Anyone hear the news of the Senate passing the $2.2T economic stimulus package this past week? In under three weeks, checks for nearly $1.2K could be delivered to millions of struggling Americans that meet thresholds of qualifications for the stimulus. My thoughts and continued prayers go out to doctors/nurses on the front lines as well as those that are sick or those that have been apart of the nearly 10M Americans that have already filed for unemployment the past two weeks.
The more I’ve been thinking about this stimulus thing, I’ve been thinking of how much it is a symbol of sustenance, a symbol of stimulus, a symbol of provision, a symbol of temporary short-term sustenance for the people of the United States of America in its deep time of need.
The more I think about sustenance, I think about history. I think about FDR’s New Deal during the Great Depression, I think about unemployment checks, I think about food stamps, I think about things that provide and provision for people and places – past and current in times of need.
So, as I’m thinking about history, I’ve been pondering the idea of the Aztecs having all these gods to pray to. Need Mr. "Golden Sun" to come out, they’d probably say “pray to the sun god.” Need rain? It’s simple, call up the rain god – and *67 him while you’re at it because too much rain could mean a flood. Need fertility or your maize to grow; they’d pray to those respective gods. The more I thought about this, is that the potential underlying truth behind this is that each god they created was a god over something they could not control. At the root of it, was someone they would pray to for sustenance over the situation and task at hand. Because they could plant the seed, they could harvest the crop, they could do all the labor necessary to grow the corn, but they could not control its growth or the weather beyond it. No rain or corn for a year would be devastation to their country, to their people, to their livestock, etc. Obviously, no one can control nature, so it perhaps opened up an avenue to seek SOMEONE or something as > than one’s self. It’s becoming evidently clear today, especially, that when people can’t control things, they panic or seek something else to provide comfort.
Is it a coincidence that when I went to the store last week that the main items that were sold included bread and pasta after our governor announced a state-wide mandatory quarantine? Like people mainly defaulted to bread and pasta. Those were the isles that were almost empty for such a time as this.
But the thing about bread is that it molds. The thing about earthly food is that I’m still hungry again. Today I will eat, tomorrow morning guaranteed I’m gonna’ want to eat TWO Pop Tarts and have a cup o’ jo (or two). Tomorrow, I will eat and I will be hungry within two hours after that meal.
The thing about food is that it is a sustainer. It’s sustenance for the body. It’s nourishment for the body, a source of strength for it to last and prolong itself.
Yet, as I started thinking about history, I thought about God providing manna to His people for FORTY years in the wilderness. That’s right, the God of the universe – Jehovah Jireh (literally meaning God – The Provider to affirm that that is a facet of who He is. Because He is named Jehovah Jireh, He is deemed a Provider. Provision comes out of the character and nature of who He IS. Say you’re described as “loving” or “funny,” those concepts and characteristics flow out of you because they are characteristic of who YOU are. They’re natural to you and unforced and, as such, people notice that and so they deem you as that.
Well anyways, the manna along with its stipulations that God gave to the Israelites is detailed in this passage:
Manna and Quail
16 The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. 2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! 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.”
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”
6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In the evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, 7 and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?” 8 Moses also said, “You will know that it was the Lord when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.”
9 Then Moses told Aaron (A-A-Ron yaaaaa! - my own personal commentary there), “Say to the entire Israelite community, ‘Come before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.’”
10 While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud.
11 The Lord said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’”
13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.
Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. 16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer[a] for each person you have in your tent.’”
17 The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 18 And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.
19 Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.”
20 However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.
21 Each morning everyone gathered as much as they needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away. 22 On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much—two omers[b] for each person—and the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses. 23 He said to them, “This is what the Lord commanded: ‘Tomorrow is to be a day of sabbath 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.’”
24 So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it. 25 “Eat it today,” Moses said, “because today is a sabbath to the Lord. You will not find any of it on the ground today. 26 Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”
27 Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none. 28 Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions? 29 Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where they are on the seventh day; no one is to go out.” 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.
31 The people of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey. 32 Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the wilderness when I brought you out of Egypt.’”
33 So Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar and put an omer of manna in it. Then place it before the Lord to be kept for the generations to come.”
34 As the Lord commanded Moses, Aaron put the manna with the tablets of the covenant law, so that it might be preserved. 35 The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.
The idea of this was that manna was a TEMPORARY miracle fix for the Israelites over 40 years. It was a daily temporary fix meant to sustain them. The bread Christ talks about in a passage in John 6 is that He is the bread of life going on to say:
“Your fathers ate the manner in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 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.”
That His bread He offers is long term sustenance and not a daily band aid, it’s a spiritual long-term sustenance. It’s a sustenance that surpasses the peace and understanding of the mind.
But He is > than manna - or the 40-year temporary fix to the Israelites hunger problem- as He is the Bread of Life. We can trust that He will sustain us. If He sustained a colony of thousands of people with the same food every. Single. Day. For 40 years in the wilderness and crafted wells of WATER out of rocks to his people... imagine how He can sustain our country and world during COVID 19.
