Title: The Day Manna Stopped
The day the manna stops
After crossing the Jordan River
The historical background of today's text is developed around the Jordan River. Right now, Israel has just crossed the Jordan River. The situation before and after the Jordan River is completely different. The hymn we often sing at funerals, “I will meet you across the Jordan,” refers to this passage. Ancient Israel left Egypt and lived as nomads in the wilderness for 40 years before crossing the Jordan River. Crossing the Jordan River is like crossing the Red Sea. The Red Sea event represents a complete exodus from Egypt, whereas the Jordan River represents a complete exodus from the wilderness. The Red Sea parted when Moses' rod struck the water, and the Jordan River parted when the feet of those carrying the Ark of the Covenant touched the water. If the wilderness lay before the Israelites who crossed the Red Sea, Canaan awaited them who crossed the Jordan River. They entered the Age of Wilderness through the Red Sea from the time of Egypt, and into the Age of Canaan through the Jordan River.
After crossing the Jordan River, Joshua performed the circumcision that began with Abraham. According to Joshua 5:2, when the Israelites left Egypt, all men of military age died in the wilderness, and the reason is that circumcision was not performed in the wilderness. The military age group is roughly 18 years of age or older. Those who crossed the Jordan River and gathered at Gilgal are all about 50 years old, except for Joshua and Caleb. They are free from the Egyptian spirit. They are purely new spirits in the wilderness. The Egyptian spirit could not enter Canaan. It is like looking at our history. People who are immersed in Japan's colonial history will not be able to enter the new era of the independent and independent Korean people. Those who are immersed in the Cold War mindset will not be able to lead the era of inter-Korean peace and world peace. Those who are bound by the patriarchal order will not be able to accept gender equality and reciprocal order. The Israelites who crossed the Jordan River prepared for the Canaanite era to be opened in the future with a new spirit.
When they crossed the Jordan River in the wilderness and set foot in the land of Canaan, it means that they were faced with a very urgent situation. The wilderness is a land that has no owner. The Israelites did not have to register for moving in, they just had to pitch a tent and live anywhere. However, Canaan is a land that the owner has already endured. If the owner does not give the land, there is no choice but to fight and take it. From today's point of view, the nation of Israel is like a band of robbers. They lived in Egypt for 400 years, and now they are claiming that the land of Canaan is the land that God had promised them. However, we must understand these words with the ancient society of 3,000 years ago in mind. At that time, there was no country in the sense it is today. There were no borders. Clans and tribes lived in competition with each other. There were many such tribes in Canaan. Now the people of Israel have intervened in the battle. Now they had to attack Jericho and Ai. If they succeed, they can secure a place in Canaan, but on a day of failure, they are completely over. They are in the same situation as they are now standing on the 100-cheok-gandu (百尺竿頭).
unleavened bread
If it is a moment of crisis like this, of course, you must show a determined will. However, the biblical writer tells a story that is a bit depressing. Verse 10 of the text reads: “The people of Israel encamped at Gilgal. And on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, the Passover was celebrated in the plain of Jericho.” Why did you keep the Passover in this critical time? What the hell is the Passover?
The Israelites celebrated the Passover ceremony on the evening of the 14th day of Nisan, the first month of their calendar. Converting Nisan to today's solar calendar is March-April. If we look at our traditional festival, it is the Daeboreum of New Year's Eve. Imagine today's scene. They barely survived 40 years of wandering aimlessly in the wilderness. All the adults who escaped Egypt together have died. I am still anxious about how to set up a foundation and live in Canaan in the future. Under the moonlight of the New Year's Day, they are performing the Passover ceremony while remembering the Exodus incident 40 years ago. We can fully imagine what their minds must have been. The full moon illuminates the night the most. Under the cunning moonlight, they could have realized deeply that God protects their lives even in situations such as death.
According to Exodus 12, which details the origin of the Passover, the night before they left Egypt they ate roast lamb and “unleavened bread and bitter herbs.” According to this tradition, they ate unleavened rice cakes and roasted grains at the Passover ceremony in today's text. The explanation in the text that they ate this the day after the Passover seems a bit strange. This explanation seems to indicate that eating unleavened bread had nothing to do with the Passover ritual. But in reality there is a relationship. Today's text is transmitted through a long historical process, and since it has been rewritten many times, its expression is very comprehensive. This means that in these statements the Passover ceremony and the Thanksgiving Festival events were intricately involved. Like all other festivals, Israel's Passover is basically a political and religious event called Exodus, but it is deeply connected with Canaan's agricultural culture. Such a complex historical background is all contained in verse 11. Anyway, the important thing here is that when the Israelites entered the land of Canaan, they celebrated the first Passover on the fourteenth day of Nisan, and they ate unleavened bread.
