Mana, Medad, Eldad, and My Talking Stick

                                                               My "Talking Stick"

EXODUS 16 & 17/ NUMBERS 11…  

Preparing for “Bible in One Year” presentation on September 28, which means reading about the mana, the “fine flaky substance, as fine as frost upon the ground…and the taste…like wafers made from honey.” A strange story indeed, its strangeness acknowledged by the very word “mana,” which translates literally from the Hebrew as “what is it?” When the fugitive Hebrew slaves asked this question, Moses rushed in to fill the epistemological void: “it is the bread God has given you to eat.”

 What else was he going to say? Confronted by a crowd of hungry people, he took a wild guess and it worked. “Try eating that stuff,” he said, in effect, and it turned out to be edible dew. Who knew?

We do much the same thing every Sunday. “The Body of Christ, the bread of heaven,” is placed in the hands of God’s pilgrim people, these latter-day fugitives from latter-day slavery. Occasionally, one of the very young communicants will look up at their parent and ask, “what is it?” The parent usually looks over toward me with an embarrassed smile, and I expect they would like to ask the same question themselves: “just exactly what is this supposed to be, anyway?”  I have an assortment of little sound-bite answers to such questions, but what I should say to this particular question (if it were to be vocalized) would be, “it is mana.”

In other words, “what is it?” Which is not only a smart---ed play on ancient Hebrew words, but also an affirmation of a strange and astonishing truth, that is, that we too are fed, refreshed, and sustained by this “fine flaky substance,“ this “bread God has given us to eat.” Thomas Merton writes, “…the act of faith is like a passage through the Red Sea and a journey, nourished by miraculous food, through the blighted heart of a land without vegetation.” (Bread in the Wilderness, p. 36.)

Also In these chapters Moses utilizes a Magical Staff to produce water from a rock, and also to control the course of a battle. “Whenever Moses held up his hand [the hand with the magic stick in it], Israel prevailed [in the battle]; and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed .” (Exodus 17:11) To win the battle, Moses had to have two of his acolytes stand beside him and hold up his arms, because they were getting tired.  Another reason not to miss acolyte practice, right?

I have no Magical Staff, but I do have a “Talking Stick” carved for me by a wise and good friend. No, the stick does not literally talk, but it does communicate. It is covered with intricate carvings that symbolize my passionate interests, such as fish and fishermen who “cast their nets in Galilee,” deer, woods, a church, and a sacred book illuminated by a single candle. I have never tried to use my Talking Stick to produce water from a rock, but it does help in daily battles against my personal demons, idols, and self-deceptions. My Talking Stick evokes for me, on a modest scale, the same kind of spiritual power that Moses’ staff did for him, and I hope you have symbolic items that function in similar fashion for you.

If any of our children had been twins I would have militated for them to be named Eldad and Medad, after the two nonconformist prophets in Numbers 11:26-30 who overslept church when Moses was, in effect, ordaining 70 “elders of the people” to “bear the burden of the people along with” him. When, during the “service”,  the 70 began to “prophesy” (which, I suppose, meant going into some kind of a trance and making sacred noises), Eldad and Medad started to exhibit symptoms of prophetic possession on their own, even though they were not present with the group, but still back at the camp. “My lord Moses, please stop them,” was the plea from Moses’ official circle, but their plea went unheard. “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets,” said Moses.

Church authorities would have done well to pay attention to Moses’ example, but most often we have not.  John Wesley, Martin Luther, and countless others might not have felt compelled to “prophesy outside the camp” if bishops and emperors had been less paranoid about preserving their monopoly over the Holy Spirit’s activities.

Anyway, since I have no twins to name (or propose to name) among my children, I will have to wait until God sends us two kittens to care for, or two possums, or two skunks. The names “Eldad” and “Medad” are too good not to use on something.