Jar of Manna – Part 1

Welcome

If you are stumbling across this and you have the slightest bit of curiosity of who GOD (also known as Yahweh, ADONAI, etc.) is, I sincerely welcome you to something so much bigger and greater than you have ever experienced. I am honored to be on this learning journey with you as we dig deeper into who this God is. I pray that you feel His love and nearness and that your curiosity fuels you to learn more.

If you already know God intimately, welcome! I am excited to be learning alongside you. I pray that you find courage to wrestle with the Text. That by asking hard questions, you launch yourself into deeper learning. There is so much for us Western God followers to learn.  I also pray that you are reminded of God’s love and provision.

If you do not own a Bible, but own a device that supports apps, I highly recommend YouVersion’s free Bible app: https://www.youversion.com/the-bible-app/. I do not receive any incentive for recommending them, I just really love the ease of use, study plans, and ability to toggle between various translations.

Get in the Text

Exodus 16 (TLV)

There is much to unpack in this seemingly short and simple chapter in Exodus. So much so, I will be dividing this into multiple parts. As with the entire Bible, the more time I have spent with this specific passage, the more I have noticed and the more it has become one of my favorite stories.

Summary

First, how generous and faithful is our God?! Egypt was rough for the Israelites when they were enslaved. However, verse 3 points out that God was generous enough to provide meat and bread, even though they were experiencing severe oppression. He fed them well enough so that they could rise each day, please Pharoah, and in the end, be part of God’s greater story. He could have let them starve to death under Pharoah’s hand, but he didn’t.

After hearing the Israelites grumbles, he provides them with enough quail to satisfy the people along with an omer of manna per person, each day, for seven days! He was even generous enough to provide double the portion, that would not spoil, on the sixth day (Friday), so that the Israelites could be gifted the Shabbat on the seventh day (Saturday). To define this, an omer is approximately 2 liters, or a day’s portion. The Text also indicates that the manna spoiled if more was gathered on days Sunday through Thursday, so this double portion was very intentional. Clearly these people were hungry since they were grumbling, but then to be given ample amount, but told to only gather their own daily portion – that would have required a great deal of trust and self-control. For those of you that have ever calorie counted, that would be like being given a huge buffet of all your favorite foods after going many days with minimal food but told to only consume the bare minimum of calories for metabolic maintenance.

Something else that I find so generous of God to His people, he could have given them just standard bread, bread like what they consumed in Egypt, however he chose to gift them manna. Manna is described as being white like coriander seed, appearing like a thin, flake-like frost, melting as the sun became hot, tasting like honey cakes, I imagine them being sweet and rich, melting on the tongue and being so satisfying. Like a fine dessert.

Digging Deeper

If you want to take this deeper, I would like to point out that there are multiple chiasms in this passage. We will only focus on two for now.

A chiasm is a literary device where a pattern of words or ideas are mirrored in reverse order, similar to how a palindrome works. This literary device in the Hebrew is intended to bury treasure for the readers to discover. The center of the chiasm is the treasure.

First, chapter wide chiasm:

In Exodus 16, it works in this type of pattern: A,B,C,D,E,D,C,B,A.

A: The Israelites complain about their situation in the wilderness, comparing it to the harshness of Egypt. (Verses 1-3)

B: God says he will give them food, but in a way that will challenge their obedience. (Verses 4-5)

C: God makes promises about the morning and evening. (Verses 6-8)

            D: God hears their complaints. (Verse 9)

                        E. The glory of God is experienced. (Verse 10)

            D: God hears their complaints. (Verses 11-12a)

C: God makes promises about the morning and evening. (Verses 12b-15)

B:  God gives instructions on gathering manna; however, they are disobedient. (Verses 16-30)

A: Manna is to be kept in a jar and kept in the ark as a memorial. (Verses 31-36)

…And Even Deeper

And if you want to take it even deeper, there is a mini chiasm found in verses 31-36:

The pattern here operates as A,B,C,C,B,A and is pulled out of the second “A” from above: ”A: Manna is to be kept in a jar and kept in the ark as a memorial. (Verses 31-36)”

a. Description of manna and measurement of an omer. (Verses 31-32a)

b. The manna that they are fed in the wilderness. (Verse 32b)

            c. An omer of of manna is stored up for God in a jar. (Verse 33)

c. An omer of manna is stored up for God in a jar and stored in Ark of the Covenant. (Verse 34)

b. They ate the manna they were fed. (Verse 35)

a. Measurement of an omer. (Verse 36)

Treasure

The treasure in this mini chiasm is that a jar of manna was stored up as a memorial of God’s faithfulness and goodness, for all to remember. We must remember to trust his love and provision, as it is great. This jar held such significance that it was to be stored in the ark of the covenant, with the 10 commandments.

Challenge

Do you have a “jar of manna” from your wilderness wanderings stored and placed before the LORD? Is there somewhere you store His manna to remind you of His provision and love?

NOTE: I am still wrestling with the mention of sabbath in verse 23 as this is illuded to in Genesis when God uses the seventh day to stop creating (rest), but not again until this verse. The 10 Commandments are not mentioned of until Exodus 20. I am eager to dig deeper into this. Really, each time I read any part of the Bible, there are new things brought to light. I love it!