No Loaves of Manna

Apparently I have just never paid much attention while reading the story of Moses and his people receiving "manna from heaven." I saw someone post a picture today on a scripture study Facebook group depicting the approximate size of "manna" by showing coriander seeds. They had a tagline with it that was along the lines of "I'm pretty sure my kids were visualizing loaves of bread." Well shucks lady. Way to make me feel like an ignorant toddler. 😅 My whole life I have visualized loaves of bread falling from the sky akin to the book "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" by Judi Barrett. 

My world was rocked while listening to a podcast on "Unshaken Saints" by Jared Halverson the other day when he started quoting the scriptures in Exodus 16 which describes manna as follows:

13 And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.

14 And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small around thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.

I mean, in all honesty, the description "small as the hoar frost" makes it sound more like potato flakes than coriander seeds. So when the Israelites were told to go gather manna for their meals that day, it wasn't just the simple act of grabbing a loaf for me and a loaf for you and half a loaf for Jimmy and half a loaf for Suzie. These guys had to work for their food. It may have been provided to them, but it was not something that did not require effort on their part. Jared Halverson does a really good job of relating this to how we grow in the gospel. We are given the scriptures, and prophets and weekly lesson plans for church and temples etc... But we can't just go to church and pick up our testimony of prophets "loaf" or our testimony of the Book of Mormon "loaf" or our testimony of Christ "loaf" or our testimony of temples "loaf." Instead, while we are provided with the means to be sustained, we must do our part to pick up the tiny flakes and nuggets of truth until they add up to the means to support us through our trials in this life. And sometimes, if we wait too long, we encounter the same issue as the Israelites. When the sun waxed hot, it melted (Exodus 16:21). Trials can come, and we can be unprepared because we have not prioritized collecting the flakes of truth and testimony needed.

And let's go ahead and talk about the fact that these flakes of sustenance didn't even really "rain down" as first described. Reading verses 13-14, the visual I get instead is that when the dew evaporated, it left behind the manna. Instead of changing water into wine, here we're getting dewdrops turning into manna. You can imagine the Israelites waking up that first morning thinking "Hey God, you said food would rain down. It's not raining. I'm not seeing any food." They had to wait patiently for the dew to evaporate. And then they had to be looking and paying attention to when those drops of dew transformed, and realize what it was, and what it's purpose was, and realize that this was the fulfillment of God's promise. How often do we pray for something, only to not instantly get what we wanted, and we fail to wait patiently, and we fail to keep looking for the answer, and we fail to identify the answer when it comes, fail to express gratitude at its coming, and fail to recognize it as God's hand in our lives? And on the other hand, how often do we recognize the things given to us by God, but refuse to be willing to prioritize the work involved in order to collect those blessings? 

If you're at all still interested in the concept of "manna" I would also recommend the following article from a Hebrew Studies page, "WORD STUDY – MON HU FROM HEAVEN"

I know I too have been guilty of similar tactics used by the Israelites in this story--trying to store up extra on one day so that I don't have to bother on another day. And I know it doesn't have the same sustaining effect as the small daily efforts. So, while maybe some of you have always realized this story was about more than God taking care of his whiny promised people... maybe some of you will join with me in being grateful for the realization that it's a reminder that God provides, but asks that we join him in the work.