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Bee-lieve?🐝
By Dahni
© 2023, all rights reserved
Manna was the supernatural food God gave to the Israelites during their 40-year wandering in the desert. The word “manna” means “What is it?” in Hebrew. Manna is also known in the Bible as the “bread of heaven,” “corn of heaven,” “angel’s food,” “bread of life” and “spiritual meat.” Remember the words “bread of life,” we will come back to it later. But where do we find this “manna” in the scriptures?
“And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.”
Exodus 16:14
“And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.”
Exodus 16:31
Coriander Seed
“And the manna was as coriander seed, and the colour thereof as the colour of bdellium.”
Numbers 11:7
Well, this is all pretty descriptive: small “like” corriander seed, descriptive of its small size in comparison. Tastes like honey, descriptive of its sapor (taste) and the color of “bdellium.” What is “bdellium” or wazit? Bdellium is any of several African or west Asisan trees of the burseraceous genus Commiphora that yield a gum resin. It is the aromatic gum resin, similar to myrrh, produced by any of these trees.
Bdellium Resin
Not long after the Jewish people had escaped Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, they ran out of the food they had brought with them. They began to grumble, recalling the tasty meals they had enjoyed when they were slaves.
God told Moses he would rain down bread from heaven for the people. That evening quail came and covered the camp. The people killed the birds and ate their meat. The next morning, when the dew evaporated, a white substance covered the ground. The Bible describes manna as a fine, flaky substance, white like coriander seed, and tasting like wafers made with honey.
Moses instructed the people to gather an omer, or about two quarts’ worth, for each person each day. When some of the people tried to save extra, it became wormy and spoiled.
Manna appeared for six days in a row and for 40 years. On Fridays, the Hebrews were to gather a double portion, because it did not appear on the next day, the Sabbath. And yet, the portion they saved for the Sabbath did not spoil.
After the people gathered the manna, they made it into flour by grinding it with hand mills or crushing it with mortars. Then they boiled the manna in pots and made it into flat cakes. These cakes tasted like pastries baked with olive oil. (Numbers 11:8)
“And the people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil.”
Numbers 11:8
Gathering “Manna”
Skeptics have tried to explain manna as a natural substance, such as a resin left behind by insects or a product of the tamarisk tree. However, the tamarisk substance appears only in June and July and does not spoil overnight. But what about some other natural substance provided with insight of naturally occurring phenomenon?
God told Moses to save a jar of manna so future generations could see how the Lord provided for his people in the desert. Aaron filled a jar with an omer of manna and put it in the Ark of the Covenant, in front of the tablets of the Ten Commandments.
Exodus says the Jews ate manna every day for 40 years. Miraculously, when Joshua and the people came to the border of Canaan and ate the food of the Promised Land, the heavenly manna stopped the next day and was never seen again.
“Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no. And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.”
Exodus 16:4, 5
“I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God. And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.”
Exodus 16:12-15
“And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less.
“And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating. And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.”
Exodus 16: 16-19
“Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them. And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted [and thus it was spoiled]. And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe [boil] that ye will seethe [boil]; and that which remaineth over [is left over], lay up for you to be kept until the morning.”
Exodus 16: 20- 23
So, there were two ways to prepare this “bread” or “Manna” bake it or boil it. Whatever was left over was kept for the following day (the Sabbath = Saturday), when they were not supposed to work.
Some people tried to gather more each day, but surprise, surprise, it would not keep, but spoiled. We are talking here about dew covering the ground. How thick was this dew? I do not know. But in order for there to have been dew, the ground had to have been holding moisture, which was also necessary for there to have been other life forms such as vegetation and insects etc. In order for this “bread” or “manna” to spoil, it had to have organic matter and moisture content. Then, the earth warmed up (the heat of the day), and this leftover “manna”, was spoiled.
“And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the Lord: to day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none. And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day. And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.”
Exodus 16:24-31
Having called this manna “bread” it is not coincidence that Jesus Christ was referred often to as, the “bread of life.”
