Day Twenty Two - Manna and Meat

Read Numbers 11:1-9

The rabble began to crave other food and again the Israelites started wailing and said, ‘if only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost- also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. (Numbers 11:4-5 NIV)

Tell me, what was the last thing you bought before you went into the second lockdown, firebreak or tighter restrictions? My hunch is that it might reveal a lot about you. Mine was posh chocolates and an hour spent in Sheffield’s best second-hand book shop. Make of that what you will.

We’ve got a lot of talk about ‘essentials’ right now; essential services, essential operations, essential shops and essential workers. We are rightly thankful for those who, through their determination and graft, keep things going. I thank God for them the way that the Israelites must have thanked God for the arrival of manna.

However, if you read Numbers 11:7 manna sounds pretty ghastly - it tasted like coriander seed and looked like resin. The word manna means ‘what is it?’ A familiar remark at the Nockels dinner table! One explanation is that it was dried larvae secretions… mmmm ... tasty. To quote from Crocodile Dundee (a truly dreadful film) ‘well, you can live off it’.

When we talk about ‘essentials’ we are really talking about the minimums that we and our society needs to keep functioning in a fairly stable way. The Israelites absolutely needed manna for their survival but, being human, they needed more than that. Before we criticise them too much for longing after cucumbers, think back to your final purchases, what you are missing right now or that Christmas list you are writing in your head.

Abraham Maslow put it most cogently with his famous hierarchy of needs. There are some things you need to stay alive. If you don’t have those, nothing else will matter much. Other things you need to stay human, and even if you can’t address them unless other more basic needs are met, that doesn’t mean they’re not essential. You can desire meat and be grateful for manna at the same time.

So thank God for the basics, and for all who are working hard to provide them. Thank God, too, for those providing things essential for full — not just minimal — life: musicians, actors, film and TV makers, teachers, game designers, curators, artists, comedians, coaches, podcasters, authors, chocolatiers and more.

Provider God,

Thank You that it is likely that my basic needs will be met today. I have bread for today and bread for tomorrow. I am mindful that that is not the case throughout this world and it makes me hungry for justice. I thank You for those whose work and skills provide me with those essentials. Yet, I need more; I need music, I need social time, I need the treats and luxuries that make life worth living. Thank you for creative people and help them through this difficult time.

Jesus you came that we might have life … yes … but also have it to the full. Amen.

Suzanne Nockels