The "Manna" Season

The “Manna” Season

Scriptures: Exodus 16, Joshua 5

The manna season: The season of lack while lacking nothing.                

The wilderness season is often cited. The season where you have to rely on God and endure unflattering and uncomfortable situations and living conditions. The season where you are being delivered from distractions, despair, or devastation. The transitional season where you are aspiring to your promise. Your promised land. The flow of milk and honey. That season is often cited and referenced. That season is often reminded and remembered. What about the season of manna? The season where you have nestled into your wilderness. Where, although you are not comfortable, you are at peace. A season where your resources are not abundant, where you are forced to rely on God. A season where your stability is not as solid as you prefer. The manna season.

What is your manna? Is it restricted finances? Is it isolation from family or friends? Is it relocation? Is it a pivot or redirection? It will look different for everyone. However, your manna is what sustains you in the wilderness. What God allots that allows you to continue through the journey. What will coast you until you arrive in your promised land. The manna season will often feel like a season of lack. A season of deprivation and destitution. A season where you might feel forgotten or abandoned. A season where you may even feel cursed. You understand your wilderness. You understand the role of the wilderness, and you understand that you are moving closer to the promised land. However, you’re still in opposition to your circumstances. Your wants and your needs become a blurred line. You may even question your heart, question your actions. Is God mad at you? Are you being punished? Where is relief?

In Exodus 16, we see where the Israelites are introduced to manna. Pay close attention to its arrival. After a moment of complaints and gripes. Exodus 16:3 states, “If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.” How relatable is this complaint? Where we are in transition. Where our reality has not caught up to the prophecy. Egypt represents a place of stagnation. A place of complacency. A place of comfort that allows you to ignore your calling or purpose. Perhaps it is a job, your hometown, a friendship, a relationship, your family even. It is a place where you are familiar. A place where you feel safe. It is suggested that the major reason people decline to pursue their dreams and goals is that they want to avoid leaving their comfort zone. They do not want to face the unknown or, most importantly, not be in control. The moment we take that leap of faith and leave the familiar. Egypt. We complain. We grow frustrated. We ask God: Why did you have me move? Or, I was obedient to your commands, so why are things so heavy and hard? Or like the Israelites: Why did you instruct me to do this? Where I feel like I’m going to fail? Die even.

Moses took the Israelites’ complaints to God. And God’s solution was what the Israelites called manna. (“The Israelites called the food manna. It was white like coriander seed, and it tasted like honey wafers. – Exodus 16:31) The manna was intended to sustain them. To nourish them throughout their journey. It was just enough. Exodus 16:18 says, “But when they measured it out, everyone had just enough. Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough. Each family had just what it needed.” So, again, what is your manna?

In the midst of frustration during the wilderness season, we often overlook our manna and its importance. We often curse it. Perhaps your resources are restricted. Your finances may be tight. You may have just enough. Enough to keep a roof over your head and decent food on your table. You may be paying your bills late or unable to pay them in full. Is that your manna? But have you taken a moment to appreciate that you have been sustained? No, you have not reached your promised land yet. Sure, you are still navigating through the challenges of the wilderness. You are tired, weary, and maybe even discouraged. You see others around you whose plight is not as challenging and back-breaking as yours. You start to question your sanity even.

You may have had to cut back or accept the aftermath of the pruning season. After all, you’ve left your Egypt (comfort zone) and are now in the wilderness (transition). We can be so focused on the transition. How uncomfortable and unknown it is. How long it is lasting and how much we’ve had to endure. That is fair. Because it really is not easy. Only a few leave Egypt, a place of bondage and stagnation. A place where growth is nonexistent and receiving God’s promises is impossible. It is natural to complain and reflect on the easiness of life before. It is easy to ponder what you had. And perhaps what you don’t have in the wilderness is what you had in Egypt. Even the Israelites reminisced on all the meat and bread they were able to eat back in Egypt. They focused on the meat and bread but neglected to remember they were enslaved.

Manna rained down on the Israelites daily. They had just enough to sustain them. Just enough to wither the wilderness. Just enough to function. And we too have to be reminded that our manna is delivered to us too. Whatever your manna is, just know that it will sustain you. It will get you through the transition. It will allow you to reflect and realize that God has been with you the entire journey. That your needs were met, that you did not fail. It is easy to think back and focus on what was because what is, is not fun or fair. What is, is hard and drastic. What is, is preparing you for what is to come. Your manna serves as a means to keep you afloat and not drown. But it is also a means to teach you how to swim. The wilderness season is also the preparation season. You have to acknowledge and appreciate the manna to receive and steward the blessings of the promise. Joshua 5:11-12 says, “The very next day they began to eat unleavened bread and roasted grain harvested from the land. No manna appeared on the day they first ate from the crops of the land, and it was never seen again. So from that time on the Israelites ate from the crops of Canaan.” The manna season, like the wilderness season, is temporary. One day the manna will stop, and the harvest will start. And until that happens, focus on the manna and not the lack. Remind yourself that you are sustained. That you have just enough. That you are not drowning. No, you may not be swimming, but you’re still not drowning. And because of that, you know that God is with you and God is sustaining you as you navigate through the wilderness.    

The manna season. The season of lack while lacking nothing.