Exodus 16:2-15

The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.” So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In the evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your complaining against the Lord. For what are we, that you complain against us?” And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning, because the Lord has heard the complaining that you utter against him—what are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the Lord.”

Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites: ‘Draw near to the Lord, for he has heard your complaining.’ ” And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. The Lord spoke to Moses, “I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’ ”

In the evening quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.

Sermon Text

There are many good things in this world, that when enjoyed at the wrong time can cause a lot of trouble. It is never a good idea, for example, to eat a burrito while driving. While Burritos are an amazing bit of food, they are also messy, and no matter how well wrapped they will make a mess, and that mess may be enough of a distraction to be dangerous while driving. Likewise, while there is nothing inherently wrong with a beer or some wine, I would not recommend drinking either at the DMV. Everything, whether it is an action we take or an object we use, has its proper times and seasons for us to use it in.

I know that one of my endearing loves growing up was the Hershey’s Symphony Bar. A high fat milk chocolate, the best kind had toffee in it, and blue lettering on the wrapper. I would love these as a treat when I could get them. However, my grandfather, prone to excess as he was, eventually took to keeping a supply of them around at all times. I was now able to get a Symphony whenever I wanted, the sweetness of the chocolate became cloying overtime, and today I don’t really eat symphony bars. They lack the appeal they once had as something special, and I find myself choosing any other treat when the opportunity presents itself.

I would say that the things that persist in our experiences, the foods and experiences we most enjoy, are often the ones that we only have on occasion. While there are some things that are always good – you cannot beat, for example, a fresh tomato on buttered toast – most things are special because they are occasional. I only eat a pineapple upside down cake, with rare exception, on my birthday. I only watch Over the Garden Wall at the start of fall. I only buy liverwurst once a year, and only a very small portion. All these little tastes of things I enjoy, they help to prolong the magic of the item itself. I enjoy them in the proper context, with the proper accoutrement, and with a relish that only comes from dreaming of it over a period of time.

Our scripture today captures a moment where God’s people experience a craving for something that is likewise exceptional. They are in the wilderness, having wandered for some time, they are running low on the food they brought with them. Scavenging can only bring you so much to eat, and so the people begin to worry. Casting their mind back to Egypt, the place of their enslavement, they dream of something that is likely as imagined as it is historical.

They see themselves seated beside stew pots of meat and with mountains of bread all around them. This meal, if it existed at all, was probably a special meal. Though it may seem foreign to us, most people did not eat meat regularly in the ancient world – it was too costly. So this special food, reserved for when the community could afford to slaughter an animal, is remembered as something always available. They miss this exceptional offering, as though it was what they ate every day.

They complain to Moses about the lack of food, and God hears their complaint. God is angered by their lack of trust, but rather than punishing the people, God sees in their words a legitimate need. God makes a miracle happen, bringing Manna to rest on the camp each morning – a mysterious resin that gives the people all the nutrients they need to live. In addition, as a treat for God’s people, Quail lands in the camp. The language used in the text is that quail, “covered,” the camp. Elsewhere this word (כָּסָה) is used to describe water submerging something, or clothing completely covering a body part. The quail were thick on the camp, and the people could gather what they needed to fill their desire for something substantial, something special in their diet.

The text does not tell us how long the quail came to the camp. I choose to read this as an exceptional event. The quail came to the camp that day, and maybe even periodically throughout the wilderness wanderings. However, the meat they provided was not the standard food the Hebrews received – instead they were dependent on Manna, and that was sufficient.

We can intuit that this food was special to the people, because another book of the Torah captures a second incident involving quail. After a long time of eating Manna, some people are bored of it. The taste has gotten repetitive, the miracle has lost its shine to a certain extent. God has fed them every day thus far, but it hasn’t been any extravagant, and the people want to have something special once again. Moses is with these complaints, and in Numbers 11 God expresses the same frustration. God promises the people that they will eat quail for a month this time, and that the quail will be “coming out of their nose,” by the time they are done. The quail lands outside the camp this time, requiring people to leave the community to get it. Those who do die from the meal the gather, scripture describes them as dying, “with the quail between their teeth.”

So why the difference? In one story the quail is the good gift of God, in the other it is a death trap? What changed? I think a better question is to look at what did not change. The people, on the whole, had adapted to the wilderness fairly well. While they were still struggling and while they still had more than a few complaints, they gathered Manna each day and kept the laws of the camp as they should. Just before the second quail episode, prophecy erupted among the people, a sign that God was on the move among them. However, as with any group of people, not everyone was on board with this status quo. Some wanted the emotional high of that quail feast they had early on, and that desire changed them.

The flesh pots of Egypt are softened somewhat in their memories. They more realistically imagine eating foods associated with the poor – cheap produce and fish. Yet, those foods carry a nostalgia to them that the people cannot shake. I can relate too. My family did not always have a lot of money, and my dad grew up with even less. He taught me to love a good potted meat sandwich, and I still like to make one from time to time. It may be poor people food, but it is good food, and I  will gladly make it when I want to remember my roots.

Yet that nostalgia becomes toxic once it becomes something worth rebelling over. The people have all the food they could ever want, and yet it is not enough. God gives them exactly what they ask for, but the signs that this is not as big a gift as they might think are clear. God gave quail to the people initially by bringing a regular migration to land in their camp. This time, God sends a plague of quail – winds force the birds to land outside the camp. The people, if they really want the meat, leave the safety of God’s community, chasing after what they would like instead of what they need.

God is a giver of good gifts, and I think we are seldom put into a place where we must choose between a good thing and a bad thing as though one is a secret test of our devotion. Instead, we have many more mundane trials. We are oftentimes given all that we could ask for, we spend months or even years with a financial security that, while not ideal, is still there. Yet, we can long for more, and not care how we get it. We dream of a time that never existed when everything was easier and cheaper and we had more to eat and drink and enjoy. We create a past that never was, deny the present that God has given us to be in and celebrate, and lock out the future that God is building here with us.

We have to embrace the idea that life has seasons. That sometimes we find a blessing where we can have more than enough of everything we could possibly want. Sometimes, we will be in leaner times. What we should not do is force one time onto the other. When we only have what we need, we should not get lost in the time – real or imagined – when we had much more. We can only live in the moment we are now in, for nothing else exists behind us or before us. If we live in the moment, perhaps we will see God’s blessings more clearly. We will understand that what makes a good thing, good or bad, is often times the timing we receive it in, and whether we have to abandon what we know to be right, just so we can grab it. – Amen.