A Sermon by Robert S. Junge

“And it was in the evening that the quail came up, and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a deposit of dew round about the camp. And the deposit of dew went up, and behold upon the faces of the wilderness a small round thing, small as the hoar frost upon the earth. And the sons of Israel saw, and they said a man to his brother, What is this? For they knew not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which Jehovah hath given you to eat.” (Exodus 16:13-15).

From common perception, many of us think of Israel’s journey to the Promised Land as being like our journey to heaven. In the story of the Lord’s miraculously delivering Israel from bondage in Egypt, perhaps we also glimpse the Lord’s answer to our own prayer: “Deliver us from evil.” We sense that in our journey through the confusing wilderness of life, we must somehow cooperate with the Lord if we are to reach our land of promise. Somehow we have to learn how to respond to our spouse, our children, our friends, our country, the Lord’s church, and even the Lord Himself!

We know that the Word teaches us how to live – how to respond. We get the general points: shun evil, love others, do good. But the specific answers elude us. The Writings explain that the specific answers are within the details of the literal stories in the Word. The Word has an internal or spiritual sense, which answers that recurring and nagging question, “What shall I do?” Yet the Writings also say, “He who does not look beyond external things cannot possibly apprehend this; for he knows not what that which is internal is, scarcely that there is anything internal, and still less that this internal can be opened, and that when it is opened, heaven is therein” (Arcana Coelestia 8513).

It's so easy to get caught up in simply coping with daily challenges. We can get enslaved by first one and then another external pressure and anxiety. Yet who and what we love, what we think, and what we will are the real internals of life. If we do not acknowledge and care about these internal things we will never see the internal of the Lord’s Word. We will never see the revealed internal meaning of life.

Today, with the help of what is revealed by the Lord in the Writings, we will try to see some of those details in the story of the Lord’s feeding Israel in the wilderness. Perhaps seeing a few of these things will help us begin to think beyond external things and begin to acknowledge the internal meaning of the Word and the internal reason for why we are here.

The Israelites had seen the miraculous plagues inflicted upon the Egyptians. Their faith, stimulated by those miracles, led them to follow Moses. In these stories, Moses represents the Word. He spoke whatever the Lord told Him, and the Word is the Lord speaking to us. In the beginning of our journey most of us see something different and wonderful about the Word. On the basis of that sense of wonder, and as part of the crowd of believers, we’re willing to follow, but only up to a point - only up to the time when we face difficult decisions, where the answers aren’t clear.

When we find ourselves bewildered in the wilderness of life, doubts creep in. We thirst for answers but, like Israel confronted with bitter water in the wilderness, we find that the few answers we do see in the Word are bitter and hard to take. It’s not so easy to follow some of those simple direct commands. Don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t commit adultery! Yet we must try to live by whatever we do see. If we do the Lord will sweeten those few truths and give us delight in them, even as He showed Moses a piece of wood that would sweeten the water for Israel. The water of truth will not only begin to quench our thirst for answers, but it will also begin to clean up our lives.

But the story regarding manna comes later. This time Israel murmured for food. It is one thing to feel delight in having some of the answers. But life is not all about head stuff. By itself knowing answers won’t solve our relationships with our spouse, our children, or our friends and neighbors. Knowing is one thing, but living by what we know is another. Just as our bodies need food as well as water., we need affection and delight as well as truth to keep our spirits alive. We thirst for truth, but we hunger, even STARVE for delight, affection, and love. Most of us, at one time or another, have known such yearning and hunger. Life is a terrifying wilderness when love for others, and from others seems to be absent or is tested. Only the Lord can feed such internal hunger.

But the Lord cannot give us that delight unless we as if of ourselves live by what we see in His Word. He can provide for us, only as He could provide for Israel, when they were willing to follow Moses, who represents His Word. And following the Word involves a struggle, because the truth confronts not only our hereditary tendencies towards evil, but also the actual evils we have confirmed in our lives. We really enjoy those evils. In that state it looks like much more fun to turn back and pursue our own likes and dislikes. The past, the fleshpots of Egypt, can look mighty attractive in comparison to compelling ourselves to do what is right. We did evil in the past because it seemed delightful and sweet. And it still looks pretty delightful and sweet when we compare it to doing what the Lord asks.

In this context and thinking a little more deeply about the Word we can relate to the words of the story, “And all the assemblage of the sons of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness. And the sons of Israel said unto them, Oh, that we had died by the hand of Jehovah in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, when we did eat to satiety! For ye have brought us forth unto this wilderness, to kill this whole congregation with hunger.” (Exodus16:2-3). Sometimes it seems as if the Lord asks too much.

