CT - Catholic Telegraph

The Israelites enter into the desert

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15. [Lectionary 113, Aug. 6, 2006]

The exodus from Egypt wasn't easy for anybody, not for the people who found the hardships of nomadic desert life more than they had bargained for, not for Moses and Aaron who were constantly being called upon to take care of the people's needs, not for Pharaoh, who lost all his chariots and charioteers. Given the ongoing complaints of the people and their lack of understanding about what was going on, one might venture that the exodus experience wasn't even easy for God!

The Old Testament reading for this Sunday is from the beginning of the Israelites' desert experience. They had escaped from Egypt and slavery only a month before. Already they had grumbled against Moses because he had not provided good water for them to drink. God then gave them what they needed.

Now, as our reading begins, they are grumbling again against Moses and Aaron: "We don't have enough to eat. We were better off in Egypt. It's all your fault." Then God reassures Moses: "I will provide bread and meat for the people, as much as they can eat. Once more I will show them that I am their Lord and God." (The text as edited for the Lectionary mentions the instructions that God would give the people about gathering up the manna each day. The details of these instructions have been omitted in our reading. They have to do with not gathering the miracle bread on the Sabbath.)

Then God fulfills His promise. Flights of quail covered the camp in the evening. In the morning, the Israelites found flakes of a kind of bread on the ground which they called "manna," i.e. "What's this?" It was the Lord's gift to them.

There seem to be two important themes for us in this reading. The first is what we might call the grumbling theme. The Israelites seemed to be world-class grumblers. God had brought them out of Egypt by means of a whole series of plagues inflicted on the Egyptians. God had gotten them through the Red Sea dry shod. God had destroyed their pursuers. But they still grumbled about the short supply of water and food, about Moses and Aaron's seeming inability to take care of them as they thought they deserved, about the lack of the comfort and security they had experienced in Egypt even though they were slaves there. It's important to note that the grumbling of the Israelites was not just complaining about material needs. It also constituted a crisis of faith. Would God take care of them as He had promised?

The second important theme is the theme of God's generosity and patience with His people in spite of their defective faith. After all God had done for them, one is inclined to think that God could do better simply destroying this thankless lot and starting over again with people who were more responsive to His goodness. In fact, this is what God offers to do in Exodus 32:10, but Moses dissuades Him. The fact remains that God was consistently patient and generous with Him people, not because they deserved it but simply because God had chosen to love them.

In the gospel reading (John. 6:24-35) to which our first reading refers, we see that the Israelites of Jesus' time had preserved some of the spiritual characteristics of their ancestors in the desert.

Jesus was trying to lead them to a deeper understanding of who He was and what He intended to do for them, but they are more interested in physical food. Just a day or so earlier, Jesus had miraculously fed a crowd of 5,000. Now they want to know what kind of a sign Jesus will work so that they will be persuaded to believe in Him. "Perhaps," they coyly say, "you could provide us with bread as Moses provided out ancestors with manna in the desert." Jesus replies that, first of all, it was not Moses that took care of them in the desert, but God. Next, Jesus tells them that the kind of bread they ought to be looking for is not mere earthly food but the bread of heaven. "We'll take it!" they say. Jesus' response must have taken their breath away: "I myself am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never hunger."

We tend to think we know what we need. We turn to God in our necessity, often with detailed instructions about what we expect Him to do for us. Often we not only give God an agenda, but try to put Him on a time-table as well. But God is as patient and generous with us as He was to the Israelites of Moses' and Jesus' time. God does give us what we need, but not necessarily what we think we need. And God's gifts are often far different from and far better than what any of us would have dared to ask for.

For reflection and discussion

When/why have I grumbled against God?

How has God provided for me?