ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

Pulelulu Ma’asi 15, 2023

The What-Is-It Bread

Ko ha Mā Fo‘ou

EXODUS 16:15, 31

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 THAT THE LORD HAS GIVEN YOU TO EAT." NOW THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL CALLED ITS NAME MANNA.

‘EKISOTO 16:15, 31

15 Pea ‘i he mamata ki ai ‘e ha‘a ‘Isileli na‘a nau fepehē‘aki, Ko e mana ia: he na‘e ‘ikai te nau ‘ilo pe ko e hā ia. Pea lea ‘a Mōsese kiate kinautolu, Ko ‘ena ia ‘a e mā kuo foaki ‘e Sihova ma‘amou kai. 31 Pea na‘e fakahingoa ia ‘e he fale ‘o ‘Isileli ko e mana: 

The Sinai wilderness is the anti-Eden, a "howling waste" (Deut. 32:10). In this godforsaken land, Israel's grumbling begins anew. The people are so famished that they wish God had just executed them in Egypt (16:3). So the Lord steps in. He transforms badlands into a bread shop. Dew falls, it evaporates, and left behind is a "fine, flake-like thing," spread like icing on the ground (16:14). Unaware of what it is, the people ask, man hu ("What is it?"). And that question christens the food: man hu is given the name man (the longer spelling, manna, is from the Aramaic and Greek translations).

"Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness," Jesus says, "and they died" (John 6:49). Manna was a fine daily bread, but carbs are not Christ. He is "the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die" (6:50). Whoever feeds on the bread of his flesh and drinks his blood has eternal life, and Christ will raise him up on the last day (6:54).

Lord, Holy One of God, to whom shall we go? You have the words, and the bread, of eternal life (John 6:68).