A jar of manna (Exod 16:31-36)

Whenever a friend of mine travels to another place, she likes to buy a small but useful item such as a scarf, so that it can remind her of her holiday. Someone else tends to do the same but keeps a theme of Christmas ornaments going. Others take photos and frame them as mementos of good times. We all have different ways of preserving memories. As we come to the end of my series of posts on the manna, our reading concludes with a requirement to preserve a jar of manna ‘before the LORD’ (i.e. in the tabernacle or temple) by the ‘Testimony’ (the Ark of the Covenant), so that Israel in the land can see what their ancestors ate in the wilderness. The passage looks back on events from the vantage point of being settled in the land (v.35) and describes the appearance and taste of the manna to people who have not experienced it (v.31). The ancient measurement of an omer is also clarified for them (v.36), though it leaves us, modern readers, still baffled. A daily portion of food was considered to be about 1 litre (usually of barley) and it is estimated that an omer was about 1-2 litres (while an ephah equalled ca. 10-20 litres).[1]

The question that remains to be answered is why Israel was to remember the provision of manna? After all, it was special food for a special time that was never to be repeated. What practical difference would such remembrance make to Israel living in the land and provided for very differently? First, it should be noted that this memorial portion to be preserved for posterity is one omerful. In other words, it is the daily portion needed for each person: not more, not less. We so often worry ahead of time about all the ‘what ifs’ that we simply cannot calculate or plan for, but God reminds us that He will provide each day exactly what is needed. Jesus will later teach His disciples to pray ‘give us this day our daily bread’ (Matt 6:11), where the bread is suggestive of not only food but all that we need to be nourished and sustained in life. God WILL PROVIDE.

Secondly, the jar of manna evokes Israel’s extreme need in the wilderness as an important reminder for them that they depend on God, even when they seemingly work for their own bread in the land. Deuteronomy reflects on this truth in detail and exhorts the people not to become proud and rely on their own achievements and strength (Deut 8:16-18). Material possessions, health and strength are transitory and so easily stripped away. Instead, Israel (and we) must remember that it is GOD who will provide in the expected and the unexpected, the everyday and the unusual.

Finally, Exod 16:31 mentions that the Israelites named their food ‘manna’ (literally ‘what is it?’ or we might say ‘whatsit’) and this again recalls the surprising nature of what is given. This aspect has sparked further reflection in Scripture, so that the manna became an analogy for things beyond physical sustenance to mean provision or grace that comes from God (Deut 8:3; cf. John 4:31-34). When Jewish leaders challenge Jesus to top the miracle of the manna in the wilderness, Jesus replies that He Himself is the bread from heaven, his flesh and blood nourishing to eternal life (John 6:30-31,48-58). In other words, Jesus uses the manna as an analogy of the reality He brings. Jesus’ words evoke His later inauguration of the Lord’s Supper and the mysterious way in which this simple rite and the sacrifice on the cross that it represents sustain us. Moreover, the taste of the manna is compared to wafers with honey in our reading but to rich cream or oily cakes in Num 11:8. The seemingly irreconcilable difference prompted rabbis to wonder, perhaps somewhat fancifully, if the manna could change its taste according to the palate of the individual. Whether it could or could not, the surprising element in the manna is a striking illustration of God’s grace that takes many and often unexpected forms in meeting our need.

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[1] Marvin A. Powell, ‘Weights and Measures’, Anchor Bible Dictionary 6:904.