Sunday, December 10, 2006

Exodus 16

Manna and Quail from Heaven


(1) Then the whole community of Israel set out from Elim and journeyed into the wilderness of Sin*, between Elim and Mount Sinai**. They arrived there on the fifteenth day of the second month, one month after leaving the land of Egypt.


*Sin: Hebrew: a bush. The Sin Desert was a vast and hostile environment of sand and stone. Its barren surroundings provided the perfect place for God to test and shape the character of his people.


**Sinai: Hebrew: bush of God.

Galatians 4:25: And now Jerusalem is just like Mount Sinai in Arabia, because she and her children live in slavery to the law.

Galatians 1:17: Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to consult with those who were apostles before I was. Instead, I went away into Arabia, and later I returned to the city of Damascus.


   The Exodus had occurred on the fifteenth day of the first month (Abib) - Numbers 33:3: They set out from the city of Rameses in early spring—on the fifteenth day of the first month—on the morning after the first Passover celebration. The people of Israel left defiantly, in full view of all the Egyptians. This day in the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar occurred in late March, April or early May.



(2) There, too, the whole community of Israel complained* about Moses and Aaron.


*complained: After leaving Elim, they had moved along the coast of the Gulf of Sinai and again found the going tough. They found this wilderness life not to their liking. The land was barren, and shortage of pleasant food, having to preserve their supplies, shortage of water, and the constant trudging, not knowing what lay ahead, was more than they had expected. And when they arrived in the Wilderness of Sin things were no better. So they vented their feelings on Moses and his mouthpiece Aaron. They looked back with longing to what they thought of as the good and plentiful food of Egypt. It would have been better to have died there than to die here. It is easy in such circumstances to remember and exaggerate the best things and forget the worst. -- www.geocities.com./genesiscommentary/exodus3.html


(3) “If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.”


   Yet, we know they had huge numbers of cattle and sheep that they brought out of Egypt. Were things really all that great in Egypt - weren't they slaves there? Was food that abundant there? They sound like a bunch of kids, don't they - saying "Are we there yet?". Many Christians think that after they're saved, life gets easier - actually, it often becomes more difficult. Your past habits and sins glare you in the face now - they bother your conscience. Your old "drinking buddies" no longer want to have anything to do with you. One man that God gave me the privilege of winning to Christ found himself in a difficult marital situation because his wife preferred the alcoholic to this new guy who loved the Lord - she eventually divorced him and he eventually met and married a dedicated Christian In fact, I introduced the two of them.


(4) Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. I will test them* in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions**.


*test them: And they failed the test, as seen in verse 20.


**instructions: Hebrew Torah.


(5) On the sixth day they will gather food, and when they prepare it, there will be twice as much as usual.”


(6) So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “By evening you will realize it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt.


(7) In the morning you will see the glory* of the Lord, because he has heard your complaints, which are against him, not against us. What have we done that you should complain about us?”


*glory: Hebrew: Shekhinah or Shechinah. This is such a major concept that we'll save discussion on it for next time in a separate study!


(8) Then Moses added, “The Lord will give you meat to eat in the evening and bread to satisfy you in the morning, for he has heard all your complaints against him. What have we done? Yes, your complaints are against the Lord, not against us.”


(9) Then Moses said to Aaron, “Announce this to the entire community of Israel: ‘Present yourselves before the Lord, for he has heard your complaining.’”


(10) And as Aaron spoke to the whole community of Israel, they looked out toward the wilderness. There they could see the awesome glory of the Lord in the cloud.


(11) Then the Lord said to Moses,


(12) “I have heard the Israelites’ complaints. Now tell them, ‘In the evening you will have meat to eat, and in the morning you will have all the bread you want. Then you will know* that I am the Lord your God.’”


*Then you will know: The theme of Exodus is that Egypt, Pharaoh and the Israelites might know that God (El) is the Lord (Yahweh ). In fact, it's a major theme in the prophecies of Isaiah, Ezekiel and Joel.


(13) That evening vast numbers of quail* flew in and covered the camp. And the next morning the area around the camp was wet with dew.


*quail: Numbers 11:31: Now the Lord sent a wind that brought quail from the sea and let them fall all around the camp. For miles in every direction there were quail flying about three feet above the ground.


(14) When the dew evaporated, a flaky substance as fine as frost blanketed the ground.


(15) The Israelites were puzzled when they saw it. “What is it?*” they asked each other. They had no idea what it was. And Moses told them, “It is the food the Lord has given you to eat.


*What is it?: Hebrew man hu'. There's a lot of speculation on what this was, but no one really knows for sure.


(16) These are the Lord’s instructions: Each household should gather as much as it needs. Pick up two quarts* for each person in your tent.”


*quarts: Hebrew 1 omer; also in 16:32-33.


(17) So the people of Israel did as they were told. Some gathered a lot, some only a little.


