On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites celebrated the Passover. The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain. The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate of the produce of Canaan.
The Israelites have spent the last forty years living in the desert. During this time they’ve subsisted mainly on manna – a grain substitute that has literally fallen from heaven. God has promised to provide his people enough to eat every day of their journey. And although the manna has been a source of regular contention (you try eating the same thing every day for forty years), it’s been consistent. The Israelites have been able to depend on it.
As the Book of Joshua opens, the Israelites have finally reached their destination: the Promised Land. Soon after they cross the threshold of Canaan, they celebrate a very special Passover – their first in the new country. As part of their Passover meal they enjoy grain that the land has produced. This Passover Day, as it turns out, is also the last day the Israelites will ever eat manna. The very next day the people wake up, leave their tents, and find the ground bare. No more manna.
Now I assume that this is, for obvious reasons, cause for great celebration. But I wonder if it also creates temporary panic for the people. After all, many of them have never seen a day without manna. Every day of their lives there has been a ready source of (albeit boring) nourishment. Not anymore. Does this leave God’s people wondering where their next meal will come from?
Of course, the manna is simply God’s way of making good his promise to feed his people. God doesn’t promise to provide manna; he promises to provide food! But if the only food you’ve ever known is manna, the sudden absence thereof might create doubt; insecurity; even fear. How will God provide, if not the way you’ve come to expect?
God provides for us in many different ways. Sometimes God meets our needs in predictable, consistent ways for years on end – a steady job; a committed spouse; a healthy body. Sometimes God takes one of these things away. When this happens, we panic. How is God going to provide, if not in the way to which I’ve become accustomed?
The challenge for the Israelites in the Promised Land is trusting in God rather than in the stuff God provides. This is the challenge for God’s people today, too. The means by which God provides may change. But God never fails to provide what he's promised.
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