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Miraculously, this bread from heaven was given the same to all. No matter how much a person gathered, when it was measured out, it was the same as everyone else's-about half a gallon.

But divine benevolence is not without its limits. The Lord through Moses instructed them to clean their plates, to hoard not a mouthful of the supernatural food for another day. In the tents of those who did conserve, hedging against hunger by storing up the day's labor against the morrow's feared absence of miracle, sweetness turned bitter as the manna "bred worms and became foul" (Exod. 16:20). But there was indeed a miracle on the morrow, for the Lord of Time is never absent.

On the sixth day, the rhythm changed. When they measured out their gatherings, they had a full gallon for each person. "Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest," Moses relayed to the people, "a holy sabbath to the Lord" (Exod.16:23). He bade them prepare what they would, by baking and boiling, and to lay it by till morning, for there would be no heaven-sent food on the ground on the Sabbath morn. Indeed, it came to pass: those who stored it as they were told found their food fresh; while those who went forth to gather in the seventh day's early light found nothing.

Thus is the Sabbath a day of both fullness and emptiness. To those who trust the Lord's sufficiency for the present, it is a day filled with sweetness. But to those who must relentlessly squeeze the teat of today to find milk for the morrow, it is emptiness. Those who go forth to gather find nothing to harvest.

"See! The Lord has given you the sabbath," said Moses. "Remain every man of you in his place … on the seventh day," he instructed. "So the people rested on the seventh day," he recorded (Exod. 16:29-30).

Just a few weeks later, the people trembled and the mountain quaked as Yahweh uttered ten words that initiated his covenant with Israel. In those words, he liberated them from the tyranny of inflamed desire. "You shall not covet your neighbor's house," he commanded. "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's" (Exod. 20:17). These words warn against the fever that drives us to possess what must never be ours, whether that be the means of production (oxen and asses) or labor (manservants, maidservants), the fruits of someone else's work (thy neighbor's house), or his exclusive delights (thy neighbor's wife). And the word "You shall not steal" warns us away from clothing desire in action. It is a word to the dishonest and the bent among us.

But the Sabbath command is a word to the honest and hardworking, a warning to those who work happily to earn their rewards. The Sabbath warning is directed not to the slacker but to the one who takes responsibility-responsibility for family, for employees, for strangers, caring for them by providing rewarding and creative opportunities. It is addressed to those who, in their status as imago Dei, are compelled to bring order and to fight chaos. Fighting chaos means controlling tomorrow. Thus the temptation never to rest, never to let go and leave a minute fallow.

But it is precisely in his role as Subduer of Primordial Chaos that Yahweh identifies with his people and urges them to follow him not only into work, but also into rest. "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy … for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it" (Exod. 20:8, 11).

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November (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47