(18) But when they measured it out*, everyone had just enough. Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough. Each family had just what it needed.


*measured it out: Hebrew measured it with an omer.


(19) Then Moses told them, “Do not keep any of it until morning.”


   This was to help the Israelites learn to be totally dependent on Him daily.


(20) But some of them didn’t listen and kept some of it until morning. But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell. Moses was very angry with them.


(21) After this the people gathered the food morning by morning, each family according to its need. And as the sun became hot, the flakes they had not picked up melted and disappeared.


(22) On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much as usual—four quarts* for each person instead of two. Then all the leaders of the community came and asked Moses for an explanation.


*four quarts: Hebrew 2 omers.


(23) He told them, “This is what the Lord commanded: Tomorrow will be a day of complete rest, a holy Sabbath day set apart for the Lord. So bake or boil as much as you want today, and set aside what is left for tomorrow.”


(24) So they put some aside until morning, just as Moses had commanded. And in the morning the leftover food was wholesome and good, without maggots or odor.


   Obviously, this was no ordinary, natural food!


(25) Moses said, “Eat this food today, for today is a Sabbath day dedicated to the Lord. There will be no food on the ground today.


(26) You may gather the food for six days, but the seventh day is the Sabbath*. There will be no food on the ground that day.”


*Sabbath: Not even God was going to work on the Sabbath. Remember that they measured a day from sunset to sunset.


(27) Some of the people went out anyway on the seventh day, but they found no food.


(28) The Lord asked Moses, “How long will these people refuse to obey my commands and instructions?


(29) They must realize that the Sabbath is the Lord’s gift to you. That is why he gives you a two-day supply on the sixth day, so there will be enough for two days. On the Sabbath day you must each stay in your place. Do not go out to pick up food on the seventh day.”


(30) So the people did not gather any food on the seventh day.


(31) The Israelites* called the food manna**. It was white like coriander seed, and it tasted like honey*** wafers.


*Israelites: The House of Israel


**Manna means “What is it?” See verse15.


***honey: A foretaste of the Promised Land - a land of milk and honey.


John 6:32-35: Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”“Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.” Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.


John 6:48-51: Yes, I am the bread of life! Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh.”


Revelation 2:17: “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven. And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it.


(32) Then Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: Fill a two-quart container with manna to preserve it for your descendants. Then later generations will be able to see the food I gave you in the wilderness when I set you free from Egypt.”


(33) Moses said to Aaron, “Get a jar and fill it with two quarts of manna. Then put it in a sacred place before the Lord to preserve it for all future generations.”


(34) Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded Moses. He eventually placed it in the Ark of the Covenant—in front of the stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant*.


*Hebrew He placed it in front of the Testimony. But, this isn't built until chapter 37.


(35) So the people of Israel ate manna for forty years until they arrived at the land where they would settle. They ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.


Deuteronomy 8: Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands. Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.


   They had manna every day except for the Sabbath for 40 years, winter and summer, wherever they went - showing this was not just some seed from a plant. It was a supernatural God-given gift.


   God stopped the manna so they wouldn't stay behind. Moses would not have known this because he died before they entered the land. Therefore, this addition must have been from the hand of Joshua. Joshua 5:10-12: While the Israelites were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they celebrated Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month. The very next day they began to eat unleavened bread and roasted grain harvested from the land. No manna appeared on the day they first ate from the crops of the land, and it was never seen again. So from that time on the Israelites ate from the crops of Canaan.


   What are you feeding on? If you are a born again Christian, then you are a heavenly person. And a heavenly person needs to be sustained by heavenly things! A.B Simpson hammers it home when he writes ‘The reason why multitudes of Christians are famished and feeble is because they are trying to live upon the husks or the fruits of this world. They are longing for the flesh pots of Egypt or the quails of lust and are weary of the simple bread of God. They feed on man’s philosophies, the protoplasm’s of materialism, the sensationalism of the novel… or the husks of the market and stock exchange, instead of the pure, sweet, sustaining word of God.’ -- www.jesusplusnothing.com/studies/online/exodus16.htm


   The point of this chapter, with all its instructions and reports included, is God’s miraculous provision of food for his people. This is a display of sovereign power that differs from the display of military power. Once again the story calls for faith, but here it is faith in Yahweh to provide for his people. The provision is also a test to see if they will obey the instructions of God. Deuteronomy 8 explains this. The point, then, is that God provides for the needs of his people that they may demonstrate their dependence on him by obeying him. The exposition of this passage must also correlate to John 6. God’s providing manna from heaven to meet the needs of his people takes on new significance in the application that Jesus makes of the subject to himself. There the requirement is the same – will they believe and obey? But at the end of the event John explains that they murmured about Jesus. - www.bible.org/netbible/index.htm


(36) The container used to measure the manna was an omer, which was one tenth of an ephah; it held about two quarts.



On-Line Sources:



Off-Line Sources:


Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)