Episode Transcript
PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Exodus 16:4–5
Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”
CONSIDER THIS
We didn’t point it out, but yesterday, we saw the Israelites pining for the good old days back in the land of slavery and those all-you-can-eat buffets.
There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted. (Ex. 16:3)
It seems like an appropriate moment to remember one of our favorite wilderness prayers: “Lord, you took me out of Egypt. Now take Egypt out of me.”
Here’s perhaps one of the biggest learnings in life: We long for God. We will settle for food.
I’ll take it a step further. When we try to fill up our longing for God with food, we overeat. Further, when we try to fill up our longing for God with drink, we over-drink. Let’s reverse the phrase: When we overeat or over-drink, we are trying to satisfy our longing for God.
This is not often a conscious experience for us. It is, however, the unconscious reality at work underneath the table. Consider the oft-used phrases of “comfort food” or “soul food.” Am I saying that eating and drinking are bad? No. I am saying that overeating and over-drinking are not good. We should pay attention to them in our lives as they are pointing to a much deeper and larger dynamic at play. Further, overeating and over-drinking destroy the health of the body (a.k.a. the temple of God) and, in time, desecrate the body’s internal infrastructure: the inmost being.
The core longing of the human being, created by God in God’s own image, is for God alone. We were made to worship God—which is the totalizing orientation of our whole lives around the goodness and glory of God. This is where life comes from. When we orient our lives around other things, like food and drink (and money and a thousand other things), we think they will deliver life. They do give us a brief boost or escape or high, and, in the process, they slowly steal our lives only to demand more value from us for the next round. This is what worship is and how worship works. Worship is not singing songs on a Sunday. No, worship is the everyday reality and relationship with the provider to whom we attribute value and worth and the reception of provision, protection, and peace from this provider.
The issue is not, are we worshipping? This is a given. The issue is: What God we are worshipping? Is it the one true and living God, or is it a false god—in which case our worship is idolatry? Idolatry is the process of giving worth to a false god in exchange for some manner of provision. It invariably leads to some cycle of dependence and often addiction, which promises life while delivering death. This is why we need deliverance. Egypt is that complex calculus of how we survived slavery and made our lives work without the intimate involvement and constant intervention of almighty God. The wilderness is the place where God takes Egypt out of us.
It brings me back to the big learning: We long for God. We will settle for food.
Now, with that setup, consider today’s text:
Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”
I AM WHO I AM (a.k.a. God) established himself as their protector in delivering them from Pharaoh. The problem is they had given themselves to Pharaoh, willingly or not, as slaves. In exchange, he gave them all-you-can-eat buffets. Now, I AM would begin the long deliverance process of taking Pharaoh out of them. I AM’s next move would be to become their provider. He would supply them with food—not all-you-can-eat pots of meat—but daily bread from heaven. This is the wonder of the wilderness . . . bread from heaven . . . wonder bread.
Now, with that setup, consider this:
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (John 6:51)
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35)
And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19)
THE PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE
Lord Jesus, you are my Deliverer.
I’m not sure where even to begin today. So, let me begin with gratitude. Thank you for being my provider, my protector, and my peace. I confess my broken appetites, my unstable insecurity, and my anxious disposition. I confess to giving value and worth to so many other things to meet these core longings in my soul—which can only be oriented and integrated in you. I have believed lies and trusted liars. I was desperate. As much as my money and my supplies may try to convince otherwise, I am still desperate.
I am ready to detach from the false gods of food and drink. I am ready to know you as God, my provider. I am ready to orient my whole life around giving worth to you and receiving worth from you. Thank you for being my teacher in the wilderness. Thank you, Jesus, for teaching me to hunger and thirst for righteousness. I’m done with false religion. Jesus, you are life. Let’s go!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World without end, amen! Amen!