But when we see the contrasts and cry out, the Lord is there, even as He was there for Israel. Then Jehovah told Moses, how He would feed Israel – how He would satisfy their hunger. “And it was in the evening that quail came up, and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a deposit of dew round about the camp. And the deposit of dew went up and behold upon the faces of the wilderness a small round thing, small as the hoar frost upon the earth. And the sons of Israel saw. And they said a man to his brother. What is this? Because they knew not what it was” (Exodus 16:13-14).

We talk about love. We say we love this or that person or thing. Love moves us. It is our very life, for if you were take away our loves what would we be? But we really do not grasp what love is. Love is that hidden manna that feeds us and lifts us up forever. Yet as we ponder it, like Israel, we may well say, “What is this?” When He was on earth the Lord helped us to understand. “Jesus said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, Moses gave you not the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the Bread of God is He who comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world. Then said they to Him, Lord always give us this bread. And Jesus said to them, I am the Bread of Life; he who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:32-35). Our challenge is to learn to say, “Lord always give us this bread.”

The Lord came into the world to restore love to Him and towards each other. He is the Source of all love. His love is there like manna every morning to sustain us. But we have to cooperate. Moses told Israel, “Gather ye of it every man according to the mouth of his eating” (Exodus 16:16). We have to do our part. The Lord’s love is there all the time, but we must as it were gather it, and take it into our lives. We have to do our part.

But love is given every man “according to his eating,” (Exodus 16:17). We will be fed. The Lord will inspire our hearts with love, but in the measure of our spiritual need. No more and no less than we can apply to our lives. And we truly apply His love to our lives, when we acknowledge it as a gift from Him -- when we take it into our hearts – in a sense when we “eat it up.” “Lord, always give us this bread!”

But if we forget the Lord’s care and let our own anxiety and fear control, then we will not truly receive his love. In fact it will repel us. If we turn His love to our own selfish concerns, it will not nurture our spiritual life. We will find no delight in the Lord’s love. Those were not content with the Lord’s measure, neglected the words of Moses, and saved some until the morning, found that the manna bred worms and stank.

So we cooperate with the Lord. We receive His love and make it a part of our life even as we receive Him as He that comes down from heaven and gives life into the world. Gathering, measuring, and eating, all according to His Word, we act as if everything depended upon us. Yet it is not truly so. Love is reciprocal. It is true that we must respond AS IF everything depended upon us – with all our hearts. Yet in doing so we must also acknowledge the Lord as the Source of all human love.

To remind us of His side of the covenant, on the sixth day the Lord provided double the manna. What is left over does not stink and breed worms on the seventh day. Those who cooperate with the Lord and yet truly acknowledge Him as the Source of their love and their life will know the peace of His day of rest – the Sabbath of the Lord. Love and wisdom will be united in their hearts, and they will walk confidently. They will be in the order of life – the Lord’s order.

That order prescribes that we receive love as if it were our own. To achieve this sense we must go through alternating states. Life has its evening and its morning states – its ups and downs. In evening states we know external or natural delights. But in the morning we recognize that there is more to life than pleasure. We have uses to perform for our fellow man – uses towards others that express the love that the Lord provides – uses that will bring us true and internal delight and happiness. Yet “this good cannot arise except through the delights that are of the natural man” (Arcana Coelestia 8522). We need both external and internal delights, but in their proper relation to each other.

There is an expression that charity begins at home. We need to take care of food, clothing, shelter, and a host of natural things, in order to go out each day inspired to serve our neighbors. But these needs and their accompanying delights are servants; they are means to the true uses of life. The Lord also provides quail in the evening, which signify these natural delights. For example, we have times when we work with and instruct our children from a deep love to prepare them for heaven, and we also have times when we simply play with them. All human relationships have their internal and external delights. We need both. But if natural delights rule, they turn to lust and they bring spiritual death (Numbers 11).

Life is indeed a journey. We will face many trials in the wilderness. But the Lord has an inheritance prepared for each of us in His promised land. Everything that happens to us looks to this end. No matter how it appears on the dark days, if we are faithful, there will be times when the taste of the manna will be like that of a cake of honey. The Lord will be there, and He will provide as He provided for the sons of Israel. “And the sons of Israel did eat the manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat the manna until they came unto the border of the land of Canaan” (Exodus 16:35).

Additional Reference: Divine Love and Wisdom 1.

