October 2000
Exodus Chapter 16
The Israelites fleeing Egypt had the same problem many of us have — keeping our faith strong. The Israelites had just witnessed the tremendous power of the Lord in providing for their escape from the Pharaoh’s army. Yet, they quickly lose faith that the Lord will provide and that Moses and Aaron will lead.
The 16th chapter of Exodus tells us that the restlessness and murmurings from the Israelites begins about 45 days following their massive exodus from Egypt. They all start complaining to Moses.
The Israelites had left Egypt in a hurry. They did not provide for themselves the necessary supply of food to justify what would be an extended stay in the wilderness. They successfully made it across the Egyptian landscape and past the divided Red Sea which then drowned the Pharaoh’s army. They then journeyed into the area known as Marah with its bitter waters that the Lord directed Moses to sweeten. They then journeyed to an area known as Elim which had twelve water wells and dozens of palm trees.
From there Moses and Aaron led them into the wilderness of the Sinai area in the direction of Mt. Sinai. It was now 45 days into the Exodus. The whole Israel population started complaining to Moses and Aaron regarding the lack of food. They told Moses they at least had food to eat while they were enslaved in Egypt, and now were they going to die of hunger in the desert?
The Lord heard their complains an responded to Moses: "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you: and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no." Exodus 16:4.
As the Lord had noted in the 15th chapter of Exodus when he allowed Moses to sweeten the bitter waters of Marah, he was testing the faith of the Israelites and whether they would follow His laws.
Both Moses and Aaron then spoke directly to the Israelites, chastising them for their non belief in the saving power of their Lord. As Aaron was speaking to the Israelites, the "glory of the Lord" appeared in the clouds over the desert, and the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying He heard the cries of the people and told them that they would eat meat in the evenings and would have bread to make them full in the mornings. Exodus 16:10-12.
That evening the entire Israelite camp witnessed the arrival of quail flying into the camps for them to eat. With the morning, they witnessed a dew on the ground, which was small round things which they recognized as "manna" from heaven. Moses told them: "This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat." Exodus 16:15.
Moses instructed the people to gather enough manna for their families: an "omer" (a little more than two dry quarts) for each person each day. They had to gather it and save it each days. When it went ungathered, it was eaten by worms before the next morning. 16:20. Yet when gathered, they could bake it, store and save it, and the worms would not eat of it. 16:23-24.
The manna would appear daily each morning and taught the Israelites to look to God daily to heaven for their food. It would appear for six days, but none on the seventh day because God withheld it in respect of the Sabbath. On the sixth day the manna came in enough portions for two days of feeding. Those that woke up on the Sabbath and expected to find manna and looked for it in vain were the subject of the Lord’s question of Moses: How long will the people refuse to keep my commandments and laws. The people learned to rest on the seventh day. 16:30.
The Israelites named this special food "Manna", which literally meant "what is it". The manna was very small in size, it was white and its taste was like that of a wafer made with honey. 16:31.
Moses instructed the people to keep an omer of the manna for their future generations to prove His covenant with the people.
The Israelites received the manna, and ate of it and lived on it, for the next 40 years that they wandered in the wilderness.
The manna would be supplied by the Lord for the 40 years of wanderings, until the Israelites crossed into the borders of Canaan, the promised land of milk and honey.