Psalm 78:24-25: “And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.  Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them meat to the full.”

If you read the context of this passage you will find it relates to the story of the children of Israel when they got tired of eating manna and they called out to God for more meat in their diet.  They wanted the cucumbers of meat of Egypt.  God said: “You want meat, I’ll give you meat but don’t come belly aching to me.”   What the children of Israel did not know that we know today is that dead birds become filled with nasty germs if left in the sun too long and if you eat it you will get sick and maybe even die.

Well after  all it came from God it had to be ok, right?   God wants you to prosper, eat, eat, enjoy.   Many did eat and many died. But they ate in their lust  and while the meat was still in their mouths they fell victim to the hidden world of microbes (verses 30-31).

Stop and consider this, the people of God knew that He does answer prayer, even if prayed in your own lust. The only problem is that if you pray in your lust you might have to suffer some consequences.  You can pray for a specific job and God will answer that prayer, but if you prayed in your own lust, you may find that job will eat away at you with the microbes of stress, time, and peace of mind. The old saying: “Be careful what you pray for, is more true than we realize as clearly shown in this passage.”

Yet, these people had some discernment.  They knew what the manna was all about, that is that it was more, much more than physical nourishment. The word manna is ma’n in Hebrew.  Ma’n is often used as an interrogative for who, what, where, when or whosoever.   In Exodus 16:15 it was called ma’nhu which means whatness or what is this.  The word manna itself means to be numbered, or portioned out.  Whatever it was, it was to be carefully portioned out.  If you didn’t you ended up with spoiled manna the next morning.

Now we must carefully note that it is the people who called it ma’n.  God called it in Exodus 16 lechem shamayim which means  bread of heaven.  This is a rare time in Scripture that the word shamayim does not have the definite article Hei or the.  This was not manufactured in the sky.  The syntax of Psalms 78:25 would suggest it was not the food that angels eat but food that the angels personally carried from heaven and laid out for the people every morning. God not only provided food for his children he had angels serving as waitresses and waiters.

He also gave them corn of heaven. This is the same as manna but God uses a different word.   The word corn is degan which is a metonymy for bread, so why did God use degan instead of manna?   The word degan not only means corn or bread but is also means to be ready, available and complete.  Pause here a second.  Degan means to be complete, total. The Talmud teaches that this was the perfect food.  In other words there was no waste created by this food.  It was ready and available. If eaten in the prescribed time it would be that perfect food.  If you will forgive my political incorrectness, they never had to go to go potty.  This was important, with a million people packed together you have a literal sanitary nightmare.  Remember too, these people knew nothing of microbes.  So God gave them a perfect food that they could completely digest and provide the entire nourishment they needed without, to put it delicately, any elimination.  The Bible teaches as they wandered through the desert, the elderly were able to keep up with the young.  We do not read of any sickness or plague.  Can you imagine if we could get our hands on that manna today.  It could be truly marketed as the miracle food.  Eat it and you will never lose your vitality and you will never be sick.

So here we have a people blessed with the most perfect food found in the history of man and what do the people do?  They start to belly ache because they want some variety.  They got tired of the same old same old.   They forgot what a great blessing they had. So they prayed for meat.  The best was not enough so God sent meat and those who were dissatisfied with perfection gobbled the meat up that was not degan, complete or total. It went bad really quick in that desert heat and many got sick and died.  Those who did not suffer were not the ones who felt God owed them a living and if you love me you will let me prosper.  They were not the ones who came to God with a handful of gimmie and mouthful of much oblige.

Let me share with you something interesting about the word degan or corn (bread).  It is spelled Daleth a portal or doorway to the Gimmel, the lovingkindness of God which increased their Nun or faith.  They were eating of the lovingkindness of God and everytime they ate, they felt God’s pleasure.   The word degan has a numerical value of 78.  They ate the bread of heaven three times a day.  The numerical value of YHWH is 26.   26X3=78.   Three times a day they entered the heart of God and brought him pleasure.

Perhaps this has no meaning for you but it does for me.  You see sometime ago I prayed to God for a special blessing.  Few would get this blessing so I did not really expect God to answer.  Yet, He did and for over two years I enjoyed this blessing.  But you know what?  I began to forget how special this blessing was.   Today I looked at my blessing and I became discouraged.  It was not all I had hoped it would be.  I wanted more, the cucumbers and meat of Egypt so to speak.  Within one hour of complaining I received a phone call with an offer that would add the cucumbers and meat.  Within the next hour I open my Bible to Psalms 78:24-25 and I realized I was like the children of Israel, I had God’s perfect gift, but it was no enough.  Thank God for His Word for I was able to see how foolish I was, rather than thank God for His complete blessing I despaired for more. God gave me more but fortunately I recognize it for what it was, it was the cucumbers and meat of Egyp