Food saved “for future generations”
Daily Scripture
Exodus 16:11-15, 31-33, Hebrews 9:3-5
Exodus 16
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 [Hebrew man (= What?); cf. Exodus 16:31] 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” ….
31 The Israelite people called it manna (“What is it?” as in verse 15). It was like coriander seed, white, and tasted like honey wafers. 32 Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Let an omer of it be kept safe for future generations so that they can see the food that I used to feed you in the desert when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’”
33 Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, and put one full omer of manna in it. Then set it in the LORD’s presence, where it should be kept safe for future generations.”
Hebrews 9
3 There was a tent behind the second curtain called the holy of holies. 4 It had the gold altar for incense and the chest containing the covenant, which was covered with gold on all sides. In the chest there was a gold jar containing manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. 5 Above the chest there were magnificent winged creatures [Hebrew cherubim] casting their shadow over the seat of the chest, where sin is taken care of.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
Imagine being there when Indiana Jones found the Ark of the Covenant! (Okay, that was Hollywood fiction. No one has ever found that sacred gold-covered chest.) You’d likely have known the Ark held the Ten Commandments (“stone tablets of the covenant”). But you might not expect a “gold jar containing manna” (miraculously preserved or all dried out?). Yet God told Israel to keep that jar in their most sacred work of art, along with the commandments, for the sake of “future generations.”
- We still sometimes call an unexpected positive development “manna from heaven,” alluding to how Israelite history said this food just appeared in the desert after God promised it. The name was a Hebrew pun. “Manna” echoed the phrase “man hu,” which meant “What is it?” (or even “What is this stuff?”). When has God sent you something you needed in a way that surprised, or even puzzled, you? Why is it worth remembering and sharing those times?
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Surely no one would ever forget food appearing every day. Yet God told Moses to keep some manna to remind “future generations.” Israel needed that reminder. In Numbers 11:4-15 we read that the Israelites whined so much about the manna that Moses asked God to take his life. How can you help “future generations” recall the good things God has done? (Spoiler: “things were better back in my day” rarely helps.) How can you and your church nurture future generations?
Prayer
Lord God, thank you for the ways (often through your caring people) you have sent “manna” into my life. Help me effectively share those stories with future generations. Amen.
GPS Insights
Jennifer Creagar
Jennifer Creagar serves as the Community Assistance Coordination Director in Resurrection's Congregational Care Ministry. She is married and loves spending time with her family, and she enjoys writing and photography.
We have been cleaning out closets and basement shelves at my house. Over the years, boxes of stuff from our parents’ homes, and our grandparents’ homes have somehow been deposited in the back of our closets and on the shelves of our basement. Some of the boxes have never even been unpacked. We have not discovered the Ark of the Covenant stored in our basement, but stay tuned, there are still boxes to be explored. It’s that bad.
Some of those boxes contain pictures of people none of us can identify, ceramic clowns that are (sorry, Mom!) really creepy, plates and bells collected from every state, and random bits and pieces of unidentified scrapbooks. But others, oh my gosh, some of the others! My husband’s great-grandmother’s school composition books circa 1870. Baby pictures of grandparents and even one great-grandparent. Handwritten recipes, and family histories. Treasures that tell us a lot about who we are and where we come from.
The real manna from heaven, though, comes in the pages of the Bibles and the hymnals. I already had my paternal grandmother’s last Bible, complete with margin notes. I still get a lump in my throat when I see, carefully written in the margin next to 1 Corinthians 13, “Scripture read at Jennifer and Monty’s wedding, April 15, 1978.” The pages are full of notes from Sunday School, sermons, and her own observations. I consider it a priceless treasure. There are also notes in the hymnals, and hymn lyrics written out in the notebooks, in the margins of the Bible, and the backs of grocery lists! (This grandmother raised 3 boys during the Depression. She wasted nothing.)
To my great and happy surprise, the latest boxes offered up the Bibles of a great grandmother and a great-great grandmother. These, too, are full of margin notes and lines under verses that spoke to these women. One has prayer lists tucked between the pages. There is also a small pocket-sized Bible, and the name wore off long ago. It looks more like the kind a man would carry, and it has been well worn and repaired. These treasures are like the voices of these wonderful people speaking to us. These Bibles and hymnals were used daily, read and prayed over and written in so that they could remember, and now I can too. What a gift.
What a wonderful way to live, reading Scripture every day, and writing in the margins to mark what you hear in your heart when you read them, what someone else said that made a Bible story real to you, or how God’s Word brought you comfort and joy. What a blessing that these things have survived to bless and teach us, sometimes more than 100 years later. I hope I can leave a similar blessing for my great-grandchildren!
Lord God, thank you for all the women and men who created my family long before I was born. Thank you that their thoughts and feelings about you and your love can still speak to me today. Let me live into this passion for your word and the constant appreciation of your Holy Presence. Amen.
