Exodus 16:1-18
“Unexpected Blessing”
08 October 2017 St.
Andrew’s Military Chapel
Anyone here ever complained to God?
I mean a good, stern, one-way conversation from you to God. Ever had a moment
where you think God has let you down? Not in a superficial way or a way in
which you feel slighted because you didn’t get what you wanted. But where you
are without basic needs and at such a point where the only thing you can do is
cry out to God and tell God that you’ve been let down. That you are in need and
God needs to drop everything God is doing, focus on you for just a moment and
fill your need.
If you’ve ever been there it’s not
a comfortable place. You are completely reliant on someone or something else
and everything is out of your control. It may result in a panic attack or just
shutting down. You are so frustrated, angry, and desperate that nothing on
earth can help you. You only have one option and that is to let God and the
world know you are at wits end and need whatever help God will provide. Your
complaints may not directly address God because you don’t want to seem
unfaithful for questioning God’s plan in the world, so you find someone with
power and address your complaints to them and are praying that your cries will
be heard and taken seriously.
This is where Israel finds itself
in today’s passage. God brought up Moses to deliver them from Egypt in dramatic
fashion. Then they ventured into the desert following where they eventually ran
out of water. They let Moses know and God provided water and led them to a
place with 12 springs of water. As they set out again, the food ran out. Again,
they complained to Moses and pondered whether it would have been better to die
in Egypt than starve in the wilderness.
God heard these cries and sent
quail each evening and manna in the morning to satisfy the basic needs of
Israel. But, there was a catch. They could only gather what they needed for
themselves. If they gathered too much, it would go bad the next day. On the
sixth day, they could gather two measures so they would not have to work on the
Sabbath. Other than that, there was no way to gather more than one needed.
If you didn’t gather the full
measure allotted you still had enough for the day and were satisfied and
without hunger. Everyone had exactly the amount they needed and not much more.
There was no way to go without and no way to take too much.
As we can see from this story of
Israel, food insecurity is a trying time for anyone. When people are hungry
they get desperate. In this case, many were comparing what death by starvation
would look like to death as a slave and were seriously contemplating death by a
slave as preferable. When one is without the basic need of food, one can take
fairly drastic action to meet that need.
Unfortunately, food insecurity is
still alive and well in our world. For most of us in developed countries we
don’t fully grasp the breadth or complexities of the problem. Or, if we have
seen and met people in food insecure areas, we get so overwhelmed with the
issue that we don’t know where to start or how to help. Issues as large as
hunger can paralyze us into inaction. Not because we don’t want to help, but
because it’s so big we don’t know how to help.
The United Nations estimates over
750 million people living in food insecurity with 66 million children worldwide
attending school hungry. Two-thirds of the population here in Asia are
classified as hungry. Wherever do we start and how can we help?
There are many organizations that
have programs to feed the world. The United Nations has its own food
distribution program, as do many of our home countries. America has United
States Agency for International Development (USAID). The UK has the Department
for International Development (DFID). Australia has Australian Aid (AusAID).
New Zealand has the New Zealand Aid Programme. Even a country such as Singapore
with no agriculture has the Singapore Cooperation Programme. Many developed
countries have ways to provide assistance to countries in the developing world.
Additionally, there are many
non-profits that provide aid around the world. Some just provide meals while
others teach sustainable agriculture or how to become more efficient farmers. Still
others provide a combination of education, meals, outreach, and agriculture
techniques. Studies have demonstrated
that there is enough food in the world, it just doesn’t end up distributed
globally.
So, what does this mean to us? It
means that the church has a role in alleviating suffering locally and around
the globe. We have been blessed in a variety of ways and it is our calling to
share that blessing with the world. It can be something as simple as only
buying what you need to cook. If you cook more than you can eat, save the
leftover for a later meal. We can give of our time or money to organizations
that are working to ensure food gets distributed where needed. The list is
long, but we can do something. This isn’t a problem that is too large for God
and the church. In fact, it’s a God sized problem that needs a God sized
solution.
There is one more lesson from this
story. God is at work in and through the world. So, help may come through
ordinary means.
A man was
stuck on his rooftop during a flood. As a good Christian, he was praying to God
to send help and save him. A man in a rowboat came by and offered him a ride.
The man shouted back that God would save him. Later a motorboat approached and
offered him a ride. Again, the man said that God would save him. After a while,
a helicopter spotted the man on his roof. They lowered a rope to pull him up to
which the man again said that God would save him. Eventually, the flood rose
too high and the man drowned. In heaven, he confronted God and asked why God
didn’t save him. God replied, “I sent you a rowboat, a motorboat, and a
helicopter. What more did you expect.”
If God
calls us to bless the world, then we should expect other people to be a place where
we too receive a blessing. Miracles happen each and every day under ordinary
circumstances and from ordinary people.
In today’s passage, blessing and
care for Israel came in the form of quail and a flaky, bread-like substance we
call manna. It’s not exactly what they were expecting or desiring, but it was a
blessing still. In a similar way, we need to avoid the denial of the man on the
roof when God is using others in the world to provide our needs. Israel
recognized God at work each morning and evening when the food they needed
arrived. So too should we look for ways that God is at work in the world
providing for us.
And that is
the way blessings should work. The heavens don’t have to open and God doesn’t
have appear in a burning bush for something to be of God. We receive an
unexpected and unmerited blessing from somewhere or someone we didn’t realize
was a blessing every day. When we remember back to Genesis 12 we are called to
take every blessing we are given and use it to bless the world. Most likely, it
won’t be in some grand gesture. Many times we may not realize we are blessing
someone with our words and actions. Because we are called to be the subtle
blessing of the world, we may not see ourselves being blessed either. So we
need to stop for a moment each day, recognize and give thanks for the blessings
in our lives. Then we are called to find a way to use that blessing to bless
others in the world, to pay that forward as the unexpected blessing in someone
else’s life.
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