God provides manna and quail
16
📚And they set out from Elim, and the whole congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt. 2 📚And the whole congregation of the children of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the desert. 3 📚The children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that 📖 we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this desert to kill this whole assembly with hunger”.16:3 Ps 106:13-15. They forgot the afflictions and bondage of Egypt and thought only of food. The provisions they had brought from Egypt were exhausted. They were in a desert. The Sinai peninsula where they were is nearly 12,000 square miles, mostly desolate sand, rock and barren mountains. The wadis had water usually only when it rained, which was seldom. There were springs here and there and an occasional oasis and enough water and vegetation for flocks and herds. But there was certainly not enough food or water for two million people on the march. Parts of that area are described in Deut 1:19 as a “great and terrible desert” or a “waste howling wilderness” (KJV).
The people saw this dreary waste with no cultivated fields, no rivers or flowing streams, and it appeared that only death by thirst or starvation awaited them. They forgot God’s love and the fact that He had led them to the place where they were and had promised to take them all the way to Canaan. Unbelief can blind people’s eyes to everything except their difficulties.⚜
4 📚Then the LORD said to Moses, “Look, I will rain bread from heaven 📖 for you, and the people are to go out and gather at a certain rate every day, so that I may test 📖 them, whether they will walk in my law, or not. 5 📚And it shall be that on the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in; and it will be twice as much as they gather daily”.
6 📚And Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, “In the evening you will know that the LORD has brought you out from the land of Egypt, 7 📚and in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD 📖; for he hears your grumbling against the LORD. But what are we, that you grumble against us?” 8 📚And Moses said, “This will take place when the LORD gives you meat to eat in the evening, and bread to the full in the morning. For the LORD hears your grumbling which you grumble against him. But what are we? Your grumbling is not against us, but against the LORD 📖”.
9 📚And Moses spoke to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, ‘Come near to the LORD’s presence, for he has heard your grumbling.’ ”
10 📚And it came about while Aaron was speaking to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the desert, and, suddenly, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.
11 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 12 📚“I have heard the grumbling of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, ‘In the evening you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread; and you will know that I am the LORD your God.’ ”
13 📚And it came about that in the evening quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay around the camp. 14 📚And when the dew that lay there was gone, there, on the surface of the desert appeared a tiny flake-like thing, as small as hoar frost on the ground. 15 📚And when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “It is manna”, for they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat.
16:15 In Hebrew “what is it” is “Man hu?” The word manna comes from this (v 31).⚜
16 📚“This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Each person is to gather it according to his eating, an omer for each person, according to the number of people you have. Each one is to take for those who are in his tent.’ ”
16:16 Verse 4; Neh 9:15; Ps 78:24; 105:40; John 6:31; 1 Cor 10:3; Rev 2:17. The manna signifies the Lord Jesus Christ come down from heaven to be the spiritual food of His people – John 6:31-35. We feed on Him by faith. That is, by faith we receive Him as our Saviour, meditate on His wonderful deeds and attributes and His work for us on the cross, draw near to Him in prayer, and receive strength from Him for our daily life. “Omer” (also vs 18,32,33,36) – a measure equaling about two liters.⚜
17 And the children of Israel did so. They gathered it, some more, some less. 18 📚And when they measured it with an omer, the one who gathered much had nothing over, and the one who gathered little had no lack. Each one of them gathered it according to his eating.
19 📚And Moses said, “Let no one leave any of it until the morning”.
20 📚But they did not listen to Moses. Some of them left some of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank; and Moses was angry with them.
16:19-20 They could not or would not obey an instruction as simple as this. The truth here is that God did not want them to store up for the future, but day by day to recognize their dependence on Him alone for their needs. Compare Matt 6:11.⚜
21 📚And they gathered it every morning, each one according to his eating. And when the sun grew hot, it melted. 22 📚And it came about on the sixth day that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one person. And all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, 23 📚and he said to them, “This is what the LORD has said: ‘Tomorrow is the rest day, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. Bake what you want to bake today, and boil what you want to boil, and what is left over put aside to be kept until the morning.’ ”
24 📚And so they put it aside until morning, as Moses commanded. And it did not stink, nor was there any worm in it. 25 📚And Moses said, “Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the LORD. Today you will not find it in the field. 26 📚You are to gather it for six days, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, there will not be any”.
16:22-26 Again they could not obey a simple instruction until repeated. We see how human, how ordinary were these Israelites.⚜
27 📚And it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, and did not find any. 28 📚And the LORD said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? 29 📚See, the LORD has given you the Sabbath, so on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Each one of you is to stay in his place. Let no one go out of his place on the seventh day”. 30 📚So the people rested on the seventh day.
31 📚And the house of Israel called the name of it Manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and it tasted like wafers made with honey. 32 📚And Moses said, “This is what the LORD commands: ‘Fill an omer with it to be kept for your future generations, so that they may see the bread I have fed you with in the desert, when I brought you from the land of Egypt.’ ”
33 📚And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a pot and put an omer full of manna in it, and place it before the LORD, to be kept for your future generations”.
34 📚So Aaron placed it before the Testimony 📖, to be kept, just as the LORD commanded Moses. 35 📚And the children of Israel ate manna for forty years, until they came to an inhabited land. They ate manna until they came to the borders of the land of Canaan.
36 📚Now an omer is a tenth of an ephah.