More Than Enough?

Man ate the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance.  Psalm 78:25  NASB

Bread of angels – If God provided you special nutrients directly from heaven’s kitchen, would you be satisfied?  Asaph calls it לֶחֶם אַבִּירִים, translated here as “bread of angels.”  But the translation is a later poetic interpolation.  The words are literally “bread (no definite article) of the mighty ones” ( ʾābîrim) but since a derivative of the same root means “feather” or “wing” and since it is plural here, translators extend the meaning to “angels” rather than “the mighty ones.”  If they left it as it is written, the reader might ask, “Who are these mighty ones?” and that, of course, raises questions about the divine realm.  So let’s just leave the questions out of the text and use “angels.”  No one will have a second thought about that, right?

However, even modifying the translation to make it seem palatable, we still end up with the question, “What is it?”  What is the “bread of the mighty ones”?  Your immediate answer will be manna.  That’s the “bread” God provided in the wilderness.  But what is manna?

You’ll notice that in the previous verse Asaph calls this substance “food from heaven (dāgān, literally “grain”).  There is no mention of angels, but there is the use of the word we translate “manna.”

Manna is called the “bread” from God (leḥem, Ex 16:15), “food” from heaven (dĕgan, Ps 78:24, ASV), and “angel’s food” (leḥem ʾabbîrîrn, Ps 78:25). The translation “angel’s food,” while picturesque, is not accurate. The ASV “bread of the mighty” is preferable. There is no other instance of “angel” being used to translate ʾabbîrîm.^[1]

In Hebrew, the word is מָן (mān).  The LXX rendering, manna, disguises the real word play deliberately employed in the Hebrew text since the word מָן (mān) II, means “what?”  In Hebrew, “what” is also the name of this food, so when the people ask, “What is it?”[2] they use the same word by which it is called.  An elegant confusion.  But if you were to ask me, I would say that this is the bread of תְּלֻנָּה (tĕlūnnâ), the “bread of murmuring.”  The question of the people cannot be answered because it is the wrong question.  They ask for an explanation of its constitution, but the real question should have been, “Why is it here?”  And that answer is that God provided because of their grumbling.  They, in fact, are eating their complaining.  Perhaps that’s why they don’t know what it is.  They have not recognized their own rebellion against God’s provision, so God’s answer is completely hidden from them.  “What is it?”  mān?  What should have happened was acknowledgement and praise.

Here’s a suggestion.  Stop reading this like some piece of historical fiction.  Read the emotional content.  Feel the rebellious nature of the people.  Feel the disappointment and disgust of God.  Feel the confusion about God’s answer.  And remember Zonberg’s amazing insight: “In the absence of certainty, a core fantasy of disappointment dissolves the possibility of even partial knowledge.”[3]

The true nature of this murmuring is seen in the fact that it is an open act of rebellion against the Lord (Num 14:9) and a stubborn refusal to believe God’s word and God’s miraculous works (Num 14:11, 22, 23). Thus the right attitude in real difficulty is unconditional acceptance and obedience. God’s own must never stand in judgment upon him.^[4]

What is God’s “What” in your life?  What is the evidence of His care that confuses you?  Maybe you’re asking the wrong question.

Topical Index:  leḥem ʾabbîrîrn, bread of the mighty ones, mān, manna, tĕlūnnâ, murmuring, Psalm 78:25

^[1] Carr, G. L. (1999). 1209 מָן. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 511). Chicago: Moody Press.

[2] And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another: ‘What is it?’–for they knew not what it was. And Moses said unto them: ‘It is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat.  Exodus 16:15

[3] Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg,  Bewilderments: Reflections on the Book of Numbers, p. xv.

^[4] Harris, R. L., Archer, G. L., Jr., & Waltke, B. K. (Eds.). (1999). Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 475). Chicago: Moody Press.