Prayer: The Lesson of the Manna

“Old Habits Die Hard”
According to Gregory Titleman’s “America’s Popular Proverbs and Sayings,” this expression has been traced back to before 1450 A.D. Its first known citation in the USA is from an article written by Benjamin Frankin printed in the London Chronicle in December 1758. I suspect that it is in fact much older than reported in Mr. Titleman’s collection, as old as 1446 B.C., the date of Israel’s departure from 430 years of Egyptian bondage.

I have a whimsical theory that when the first man, Adam, experienced what we now refer to as his “fall” in the Garden of Eden, that he must have hit his head sharply on something extremely hard. This would certainly explain a lot. It could be the explanation for why today’s Christian can easily recognize and recall slights, hurts, and injustices while finding it necessary to use a concentrated effort to list specific reasons for gratitude. It could also explain why it is easy to plan and live for our tomorrows when Scripture tells us repeatedly to focus on today.[1]

Researchers tell us that it may take as little as 18 days and up to 245 days to ingrain new behavior into the life of a human being. The most extreme timeline expected is less than 9 months. In Exodus 16:35 we read that the Israelites ate the manna that God provided for forty years and were unable to acquire the new habit and understanding that God tried to form within them. All these years later, the lesson of the manna still escapes most of us.

The Bread of the Angels
In the Wilderness God provided “the bread of the angels”[2] as food for His people during the entire interval of their 40-year intermission between deliverance and inheritance. The instructions for harvest and consumption of this heavenly diet recorded in Exodus 16:16-27 are crystal clear. Read them for yourself. Even a child can comprehend them. Gather what you need for each day, but gather none for tomorrow, because this extra portion will rot and be full of worms. Even so, there were at least a few who failed to heed this warning and ended up with a jar of nasty crud. On the sixth day, the direction was to gather enough for two days making it unnecessary to work for food on the Lord’s Day. Guess what? A bunch of these folks ended up going hungry on the Sabbath.

In the model prayer, Jesus taught us to pray “Give us this day our daily bread.” It is important to note that the Greek word translated for daily bread (epiousion) is exceedingly rare. It appears nowhere in all ancient Greek literature outside of this holy prayer. Its meaning, according to most scholars, is layered.

This bread is for today only.
This bread is for what is necessary.
This bread is vital for continued existence.

Hardly a luxury or some sort of surplus for emergencies, this is bread that is essential for our survival!

The Big Deal About “Daily”
When we understand what God was teaching with the rhythm of His gift of manna, we hold a key to successful Christian living. Consider this passage from Deuteronomy 8:2-3:

“And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”

Depending on God every day is not a failure of faith. On the contrary, this is the posture of mature faith that requires devotion and daily dependence to integrate into our regular routines and normal living.

Well over a year ago, I came to realize that I needed to care for all three parts of my being. Made in God’s image, we, too, are trinitarian: spirit, soul, and body. Admitting that I had neglected the Lord’s temple, I joined a gym and introduced a new devotion to my life: routine physical exercise. I set a regular schedule and put it in my iPhone calendar and began to guard those times rigidly. Other appointments and opportunities that threatened to trespass on the time I need to prepare, workout, and recover are refused.

This is the type of inflexible and unswerving devotion we need to employ the lesson of the manna for ourselves. Jesus emphasizes the value of our daily devotion in John 6:32-35.

“Jesus then said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ They said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’ Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.’”

Our Manna is the Bread of Life
Addressing our lesson specifically, Jesus accentuates the pivotal meaning of those 40 years by saying, “I am the bread of life.” He brings our crucial requirement for His daily presence and His daily Word for living into the perfect present. “I AM.” Jesus is not the Bread you once encountered. He is not the Bread you turn to when life becomes too difficult or complicated to negotiate on your own. Read it aloud! “I AM.” Jesus Christ is present right now. He is available right now. Tomorrow may never come. Today’s connection is therefore more valuable and sweeter.

The lesson of the manna is not about garnering information and knowledge. It is focused on our continual, developing relationship with our Father through Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit who abides within us. Faith functions differently in the context of daily obedience, gratitude, and alignment with God’s plans and purposes for us. Our daily devotion leads us into true and lasting transformation of our surrendered lives.

[1]Psalms 145:2; Proverbs 8:34; Matthew 6:34; Acts 17:11 [2] Psalms 78:25