Jun 16 2020 Numbers 11:1-23

Why have you treated your servant so badly?

Moses has led the Israelites out of Egypt. They hungered and prayed. God gave them manna to eat. Every day, enough manna to satisfy their hunger for the day. It could not be kept or stored or hoarded, otherwise it would go bad. But it came, every day. Enough for everyone. The Israelites complained, and kept trying to hoard, and store. Nope. It went bad, and they were back to receiving sufficient manna for their day. 

After a while, they got tired of the same thing, day after day. They lamented about the leeks and garlic, cucumbers and melon, that they had while in Egypt. And the meat!  They’d gone without meat and cucumbers and melon and leeks. Instead they got manna. Day after day, manna. They complained, and God got angry, and agreed to give them meat until it “comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you”. 

This pandemic is creating real economic problems. Both 24 Hour Fitness and Gold’s Gym have filed for bankruptcy. A Portland iconic restaurant has announced its closing most of its restaurants, along with dozens of others. Upscale dine-in theaters, Cinemax has declared bankruptcy, along with Penny’s, J Crew, Neiman Marcus, Pier 1. My undergrad college has closed, for good after 170 years. Other schools are also potentially closing.

This pandemic is taking away some of our choices. Our melons, cucumbers and garlic. To be clear, the economic impact on those employees is real, and I am not trying to dismiss that real problem. The lack of demand on the Egyptians for their cucumbers and onions would have created real economic loss too. 

I am absolutely certain that the Israelites were tired of manna. And yet, they had enough, every day. As Psalm 78 says,  Man ate of the bread of angels; God provided for them food enough. 

I am also certain that we will survive without J Crew, 24 hour Fitness, and dine-in movie theaters. God will provide for us food enough. 

I am not suggesting the pandemic or the resulting economic impacts are God’s way of right-sizing our economy, or that God wants to cause deep problems for anyone. And I think there might be some benefit from right-sizing our economy. 

This morning, I’m thinking about the Israelites complaining about manna day after day,  cucumbers, and Neiman Marcus. As opposed to pining for onions, I want to face each day remembering that Jesus taught us to ‘give us this day our daily bread’. I want to be grateful for the manna I have. I do not want meat coming out of my nostrils.