THE TEMPTATION OF FOOD 1- In the wilderness of Sin 1 2- Murmur of the people 2 - 3 3-The Manna and the quails 4 - 21 4- The Law of the holy Sabbath 22 - 31 5- The pot of Manna 32 - 36 1- In the wilderness of Sin In the Book of Exodus, it is said, “And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin” (Exod. 16.1). But in the Book of Numbers, it is said in more detail, “They moved from Elim and camped by the Red Sea. They moved from the Red Sea and camped in the wilderness of Sin” (Num. 33.10-11). The scholar Origen believes that Elim means rams, although some others believe that it means trees. According to him, rams represent the leaders of the flock, namely, the twelve apostles (wells of water) and the seventy disciples (palm trees), who, by the Lord Jesus Christ, led the people to the coast of the Red Sea (Num. 33.10), specifically on its more secure side. They crossed it once, and in it, Pharaoh and his army perished. Now, they can look at the sea fearless of its waves or storms1. The holy congregation journeyed from the Red Sea and camped in the wilderness of Sin, where God rained on them Manna from heaven for the first time. Probably in its place now, lies ‘Debbat- El-Ramleh’ which is a pile of sand at the foot of Mount Teeh. The scholar Origen believes that ‘Sin’ means either bush or temptation2.As the first appearance of God to Moses had been in the burning bush, to proclaim to him the secret of divine incarnation. In ‘Sin’, God gave His people, for the first time, the manna - a reference to the Lord Christ, who descended from heaven, for the satisfaction of the human soul. As for its other meaning as temptation, it is to remind us that where there are proclamations, we should have the spirit of discernment (1 Cor. 2.15), lest the devil deceive us with his temptations, in which he sometimes appear as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11.14), to deceive, if possible, even the elected. 2-Murmur of the people Only after one month since their departure from the land of bondage, they murmured against God, instead of praising Him, saying to Moses and Aaron, “Oh, that we have died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (Exod. 16.3). The Book says, “They got back by their hearts to Egypt”. Although they tasted the bitterness of servitude and oppression, they experienced having a down payment of the land of promise, and a life of triumph and conquest. Nevertheless, they often yearned for the smell of the pots of meat, for the lust of the eye, of the flesh, and of the haughtiness of living. Before the pleasure of such lowly sins, man forgets God’s blessings and graces and desires humiliation more than freedom. Many fathers warn us against the ‘devil of greed’, lest our bellies become our gods, as St. John Chrysostom says, “For there were the flesh-pots which the Jews 1 In Num. Hom. 27. 2 Ibid. 108 remember; there, the great tyranny of the belly.”1 Father Oghris spoke about the wars of the devil through eight wicked thoughts, counting the ‘greed in eating’, as the first among them2. St. John Climacus calls the stomach ‘the tyrant master’, and he asks us to be master of our stomach before it turns into our master. Whoever cares for his greed, while hoping to conquer the spirit of fornication, is like someone trying to quench fire with oil3. And according to Father John of Cronstadt, one should be completely sure that the enemy attacks the heart through the fullness of the belly. From another point of view, murmur was part of the nature of those people. When it reigns over their hearts, they tend to justify it by some reason or another. That is why St. John Chrysostom says that they were like little children, who sought any excuse to avoid going to school, as he says, “In this way was the wilderness a school. And as children who have been a long while at school are desirous of quitting it, so also were they at that time continually desiring Egypt, and weeping, saying, “We are lost! We are dead " (Exod. 16.3) 4.” It was not hunger that motivated their murmur, as much as it was their nature. Even after they were granted that daily fresh food, without any labor or effort on their part, they did not stop murmuring but wept again, and said, “Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this Manna before our eyes” (Num. 11.4-6). St. Jerome says, They despised angels' food, and sighed for the flesh of Egypt. Moses for forty days and forty nights fasted on Mount Sinai, and showed even then that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word of God. He says to the Lord, "the people is full and maketh idols." Moses with empty stomach received the law written with the finger of God. The people that ate and drank and rose up to play fashioned a golden calf, and preferred an Egyptian ox to the majesty of the Lord. The toil of so many days perished through the fullness of a single hour5. 