God is God and can do and does miraculous things for people, but he also follows the laws of the universe and naturally occurring phenomenon. Do you recall Joshua and the people marching around the city of Jericho and then the wall fell flat? The marching is not what caused that. The Jordan River lies on a fault line, where two plates of land are shifting northeast at different speeds. An earthquake likely fell the walls and the Jordan river was damned up just as Joshua and the people went over into the ‘Promised Land’. The awesome-ness about these things is not some unexplained miracle, but God knew long before and prepared his people, for the right moments in time.
Though I do not know what they are, could not some natural phenomenon have occurred that caused the 10 plagues of Egypt? I do not have a problem believing this or see anything that could possibly contradict the scriptures. To me, what is cool about this is that God knew what was coming and prepared his people.
And now, what about some naturally occurring phenomenon like Manna? Could it have been a yellowish resin-like substance and about the size of coriander seed, from insects? What if these insects were a ground nesting species of insects? Due to the desert’s temperatures (cool-cold at night), and warm to hot days, could these insects left this resin while they slept at night and then gather it for their nests early in the morning, after the dew melted, but before the heat of day? Maybe they and the children of Israel came to gather at different times? No scriptures show that Israel took all of this “manna” from the ground. They were giving a specific allotment, per person, per day. Maybe whatever was left was more than enough for these insects? What about the Sabbath and there was no “manna” on the ground? Do or did these insects also rest on the 7th day? Maybe they gathered twice as much the day before, to rest on the 7th day? Were they instinctively living — the law of rest?
Well, what is it (this), or wazit’? What if the insects were a particular species of ground nesting bees? What if this “manna” or “bread from heaven” was Bee pollen? I don’t know, but this is surely a logical and plausible possibility!
Bee Pollen
Bee pollen is a mixture of flower pollen, nectar or honey, and bees’ digestive enzymes. What is it or wazit’ good for? It is a super food – Rich in vitamins, minerals, trace elements, enzymes, amino acids, and antioxidants. Use as an aid in recovering from illness, digestive discomfort, lack of vitality, and as an overall restorative component for good health, pollen has become noted by the alternative medicine world as a superfood.
Is bee pollen small like coriander seed? Yes. Does bee pollen have the color like bdellium resin? Yes.
Can bee pollen go bad or could bee pollen spoil? Yes.
Bee pollen has a high moisture content, around 25%. That is enough for bacteria and fungus to proliferate if given enough time and the right conditions. It is best to use within the first 24 hours or so, unless frozen. Bee pollen today, is often freeze-dried to preserve its properties and flavor.
When foraging bees fly from flower to flower, they pick up pollen, pack it into pellets, and carry them back to the hive with their legs. By the way, generally speaking, flowers grow up from the earth and bees, flying from flower to flower is technically heaven as defined as – any place above the earth. So the term “bread of heaven” is accurate.
There are some species of bees whose nests are, on the ground.
The pellets (bee pollen), are stored as food for the colony. Beekeepers use pollen traps at hive entrances to collect the pollen. Why, because bee pollen is best preserved immediately after harvest by freezing, slow drying or by freeze-drying.
What about collecting two days worth, when Israel was not supposed to work on the Sabbath (Saturday)? Would the bee pollen spoil as it did when people tried to collect more than a day’s share? For this, the people ate their daily or first ration and then they could grind the rest into cakes mixed with oil (likely olive oil). Baking is one of two ways Israel could prepare their daily “manna” their, “give us this day our daily bread.” Besides helping to prevent burning when they cooked these pastry-like cakes, olive oil is a preservative.
So what do you think? I am excited to share this with you. I have wanted to know what “manna’ was, ever since I first heard about it when I was a young child. Like I said, do I know this for certain? No, but I am quite excited about its real possibility! So what do you Bee-lieve? 🐝
Ground Nesting Bee
Now if you want to dispute any of this (Bible quotations), Go for it, but I did not write the Bible, I am just…
…a witness!
Dahni
Pentecost 