The importance of knowing life seasons – The Bible story of manna

Reading Time: 5 minutes

The story of manna in the bible (Exodus 16) is one of the powerful stories that shows that God is a provider. From this we also learn the importance of knowing life seasons. Whatever we do depends on the season we are in. There is a season to plant and also a season to harvest (Ecclesiastes 3 : 2). There is time for a miracle and also time for management of things God gave us.

What I also discovered from this scripture is that knowing the season we are in is a great step towards knowing what to ask God for in our lives. The provision for the desert time is not the same as the provisions for the good times.

During our desert times, we need a miracle but during the times of good rains we need a blessing of good harvests.

The bible story of manna

⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not. ⁵ And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.”

Exodus 16 : 4 – 5 (NKJV)

¹³ So it was that quail came up at evening and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp. ¹⁴ And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground. ¹⁵ So when the children 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, “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.

Exodus 16 : 13 – 15 (NKJV)

Notes from the story

There are many things we observe from the story:

1. People were not allowed to leave the bread for the next morning.
2. Bread left until morning perished.
3. There was no bread on the seventh day.
4. On the sixth day they were required to gather double of the normal daily amount that is another portion was for the seventh day.
5. The bread reserved from the previous day did not go bad on the seventh day.

The background of the story

Before we state our lessons from this story, it is very important to understand how everything started so that we can get to know the meaning.

The bread from heaven (manna) was first given in the wilderness of Sin (Exodus 16 : 1). A wilderness is a place that is not friendly, uncultivated or a place that can not be habited by humans. The key point to note here is that the land was not suitable for farming.

What were they doing in the wilderness or desert? It is also important to understand that the children of Israel found themselves in the desert on their way to Canaan from Egypt. The key point here is that we note that the desert was not their destination, it was just a portion of the journey. Therefore, we can conclude that the Israelites were in transit.

Questions from the story that need answers

Why were people not required to leave bread until morning?

When I was reading this story, this got my attention. The reason was that God was testing if the people were going to obey His commands.

It is also worth noting that in the condition that the people were required to gather a lot of this bread and if they were permitted to store up the bread, this could possibly have delayed or slowed down the journey.

I am just imagining that some would have decided to make a permanent detour from the journey, store a lot for themselves and then forget about the promised land. This would have been easy for some people to forget that the wilderness is not their final destination.

How many times do we get side tracked by our comfort zones? This is why comfort is always an enemy of progress. As soon as a person is comfortable with a situation, he/she stops improving and loses a sense of purpose.

The Israelites had to remain focused on the final destination (which was Canaan) and this justified why this bread was supposed to be picked daily.

Why is it that the bread did not decay on the 7th day?

It is worth noting that the 7th day was a resting day for the people and they were not moving. It is also mentioned that God was not going to provide manna for them on this day. Therefore, God ensured that for the people to survive a day without food, He doubled the provisions on the sixth day.

What I understand from this is that sometimes God will give us a solution before the problem happens. This aligns to the story of 7 years of bumper harvest and 7 years of drought in Genesis 41. This is why we should not waste what God give us during good times.

During a season of plenty, we need to ensure that we manage what we have wisely because good times can be followed by bad times. Unfortunately many people will squander their resources during good times and then suffer during tough times.

The lessons from the story

God will always provide

As we have observed, the land was not good for any farming activity. In addition, the children of Israel were on their journey which would have made it difficult for them to have time to plant seeds and then wait until harvest time to get food from the land.

God performed a miracle so that the people would have something to eat. This kind of provision is what I call “a direct solution” meaning that for it to be a miracle, people are not expected to make any significant effort.

There are many types of God’s provisions. Some are not as direct as the bread from heaven. We see later in the other books of the bible that when the Israelites reached their destination, the supply of manna stopped and they started eating the produce of the land of Canaan (Joshua 5 : 12). This type of provision requires people to manage what God provided them with (in this case land and rain). They were now required to manage their resources (that is farm the land and put seeds into the ground) while praying for good harvests.

The key note here is to understand that God will always provide but the provisions depends on the season we find ourselves in.

The season will determine what to do

We have touched this lesson above. The wilderness place requires a miracle. A miracle is needed when we find ourselves in times of great need and there is nothing around us that we can use to solve our situation. This is the time we need God to answer prayers directly without requiring any effort from us.

In Canaan, the season is different from the desert situation and the people were now required to manage the land that God gave them.

This is why the importance of knowing life seasons should never be underestimated. The season determines the kind of prayer we need and what is expected from us to do.

Furthermore, we need to ensure that our prayers are aligned to our seasons. Are we in the season of working hard? Is it a season of preparing the land? Is it a time of planting? Is it a time of harvesting? Is it a time of storing our harvests?

Conclusion

This story emphasized the importance of knowing life seasons. We need to understand the stages we are in before we do anything.

If we do not understand our seasons, we can end up wasting a lot of resources which is poor management. If it is time to build, we need to be building.

What if some of our prayers remain unanswered because we do not understand the season we are in? The prayer of a miracle in the times when good management is expected of us may not work. Also despite us being good stewards, desert seasons need miracles. Now the key is on differentiating between the seasons.

In the modern world, knowing seasons will help us to determine the best time to spend, pay off debt, invest, save or give.

References

The New King James Bible. Available at: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%2016&version=NKJV (Accessed: 19 October 2021)