Your Pot of Manna

Moses said, “This is what the Lord commands, ‘Take two quarts of manna to be kept throughout your generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’"

And Moses said to Aaron, "Take a pot and put two quarts of manna in it, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept throughout your generations."

As the Lord commanded Moses, Aaron laid it up before the Testimony to be kept in the ark.

Exodus 16: 32-33

Amplified

God fed the Israelites because they needed some learning.  Yes, they murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness about being hungry…they felt the physical hunger pains in their bellies, but the Lord God of Israel saw the lack of spiritual food in their hearts.  They were, indeed, starving, and the Lord, in His creative, mysterious ways, provided both food for bellies and food for souls every morning and evening.

Of course, the big issue was trust.  The Lord wanted His people to learn how to trust Him.  They had been in bondage for 400 years.  Generations knew nothing but misery under the hands of others.  Their hardships, I’m sure, clouded their vision regarding the God of their forefathers, His mercy, His protection and provision.  They felt rejected and forgotten.  Now they were being asked by this God to trust the thing He was doing with this nation.

Throughout the years of instruction, the Lord continuously admonished His people to “be watchful and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever.”

Through the manna in the morning and quail in the evening, God was teaching His people to trust Him daily.  They were living from miracle to miracle, living only from daily bread.  This, so that when they no longer were in a place where they needed to rely on God for their daily sustenance, the land flowing with milk and honey, they would remember from which their “bread” came...both physical and spiritual bread.

A very practical and visual reminder of this was created when the Lord commanded… commanded…Moses and Aaron to take two quarts of Manna and put it in a pot and place it in the Ark of the Covenant.  This would be their testimony to God’s faithfulness and provision to future generations.  This gold pot would speak their testimony of how God taught them to walk with the cloud (God) daily…not getting behind it and not getting ahead of it (Numbers 9: 16-23).

What are you doing with your manna?   The Israelites had 40 years of God’s daily guidance and teachings from which to draw upon for their pot of manna.  A generation of testimony that God commanded them to preserve and share with their children…so that “it may go well for you and your children after you forever.”

My pot of manna are my journals and my “children” are my nephews and niece and their children.  My father is a great genealogist.  There is a lot of talk about past generations in my family, which over the years has opened my eyes to the spiritual legacy my ancestors have passed on to me and my brothers.  And, because of this, I feel a great burden (not a hard one, but a great one) to honor this spiritual legacy by passing it on to the next generation in my family.

For you, it may be a series of letters written to your children or simply a conscious, intentional way of living now that is a testimony to your family.  When life gets icky and hard, how do your children see you respond?  These moments can be your pot of manna to them.

God has commanded us to put His manna in our pot as a testimony for future generations.  There is no greater legacy to your family.  So grab a pot and start gathering God’s manna.  Keep it in a sacred place (treat it as sacred) so that it will speak your testimony to generations to come.