Exodus 16:11 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
12 I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God.
13 And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.
14 And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.
15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat.
16 This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents.
17 And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less.
Again we see the LORD respects the order He establishes. He chose Moses as the man to lead the nation of Israel from Egypt into the promised land. Moses made a choice that caused him to lose the opportunity to lead the nation of Israel into the promised land.
In our previous text we see that the people murmured against Moses and Aaron. However, in our text God addressed Moses. It was up to Moses to pass on His instructions to the people. The people needed to know the true God and part of that is to accept His leadership structure.
He heard the murmuring of the children of Israel. Now it was up to Moses to instruct them as to God’s answer. At even they would eat flesh and in the morning they would be filled with bread. The purpose of God’s response was to help the children of Israel to know that He, the “I am” is the LORD their God.
Israel needed to know that there was no other God. They were not given the option of choosing a false god as their god, if they wanted His blessing. They needed to choose the true God as their God. He would continue to prove that He was the true God. He would do things for them that no false god could do.
True to His Word, that evening, the quails came up. They covered the camp. The people gathered the quail and ate meat that evening. In the morning, there was a dew that lay about the host. God did not make gathering this food difficult for them. Thorns and thistles as recorded in Genesis 3 are often there, but God also knows how to provide things so that they are in relative ease for the people.
This is a picture of the fact that knowing the way of salvation is not a difficult thing. Man tries to complicate God’s salvation. The true Jesus is known through the Word of God. He is readily known.
We read that when the dew was gone up, a small round thing was left laying on the ground. It was round and it looked like hoar frost.
The children of Israel saw this new thing and they wondered what it was. They called it manna. Manna literally means “what is it?”. Moses wrote down what it looked like. God directed him to write that. However, at the time, the children of Israel had never seen such a thing.
Moses was directed to tell them that this was the bread that the LORD had promised to them. God keeps His Word. This was a new thing, but it was also a good thing.
In verse 16 Moses reminded the people that this was the fulfilment of the LORD’s promise to them. Moses gave them very clear instructions regarding how much of this bread they were to gather. They only needed to gather enough for the day. They did not need to store any for an emergency. They needed to learn to trust the LORD for their daily needs.
God was giving them a picture of the promise of the LORD to provide the bread of life for all people. That bread of life is found in the Lord Jesus Christ.
John 6:30 They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?
31 Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
32 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
They were to gather an “omer” for every man. An omer is equal to two litres which is about a half gallon. Each person was to gather this amount for himself for the day. The parents needed to gather for themselves and for their young children.
In verse 17 we see that the children of Israel did as they were commanded. We will see further that they did not follow this specifically. They proved an important fact about us as people. We are very reluctant to obey clear commands. We want some wiggle room. We think that obedience is not important. We think that generalities and approximations are okay.
As we read in John 6, Jesus Christ is the bread of life. It is necessary to partake of this bread to be saved. That bread is not the bread of the Lord’s Supper, but that bread is the Lord Jesus Christ. A person must believe in Him for their daily life. The blood of Jesus Christ is necessary to cleanse us of our sin. The bread of Jesus Christ speaks of trusting in Him to guide and direct us every step of the way.
When we eat physical food, we trust in that food to give us the energy we need to live healthy lives. In North America we have come to trust in processed food far too often. That food is not healthy for us and society is becoming sicker in part, due to unhealthy food choices.
Spiritually speaking, society is quite sick. This is due to the fact that a false Christ is taught and believed by too many people. We have warned of the heresies taught in the Charismatic camp. Too many people are willing to accept those heresies because it makes them feel good about themselves. It does nothing good for them but they think it does.
We need to trust in the true Jesus and look to Him for our daily sustenance both physically and spiritually. We cannot know God’s peace unless we know Him and we cannot know Him unless we know His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t settle for a man-made copy of truth. Believe the Truth and enjoy God’s blessings.
Pastor Bartel
