Job 2:8 And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.

If you are familiar with the tale of Job, you will know that Satan has just inflicted Job with boils. This is Job’s response, to scrape at the painful parts of his existence with the broken pieces of his life.

Does that make any sense? When you look at Job doing it from where we sit in safety, it seems insane. Yet somehow it is reflective of the nature of man. I scratch at poison ivy and spread it. I pick at scabs. Spiritually speaking, the image here runs much deeper than the surface.

When we are in pain we want to feel better. There is a longing to return to some point in our lives when we felt good, or were having fun. Unfortunately these feelings may well be attached to sins that where part of a life that has been broken. We might pick up pieces of it to make ourselves feel better, but just like with poison ivy, it only makes things worse. It might lead to a serious infection, maybe even death.

Job 2:9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.

Now Job’s wife forsakes him. It is tough to go through painful times and when the people you trust the most, the ones you depend upon abandon you, you are left alone in your despair. Alone in the worldly sense, so we look to God.

How painful was it for God the Father to watch His only begotten Son die the horrible death He died? He stood by and watched that without lifting a finger to stop it. He did because He knew that thru this painful experience the world would be transformed. We look at things in the short term, as to the pain we are in at the moment. We do not look at the long term effect. Our world will change but while in pain, we do not see how that could be for good. Pain is all we know.

“My God why have you forsaken me?”

We are in glorious company in those moments.

Numbers 16:14 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.

Minutia from the plural Latin minutiae meaning trifles, singularly smallness, the root to the word miniature. I include the plural as it brings in the attitude of trivial. Here in Numbers we are speaking about the manna from heaven. That which was given freely from heaven and gathered to be consumed daily. This is the root of our daily bread.

Jesus included this in teaching us how to pray. “Give us this day our daily bread.” It is meant for sustenance for the day and nothing more. If it had not been so, it would not have been given daily.

Is that a trivial thing? A trifle is not to be taken seriously. Is that our attitude about that small thing given to us to sustain us through each day? Do we have a proper respect for the little thing, the minutia? We have to gather much to make anything of any substance. We need to gather many words to make sense of any passaged. A word by itself says little, yet a misplaced word changes everything. A word overlooked isn’t missed in the gathering. Yet one little word can make all the difference.

For example, what does it mean that the manna fell in the wilderness, outside the camp? They were only allowed to gather enough for each family member. They had to leave the rest. How much was left that was not gathered? How far from the camp did the manna fall and remain because the camp could only gather so much? Did that manna mean anything to anyone outside the camp? Or do we only think about ourselves?

Were there wilderness eyes watching what was gathered and wonder if they too could use it?