I’m pretty sure if you looked up “creature of habit” in the dictionary, you’d find my picture, one where I’m sporting the same haircut I’ve had for the last twenty years.  My keys always go in the exact same spot.  I gravitate to the same few restaurants, and once there, I tend to order the same few things.  My “usual” has never failed me.

So, I can understand how the Israelites must have felt when they found themselves in a position where being creatures of habit wasn’t an option.  In the retelling in Deuteronomy chapter 8, we read of a time when they found themselves in a desert, surrounded by sand, with no food in sight.  They had left captivity in Egypt in the most astounding and glorious way, but they had not yet arrived at the homeland God had promised them.  They were en route to destiny, and they had gotten hungry along the way.

God had the solution for their hunger, but it was something new, something different.  He tells them in Deuteronomy 8:3 that it’s something “which neither you nor your fathers had known.”  And again in Deuteronomy 8:16, he describes it as “something your fathers had never known.” 

What is this strange new thing?  And why is it pointed out, not once, but twice that it’s something new?

Manna.  A fine, flakey substance used to make bread.  Scripture tells us it tasted like wafers with honey.  And it was a new item on the menu.

The Israelites were on a new course, one that was leading them to their promised land.  They had new hope in their hearts.  They had new commandments to live by.  And they had new food in their bowls.  Everything they were encountering was new – except for their God. 

They had to trust that their God remained the same – faithful and trustworthy – even when everything else around them was new.  They couldn’t base their trust on what was familiar and comfortable.  They had to enlarge their perspective and place their trust solely on God – not on routine, not on comfort, not on predictability. 

They had to have new faith in a new season, to trust God regardless of the circumstances.  And that trust had to lead them to obedience, to picking up the manna and eating it, even though it was foreign. 

It was a test of faith, and they passed.  By eating the manna day in and day out, they were acknowledging God as their provider.  They were accepting what He gave them, event though it looked different from anything they’d seen before, even though it wasn’t what they expected. 

Certainly, there are things in my life that look vastly different from everything I ever expected.  The story God’s given me looks so different from what I always pictured.  But like the Israelites, I need to trust Him anyway.  I need to hold on to Him and just eat the manna when it comes, even if I don’t understand it, even if it looks different.  I need to trust the Source. 

Because He’s the only thing that remains the same.  Circumstances change.  Seasons change.  And the provision God brings in this season doesn’t always look like the provision in the last season.  Imagine if the Israelites clung to their vision of what food should look like, if they refused to even try the manna.  They would’ve missed out on a sweet-tasting bread, on the nourishment they so desperately needed. 

But manna was about more than just curing their hunger.  It brought their focus back to God as their source.  It became not about the thing, the need – but about the One who meets the need.  It refocused them from the temporal to the eternal, from what’s fleeting to the only thing that endures – God Almighty. 

The miracle of manna did a mighty work in them.  It brought them from provision to the Provider – to the only thing that would sustain them where they were going.

It was a lesson well worth remembering. 

The lesson of the manna was so powerful and so important that God made sure they would always remember it.  He commanded them to put some manna in a jar and to put the jar into the Ark of the Covenant, a special gold-covered box they carried with them wherever they went.  Once they made it to their promised land, the Ark was installed in the temple, and the reminders it contained were a permanent presence.

The jar of manna is just one of the object lessons we see in Scripture.  So many of the lessons we read about in the Old Testament were accompanied with a visual – a vivid, tangible reminder of the truth God was teaching. 

• The jar of manna (Exodus 16:31-36)
• The boxes on their foreheads (Deuteronomy 6:8 and 11:18)
• The twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan River (Joshua 4)
• The blue tassels on their clothes (Numbers 15:37-41)

These served as constant reminders so they wouldn’t forget.  And time and again in Scripture we are exhorted to be careful and remember.

“Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live.” Deuteronomy 4:9 NIV

“But remember the Lord your God.” Deuteronomy 8:18 NIV

Why would God establish these reminders if there wasn’t a tendency to forget, a tendency to stray, to sin, to succumb to distraction?  God knew the Israelites would need reminders, and we are no different.  We need to constantly remind ourselves, and we need to constantly remind each other:

Remember the One who is unforgettable.  Always keep Him in mind.  Don’t neglect the truth He’s revealed in His Word.  Don’t neglect to think on it, to study it, to meditate on it, committing it to heart and mind. 

Remember what His Word says about:

• who we are in Him
• how to be in relationship with others
• how to make the right choices
• how to live life every day

Remember this truth in the midst of the noise, the busyness of life, the clamor of the world, the opposition of the enemy.  Always remember and hold on to truth.  It’s too important, too sacred, too special to forget. 

Don’t forget to remember.

Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life.

Proverbs 4:13 NIV