promises.

Notice the promise God gives Moses to deliver to the Israelites:

BIBLE VERSE

Exodus 3:7-9

7 Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.

Now this land that God describes is the land that he promised to Abraham.  So, he is taking the Israelites back home.

And notice in Number 14 when the spies go in as they are sitting on the edge of the promised land…look at their report…

BIBLE VERSE

Numbers 13:26-27

26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

BIBLE VERSE

Numbers 14:6-7

6 And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes 7 and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.

But it still wasn’t good enough.  Envy was poisoning them so much that…

Envy made them doubt God’s provision.

God fed them.  Even when they rebelled and ended up wandering around for 40 years…God still provided.  God provided them clothes and shoes.  Nothing wore out with God, but they always doubted him because they wanted something more…something else.

After they wandered for 40 years and were about to retake the land after a generation died out…God almost mocking them makes this statement:

BIBLE VERSE

Deuteronomy 8:2-4

2 And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you

This last part I want to highlight.  It says…”your feet did not swell.”  Now, what is that about?

Now if you don’t know a little bit about biology and anatomy and physiology, you won’t know what in the world is going on. Your feet swell up when you don’t have the proper nutrients. Scurvy, for example, made your feet swell. You didn’t have enough Vitamin C.

What God is doing is he’s coming back in Deuteronomy 8, and he’s saying, “In spite of what you have said, the manna was enough. You didn’t think it was enough, but it was. I fed you on manna. It had every nutrient you needed. It had all the vitamins you needed. It had everything you needed.”

Now, God aloud them to enter into the promised land, but the Children of Israel never got the envy truly out of them.  It persisted.

After the conquest and after the period of Judges…Samuel, who is the last judge of Israel…they had leaders but no king because God’s covenant with them was he would be their king…he would protect them…provide for them…and establish them…

But Israel still had envy…look at I Samuel

BIBLE VERSE

I Samuel 8:4-9

4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 5 and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the LORD. 7 And the LORD said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. 8 According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. 9 Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.” 

Israel wants to be like everyone else.  They demand for a king.  Samuel is discouraged, but God tells Samuel that they haven’t rejected him, but they have rejected God himself.

You see…

Envy says that God doesn’t know best, but culture does.

Envy wants the things of God but not God.

We see this clearly in John 6.  Look at the crowds and their reasoning for following him:

BIBLE VERSE

John 6:2

 2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.

In this moment, the crowd has swelled to over 5000.  Jesus feeds them…all of them in a miraculous moment.  

Jesus retreats and they find him again. Its when Jesus uses this wonderful allusion to this story in numbers.  Look at what he says:

BIBLE VERSE

John 6:26-40

26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 

35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” 

Notice the response:

BIBLE VERSE

John 6:41-66

41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 

52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. 

60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” 

66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 

They wanted his stuff that he could do for them, but not what he truly could give them….LIFE.

You know why you are discontented?  Do you know why you envy? 

You are seeking bread…stuff…to bring you fulfillment, but not the one who can fulfill you.

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