Exodus 16
"A Gift From Above!?" • 12.16.10 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Thursday Morning Service
Intro
- When one has been delivered from a life of slavery, there is a process that none of us really understands. We were born free and most have known nothing but freedom all their lives.
- The people of Israel that are now walking out into the wilderness with the Lord and Moses, have no idea how to live or survive.
- They had never left Egypt before the Exodus, nor did they know anyone that ever had! At the same time, they were to become a community that represented the God of the Universe!
- Egypt was where they were born, but the wilderness was where they were going to be raised and trained to walk with God.
- Every test gives them a new opportunity to grow and there is one around every corner.
Text
• Exodus 16:1-3 : "And they journeyed from Elim, and all the 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 they departed from the land of Egypt. Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And 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 the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.'" : The complaint de jour will be the lack of food.
- They have camped by the waters of Elim for over a month. God gave these worn out people some extra time for recovery.
- They are in what is called the Wilderness Of Sin. The wilderness of Sin was known for it's worship of the moon god, "Sin."
- As they began their trek, the food that they might have had at Elim became scarce and hunger filled their minds.
- Moses and Aaron receive the brunt of their hostility and the sentiment is conveyed to us in a summary statement that Moses provides. Notice the anatomy of their complaint.
- It begins with a lament. "Oh, that God would have killed us in Egypt." They were saying, "Before we were ever delivered from the oppression, it would have been better to simply have died!"
- Why? Because aside from the cruelty of slavery and the indignity of forced labor, there was an abundance of food. Pots of meat and bread to the full was available, even to the slaves.
- This is the second thing to note: Complaints come from a foggy memory at best! No amount of bread or meat could make up for the misery of oppression.
- In their minds at the moment, the abundant food made their suffering worth it!
- Third, note the misplaced accusation: "You have brought us out into this wilderness." Our complaints are always misplaced during pain. It was GOD who brought them out, not Moses!
- Moses was happy in retirement! Deliverance was not his idea! He did not want the job.
- Finally, note the endless pessimism and hopeless outlook. "We are going to die from this!" There was no middle ground for them. It was live or die!
- Admittedly, these are difficult times for the Israelis, but one has to concede that even in difficulty, their complaints, like ours, fail on any point.
- The enemy likes to make us think that we were happy in captivity. The good old days are always a projection of the best memories, without the realities of what led us to seek deliverance.
- We remember the fun, but not the desperation. We remember all the laughs but none of the misery. We remember the comraderie, but never the loneliness and isolation from the Lord!
- When we finally did cry out to the Lord, we were just happy that He would take us! But none of us imagined that the trek would take so much discipline!
• Exodus 16:4,5 : "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.'" : God tells Moses what is about to come and that it will be a test. It will test their loyalty to His Word.
- His Word is that they are to gather daily rations, and twice as much on the 6th day. He will soon give the reason why, but for now, it's a prohibition that is hidden in His counsel.
• Exodus 16:6-8 : "Then Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, 'At evening you shall know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt. And in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord; for He hears your complaints against the Lord. But what are we, that you complain against us?' Also Moses said, 'This shall be seen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to the full; for the Lord hears your complaints which you make against Him. And what are we? Your complaints are not against us but against the Lord.'" : It's interesting that we need constant confirmation of God's leading.
- It seems to happen like this: We become convinced, we begin walking, things become difficult, we doubt God's call, we complain wondering if He ever called us to begin with!
- That evening, God would again perform a miracle that would let them know that He was with them and had indeed been the one to bring them out.
- Moses wants the people to know something. Their complaints are against the Lord. This is a bitter pill to swallow, but it's one that needs to be correctly assessed.
- Their complaints were heard, not by human ears, but by the ears of the Lord. When they complained, they figured that they were complaining against Moses and Aaron.
- But the truth was that they were complaining against the Lord. When we are confronted with difficulty, it is the Lord who has allowed it into our lives.
- When we struggle against another person, it is God's sovereign hand that has allowed us to experience that.
- We might fight against them and complain of our circumstances, but it is God who has allowed and orchestrated those circumstances to test, prove our faith.
- He has done it to show us what spiritual midgets we really are! Instead of complaining, we need to take the time and see our hearts for what is truly in them.