So, it looks here based on the context of the passage in the wilderness that God will sometimes give you a band-aid for something (or a temporary fix) to tide you over or point you to the surgery you really need. Like He’ll give your heart a pace-maker to monitor it when it really needed heart surgery (the lasting fix). But He seems to do that out of grace. Because there are points where God repeats to Moses and the Israelites that man cannot live on bread and bread alone. See, the fact is that in this passage when the Israelites started living on manna and manna alone is when the food starting rotting. They had stored up manna for the next day. The word they were supposed to live on was God’s word. His word was that He would come through the next day and deliver something He wanted them to live on.
Explaining this further, someone gives you a word and you trust their word but they don’t come through in the manner you thought they would and so you take things into your own hands to provide in a certain manner because that is your sense of security in THAT moment. Because you or I want to control it, we take it under our own hands and we do things like the Israelites did, like hoarding extra manna for the next day even though what God provided today would be the same tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and the next day. That we’d still have enough food for tomorrow and the next day because God willed it and provided it, but our sense of panic and insecurity becomes projected outward onto the circumstances ahead and we want to control it because we can’t trust the uncertainty that lays in tomorrow. Thus, my insecurity in my lack of control of what is ahead of me leads me to project my insecurity of that onto my situation which then causes me to distrust God and His words that He will basically sustain me by His words of instruction. Verse 20 depicts the Israelites wanting to depend on themselves, so they hoarded everything instead of depending upon God for food and sustenance. As a result of not depending on God’s Word that He would come through every day with manna, their food was FULL of maggots and began to smell.
It’s crazy, because following God’s Word meant the food would be fine and that He would follow through on His Word. But the very idea here, in the literal sense, stands firm with the word that Jesus speaks about when He was being tempted by Satan in the wilderness for 40 days in Matthew 4:4: “That man shall not live on bread and bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” It’s that the TRUSTED Word that comes from the very mouth of God is worthy to live upon in addition to bread. That what He says is trusted and to be depended upon.
When I think of the concept of words further, I think of words of life. I think of the encouragement behind a word spoken into a brother or sister who is struggling. I think of a word that is shared to empower people. I think of a word that is geared toward people to up-lift. I think of the words of life Christ often spoke about to His people. With a WORD, Christ would cast evil spirits out or even heal a person. With a word, He would say “Go, your faith has made you well!”
Because words have EMPOWERMENT or disempowerment. There's negative or positive connotations attached to words that carry weight to either empower or disempower. It’s the power of WORDS that a leader uses to ignite his people. It’s the power of words that a president uses to lead his people with hope, light, and perseverance. It’s in the power of a WORD that can sustain an eruption of empowerment during a leadership conference. It’s in the power of a WORD that can ignite someone to action. It’s in the POWER OF A SPOKEN WORD that Christ said something like this to a person that was once dead: “GET UP AND WALK!” Because spoken words out of authority can be the life or death to your situation. A mom or dad can affirm their child out of love with words like “YOU can!” or “You can’t do that.”
But on a different note, in this text, the phrase “then you will know that I am the LORD your God…” That’s what He wanted to be for the Israelites. He just wanted to be the LORD your God…. So, He sent them through a spiral of events to be depended upon. He allowed them to wander through the wilderness to be depended upon and known. Because God wants credit for the blessing and provision He gives His people and for crediting to be where credit is DUE. Because God wants the credit and the glory for the provision of manna. He wants the glory behind a cure for COVID-19. He wants the glory behind the curtain.
I read a recent translation for the word Manna and saw Biblegateway.com refer to Manna sounding like the Hebrew words for “What is it?” It’s miraculous sustenance.
Our country, through the wisdom of our leaders, recently passed a $2.2T stimulus package… To what is it? To provide sustenance to our businesses, unemployed people, large businesses, American singles or families, etc. I imagine myself trying to explain a complex situation like passing a $2.2T stimulus to a young person, or myself at the age of 13 years old, and I’m realizing I may not have understood the depth of the $2.2T stimulus and what it really means and symbolizes. I’d be asking the question: what is it? This manna, what is it? Because in young wisdom, I probably wouldn’t be able to understand the miracle that it actually was regarding how God was able to provide manna or how our government was able to piece the stimulus bill together. The miracle is almost within it: because our government passed something that basically provides Universal Basic Income, or UBI, to millions of Americans when we once were literally debating about this all throughout this 2020 Presidential candidate race and pointing fingers at certain parties for being socialist in even advocating for that single idea. The very fact here is that we came together in the name of sustenance for our country and its people in its time of need.
When I read this passage again, I realized something. That the only day the Lord told them to not gather anything was on Sunday to honor the Sabbath. The manna provisions were Closed on Sunday like a Chick Fil A would be. But when they weren’t working…. He allowed the manna that was provided the day before on Saturday to be sufficient and NOT MOLD for them on Sunday. HE PROVIDED when PEOPLE weren’t WORKING/commanded to not work! The manna was SUFFICIENT. The temporary sustenance that is MANNA was STRETCHED an extra day on Sunday. Because He can stretch what He has already given you. He can bless it, or He can taint it and make it wither away like He allowed for the other manna provisions to do so on other days.