3- The Manna and the quails The people murmured against Moses but he did not have no storehouses to fulfill them; yet, “esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt” (Heb. 11.26), God did not leave him nor his people in need of anything. St. Ambrose says, Moses, too, thought the treasures of Egypt to be his loss, and thus showed forth in his life the reproach of the Cross of the Lord. He was not rich when he had abundance of money, nor was he afterwards poor when he was in want of food, unless, perchance, there is any one who thinks he was less happy when daily food was wanting to him and his people in the wilderness. But yet manna, that is, angels' food, which surely none will dare deny to be a mark of the greatest good and of blessedness, was given him from heaven; also the daily shower of meat was sufficient to feed the whole multitude6. That Manna refers to the Lord Christ, who offered his holy body as food for the soul saying, “Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes 1 In Matt. Hom. 8:6. 2 To Anatolius. On the Eight Thoughts. 3 The Ladder to Heaven. 14. 4 In Colos. Hom. 4. 5 St. Jerome. Against Jovinianus. 2:15. 6 St. Ambrose. Duties of the Clergy. 2:4. 109 down from heaven and gives life to the world ... Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread, which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread, which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world” (John 6.32-33, 49-51). The following is a comparison between the old and the new manna: A- After crossing over the Red Sea, the people had to eat new food, other than that which they used to eat in the land of bondage. Likewise, as we entered into a new covenant, the Lord presented us with true spiritual food, capable of satisfying the soul and granting it eternal life. It is amazing that the manna started to come down on the people on a Sunday. This is obvious from the words of God to Moses, ”And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily” (Exod. 16.5). The day of preparation for the Sabbath, Friday, was the sixth day of the manna coming down, which means that it started coming down on a Sunday. By the resurrection of the Lord Christ from the dead on the dawn of Sunday, He offered to us His body risen from the dead, as a secret to the resurrection of our souls and bodies. Moreover, Sunday became the weekly feast of the Church, in which we enjoy the heavenly manna. B- The manna came down from heaven (Exod. 16.4), and “every man gathered according to each one’s need” (Exod. 16.18); and all of them were satisfied. The Lord Christ, the Word of God, came down from heaven and offered Himself, a Sacrament for the satisfaction to all. He offered Himself as milk to the babes, and solid rich food to the elders, to leave no soul hungry or in need. C- For those who took the manna without faith, against the commandment, and left part of it until morning, it resulted in the coming of worms, and of a bitter smell. In the same way, whosoever eats from the flesh of the Lord without faith or worthiness will carry in it the sting of death, instead of the life and sweetness that the believers taste, when they enjoy it. The Word of God is like manna: a secret of life for the repentant believers, and a secret of corruption for the unbelieving (Egyptians). In this concern, the scholar Origen says that in the manna, now, there is the sweetness of honey for the believers and worms for the unbelievers. The Word of God, the Lord Christ, discerns the thoughts, pierces the conscious of sinners with sharp goads and kindles the hearts of those who open them to him, to let them say, “Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and expounded to us in all the scriptures?” (Luke 24.32, 27). On the other hand, He is fire to consume the thorns which are on the bad soil1. Whoever gathers from it, to keep without eating it, namely, does contrary to the commandment and without faith, would be like someone who studies the Holy Book, and recognizes the Christian faith on a theoretical basis, and also to have a dead faith, according to the apostle St. James (Jam. 2.14, 15, 26). The scholar Origen says that if the unbeliever takes the word of God and did not eat it (did not live according to it) but hid it, worms would breed in it2. D- The prophet Moses says, “The Lord shall give you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to the full” (Exod. 16.8). What is that evening 1 In Exode. 7:8. 