Unleavened bread is like our glutinous rice or dog cake. The Israelites eat this every Passover. That bread is the worst kind of food. But at the same time, it is also the minimum safeguard necessary for survival. Then it is also the best food. On the surface it is the worst, but in reality it is the best. It's really strange. How do you get the best price? That is the most important faith the Bible is trying to convey to us. That is the spirituality we must learn today.
The Passover is a time to remember and give thanks for the fact that God saved their lives at the very moment when Israel had to leave Egypt and enter the wilderness. That they ate the unleavened bread at that time is a confession of faith that confirms that life comes only from God. They must now enter the wilderness. Food can no longer be provided on a regular basis. If so, you should learn to live on a minimum. That is unleavened bread.
Those of you familiar with the Old Testament story will know that the Israelites ate manna, not unleavened bread, in the wilderness. Manna is a flower seed with a sweet taste. While they were living in the wilderness, manna fell into the wilderness every morning. Although the Bible says so, it does not necessarily mean that they ate only manna. They probably ate everything that came from the wild. When they met the hawkers, they must have bought food for them in exchange for the money they had brought from Egypt or junk. However, all of these were only temporary measures. There was always no food. The manna they ate in the wilderness is like unleavened bread. It is the minimum amount of food a person needs to survive. God filled this. That's right. Manna and unleavened bread were God's life-giving grace. Bread filled with God's grace! There is no other table richer than this.
Today we live without all these tables. As long as we are clinging to our possessions and achievements as we do now, we will never find God's grace, which is ontologically supreme, even in the lowest, smallest, and most difficult circumstances. You should know that unleavened bread is life. In terms of life and survival, we need to know the spiritual and practical dimension that this kind of bread, which is the most uncomfortable to eat, is the best food. That's faith. The Israelites kept the Passover for this religious education. Every Passover, they chewed unleavened bread and remembered God's grace in keeping them alive through hard times.
Passover Table and Holy Communion
Jesus also kept the Passover ceremony. The last supper that Jesus shared with his disciples was the Passover meal. When Jesus gave bread and wine to his disciples, he said they were his body and blood. That ordinance is the Lord's Supper for us today. Israel's Passover ritual continues through Jesus to early Christianity and to us. The meaning of the Passover “has passed” is the same for us Christians today. Death passed to us through the body and blood of Jesus. It is clear that our body dies, but we live with another life. Death “passed away” through Jesus Christ. Just as the Passover is the ceremony of being delivered from the dead, so is the Lord's Supper. Just as the Passover is a ceremony that confronts the boundary between death and life, the Lord's Supper is also a ceremony that confronts death and life through the event of Jesus.
Guys, think deeply about what it means to say that bread and wine are the flesh and blood of Jesus. We are people who believe in Jesus as God. If the bread of the Lord's Supper is Jesus' flesh, it also means that the bread is God. Unleavened bread, barley rice, and dog bread are God. The substance of bread itself does not mean that it is God. It means that rice is God's grace. God exists by grace. Then, the bread on which that grace comes is also the ontology of God. The Lord's Supper is the ceremony of eating and drinking the flesh and blood of Jesus. That's right. To eat bread also means to eat God.
For those of you who find my explanation strange, I'll have to give you a physics example. Where does the rice we eat come from? The light of the sun and carbon and water caused a physical action to grow rice and produce rice. The rice is again combined with water and heated to become rice. Seen from this level, eating rice is no different from eating the sun. If you think about it, that's a really big deal. This means that we can only survive by the grace of God. Its religious symbols are the Passover and the Eucharist table.
the produce of the land of Canaan
The word emphasized in today's text describing the Passover ritual is "eaten." It is repeated in verses 11 and 12. It is especially important to eat the produce of the land of Canaan. That was the main concern of the biblical writer. When they ate of the produce of the land of Canaan, the manna ceased. Manna is like a kind of ‘fast hood’. It's a makeshift food. But it was also a tremendous grace from God in terms of survival. But in the face of the produce of Canaan, it is no longer necessary.
Now we are living on the manna in the wilderness. Someday we will stop meeting. Eternal food awaits. On the day the manna stops, the reality of eternal food will be revealed. It is still a mystery from God. Instead, we are people who are eating and living by pulling that eternal food in advance through Jesus. Jesus is our true food and drink. Those who know this spiritual taste are those who eat the manna in the wilderness and have already participated in the true bread of life. You are such people.