Exodus 16:2-15
I
have concluded that if the Israelites that we read about in Exodus were around
today, they would make a perfect candidate for a Snickers commercial. You know
the commercials I’m referring to: think of the one where a bunch of guys are
playing football on a muddy field. Betty White is playing with them. She goes
for a pass only to be tackled. Her teammates call a time out and they tell her
she’s “playing like Betty White out there.” Her girlfriend runs in from the
sidelines and offers her a Snickers bar. One bite and suddenly Betty White is
back to being a young man. Now that he’s had a Snickers bar, his hunger is
assuaged and he can play ball like he normally does. Tag line: have a Snickers
because you’re not you when you’re hungry.
Clearly
the Israelites were not who they were supposed to be because they were hungry.
I don’t know if the current slang word “hangry” was coined out of these
Snickers commercials, but that would make sense. Hangry is hungry and angry
combined, and if ever there were people who were hungry and angry, it was the
Israelites.
Verse
one, which we don’t read, gives us the time frame for the rest of the verses
that we do read. It was the fifteenth day of the second month since the
Israelites were freed from captivity in Egypt .
That means that approximately six weeks had passed since Moses, Aaron and
Miriam led the people out of captivity, across the Red Sea
into the wilderness. Six weeks and the people were complaining. They were
hungry. They were thirsty. They were wondering what Moses had really done to
them by bringing them out into this wasteland. What was the point of taking
them out of Egypt
if only to starve them in the desert? They were promised a Promised Land, but
as one commentator put it, the only land they were seeing was sand upon sand
upon sand. What provisions they brought with them were dwindling fast, and they
were hungry and thirsty and tired. So the murmuring and the complaining began
in earnest.
I
am not making light of the Israelites complaint. Nor am I making light of their
fears. I imagine they were afraid, perhaps very afraid. They had put their
trust in this guy Moses to lead them out of Pharaoh’s slavery, and now they
were wondering whether that was a mistake. It is funny how fear and hunger and
doubt play tricks on your memory. Captivity under Pharaoh was brutal. They were
worked mercilessly; for many of them they were worked literally to death. They
were starved and beaten. They had no freedom. They had no reason to hope. They
had no reason to believe that their future held anything but more of the same.
But
if you were dropped into the reading of this passage without any knowledge of
what had come before, you would think from their telling that their lives in Egypt
were an ongoing delight. They were not starving in Egypt ;
indeed they sat by the fleshpots and had their fill of bread. Slavery under
Pharaoh sounds like paradise on earth, a return to the Garden!
But
it wasn’t. We know that. The Israelites knew that. But the evil you know is
better than the one you don’t, and I imagine the Israelites were terrified of
the potential unknown evils they would soon find themselves in. Would they
actually starve to death here in this wasteland? Would they be led out of Egypt
only to be abandoned? Should they have trusted Moses and Aaron in the first
place?
Trust
is at the heart of this passage. The Israelites placed their trust in Moses and
Aaron, and they complained to and against them. But Moses told the people that
when they complained they were really complaining against the Lord. It was the
Lord who brought them out of Egypt ,
and it would be the Lord who would provide for them. How would the Lord
provide? By raining bread from heaven to be gathered in the morning and quails
in the evening for meat at their nightly meal.
Considering
what the congregation of the Israelites had already seen and experienced, this
strange sounding response should have come as no surprise. But perhaps some of
them were hoping for a little more. I don’t mean to sound ungracious, but if I
had been among their midst, I might have thought – bread good, quail good, but
would some fresh fruit have been a problem?
Think
too about how God provided the manna and the quail. With the exception of the
sixth day, when they were allowed to gather enough to provide for two days,
they were given just enough. Hoarding or saving could not happen because the
manna would spoil. And have you ever eaten quail? It’s a good meat, but there’s
not enough on any one bird for more than one meal. It’s pretty small; tasty,
but small. Manna and quail; God gave them just enough.
Why
did God not give them more? Why did God not give them an abundance that they
could store, save up, hoard? The obvious answer is because God wanted them to
trust God each day for what they needed. If they were able to store and save,
it’s quite possible they would have begun to count more on themselves and their
own abilities than on God. When they were forced every day to rely on God for
everything that they needed to survive, they had no other choice but to trust.
The
Israelites’ time in the wilderness was a time to learn trust in God. It would a
hard lesson, and one that would need to be relearned over and over again – in
their remaining years in the wilderness and beyond. But it was also a time of
formation. Remember the Snickers tagline: You’re not you when you’re hungry.
The Israelites were not yet who they were, who they were supposed to be, not
just because they were hungry, but because they were still being formed, being
called, being shaped into who God created them to be.
I
may be wrong, but I think this may be the first instance when the Israelites
are called a congregation. They are not referred to only as a people or as a
family, but a congregation. They are gathered together, called together by God
for God. Their time in the wilderness will form them as a congregation, as
God’s people. It will shape them, test them, try them, and teach them. They
would be called to trust God completely with their entire selves. It was a time
to make them who they were supposed to be.
When
it came to trusting God, the Israelites did not always pass the test. I can’t
point a finger in judgment though, because neither do I. Lately I’ve been
reading articles on financial wellness, and according to the articles I am very
sick indeed. Part of what it means to be financially well is to have cushions
of savings to fall back on in difficult times. Well. That’s easy to say, but
much harder to do. I know I’m not alone in this. And there is nothing that
tests my trust in God more than money. I have said it before that when it comes
to that side of life, I lead from a place of scarcity rather than abundance;
meaning that I am convinced more that disaster lies ahead rather than I trust in
God’s care. I forget very quickly how much I have. I have no sense of
gratitude; no feeling of contentment or peace. It’s always fear, fear, fear.
When fear drives me, I want to fall back on hoarding and tightly clenched
fists. Generosity and stewardship and joy take a back seat when fear is driving
the car.
And
if this is true for me, for any individual, how is it true for a congregation?
I am not speaking only in terms of money and finances; I am speaking in terms
of fear. How is our collective memory distorted when it comes to the “good old
days?” The good old days of the church, the good old days of society and
culture, etc?
When
I first began studying this passage for today, I was thinking of us being stuck
in the wilderness of limbo – where is God calling us to go? What is God calling
us to do? Who is God calling us to be? So I initially wanted to address the
fear that we may be feeling, something that we have been doing for a while now.
But then I thought that maybe we need to be thinking ahead to the time when the
Israelites were about to cross over into the Promised Land. At first, the
Israelites clung to God. They held tightly to the lessons they learned in the
wilderness. Their trust was high. Their confidence was higher. But time passed
and things changed. Life settled down. They went from judges who rose up to
lead when there was a need, a crisis, to demanding a king; which was a direct
sign that they were trusting more in human leadership than in God. The
wilderness became a dim memory. It did not turn out well.
I’m
not saying that our upcoming move is to the Promised Land. Nor do I want to
dampen the spirit of hope and excitement that I’m feeling, and I hope you are
all beginning to feel as well. But no matter where we reside, no matter how
large or small our congregation may be, we still need to trust that God is
leading us each day. We still need to trust that God is providing for that
day’s needs. We need to keep learning lessons in trust, and have faith that God
gives enough. God gives enough; enough for today, enough for today, enough for
today. Have faith. Have trust. Have hope. God gives enough. Let all of God’s
children say, “Alleluia!” Amen.
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