There is so much to put in each sermon, that I often miss things. I loved all of your comments and wanted to put so much more in the sermon. One post connected "manna" to the Lord's Prayer with "our daily bread." I think that this is an important connection. Not only because bread is so often used as an image throughout Scripture, but also because we are asked to pray that God will give us daily provisions. It completely changes our perspective about who God is, if we know that we can trust God for our daily needs. Every day, every morning, God provides just what we need. If we really believe that, then not only does our personal worry and stress melt away, but we also begin to loose the greedy and selfish thoughts that so often clog our thinking.
Another important theme from this passage that my Commentary spent a lot of time on was the theme of transitioning from rule under Pharaoh to rule under God. The people were told to draw near to God, in order to get the manna. "In drawing near, however, Israel dramatically turns its face away from Egypt and looks again toward the wilderness. It sees there what it always thought to see in Egypt and what it never expected to see in the wilderness. It is not an empty, deathly place, but the locus of God's sovereign splendor. The wilderness is more brilliant than Egypt, because Yaweh has 'gotten glory over Pharaoh' (Ex. 14:4, 17) By God's rule the wilderness is completely redefined."
May your wilderness be completely redefined by God's rule, too.
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Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Psalm 55:7
Jesus' temptation in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-13 expands and illuminates the Exodus story. He too was led out by the Spirit to be tested, to grow, and to overcome self and Satan.
In an environmental ethics class I had once upon a time, people fall into one of a few categories in their relationship to wilderness. Working for a openspace preservation agency, I see the same thing:
There are those who are afraid of the wildness of the wilderness. They wish to tame and control it; just as some fear God's wildness and try to put Him in a box.
There are those who see only the utilitarian value of nature; just as for some God is a slot (or ATM) machine for answering their prayers.
Finally, there are those who see the intrinsic value of the wild. Beauty, awe and wonder for its own sake. Some view God the same way; in Proverbs this is called the "fear of the Lord".
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. Psalm 1:7
An uncultivated, undefined region is a wilderness. Life takes us into many territories that are undefined and seem to be uncultivated. When you go out to plant a garden you must cultivate the soil. That mean you break the crusty surface of the soil to allow growth of the plant. God has planted the seeds, even in the wilderness. Who will define the region by breaking the crusty surface to allow growth among the people? I pray for willingness, energy, and ability to do so in my own wilderness and in the places of the hearts of others whom come into my life through God's leading.
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