Enough
by Pei Zuan Tam
A few Sundays back, a teacher in our Kids Kingdom (a catchy name for the Sunday school) was out sick and I was asked to take the class. It was an urgent sick leave so I had to put together a lesson within hours before meeting the kids.
That Sunday morning, my 6 year old son and I drove to Target to buy a bag of marshmallows for crafts. We were going to have a lesson on manna — the food from the sky that the Israelites ate in the desert!
Most children growing up in the church had heard the story so in class I dived right into the scripture:
““The Israelites were puzzled when they saw it. “What is it?” they asked each other. They had no idea what it was. And Moses told them, “It is the food the Lord has given you to eat.””
I paused and said, “Show me your puzzled face!” Everyone in the class from 3 years old to 10 years old had their eyebrows raised and jaws dropped in all kinds of ways. You got to love that!
We continued reading:
““These are the Lord’s instructions: Each household should gather as much as it needs. Pick up two quarts for each person in your tent.” So the people of Israel did as they were told. Some gathered a lot, some only a little. But when they measured it out, everyone had just enough. Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough. Each family had just what it needed.””
As soon as we finished reading, I dropped my first question, “How many quarts of food-from-the-sky should a person pick?”
“Two!”
Smart kids.
“Did the Israelites do as they were told?” I scanned everyone’s face as I asked my second question.
“Yes!” the kids answered, as firm as before.
“But the story says ‘Some gathered a lot, some only a little,’ did they really do as they were told?”
As if catching a strong hint from their teacher, some quick kids reversed stance and began to claim that the Israelites did not obey. Others stayed silent, but their troubled little minds were written on their faces.
I wasn’t quite done yet. “But when they measured it out, everyone had just enough. Those who gathered more had no left over, those who gathered less had enough. Everyone got two quarts. The Bible says the Israelites did as there were told. How can this be?”
A few kids were not ready to give up explaining the riddle, but even they stuttered and could not get to the end of their sentences.
As a teacher, I loved to see the kids wrestle with incongruous facts. Step by step they were led into the middle of the riddle. Their initial confidence had hit a wall fast, but the jolt also woke up the sleepy corners of their minds where assumptions were stored. Their understanding was stretched, their minds were ready to expand.
The people of Israel did as they were told
The answer to the riddle lies in the simple fact that not everyone among the Israelites was physically fit to gather manna in the wilderness. Exodus 12:37 says:
“The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.” Exodus 12:37 NLT
A simple addition puts the total population of the traveling Israelites comfortably over 1 million. That is easily the size of Manhattan. A population of that size surely included the sick, the young, and the old. According to the Lord’s instructions, they too should get two quarts of manna.
As I began to unpack this clue for the children, their already worked-up minds grabbed on to it like a final missing piece in a puzzle. “They shared!” one said. “They picked up more for the people who were sick!” said the other. What a great joy for a teacher to see his students discover truth for themselves. All there was left for me to do was to reaffirm their conclusions.
A kingdom of shalom
We finished the class by having the kids do crafts with the marshmallows I prepared that morning. Each kid was given 12 pieces of “manna” to divide into 3 piles equitably — a tactile experience to the biblical truth they learned that day, and a little math work snuck in. That was a good amount of teaching for the kids, but for the adult readers this article is meant for, there is a little more to the story I need to explore.
Prior to the story of eating manna in the desert, the Israelites had spent four generations in Egypt (Genesis 15:13-16, Exodus 12:40,41). They had known the fertility of the Nile Delta of Egypt when they first settled there (Genesis 47:6). Later they came to know hardship as Pharaoh’s slaves. Pharaoh became their sole source of bread (Exodus 1:11-14).
Who were the real Israelites when God rescued them out of Egypt? Pharaoh they knew, but God the creator, the God of their patriarch Abraham they knew not (Exodus 3:13). God brought them out of Egypt, but they brought Egypt in them (Exodus 16:3). They were no closer to God than the rest of humanity (Deuteronomy 9:5).
Yet it was with this group of people that God would make a nation of priests (Exodus 19:6) and a light to all nations (Isaiah 49:6). They were to become God’s partner in establishing His kingdom of shalom, a kingdom where the orphans, widows and foreigners found protection and hope (Exodus 22:22-23, Deuteronomy 10:18, Psalms 146:9, Isaiah 1:17, Matthew 25:34-40, etc.).
Thus began the first lesson God prepared for the Israelites, the same lesson the children in my class had: the God of Abraham is a God of compassion for the oppressed and the needy. The kingdom of God is where one practices service and self-sacrifice for the dignity and benefit of those who cannot defend themselves.
A matter of trust
It wasn’t just about the requirement to be serving, as there was still more God wanted the Israelites to know. The story picks up in the following text:
“Then Moses told them, “Do not keep any of it until morning.” But some of them didn’t listen and kept some of it until morning. But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell. Moses was very angry with them. After this the people gathered the food morning by morning, each family according to its need. And as the sun became hot, the flakes they had not picked up melted and disappeared.””