Like He made the provisions He gave them to last longer than a day! So, they weren’t working, and thus He made the manna last longer than a DAY and allowed them to collect enough for two days!
Let’s apply this to your situation, He can give wisdom to help you steward your money and your resources and your talents to sustain you during this time when you’re not working! That what He has already allowed you to store up may be enough to carry you through your situation.
When I was in my quiet time this past week, I stumbled upon a place in 1 Kings 19:3-7 where a Prophet named Elijah was in crisis mode, too. He was fleeing the king after 400+ false prophets of Baal (a false god that these prophets spoke in honor of) were killed by the hand of Elijah in an attempt to turn the nation of Israel back to the one true God. The context of this story has Elijah in the wilderness, a place where none other than God shows up to provide for him.
Elijah Flees to Horeb
19 Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.”
3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.
All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” 6 He looked around, and there by his head was a cake baked on hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.
7 The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” 8 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. 9 There he went into a cave and spent the night.
The more I’m thinking about this whole wilderness thing is that there is something significant about the wilderness: that that is where God’s supernatural supply meets the legitimate needs behind what you may be low key demanding. There is something significant about the wilderness in all three wilderness examples here for the Israelites in the 40 year wilderness, Jesus in the wilderness, and now Elijah in the wilderness, that those were the places of desolation where God could reveal Himself and His abilities to sustain in a very powerful way to His people. That in the wilderness, He could provide where no one else could. That in places where nothing could grow, that He could provide the manna, bread, or jar of water.
In this passage regarding Elijah at perhaps his lowest point of existence, fleeing the hand of the King in his personal moment of crisis, meets God in the wilderness. You see, I don’t think this was a Betty Crocker cake with frosting and ice cream below/on top of it like the type of cake we think of. I think this was some type of bread, again, a symbol for sustenance. It was in the wilderness where Elijah could surely not live on BREAD and BREAD alone...
I mean what if we tried walking in a wilderness for 40 days with only a Betty Crocker God-sent cake. If we tried walking 40 days and nights to our end destination on one meal.... The point is there’s no way Elijah could have done that without the hand of God on his side!
The key point here that demonstrates the grace of God in crisis mode is that the angel got him up for a second time and said to him “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” As if the journey ahead was known by God to be too difficult, so, in His grace, He provisioned just enough for Elijah to make it through the 40-day journey ahead of him that was provisioned and sustained by one meal.
Because it is only by the grace of God that Elijah could’ve gotten from point A on Day 1 to Point B by Day 40 off a one-meal moment. Because 40 days meant 40 days of walking, traveling, carrying what God had already given HIM ON HIS BACK!
So, you’re telling me God can’t GET GREATNESS OUT OF THE MINISCULE RESOURCES WE currently have in our businesses, our finances, savings, our loans, whatever, etc. when Elijah got greatness and 40-day sustenance off a one-time FIRE meal #PROVIDED #BY #GOD?
On a personal note, to encourage us to innovate and stretch what we have, I’m reminded by a personal story of a business we started in Haiti back in 2017 called “Kingdom Grounds” through a non-profit I was interning with. We had built an ice-cream and coffee shop business off household objects from America that were originally meant to sustain American families with daily espresso or milkshake drinks. I remember using some of the household Magic Bullet blenders we had used during that time at my house in America long before going to Haiti and I remember they broke very easily. Honestly, I think my house went through blenders or Magic Bullets quite a few times. Anyways, we used these household blenders like Magic Bullets or a Target supplied espresso machine to sell product to dozens of people a day in the heat of the summer in Haiti with milkshakes or espresso specific drinks in a timely manner. Not one of them broke, even though they were used quite a bit. Even though they sputtered out ice-cream and milk everywhere. We didn’t even have running water directly in our shop to do dishes like people would have here in America. Yet, to detail the success of the business, we had made $17K in two months of operations in Haiti, a country that isn’t very business friendly and whom World Bank lists as one of the hardest countries to do business in. But this was done with two-hour typical business days, with ordinary household objects that typically weren’t made for a more mass standard of production, but we absolutely got greatness out of our situation. Because what was already provided our way in the form of non-profit household object donations was enough to sustain the duration of our business. Just like what was provided Elijah’s way in his time of need was enough to sustain him for a 40 day walk in the wilderness.
To sum up, we’re gonna’ play a lil’ Mad Libs fill-in-the-blank type thing.
If God did it back _______, He can do it ______.
If He sprang water from rocks like a well, He can do it _______.
If He did it _______, He can do it _____.
If He did it for 40 years…, He can do it for our nearly _____ day quarantine.
If He put Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego into a quarantine of a furnace and saved them…., He can do it _____.
If He has already given you some type of provision, it may be enough to _____ you.
Because what He gave to Elijah in the form of a one-time meal was enough to sustain him for a 40 day walk in the wilderness.
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