Message from the Associate Grand Chaplain, I. Jack A. Holloway – Week 5

14 And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as hoarfrost on the ground.
15 When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat. Exodus 16:14-15

Companions,
This is an interesting passage because the question is the answer. In Hebrew the word manna means “What is it?” and that is the term they continued to call this new substance. The Israelites asked God for food but they did not recognize it when they saw it. Moses’ simple answer surprised them and it is interesting that we still have that reaction to unexpected events that happen in our lives. We tend to put God’s possibilities into a paradigm of our own understanding and forget He is the creator of heaven and earth and can give us gifts that we cannot even imagine to ask for. Maybe the ‘what is this’ or ‘why this’ reaction we sometimes have to unexpected events in our lives is actually an answer to a prayer. This biblical text makes me think of a prayer many of us learned as a child but now doesn’t seem so childish.

Jack A. Holloway
R. I. Associate Grand Chaplain