The Lord intends to supply meat for the Israelites' evening meal and bread for their morning meal.
"The Lord said to Moses, 'I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, 'At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.'" (Exodus 16:11-12) How else can the people explain the provision of this food except to say that it came from the Lord's hand? This is why the Lord says, "Then you will know that I am the Lord your God." He wants to be their personal God, to have them call Him "the Lord our God". He already holds the titles of "God" and "Lord" whether anyone believes in Him or not. What He's doing is displaying His ability to take care of them and His desire to be personally known by them. As He provides for them each day He wants them to learn to think of Him not simply as "God" but as "our God".
"That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, 'What is it?' For they did not know what it was." (Exodus 16:13-15a) It is believed that the name given to this substance (manna) is derived from the question they ask (what is it?). In the original language their question would have been something like, "Ma'n hu?"
"Moses said to them, 'It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: 'Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.'" (Exodus 16:15b-16) The exact measurement of an "omer" is not known for certain, with some saying it could have been as much as a gallon and with others saying it equals a level cup. The most popular and prevalent opinion is that it equaled about 9.3 dry measuring cups. The people are to take this measurement for each person who resides in their tent. This is how much the Lord has determined each person needs for their daily ration, and He should know since He created the human body.
I want to stop here a minute to point out that the Lord instructs them to only take as much as they need. They are not to perform a practice which has sadly come to our attention over the past few months during the Covid-19 pandemic. They are not to do any panic-gathering or hoarding. The Lord is asking the people to exercise their faith, and that means they must only take what they need on a daily basis. By doing this they are making a declaration of their faith in the Lord to provide what they need tomorrow and on the day after that and on the day after that and for as long as they can't plant and harvest their own crops. I've said all along that our study of Exodus has matched up quite well with what is currently happening in our nation and world. Our passage today is no exception. When we go to the store we should take only what we need to get us through til our next trip to the store, trusting that the Lord will supply what we need. The Lord is not a rewarder of greed and selfishness, nor is He a rewarder of a refusal to trust in Him.
The Bible tells us how we must conduct ourselves if we want to be rewarded by God: "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6) If we want to be rewarded by God then we must place our faith in Him by making a deliberate decision to believe He exists and that He is concerned with us and that He wants to be known by us. We must earnestly seek Him, which means doing our part to form a relationship with Him. How do we form relationships with other human beings? We do it by spending time with them, by letting them share their thoughts with us, by sharing our thoughts with them, by learning about them and developing an understanding of their character. We form a relationship with God in the same way. He is asking us to spend time in His presence, to speak to Him in prayer and to listen to Him in prayer, to study His holy word, to learn about who He is and what He does. The Lord will reward such efforts.
The people take the amount of manna the Lord told them to take. "The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some gathered little." (Exodus 16:17) A large family had to gather "much". For example, a family of ten needed to gather ten omers. A small family, such as a married couple without children, needed to gather only two omers, so in their case they gathered "little".
The amount the Lord instructed them to gather per person didn't cause them to come up short. It was enough to allow each person to feel as if he or she got enough to eat. Likewise, the amount wasn't wasteful; there wasn't a bunch of leftovers to deal with after the meal was finished. "And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed." (Exodus 16:18)
The people are to gather and eat the amount the Lord instructed, not storing part of it for the next day. To store up manna for tomorrow shows a lack of faith that the Lord will provide food tomorrow. "Then Moses said to them, 'No one is to keep any of it til morning.'" (Exodus 16:19)
Some of them are not willing to trust the Lord for tomorrow. They hold back part of the manna in case the Lord doesn't send any food tomorrow. This means they aren't sure the Lord will keep His word about providing for them each day. "However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell." (Exodus 16:20a) The manna spoiled overnight. This is the mercy of the Lord, for He is trying to teach them to obey Him and rely on Him. If the manna had not spoiled then they would have developed the habit of regularly storing it up for the next day in case He didn't come through. They wouldn't have learned to trust that He would keep His word and send fresh manna each day. Their faith would have rested more on themselves (on their ability to think ahead and plan for tomorrow) than on God's ability to make something out of nothing---to provide food where no food grows.
How many of the pandemic hoarders are going to be throwing away things they excessively purchased in greed and in selfishness and in lack of faith? Even canned goods and dry goods have expiration dates. Even the most carefully-packaged freezer meats will eventually undergo what's known as freezer burn. Have you ever found weevils in cornmeal or flour even before the expiration date? I have. Have you ever cooked meat that's been in the freezer so long that it's become kind of dry and tasteless? I have. Have you ever been organizing and cleaning out your kitchen cabinets only to notice that some of the dates stamped on the bottoms of cans are long past? I have. And that's in regular times, when we just accidentally let things remain in our cabinets or freezers for too long. What's going to happen to all the extra food that people purchased in excess amounts? A lot of it is going to expire, freezer burn, or spoil long before it can be eaten. What has really been accomplished? A lot of money was wasted. Some people went without what they needed because others selfishly bought the store shelves out. And if all that isn't bad enough, those who hoarded didn't grow in their faith or learn anything about the Lord. Here in Exodus 16 the Lord is trying to help the people's faith to grow. He's trying to show them He can be counted on. But some didn't obey His instructions the first time the manna fell from heaven and this means they wasted an opportunity to grow in their faith and learn about Him.
Such wastefulness exasperates Moses. "So Moses was angry with them." (Exodus 16:20b) Moses wants to know, "Why didn't you listen? Why didn't you just do what the Lord told you to do? You could have had full bellies yesterday if you hadn't put back some of the manna for today, but instead you didn't eat your fill because you didn't trust the Lord to provide for today. Now you have spoiled manna stinking up your tents first thing this morning. You didn't exercise your faith. Just as muscles of the body are weak if they never get any exercise, your faith will remain weak if you don't exercise it. The Lord presented you with a great opportunity to become strong in your faith. Some of you wasted it just like you wasted the manna you saved overnight."
This isn't the last time they are going to waste an opportunity or make Moses angry. It's not the last time they'll be weak in their faith. But the Lord isn't going to cast them aside and stop being their God, and aren't we glad of that? I've wasted opportunities, haven't you? I've been weak in my faith, haven't you? And still God wants to be our God. He hasn't turned His back on us and walked away. He hasn't given up on us. Every day is a new opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the past and develop new spiritual muscle.
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