This business of food is truly profound. It is necessary to nourish our bodies. It is a marker of our obedience and a symbol of our devotion to God. What’s our relationship with the food God designated for us, and how does it reflect our relationship with God? A Self-Check and Point to Ponder as we consider Today’s Holy Nougat
Exodus 16:22-23 CEVDCI
[22] However, on the sixth day of the week, everyone gathered enough to have four litres, instead of two. When the leaders reported this to Moses, [23] he told them that the Lord had said, “Tomorrow is the Sabbath, a sacred day of rest in honour of me. So gather all you want to bake or boil, and make sure you save enough for tomorrow.”
Obedience, Rest, and Worship
We must remember (or understand) that the Exodus was a journey of transformation and transition. Once known as the enslaved of Egypt, the Children of Israel were becoming the Chosen of God. For them to walk fully into that identity, they also needed to change. It wasn’t easy, but it was necessary.
In Egypt, some of them would have survived by adopting the traditions and religious practices of the land, including food and drink. There was no organised religious system among the Children of Israel, they were coming from a context of personal revelation through their patriarch. With increased numbers, they were tribes (rather than a father, his wives, 12 children and their families) united by their common ancestors; and freedom from the old system of enslavement required a new pattern for their new life of freedom.
The Exodus journey provided the mechanism to take the Children of Israel out of Egypt, and more so, to take Egypt out of them. Because of their own actions, the initial process was heavily linked to their attitude toward food.
Self-Check
What’s our relationship with food designated by God, and how does it reflect our relationship with God?
Digging Deeper
As the Children of Israel transitioned from being ‘_apiru_’, as described by some scholars, their dietary practice also transitioned. Not only did the type and quality of nourishment shift, but the nature of their work and social life also shifted. True, they were in the wilderness, but they were en route to the Land of Promise. There they would be a nation under God’s rule, and that needed to be reflected in new customs.
After 400 years of back-breaking work, YHWH introduced a rhythm of rest and worship. It also included food. For six days they would labour, just like God did in Creation. Total rest came on the seventh day, the Sabbath, where they fed their spirits and rested from regular labour. Food had to be prepared in advance, so that the rest could be facilitated. In that wise, God prepared extra for them, and invited the Children of Israel to collect extra on day 6.
Naturally, some people were a bit cautious: previously, when food was kept overnight, they had to deal with worms and stench. They were having none of that. On hearing that this was a new ordinance *from YHWH*, their entire perspective shifted. This rule was about worship, renewal, and even some degree of celebration.
There is a sense in which, having accepted Y’shua in our hearts, we also are on a wilderness journey. As believers in Y’shua and Y’shua’s sovereignty, we are no longer enslaved. Rather, we are Y’shua’s Chosen and among God’s elect. This also requires a shift in us: body, mind, and spirit.
Our name has changed, and this ‘wilderness journey’ provides us with the opportunity to experience a shift in our spirits.
We are called by Y’shua to partake of special food: which He instituted in the ‘_Eucharist_’, ‘_Lord’s Supper_’, or ‘_Communion_’ as it’s commonly called. In that meal we feast on in our places of worship, each of us has the opportunity to commune with God because of Christ’s salvific work. Although it isn’t presented as the source of our rest, that Feast invites us all to remember, experience, and anticipate.
We
– remember being delivered from the bondage of our past;
– experience rest anew as we celebrate our victory over sin through Christ; and
– anticipate the Grand Rest we will experience with Y’shua in the Land of Promise.
Moreover, as we eat and drink, we are once again yoked with Christ, in whom we find rest from our labours and heavy burdens. That’s Y’shua’s promise in Matthew 11:28-29. So we also find our rest and renewal in that Feast … our act of worship. What a blessed hope in these challenging times.
Point to Ponder
What is our relationship with the food offered in Y’shua’s New Covenant, and do we allow it to bring us closer to Christ?
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May all we seek be found in Christ
