Exodus to this point has been all about God extricating the Israelites from under the cruel hand of Pharaoh.
God performed the greatest miracle when he parted the sea for the Israelites to walk between walls of water and then destroy the entire Egyptian army.
And only three days later when the Israelites hit a glitch in the road they forgot all about God’s miraculous works.
We would love to say how dumb they were and that we certainly would have never turned our backs on God but sad to say not many of us have a good enough memory to just believe God. We get led astray just as easily as the Israelites but our turning way doesn’t normally have critical physical life or death concerns.
While weeping and moaning they said, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the fleshpots, when we ate our fill of bread.
Wow! Their memories are enhanced, and their exaggerations are enormous.
It may overwhelm us at times but liberty does come with a price. It’s the price of self–reliance, not the free handouts that eventually enslave us.
But because they encountered a few days of discomfort they stated, You have brought us out into the wilderness to starve this whole congregation to death.
But God has an answer. He told Moses He would rain down bread to you from the sky and the people should go out each day and gather that day’s portion. We of course know that bread is Manna.
God explained to Moses that this test was to see whether they will follow my instructions or not.
There two different thoughts as to why God chose to gift them with their sustenance.
One thought is God was testing to see if the people’s faith will trust God to provide them with enough food for every day or God may be testing them to see if they will believe in Him when they are doing well.
It’s sad to say but some people only seem to need God when their life is on the downturn and not when they are doing well.
In this age of Grace our test is whether we believe our salvation is strictly tied to our faith in Christ’s ability to save us by His death on the cross. But there are those people who only turn to God when they are down on their luck.
The instruction for the manna were they would collect it for only six days but when they gather the days portion on the sixth day they will find they actually got double portions for that day and they will not have to collect on the seventh day, the Sabbath.
And the Moses reminds the Israelites that even though they are directing their grumbling to Moses and Aaron they are actually grumbling against the Lord.
And now, once again, the Lord is taking responsibility for all the miracles that have happened to the Israelites.
And now, once again He has heard their grumbling and He is going to take care of the Israelites so they may know His is the Lord.
The Lord told them in the morning you will have your bread and in the evening you will eat flesh.
Here we thought they were just getting bread and we probably would quote them and say, “man cannot live by bread alone, we need jelly for that bread”.
But God did not wait for then to say they could not just eat bread. He was now supplying them with meat.
Every evening quail would appear for their evening meal.
In the morning there was a fall of dew in the camp and when the dew lifted there was a substance, a fine and flaky substance, and this was the bread which the Lord had given.
They were commanded to gather as much of it as each required to eat.
When the Israelites gathered the manna they were not consistent. Some gathered a little, some gathered a lot.
But when it was measured the person who gathered much ended up with no excess and he who gathered a little ended up with no deficiency.
Moses told them they could not save any of it until morning.
I suppose some wanted to gather a weeks worth and store it up so they didn’t have to go get it each day.
And of course, even though they heard Moses instructions, they disobeyed them.
When it was left until morning it became infested with maggots and stank.
And Moses got angry with them.
They finally got the point, and only gathered enough that they would eat.
But on the sixth day they were told to gather a double portion so they would not work on the Sabbath.
And low and behold it did not turn rancid, it did not get maggots and it did not stink.
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