Exodus 16:31 – 35 “Now the house of Israel called the bread manna It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey. Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Keep an omer of manna for the generations to come, so that they may see the bread I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” So Moses told Aaron, “Take a jar and fill it with an omer of manna. Then place it before the LORD to be preserved for the generations to come.” And Aaron placed it in front of the Testimony, to be preserved just as the LORD had commanded Moses. The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land where they could settle; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.” (The Israelites gathered 2 omers per person; 2 omers is approximately 4.0 dry quarts or 4.4 liters per person.)
“What’s happening?” you ask. “Why are we repeating part of yesterday’s scripture?” We are repeating because the miracle of manna deserves its own discussion.
Is there such a thing as manna? In an online article in Moment for the Winter 2019, (https://momentmag.com/manna-is-real-and-not-so-heavenly/) Ered Guttman gives a fascinating discussion entitled “Manna Is Real and Not So Heavenly.” The entire article is well worth reading, but here are a few highlights:
Several years ago, researchers from Hebrew University in Jerusalem were studying the route taken by Moses and the Children of Israel in the desert when they noticed white drops on the green stem of a desert shrub. When asked about this shrub, a passing Bedouin responded, “This is mann-Rimth that you ate when you left Egypt.” The Rimth shrub is the Bedouin name for the Haloxylon salicornicum, a plant found all over the Middle East. ,
The description of manna in the Bible matches what these researchers found in the Sinai Desert. The white drops on the shrub’s stems were the digestive byproduct of insects that feed on the plant’s sap, known as honeydew. The secretion, formed at night, is loaded with sugar. The sweet liquid hardens to the form of white granules and is still collected from spring to early fall in many places in the Middle East today.
Manna also appears in the New Testament and the Quran. Persian medieval writings on the Quran, as well as a medicine book by the 10th-11th- century Persian scholar Al Biruni, didn’t mention Haloxylon salicornicum but say manna was the sweet drops that formed on the tamarisk tree, which is common in the Sinai Peninsula as well as in what today is Iraq and Iran. Manna from the tamarisk tree was called taranjabin (Tar-angabin) manna, which means “wet honey” in Farsi.
Guttman concludes: “But although we cannot be certain which plant produced the “bread from heaven” that the Jewish people ate on their journey, we do know that “manna” is still harvested and used in parts of Iran and Iraq. The word refers to either sweet sap of any plant (tree or bush) that appears in the region or the secretion from insects that feed on trees such as the tamarisk.”
So, there really is such a thing as manna, but does this take away from the awe of the miracle? Not in the slightest! Notice that in recent times, manna – gathering is seasonal, not year round. But the Israelites ate manna for forty years! And remember that when the Israelites left Egypt, there were 600,000 men, not to mention women and children. Many estimate that there might have been as many as two million people taking part in the Exodus. No matter the source of the manna, that’s still a huge amount of manna! Two omers per man for seven days of the week would amount to 18,480,000 liters for 600,000 men for a single week!
APPLICATION: So many times we are desperately worried about having enough money and other resources to care for our families. These uncertainties have only become much worse during the COVID pandemic as businesses have gone under, leaving people without jobs.
Consider the plight of the Israelites: they were out in an unknown desert with practically no resources. If God didn’t provide for them, they were definitely going to starve to death or die from thirst. The flocks and herds that accompanied the Israelites also needed fodder and water, enormous problems all by themselves. And the miracle of the manna was repeated daily and weekly for forty years!
Hebrews 13:5 – 6 tells us, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence: “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”
PRAYER: Father God, thank you so much for your magnificent provision! Help us not to worry but to look to you and to trust that you will help us just as you did the Israelites. Thank you for the various ways you bring manna into our lives. In the matchless Name of King Jesus.
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