“You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen.”
Nehemiah 9:20-21
Last time we saw the Israelites show deep rejection toward Yahweh, creating a golden calf, boldly declaring it was what carried them out of Egypt. But we also saw His exceeding compassion in not refusing to guide them. Today we see in more detail the ways He took care of His people.
“You gave them your good (towb – beautiful, pleasant, agreeable) Spirit (ruach – breath, wind, spirit, air, cool, courage, grief, temper, trustworthy, windy, wrath) to instruct (sakal – to be prudent, to consider, expert, make wise, skillful, good success, teach, wisdom, guide wittingly) them…”
You gave them your beautiful, pleasant, agreeable Spirt – wind, trustworthy breath, air, courage – to teach, make them wise, skillful, expert, cause them to be prudent and have success.
Sometimes the Book of John feels like a counseling session to me. I read the Last Supper in three gospels yesterday, Maundy Thursday, and the detail John includes was pure comfort. It is to your benefit I go, so the Counselor can come. I am the Vine, you are the branches; remain in me. I pray for those You have given Me; don’t take them out of this world, set them apart by Truth.
Where would we be without this Spirit of Truth? The Holy Advocate, the Beautiful Breath and Courageous Counselor? He has always been the Godhead, Three in One. He hovered over the great deep before creation and was one-third of “Let Us Make…“
And while He manifested Himself differently under the Old Covenant, He is now fully united with us when we receive Jesus as Master. Believers, may we surrender to Him in us to make us pleasant, wise, prudent lights in this world.
“You did not withhold (mana – withhold, hold back, hinder, keep back, refuse, deny, refrain, restrain) your manna (man – whatness, type of bread; from meh – what? how? why? whatever, good end, purpose, which? when?) from their mouths (peh – mouth, accordance, boast, face, hunger, spokesman, words, commandment, eat; from pa’ah – mouth, to cleave in pieces, blow away, scatter into corners)…”
“You did not mana Your manna.” Interesting turn of phrase, don’t you think?
You did not hold back, refuse, deny your miracle bread from their mouths in hunger…
I began reading through Matthew this week, and was struck by the humanness of Jesus when He was tempted in the wilderness. Forty days with no food, all alone, the infinite limited to the finite – God was hungry.
I am so happy He knows how hard it can be to be fully human. He does not take our pain lightly in a distant, above-it-all superiority. He knows. And He does not withhold, refuse, or deny us what He knows we need. He is simply not cruel.
And in the Israelites’ desert time, He provided manna from heaven. The Hebrew for manna means “whatness.” What is this mysterious bread daily sustaining us? How does He know exactly what we need? But other questions are implied by that root word for manna, meh: what? which? when? how? why? whatever, good end, purpose?
While God clearly had issue with the Israelites unbelief and grumbling, throughout His Word He seems to invite the genuine questioning. And when we take our bloodied hearts and confused minds to Him, where do we end up? In genuine relationship, answers or no answers, with experiential knowledge He is God.
“…and gave them water (mayim – water, juice, spring) for their thirst (tsama – thirst, parched ground; from tsame – to suffer thirst)…”
And gave them springs of water for their suffering thirst…
During library time at school, I’ve been thumbing through this gem of a science-art book. With stunning photography, the artist author details the intricacy of this element. And because of condensation, evaporation, and rainfall, the water on our earth today is the same water our ancient Israelites had.
And since this two-hydrogen, one-oxygen organic chemical substance is necessary for life, Covenant Yahweh made it flow from a rock to meet His people’s needs. He will meet our needs today, too, Church.
“And for forty years you sustained (kul – comprehend, contain, calculate, endure, maintain, provide, abide, bear, forebear, guide, nourish, receive, sustain, provision, sustenance, sustainer) them in the wilderness (midbar – desert, mouth, south, speech, wilderness, from dabar – to speak, boast, declare, utter, tell)…”
For forty years you provided, guided, nourished and sustained them in the wilderness desert…
“…they lacked nothing (chaser – empty, needing, decrease, deprive, scarce, want)…
“…their clothes did not wear out (balah – old, consume, decay, waste away, worn) nor did their feet (regel – feet, to be able to endure, follow, haunt, journey; from ragal – to go about on foot, slander, spy, backbite, taught to walk) become swollen (batseq – swell, blister)…”
They lacked, were in need, deprived of nothing, experienced no scarcity. Their clothes were not worn away, decayed, nor did their feet, their ability to follow on the journey, swell and blister.
Isn’t He good? On this Good Friday, can we celebrate that He did not simply create and walk away? That He created, provided, forgave, prophesied, and became God with Us? Then He hungered, felt thirst, required clothing, knew the wear of a hot, dusty ground. A weary planet and broken hearts.
That word chaser, “they lacked nothing,” is again in our Shepherd Psalm 23:
“The LORD is my Shepherd,
We won’t have lack, be in need, and He withholds nothing from us that is required. Scarcity mentality is a lie. He is our Guide.
And because of that, and His Good Spirit in us, we can bow at His nail-scared feet and together celebrate, “It is Finished.”