God’s intention was to assure the Israelites it was okay to trust that His love and His provisions were enough. For centuries the Israelites had been certain of one thing, that is their bread came from how many bricks their hands could make for Pharaoh. Those who saved the manna overnight revealed in their hearts that they believed this newly acquainted God was holding back from them, just like Pharaoh would, like the only source of bread they had ever known. God wanted to break that shackle in their hearts.
Many of us know the famously stern phrase in the First Commandment “you shall have no other gods besides me” but often gloss over how that Commandment really began: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, the land of slavery (Deuteronomy 5:6 NIV). Before the Israelites knew the Creator, He rescued them out of slavery. Before the Israelites gave up the false security provided by their oppressor, God showed them unconditional love and provision. Before the Israelites were ready to receive the binding Commandments, God hand-held them to walk out of the valley of mistrust and taught them with manna that He is enough for today, everyday.
Desert life
Christians today recall Jesus’s catch phrases very well, such as Matthew 6:33-34:
““But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.””
Let’s break up the scripture portion of Matthew 6:33-34 into two stand-alone sentences to illustrate the reference Jesus was drawing from the manna story in Exodus.
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Matthew 6:33 NIV“So the people of Israel did as they were told. Some gathered a lot, some only a little. But when they measured it out, everyone had just enough. Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough. Each family had just what it needed.”
Exodus 16:17-18 NLT
And,
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Matthew 6:34 NIVThen Moses told them, “Do not keep any of it until morning.” But some of them didn’t listen and kept some of it until morning. But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell. Moses was very angry with them. After this the people gathered the food morning by morning, each family according to its need. And as the sun became hot, the flakes they had not picked up melted and disappeared.”
Exodus 16:19-21 NLT
The parallel is quite obvious. “Seeking His kingdom and His righteousness” is to take care of those who cannot defend themselves (Exodus 16:15-18). “Do not worry about tomorrow” is to trust that God and His love is enough for the day, everyday (Exodus 16:19-21). When we obey this teaching, we experience God’s faithfulness,
We have heard all kinds of teaching on Jesus’s saying of “do not worry”. Some are good, but the worst offense I have heard quoting this portion of scripture had all the emphasis put on “all these things will be given to you,” followed by lofty promises of material abundance if I tithed until I am broke. Teachings like this are done to stroke our fear that God is holding back from us, that unless we break our backs producing enough bricks (tithes and other forms of giving) we will not see our portions. It is appalling to see how Jesus’s teaching in trusting God can be twisted into propaganda of trusting Pharaoh.
But Jesus knew his scriptures. The imagery of his sermon on the mount in Matthew was that of a frugal and fragile desert life, in which the Israelites were given just enough manna, each day of its own (Leviticus 23:22, Leviticus 23:39-43, John 7:2,3,10). It was never a picture of abundance. In this story God made it abundantly clear (pun intended) to the Israelites that abundance is never the prerequisite for serving others. From a people of worldly wisdom and self-preservation out of fear under Pharaoh, God was to raise a people of self-sacrifice out of trust in the Creator. In one breath Jesus had taught both the Israelites in Exodus 16 and his disciples in Matthew 6 the same lesson on trusting God and how to be God’s partners in healing a broken world.
A lesson for today
As I am writing this, we are facing a global pandemic of COVID-19, a world-altering virus outbreak not seen in a century. Future generations may find it bizarre that of all things we the people of 2020 managed to clear out in the doomsday shopping frenzy, was toilet paper. Of course it is not all about toilet paper; many essential household goods such as bread, canned food, pastas, cleaning products, and more, are in short supply.
There is some merit to how a household increased purchases in order to cut down on trips to the grocery stores, thereby reducing exposure and the spreading of the virus. It is a wise thing to do for one’s own safety and the safety of others. The real problem is that the shopping frenzy has drawn out fear among many. Fear leads to suspicion, suspicion leads to hoarding, hoarding leads to a false hope of security, and a false security is ultimately a cover-up of one’s own fears materialized in the very action of hoarding.
We have an opportunity right now to be the kingdom of God, just like the Israelites fresh out of the water baptism of the Red Sea. We can learn from their failure, their doubt and suspicion in God’s provision. We can also learn from their humility, the way they served the needy and took care of those who were too weak to gather manna. We get to choose which side of trust we want to be on today and everyday, just like the Israelites with the daily bread from God.
In our next trip to the grocery store, let us gather just enough and shop as normal. Let’s not forget that a “normal” American-style shopping is still a lifestyle of abundance by a long stretch compared to the desert frugality in the Bible story. My neighbors have been checking in on me to see if I needed anything whenever they went shopping, to spare me the risk of being exposed to the virus, and I am moved and compelled to do the same in return. So on our next trip to the store, by all means pick up an extra loaf of bread, but do so as a blessing to someone else in need.
Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, let tomorrow worry for itself.
Acknowledgments
This article draws inspirations from “Yada, Yada, Yada” by Marty Solomon. Jamie Steach, Mun Jye Poi, and Jim Culwell contributed to the editing and review of this article. Thank you!