Eating a Mystery

“So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, ‘What is it?’” Exodus 16:15a

After God rescued and delivered the Israelites from Egypt, they found themselves deep in the wilderness completely dependent on God. Their time in the wilderness wasn’t in vain for it was a season of years when God revealed His loving character to them. But entering that wilderness was one mystery after another. They had no understanding of any of their circumstances so they constantly were watching and waiting for God to reveal the next step. At one point they accused God of rescuing them from Egypt only to have them die in the desert. With growling stomachs and grumbling hearts they had lost focus of how good God had been to them. God in His great faithfulness provided ‘bread from heaven’ which we know as manna. I learned today that manna is translated from the Hebrew word ‘manhue’ which is actually a question. Manhue means, ‘What is it?’ ‘The Israelites were hungry. They ate the manna without knowing what it was. They ate a mystery because they knew it came from the hand of God. They trusted the source and bit down on the unknown – literally.’ Jesus & Women, Kristi McLelland, p. 42.

I can’t think of a time more accurately described as ‘biting down on the unknown…as eating a mystery.’ From the beginning of March and every day since in every area of our lives have become a mystery. Daily we ask, ‘What is it?’ What is the timeline when things will become normal? What is it that keeps me awake through the night? What is it that keeps me from believing that God is in complete control and will provide no matter what happens? What circumstances must we ‘eat’ before understanding what the future holds? 

We must do what the Middle Easterners did centuries ago. We must bite down on the Word of God instead of our fears and anxieties. We must embrace the mystery in full confidence that God will provide like He says He will. We must not lose sight of how God has provided in past mysteries. Lastly, we need to remember that in all things God knows that good He wants for us during the times we are blindly walking with Him. ‘Eating a mystery requires faith in the God providing the mystery. If we wait until we understand it all, we will never move, never set out, never know what could have been.’ p. 44