by Walter A. Boyd (N. Ireland)
“And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the LORD, to be kept for your generations.”
We get the record of the giving of the manna in Ex.16. Included in that
record is the instruction by God that one omer full is to be laid up before the
Lord, as a testimony to God’s goodness for succeeding generations. Heb.9.4 tells
us that the omer of manna was placed in a golden pot and along with Aaron’s rod
and the tables of the Law, were placed inside the Ark of the Covenant.
The Ark itself symbolised God’s presence and authority among His people, while
the pot of manna was a reminder of His continual grace in supplying their needs.
The pot of manna, the tables of the Law and Aaron’s rod were reminders of God’s
particular provision in a crisis. God solved a crisis of ingratitude by giving
manna as Divine Provision for Life. He granted to Aaron a rod that budded to
resolve a crisis of insubordination by Divine Selection of Leadership. Lastly
the Tables of the Law were given to answer a crisis of idolatry by Divine
Precepts for Living.
One of the ways of looking at the golden pot of manna is to see practical
lessons that assure us there is always abundance with our God for the journey
across the wilderness. If we take the manna as evidence of God’s supply to meet
our recurring needs in the journey of life, we see two simple truths. There is
daily sufficiency and daily dependency.
Daily Sufficiency. The instruction was that they were to gather an omer per day per person. God’s gracious supply on any morning was sufficient for a man for that day. Any day’s supply was as able to meet his need as that he enjoyed yesterday. The children of Israel were living in the good of God’s grace as described by Jeremiah almost a thousand years later in Lam.3.22,23; “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness.” That daily sufficiency was based upon Divine Cognisance of their need, Ex.16.11, and a Divine Covenant to meet that need, Ex.3.8. So too for us, the grace of God takes account of our exact spiritual needs and He has promised to meet those needs through Christ.
Daily Dependency. The grace of God that provided an omer full of manna for today also ensured that they had none for tomorrow. At the end of each day they had nothing left in store for the next day, Ex.16.19. Every morning they were brought back to where they were when God first gave the manna — with nothing and looking to God for their needs. The covenant that gave a daily sufficiency expected human obedience and the cognisance that provided a full supply demanded human faith. Each morning the Israelite would exercise faith in effect by saying, God has promised and I will trust Him. He would show obedience by saying, God has said and I will obey. Those who tried to work a system of their own by hoarding some manna overnight, found that it stank by the morning. The lessons for us are clear. God has graciously provided for all our needs in Christ and all we have to do is avail of those resources by daily looking to Him for sustenance along the journey of life. We cannot live today on the grace of God that we gathered yesterday.
The pot of manna was a continual reminder to Israel of the faithfulness, freeness and fulness of God’s grace to them. May we learn the lesson of daily dependence upon our gracious God.
—to be continued (D.V.)