2 Ibid. 110 but the end of days or the fulfillment of time, in which the Word of God took a body, offered Himself to us to eat and to be satisfied? By His coming at the fulfillment of time, amid the darkness of the evening, He shone His light on us, turned our evening into daylight and we entered a new morning. He offered us new bread, by which the believing humanity was satisfied. Once more he says, “At evening you shall know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt; and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord” (Exod. 16.6-7). What is that evening but those moments in which the Lord Christ delivered His Soul to the hands of the Father, when the darkness covered the face of the earth; when He delivered us from the servitude of the devil, and set free those who were in Hades? And what is that morning, in which we saw the glory of the Lord, but the dawn of Sunday, in which He rose from the dead, and granted us the power and joy of His Resurrection? E- The people did not know what was that manna (Exod. 16.15). Likewise, the people could not recognize the true nature of the Lord Christ (1 Cor. 2.8). F- The manna came down over the tents, which refer to our bodies; and the Lord Christ came to our homes, and into our bodies. He became as one of us. G- The manna came down after the murmur of the people; and the Lord Christ came after enmity prevailed between God and us. And according to the apostle Paul, “When we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son” (Rom. 5.10). By the coming down of the manna, God proclaimed His love and compassion and the coming of the Lord Christ to us is a sign of God’s care and eternal love. H- The manna was described as “fine as frost on the ground” (Exod. 16.14); and the Lord’s robe, as He transfigured on the mount, “became white and glistening” (Luke 9.29). I- The manna “tasted like wafers made with honey” (Exod. 16.31); As for the Lord Christ, “His mouth is most sweet, Yes, He is altogether lovely” (Song 5.16). J- The people gathered the manna every morning; and our fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ is renewable every day, and our encounter with Him is very early. For, “those who seek Me diligently (early) will find me” (Prov. 8.17). K- The manna, after it was gathered, was ground, and cooked, to be fit for eating; and the Lord Christ came incarnated, crucified, suffered, and died, and became bread and a secret of life to those who eat Him. L- When the people despised the manna, God struck them with a great plague (Num. 11.33); and whoever unworthily eats from the flesh of the Lord, will face judgment (1 Cor. 11.27-33). Finally, when we speak of the manna, we find in it a perfect symbol of fulfillment and satisfaction, yet without excess luxury or greed. St. John Chrysostom says that we have only one stomach to fill. But you, who intend to feed it with excess luxury, are giving it what it wants to do without. As those who gathered more than they should have of the manna, gathered only worms and stench; those who live a life of luxury, and greed, are gathering for themselves corruption and not delicious food1. 4- The Law of the holy Sabbath 1 In 1 Cor. Hom. 20: 5. 111 Whoever gathered for himself extra manna for the next day, gathered worms and stench, and acquired the wrath of God and the displeasure of Moses. Yet, when the sixth day came, all were committed to gather twice as much, as a reference to the preparation for the day of rest - the great Sabbath. St. Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, says that this day of preparation, refers to the present life, in which we prepare ourselves for the coming one1. What should we prepare for the coming life? The apostle says, “For he who sows to his flesh, will of the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit, will of the Spirit reap everlasting life” (Gal. 6.8). And the scholar Origen says that it is fit for us, on the sixth day, to gather and store what would be enough for the next day. If you gather here good deeds; if you gather here treasures of righteousness, of mercy and of piety; these would be your food in the age to come. You hear in the gospel, that he, who earned ten minas, was given authority over ten cities; and he, who earned four minas, was given authority over four cities (Luke 19). This is also expressed by the apostle, “whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Gal. 6.7) 2. The scholar Origen also says that whatever you collect for the Sabbath will not be corrupted by worms, or stench, but will remain intact. Yet if you are gathering for the present life, for love of the world, what you gather will be corrupted by worms and will stink3. 5- The pot of manna Moses commanded Aaron to take a pot and put an omer of manna in it, and lay it up before the Lord, to be put later on in the tabernacle. That remained a memorial to the work of God with them, and carries a symbolic testimonial to the coming of the Lord Christ, the true Manna, coming down from heaven. The Church sees in the pot, an image of the Virgin St. Mary, who carried the Lord Christ in her womb. 1 Vita Mos.2:144. 2 In Exode. Hom. 7:5. 3 Ibid. 7:6.
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