Miserable Manna?

[W]e loathe this miserable food (Numbers 21:5).

So I guess the Hebrews considered their daily rations from their former owners (the Egyptians) to be fine cuisine? 

It’s hard to fathom that the above statement from the book of Numbers is talking about manna from heaven. They loathed manna? Having been slaves their entire lives, they had just been liberated. Now they were complaining about the free food God was providing?

The irony is that many in churches today have no idea they are still complaining about heaven’s manna. In John 6:32-35, Jesus explained that He was the fulfillment of manna. He said, “[I]t is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven…I am the bread of life” (verses 32 and 35).

Many of today’s churchgoers want the sweet taste of praise and worship. However, serve them up a heaping helping of cultural engagement or Christian activism, and they cry out “We loathe this miserable food!” 

But how can you possibly fulfill the biblical mandate to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15) without shining the light of Jesus Christ into a darkened culture? Can you really tell someone that God’s plan for their life and marriage is sexual purity in the midst of a culture that is sexually debauched without explanation? Can you explain the will of God without talking about obedience?

For that matter, how about the biggie? How does John 3:16 make any sense at all without describing a world/culture that is immersed in sin? God so loved the world that He sent His only Son to die so that people might not perish but be given eternal life. Why did Jesus have to die on a cross to be given eternal life? And what does the world have to do with any of this? 

There is no way around exposing the darkness. This world and our culture are telling Christians to sit down and keep their mouths shut. Shut up about biblical marriage. Shut up about transgenderism being child abuse. Shut up about creationism. Shut up about the faith of the Founding Fathers. Shut up about illegal immigration. And the more the few evangelical Christian leaders and organizations are calling the culture to repent, the more the cry from many within the church is, “We loathe this miserable food!”

Progressivism has taken a firm hold in many churches and even entire denominations, so much so that little or nothing is said from the pulpit about sin, darkness, evil, hell, or Satan. Consequently, salvation becomes a moot point. For those churches, Jesus/Christianity/church has become something to add to your life to fulfill your quest for happiness. And happiness cannot be attained or achieved by making others feel bad about their chosen (sinful) lifestyle(s).

So, when it is pointed out that Jesus told the woman caught in adultery to “Go. From now on sin no more” (John 8:11), the hue and cry goes up “We loathe this miserable food!” When it is brought up that the Apostle Paul asked the pointed question, “[D]o you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?” and then proceeds to specifically name the sins that make a person unrighteous, once again, the response from many is “We loathe this miserable food!”

“[A]bstain from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:22). “We loathe this miserable food!”

“Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them” (Ephesians 5:11). “We loathe this miserable food!”

“[W]hoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). “We loathe this miserable food!”

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). “We loathe this miserable food!”

“For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24 & Matthew 19:5-6). “We loathe this miserable food!”

On and on it goes. Any passage from the Bible that hints at opposing the forces of darkness or confronting the unapologetic practice of sin, and almost immediately, the cry goes up: “We loathe this miserable food!” 

Those who prefer only to read and live by the softer parts of Scripture are heading straight into the twin headlights of a tractor-trailer. Back in Numbers 21 the statement that immediately follows “we loathe this miserable food” is this: “Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died” (Numbers 21:6). The same God who unleashed His power and wrath on behalf of the oppressed Hebrews against Pharaoh and Egypt sent snakes to bite and kill those same Hebrews!

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God,” said Jesus in response to Satan’s admonition to prove He was the Son of God by turning rocks into bread. The Word of God. Be it the written Word or the incarnate Word, it is manna from heaven. Take the part(s) you don’t like out by saying, “we loathe this miserable food” and don’t then wonder why you are being bitten by fiery serpents.

If you go back and read the rest of the story in Numbers 21, you will see that when the people acknowledged their sin of complaining about the manna and asked God for mercy, He told Moses to put a bronze serpent on a pole. Whoever was bitten could then stand before the pole and look at it, and their snake bite would not be fatal. 

One sentence before what is considered to be the most famous verse in the Bible (John 3:16) Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). Imagine that. Jesus likened His crucifixion to the time Moses put a bronze serpent on a pole to heal the people bitten by poisonous snakes because they complained that God’s food wasn’t fit. Do you see the irony?

You don’t like what the Word of God says about sexual immorality, homosexuality, repentance, original sin, creation, or anything else that doesn’t suit your moral taste buds? Then get ready for the snakes. But know this, there is still hope if you will but look to the cross and ‘let God be God.’