Woah !
There is a big difference between stating something exists in the desert which tastes like a mixture of coriander and honey – and Jumping to the conclusion that Manna was “natural”.
There is a substance made by insects, but it is not poo – rather it something these insects can’t eat that they regurgitate (sorry, if you lost your appetite – but J.Baptist ate grasshoppers, and wild honey … which by description may have a similar taste).
The natives of the desert areas occasionally find it even today, and it is a delicacy. There is never enough produced in one place to feed a family, let alone twelve whole clans of fairly large size. Regardless of the source of the manna, it had to be miraculous to sustain people for even 40 days, let alone 40 years.
The phrase in the psalm that reads “bread of angels” alternately means bread of the strong. It is not necessary for Spiritual Angels to eat anything corporeal – and it
IS clear that manna was real edible food. So the relationship is not based on the source of the physical substance; but rather the spirit behind the miracle.
Not to be a sting, but many insects also can fly. If anyone wants to a close search of the passages, I don’t think that Deute; Exodus; etc. ever talks about it falling from heaven – but only finding it on the ground after the night is over. The psalms are a reflection on the meaning; and are not necessarily explaining a physical fact of the Sky dropping things… but rather, from Heaven, was the source of the spirit which made the manna happen.
The Angels are seen in scripture as those who bring messages from heaven to earth. Even if God sent his angels to multiply a tiny bit of insect made bread into gigantic proportion – it would be STILL be bread of Angels; for they did the task – and only those with the spirit of God can call into existence what is not.
It is no different than Jesus taking bread made by human hands – and out of NOTHING calling huge amounts of it into existence. It isn’t like he “stretched” the bread – nor is likely that people who have been with him THREE days could keep
much bread that long; most of it would spoil or have been eaten already.
Mark 8:1-3 … and had nothing to eat … it is three days now that they have been
in attendance and they have nothing to eat.
If I send them away now they will grow faint…
They didn’t have plastic bags either…
Also, Jesus had
many disciples… but they (total) had only 7 loaves.
Mark 8:19-21.
And then, the disciples speculated on not having bread being a catastrophe, but Mark 8:21 is Jesus’ answer to their thinking…
That too is part of the miracle of the Manna – It either kept or corrupted for one or two days – depending on the day; eg: it lasted twice as long on Fridays in comparison to any other day of the week so that no one gathered on the Sabbath; and no bread was found on the Sabbath by those who violated God’s command NOT TO LOOK FOR IT. Nor could it be hoarded; as any day
except Friday resulted in it rotting within 24 hours.
A similar miracle was promised the people, once they entered the promised land.
There are year long Sabbaths; and God promised to have 1 harvest last
three years.
Also notice that if people had shared, they wouldn’t have been too keen on the Apostles gathering up ALL the remains for themselves; (7 hampers full) but not a single complaint is heard.
John records the other feeding; that of the 5000. Jesus recalls to them that man was not always to work for bread according to Moses:
John 6:27 You should not work for bread that perishes in the using.
That is, for hoarding, or doing it on the Sabbath which was the teaching purpose of the manna. In this reading, which I heard today again at mass – notice they ask Jesus for the miracle of Moses, the manna as the “sign”;
And on this figurative Sabbath day, Jesus refuses them physical bread.
(His disciples had it though … from the leftovers…)
And in the following argument he says:
John 6:27 “The father has set his seal…”
Where, then, is the bread which is approved (
better than USDA ) left over for the purpose of the Sabbath? God produced no manna in the desert on the Sabbath, and Jesus does not either (eg:in this teaching.)
Notice: the bread people ate with Jesus, was bread of the field. Yet – even though this kind of bread is “common” and “natural”; that isn’t the point of passage.
Do not think, that just because items of this world were used in a miracle, that it is any less miraculous. St. Peter’s handkerchief did not heal people itself, but that item is the sign by which
some were healed. It is no more “mere natural phenomena” in any of these things; the miracles go
beyond the power of nature.
As an apologetic, it isn’t really worth fighting over anyway; the point can be made with or without insects; they are irrelevant.