• Exodus 16:9-16 : "Then Moses spoke to Aaron, 'Say to all the congregation of the children of Israel, ‘Come near before the Lord, for He has heard your complaints.’ Now it came to pass, as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God.' So it was that quails came up at evening and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp. And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground. So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, 'What is it?' 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. This is the thing which the Lord has commanded: ‘Let every man gather it according to each one’s need, one omer for each person, according to the number of persons; let every man take for those who are in his tent.'" : The Lord appeared and as promised, the Lord brought quail down upon the camp.
- Even today, it's not uncommon to find quail in abundance in this part of the world.
- The Roman historian Pliny notes that there were enough quail to commonly sink ships in the Mediterranean! In the same article, I read that 160,000 had been netted at one time![i]
- Aside from this, in ancient Egyptian writing, quail wer considered a delicacy, so this was not just any meat! This was the good stuff good!
- These quail came into the camp and covered the ground in the evening, meaning that they flew low enough to be easily caught. The meat was taken care of.
- Then in the morning time, there appeared something that nobody had seen before. It was unique to that time, but nobody knew what it was.
- They said "manna?" That's the Hebrew word for "what is it?" The question later became it's name. Moses called it bread and identified it as the Lord's provision.
- Each man was to take an omer for each person. Every person living in any given tent was to have the same amount. An omer would be enough for everyone.
- You'll note that every man was to gather for his need and ever man for those in his tent. God provided it, but the men needed to gather it.
• Exodus 16:17-21 : "Then the children of Israel did so and gathered, some more, some less. So when they measured it by omers, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. Every man had gathered according to each one’s need. And Moses said, 'Let no one leave any of it till morning.' Notwithstanding they did not heed Moses. But some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. So they gathered it every morning, every man according to his need. And when the sun became hot, it melted." : The NLT puts it this way: "Each family had just enough!"
- Each family membe was to consume it all on the very same day. None was to be left over.
- The temptation was to keep some, just in case God didn't come through or if one was lazy!
- The children of Israel did not listen to Moses and they paid for it. The next morning the leftover manna bred worms, literally maggots, and stank. The learned their lesson from there.
• Exodus 16:22-26 : "And so it was, on the sixth day, that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. Then he said to them, 'This is what the Lord has said: ‘Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.’ So they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it. Then Moses said, 'Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.'" : The Sabbath was already in place, even though it was not officially "law." The people were to begin living by that principle and preparing for it.
- As a result, they were to gather twice as much on Friday. They were to bake or boil the manna, so that it would keep, which it did. On the Sabbath, God would not provide any manna.
• Exodus 16:27-30 : "Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none. And the Lord said to Moses, 'How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? See! For the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.' So the people rested on the seventh day." : Some of God's people did not trust that the manna would remain. They went out to gather when they had been told not to.
- God has given them commands and laws, even before there was a codified law. God's Word was as good as law. It's interesting to note that one of His first prohibitions deals with rest.
- He wants His people to rest. Now, He tells them how: Stay home! This is an interesting point for those who want to argue about which day to worship on!
- The Sabbath is a day to remain in your place, sleeping in and enjoying the Lord!
• Exodus 16:31-36 : "And the house of Israel called its name Manna. And it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. Then Moses said, 'This is the thing which the Lord has commanded: ‘Fill an omer with it, to be kept for your generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’ And Moses said to Aaron, 'Take a pot and put an omer of manna in it, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept for your generations.' As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept. And the children of Israel ate manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. Now an omer is one-tenth of an ephah." It's intersting that the Lord had them keep some as a memorial and it didn't rot.
- It remained for their generations to see the bread that was fed to them.
- They ate manna for all those years while they were in the desert, until they came to Canaan.
- As we conclude this chapter, it would be unwise to do so without considering what is revealed in the New Testament, so as to give us the full breadth of what this chapter is all about.
- Please turn to John 6. Jesus has fed the 5,000 and a day later, people had come by boat to see Him. He showed them their motives, in that they wanted more bread, and they asked for a sign.
• John 6:30-35 : "Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ Then Jesus said to them, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.' Then they said to Him, 'Lord, give us this bread always.' And Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst."
- Jesus then is the true bread that the bread in the wilderness represents. To the Israelites, the bread was a reminder of God's provision, a call to daily fellowship and a testimony to His faithfulness.
- In the same way, Jesus Christ is our provision from the Lord. He has been provided, but we must go and each one gather Him in daily!
- Those who live on yesterday's fellowship are putrefying and stinky Christians! To those who go daily, they are always satisfied with Him! For those in this relationship, there is the promise of rest.
Conclusion
- As we take communion, we recall to mind that this bread still represents all these things to us, perpetually until He comes. He is the bread from heaven!
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