Cauga?

by Tad Lindley

Imagine living to be 100 years old. Now think about all the food you would eat over that 100 years. Gather it all up in your mind. It would be numbers of whole moose and caribou, 1,000’s of herring, how many seals, how many 1,000 salmon, how many gallons of seal oil, how many cases of pilot bread, how many drums full of salmonberries or for the younger Quest card generation, it would be freezer van loads of Banquet chicken, frozen pizzas, and Doritos and railroad cars full of soda pop. If we could get all of that food in one place at one time, it would be enough to feed about 100,000 people. If we could combine 100 years worth of your eating with the food from nine other people like you, it would be enough to feed about one million people, but just for one meal. And by supper time every single one of them would be ready to eat again.

3,000 years before the Quest card

About 3,000 years ago Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. There were at least a million people in the twelve tribes that comprised Israel. This fact is well documented in the Bible (please read Genesis 37 through the end of Deuteronomy for confirmation). They left Egypt where they were accustomed to eating fish and vegetables, and entered what is now Saudi Arabia. A land that was largely desert. They had a few animals with them, but not nearly enough to feed such a large number of people (Numbers 11:21-22). And so about 3,000 years before man came up with the Quest card, God had his own solution to feed over a million people.

Cauga?

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 16:14-15) Every early morning, God caused this food to be upon the ground. The Israelites called it, “manna”, which literally means, “what is it?” Or in Yup’ik, “Cauga?” They didn’t know what it was, but they understood that it came from God and that it would keep them from starving to death.

Their daily bread: what is it I’m eating?

The manna lifestyle was one that caused the Israelites to be totally dependent on God. Every morning they went out to gather manna from the ground. They gathered what they needed for that day only (except on Fridays, they gathered two days worth). If they tried to get ahead, the manna spoiled and got maggots in it. On Saturday, the Sabbath, they did not gather, because they ate from the double portion they had gathered on Friday. (see Exodus 16:16-36) For forty years, the Israelites were constantly one day away from starvation. They were completely dependent on God to provide for them, and He did.

Our daily bread: what is it I’m missing?

Most of us at some point or another have said the Lord’s prayer, even quoting the very words that Jesus said, Give us this day our daily bread. (Matthew 6:11) And how many times have I said those words myself, thinking that I was talking about food. When Jesus met with the people he told them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst…your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread that cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. (John 6:35,49-50) He was teaching the people that if we really want to live, there is more to life than physical food. Manna may have saved the Israelites lives, but it couldn’t save their souls.

Here is what we are missing

Last year, there were 41.5 million Americans on food stamps. It makes manna for one million people seem like small potatoes, but what we need is not more “.gov” in our lives, we need more God in our lives. We can throw money, grants, food stamps, earned income credits, illegal amnesty, legal marijuana, and ten thousand other programs at ourselves, but at the bottom of it all, without God, we will end up empty. The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. (Romans 14:17) If you have been wondering lately, “I know I’m missing something in life, but what is it?”, I can tell you what it is not. It is not a fuller freezer or a bigger bank account or a larger loaf of bread. It is not a different job, a different house, or a different spouse. It is not something that better government can give you. What you need is the bread of life that came down from heaven, Jesus!

Reverend Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska.

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