God’s Manner: Manna!
Read: Exodus 16
Dear family in the Lord!
What, you might wonder, can the post-modern society today learn from basically ancient folks wandering around in a small desert for 4 decades about 3000 years ago looking for a promised land they ended up sharing with the wrong people anyway?? Good point! Can we all agree though that the sin that was in those people's hearts back then is the same sin that still tries to dominate us today? How often do we read for example through the story of Moses with his people and recognize ourselves in the different characters described? How sweet is the Holy Spirit’s conviction of sin! We read about something that happened 1000s of years ago, start to think “those jerks!!”, until we feel the “wait a moment…”. Lets look at Exodus 16 and see what we can learn about our own and the Lord’s manners!
The context in a nutshell; The Israelites have just escaped their exile in slavery with Moses and Aaron leading them in the wisdom and power of the Lord himself. They started to wander about in the desert and experience the Lord's supernatural provision. The people begin with the infamous murmuring (“those jerks!!”…”wait a moment…”), thinking, they complain against their "irresponsible" leaders. Turns out those leaders where acting in God’s authority and appointing, so to be upset with their decisions meant to doubt God. By the way, I don’t think this means we cannot pose questions to our leaders! Let’s keep track of the motives in our hearts though when we do question others or get questioned ourselves.
Now, how does being scared of starving, like we find it in Exodus 16, relate to us today, keeping in mind that these people where just released from slavery? A known interpretation of the story of the Exodus (the “taking off”) is to relate it to us being under the reign of sin until Jesus Christ sets us free. The Israelites were set free in the physical realm, but in their minds they were still bound to Egypt. How do I know that? Ever heard of the Stockholm Syndrome? (No worries, I will end up talking about nutrition :) ). In simple words: it's a psychological reaction of a hostage towards their rulers, partnering with and interpreting their abuses and criminal actions as desirable and not questionable. That explains why often after we get freed from sinful habits e.g., we tend to feel like we want to go back to it if something unexpected occurs. In our minds we may have partnered with a sin and being freed from it needs to include an exposure and clean cut with all benefits we might have received. That includes breaking with bad food choices, just because it's tasty and everybody eats it, doesn't make it God's plan for your life!
Let me interpret the Exodus story on a different level: Nutrition. The first Spa was about facing the ugly truth: We are in captivity. We think we are on top of things, we enjoy (some sort of a) provision. Too bad that the side effects of our cheap and irresponsible (not knowing what we’re doing) lifestyle costs us our and our kids' health. Do you want to be free? Ask Jesus to free you from the reign of the spirit of modern provision. Hey, I’m not against recipes from grannys’ cookbook. I am against attitudes (strongholds) that raise themselves up against the knowledge of God. AKA in this Spa: Preservatives. We already talked about enriched foods and artificial sweeteners being vicious, let me add preservatives to the picture.
Let’s go back to Exodus, God lets it rain bread (they called it Manna) to bestow his supernatural provision on his people. With it comes the rule to not store it. God says, this is to test the hearts of the individuals in the whole people (4). Everybody gets a certain amount for every head in his family for every day. No one has too much, no one has to little (verse 18). Now read this:
19 Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.”
20 However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.
Ring a bell? Hello!! God’s provision is enough for one day for each member of our family!! The food he has created for us is good the way it is! It is meant to perish if we don’t need it! (I’m not demonizing freezers or natural ways of preservation! I am talking about the preservatives that make us sick. See below!) One critical side track question, did the Bison die out when America was only populated by the Natives or when the white men took over... Let's face it, we lost the ability to honor God's creation.
Today’s preservatives in processed foods are so bad that they not only make food taste artificial (you start to realize that when you eat the real thing!!), but way worse: they literally make us sick. Can you see the pattern by now? There is a godly way of everything leading to “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good!” and then there is the opposite. The opposite is MS, diabetes, various forms of cancer, obesity, hormonal disorders, heart issues, depression, and so forth!
Still want to blame the devil? Well, yeah, but we buy his schemes and products- literally.
What do I mean when I talk about processed foods? Basically everything you can think of in the grocery store that just needs to be tossed together and warmed up. For example: Soup, refried beans, bread, sauces, pasta meals, meats, rice meals, snacks, chips, tacos, nachos, dehydrated foods, you name it. How in the world can it stay good in that climate for years and years? Even if it is “only” weeks, most real and fresh foods have a fridge lifetime of about 3-6 days max. And that is God’s manner! Are you surprised about bad consequences for messing with his system?
As a child I used to think that food stays good for a loooong time in cans for the lack of oxygen. Now that I am an adult I left that fairytale idea behind and learned the truth: The reason are all sorts of different and complicated to spell and pronounce additives. Do you really need certain words to look for? BHA is one word to look for and avoid to get close to. There are many, many other chemicals worthy to be mentioned, making this a long and hard to read spa. Look for the foods with the least ingredients, that's a good thumb rule. If you can't pronounce it, it's likely harmful.
Let me pose this: Are you really too busy to gather the provision of the Lord together and cook your own meal? If you cook your own meals (maybe even have some bonding time preparing it with your kids), you know pretty much what’s in it and I bet you and your family enjoy it the more.
For example, instead of opening a can of Pasta with meatballs to warm up, buy whole wheat pasta, make your own sauce from fresh organic tomatoes, fresh garlic, onions and fresh herbs, look for (best: organic, Trader Joes) beef without nitrates and without nitrites (good luck with that one!). To buy regular meet, well, just think about what the cows, chicken and turkey are fed today. Not only is it cheap bad food, unlike what they were created to eat, they get fed growth hormones to add quantity, lacking quality. A must (according to Jillian Michaels book "Master your Metabolism") is to at least find meats without nitrites, those are the most harmful preservatives in meat. This is a controvercial topic though! Following Jillians advice though has proven it self to me. Your call!
Needless to say that we don't live in a desert anymore, so usually appropriate cooling of foods keep them good as long as they are supposed to, without chemical preservatives.
Needless to say that we don't live in a desert anymore, so usually appropriate cooling of foods keep them good as long as they are supposed to, without chemical preservatives.
Be blessed abundantly!
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