The wilderness is not Egypt, and the people understood that very quickly. Their first reaction was disappointment: better to return to Egypt, where they could die, but where, at least, there was a normal...
The wilderness is not Egypt, and the people understood that very quickly. Their first reaction was disappointment: better to return to Egypt, where they could die, but where, at least, there was a normal, more or less well-fed life. Better to die beside pots of meat than in a waterless wilderness; at least it would not feel so bitter after the life they had lived. This, however, was not yet the most serious problem. The first reaction to unfamiliar and extreme conditions is rarely adequate, especially in a large mass of people.
God's answer to this reaction of the people was a series of miracles. A person who wanted to could write them off as coincidence, yet everyone understood that this was precisely a miracle, God's intervention, even if everything looked quite natural. The people had to be shown that God was not abandoning them, that He accompanied those whom He had brought out of Egypt, even if the people walking through the wilderness thought they had been left completely alone and had no one to rely on except their leaders. These lessons were not all that difficult, although the people's distrust of God persisted for a long time. On the one hand, every time God intervened, the people did seem to become convinced: God was truly with them; He was not abandoning them.
On the other hand, as soon as a critical situation arose again, they acted as if they had forgotten what they knew and what they had already had the chance to confirm. They again fell into panic and demanded immediate help from Moses or Aaron. What was needed here was simple training that would form in the people the proper response to a crisis, a response that meant not panic, but each person's immediate turning to God. Something else was more difficult: teaching the people to follow God, literally step by step, carrying out exactly what had been commanded. The story of the meat left until the next day, or of the manna that some went out to gather on Shabbat, speaks for itself.
The will of God, in this case voiced through the prophet of God, through Moses, had been stated with complete clarity, and all the previous events should have made it clear that God simply had to be listened to and that what was said had to be done, instead of trying to show initiative where it was needed least of all. Yet for a person in a fallen state, this is exactly the hardest thing, because here one must simply trust God, and trust Him unconditionally, completely giving up control over what a human being cannot control anyway.
It is useless to try to model tomorrow, and even more pointless to try to prevent problems that exist only within an invented model and not in reality at all. It was much harder to unlearn that kind of "planning" than to give up the habit of panicking over every crisis. Yet God still tries to wean the people from it; otherwise it will be hard for them to reach the land promised to them, conquer it, and live on it.
16 This chapter gives us an account of the victualling of the camp of Israel.
16:1 A month's provision, it seems, the host of Israel took with them out of Egypt, when they came thence on the 15th day of the first month, which, by the 15th day of the second month, was all spent.
16:2 Then the whole congregation murmured against Moses and Aaron - God's viceregents among them.
16:3 They so undervalue their deliverance, that they wish, they had died in Egypt, nay, and died by the hand of the Lord too. That is, by some of the plagues which cut off the Egyptians; as if it were not the hand of the Lord, but of Moses only, that brought them into this wilderness. 'Tis common for people to say of that pain, or sickness, which they see not second causes of, It is what pleaseth God, as if that were not so likewise which comes by the hand of man, or some visible accident.We cannot suppose they had any great plenty in Egypt, how largely soever they now talk of the flesh - pots, nor could they fear dying for want in the wilderness while they had their flocks and herds with them; but discontent magnifies what is past, and vilifies what is present, without regard to truth or reason. None talk more absurdly than murmurers.
16:4 Man being made out of the earth, his Maker has wisely ordered him food out of the earth, Psalmorum 104:14. But the people of Israel typifying the church of the first - born that are written in heaven, receiving their charters, laws and commissions from heaven, from heaven also they received their food. See what God designed in making this provision for them, that I may prove them whether they will walk in my law or no - Whether they will trust me, and whether they would serve him, and be ever faithful to so good a master.
16:5 They shall prepare - Lay up, grind, bake or boil.
16:6 The Lord - And not we, (as you suggest) by our own counsel.
16:10 The glory of the Lord - An extra - ordinary and sudden brightness.
16:12 And ye shall know that I am the Lord your God - This gave proof of his power as the Lord, and his particular favour to them as their God; when God plagued the Egyptians, it was to make them know that he is the Lord; when he provided for the Israelites, it was to make them know that he was their God.
16:13 The quails came up, and covered the camp - So tame that they might take up as many of them as they pleased. Next morning he rained manna upon them, which was to be continued to them for their daily bread.
16:15 What is this? Manna descended from the clouds. It came down in dew melted, and yet was itself of such a consistency as to serve for nourishing strengthening food, without any thing else: It was pleasant food; the Jews say it was palatable to all, according as their tastes were.It was wholesome food, light of digestion. By this spare and plain diet we are all taught a lesson of temperance, and forbidden to desire dainties and varieties.
16:16 An omer - The tenth part of an Ephah: Near six pints, wine - measure.
16:19 Let no man leave 'till morning - But let them learn to go to bed and sleep quietly, though they had not a bit of bread in their tent, nor in all their camp, trusting God with the following day to bring them their daily bread. Never was there such a market of provisions as this, where so many hundred thousand men were daily furnished without money, and without price: never was there such an open house kept as God kept in the wilderness for 40 years together, nor such free and plentiful entertainment given. And the same wisdom, power and goodness that now brought food daily out of the clouds, doth in the constant course of nature bring food yearly out of the earth, and gives us all things richly to enjoy.
16:23 Here is a plain intimation of the observing a seventh day sabbath, not only before the giving of the law upon mount Sinai, but before the bringing of Israel out of Egypt and therefore from the beginning. If the sabbath had now been first instituted, how could Moses have understood what God said to him, Exodus 16:4, concerning a double portion to be gathered on the sixth day, without making any express mention of the sabbath? And how could the people so readily take the hint, Exodus 16:22, even to the surprize of the rulers, before Moses had declared that it was done with regard to the sabbath, if they had not had some knowledge of the sabbath before? The setting apart of one day in seven for holy work, and in order to that for holy rest, was a divine appointment ever since God created man upon the earth.
16:34 An omer of this manna was laid up in a golden pot as we are told, Hebraeos 9:4, and kept before the testimony, or the ark, when it was afterwards made, The preservation of this manna from waste and corruption, was a standing miracle; and therefore the more proper memorial of this miraculous food.The manna is called spiritual meat, 1 Corinthios 10:3, because it was typical of spiritual blessings. Christ himself is the true manna, the bread of life, of which that was a figure, Ioannem 6:49-51. The word of God is the manna by which our souls are nourished, Matthaeum 4:4.The comforts of the Spirit are hidden manna, Apocalipsys 2:17.These comforts from heaven as the manna did, are the support of the divine life in the soul while we are in the wilderness of this world: it is food for Israelites, for those only that follow the pillar of cloud and fire: it is to be gathered; Christ in the word is to be applied to the soul, and the means of grace used: we must every one of us gather for ourselves.There was manna enough for all, enough for each, and none had too much; so in Christ there is a compleat sufficiency, and no superfluity. But they that did eat manna hungered again, died at last, and with many of them God was not well pleased: whereas they that feed on Christ by faith shall never hunger, and shall die no more, and with them God will be for ever well pleased. The Lord evermore give us this bread!