5620. 'A little resin and a little honey' means the truths of exterior natural good, and the delight that goes with these. This is clear from the meaning of 'resin' as the truth of good, which is truth derived from good, dealt with in 4748. The reason 'resin' has this meaning is that it belongs among unguent like substances and also among aromatic ones. Aromatic substances mean those kinds of entities that belong to truth derived from good, the more so when those substances also resemble unguents and consequently have oil among their ingredients; for 'oil' means good, 886, 3728, 4582. Since this resin was aromatic, see Genesis 37:25, the same word in the original language also means balm; it was also, it is clear, unguent-like or thick with oil. From this one may now see that 'resin' means the truth of good present in the natural, in this case in the exterior natural since 'resin' is mentioned first, then 'honey', meaning the delight there, is added. 'Honey' means delight because it is sweet and everything sweet in the natural world corresponds to some delight or pleasure in the spiritual world. The reason for the use of the expression 'the delight that goes with this' - that is to say, with truth derived from good present in the exterior natural - is that every truth, and more so every truth of good, possesses its own delight. But that delight springs from an affection for such truths and consequently for the use they serve.

[2] The fact that 'honey' means delight may be seen also from other places in the Word, as in Isaiah,

A virgin will conceive and bear a son, and will call His name Immanuel (God with us). Butter and honey will He eat that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. Isaiah 7:14-15.

This refers to the Lord. 'Butter' stands for what is celestial, 'honey' for what is derived from the celestial.

[3] In the same prophet,

It will be, because of the abundance of the milk which they give, that he will eat butter; both butter and honey will everyone eat that is left in the midst of the land. Isaiah 7:22.

This refers to the Lord's kingdom. 'Milk' stands for spiritual good, 'butter' for celestial good, and 'honey' for what is derived from these, namely happiness, pleasure, and delight.

[4] In Ezekiel,

Thus were you adorned with gold and silver, and your robes were fine linen, and silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, and honey, and oil; therefore you became extremely beautiful, and attained to a kingdom. With fine flour, oil, and honey I fed you; but you set this before them as a pacifying odour. Ezekiel 16:13, 19.

This refers to Jerusalem, by which the spiritual Church is meant; it describes what that Church was like among the Ancients, and what it came to be like after that. Its adornment with gold and silver is the furnishment of it with celestial and spiritual good and truth. Its robes of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth stand for truths present in the rational and in both parts of the natural. 'Fine flour' stands for what is spiritual, 'honey' for the pleasure accompanying this, and 'oil' for the good that goes with it. The fact that all these, each one, mean things of a heavenly nature may be recognized by anyone.

[5] In the same prophet,

Judah and the land of Israel were your traders in wheat of minnith and pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm. Ezekiel 27:17.

This refers to Tyre, by which is meant the spiritual Church, what it was like initially and what it came to be like subsequently so far as cognitions of good and truth were concerned, 1201. Also, 'honey' in this quotation stands for the pleasure and delight gained from affections for knowing and learning about celestial and spiritual forms of goodness and truth.

[6] In Moses,

He causes ¹ him to ride over the heights of the land and He feeds [him] with the produce of the fields; he causes him to suck honey out of the crag, and oil out of the stony rock. Deuteronomy 32:13.

This too refers to the spiritual Ancient Church. 'Sucking honey from the crag' stands for the delight taken in factual knowledge that holds truths within it.

[7] In David,

I feed them with the fat of wheat, and with honey out of the rock I satisfy them. Psalms 81:16.

'Satisfying with honey out of the rock' stands for the delight gained from the truths of faith.

[8] In Deuteronomy,

Jehovah is bringing you to a good land, a land of rivers of water, springs, and depths gushing out of valleys and mountains; a land of wheat and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey. Deuteronomy 8:7-8.

This refers to the land of Canaan, in the internal sense to the Lord's kingdom in heaven. 'A land of olive oil and honey' stands for spiritual good and the pleasure that goes with it.

[9] For the same reason the land of Canaan is called 'a land flowing with milk and honey', Numbers 13:27; 14:7-8; Deuteronomy 26:9, 15; 27:3; Jeremiah 11:5; 32:22; Ezekiel 20:6. In these places 'the land of Canaan' is used, as has been stated, to mean in the internal sense the Lord's kingdom. 'Flowing with milk' stands for an abundance of celestial-spiritual things, while 'honey' stands for an abundance of forms of happiness and delight received from these.

[10] In David,

The judgements of Jehovah are truth; they are righteous altogether - more desirable than gold, and much fine gold; and sweeter than honey and what drops from honeycombs. Psalms 19:9-10.

'The judgements of Jehovah' stands for Divine truth, 'sweeter than honey and what drops from honeycombs' for the delights received from good and the pleasures received from truth. In the same author,

Sweet are Your words to my taste, ² more than honey to my mouth. Psalms 119:103.

Here the meaning is similar.

[11] The manna which the descendants of Jacob received in the wilderness as their bread is described in Moses as follows,

The manna was like coriander seed, white, and its taste was like wafers made with honey. Exodus 16:31.

Because 'the manna' meant the Divine truth which came down from the Lord by way of heaven, it is the Lord's own Divine Human, as He Himself teaches in John 6:51, 58. For the Lord's Divine Human is the source from which every truth that is Divine springs; indeed it is what every truth that is Divine has reference to. This being so, the manna, the taste of which gave delight and pleasure, is described as being 'like wafers made with honey' - 'taste' being the delight which good provides and the pleasure that truth affords, see 3502.

[12] Because John the Baptist represented the Lord as to the Word, which is Divine Truth on the earth - in the same way as Elijah had represented Him, 2762, 5247(end), making him the Elijah who was to come ahead of the Lord, Malachi 4:5; Matthew 17:10-12; Mark 9:11-13; Luke 1:17 - his clothing and food were therefore meaningful signs. They are described in Matthew as follows,

John had a garment of camel hair and a skin girdle around his waist; his food was locusts and wild honey. Matthew 3:4; Mark 1:6.

'A garment of camel hair' was a sign of what the literal sense of the Word is like so far as truth there is concerned. That sense - the natural sense - serves as a garment for the internal sense; for 'hair' and also 'camels' mean what is natural. Food consisting of 'locusts and wild honey' was a sign of what the literal sense is like so far as good there is concerned, the delight belonging to that good being meant by 'wild honey'.

[13] In addition the delight afforded by Divine truth as this exists in the external sense is described by 'honey', in Ezekiel,

He said to me, Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your inward parts with this scroll that I am giving you. And when I ate it, it was in my mouth like honey as regards sweetness. Ezekiel 3:3.

And in John,

The angel said to me, Take the little book and eat it up; it will indeed make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey. I therefore took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it up, and it was in my mouth like sweet honey. But when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. Then he said to me, You must prophesy again over many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and many kings. Revelation 10:9-11.

'The scroll' in Ezekiel, and 'the little book' in John, stand for Divine truth. The delight this appears to possess in the outward form it takes is meant by the taste being sweet as honey; for Divine truth, like the Word, is full of delight in the outward form it takes, which is the literal sense, because this allows everyone to interpret and explain it in whatever way it suits him. But the internal sense does not allow him to do so, and this is meant by its bitter taste; for the internal sense discloses what man is like inwardly. The external sense is full of delight for the reason just stated, that a person can explain things there in whatever way it suits him. The truths contained in the external sense are all general ones and remain such until particular truths are added to qualify them, and specific ones to qualify these. The external sense is also full of delight because it is natural, concealing what is spiritual within itself. It needs to be full of delight too if a person is to accept it, that is, to be taken into it and not left standing on the threshold.

[14] The honeycomb and the broiled fish which after His resurrection the Lord ate in the presence of the disciples was also a sign of the external sense of the Word, 'the fish' meaning the truth associated with that sense and 'the honeycomb' the pleasure attached to it, described in Luke as follows,

Jesus said, Do you have any food at all here? They gave Him part of a broiled fish and some honeycomb, which He took and ate in their presence. Luke 24:41-43.

And because the fish and the honeycomb had that meaning the Lord therefore tells them,

These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and the Prophets, and the Psalms concerning Me. Luke 24:44.

The appearance is that nothing of the sort is meant, for it seems to have been purely by chance that they had part of a broiled fish and a honeycomb. But in fact their possession of these was providential - as is not only this but every other smallest fact mentioned in the Word. Because matters such as have been described were indeed meant, the Lord therefore referred to the Word, declaring that the things written in it had reference to Himself. But the things which have been written in the Old Testament Word regarding the Lord are but few in the sense of the letter, whereas everything contained in the internal sense has to do with Him; and it is from this that the Word gets its holiness. Everything contained in the internal sense is what is meant in the statement that 'all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and the Prophets, and the Psalms concerning Him'.

[15] From all this one may now see that 'honey' means the delight that is received from goodness and truth, that is, from the affection for these, and that specifically external delight and so that belonging to the exterior natural is meant. Because this delight is the kind that is gained from the world through the senses, and so contains within it much that springs from love of the world, people were forbidden to use honey in their minchahs. This is expressed in Leviticus as follows,

Every minchah which you bring to Jehovah shall be made without yeast; for no yeast nor any honey shall be used along with the fire-offering you burn to Jehovah. Leviticus 2:11.

'Honey' stands for the kind of external delight which, containing something of love of the world within it, was similar to yeast and therefore forbidden. What yeast or made with yeast implies, see 1342.

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