NOTES for Exo 15:22-16:36
The first lesson God taught His people was the journey itself from Egypt to Sinai. At the center of the account of this journey is the story of the manna God sent in response to the grumbling of the people, who demanded food. At first glance, the story seems rather strange: the commandment concerning the Sabbath had not yet been given, yet God, through Moses, was already effectively requiring the people to observe it (Ex 16:22–30). But on reflection, there is nothing strange about this. The commandments do not come into existence when God reveals them; they have existed as long as the relationship between God and humanity, and therefore as long as humanity itself. If fallen humanity sometimes forgot them, this by no means meant that the commandments ceased to apply, just as natural laws did not cease to operate because people did not know about them. But why does God begin teaching His people with a lesson devoted to the Sabbath? To understand this, it is important to recall what the Sabbath was for God’s people. The point is not the particular features of a calendar: the Sabbath day is every seventh day, whatever it may be called in a given calendar, provided that this day is devoted entirely to God. For this, it is important to learn to stop, to cease one’s usual activity on that day, even if it concerns earning one’s daily bread. The point is not self-sacrifice. It is being able to see, behind the natural order of things, another order, a spiritual one. Psychological inertia makes a person behave in a certain way in a given situation—for example, laying in supplies for a rainy day while the opportunity exists (Ex 16:20). But to discern God’s will behind particular events, it is important to overcome this inertia—in this case, for example, by abandoning such attempts. God makes His people understand this by rendering the attempts pointless. And when the daily gathering of manna becomes routine, a habit, it turns out that every seventh day will be different: there will be nothing to gather that day, so it will not be like all the other days (Ex 16:26–27). Then a person accustomed to daily routine is taken out of the stream of ordinary tasks and events that so often prevents them from seeing God behind everyday life. The veil of the familiar is torn apart, and behind it one can see the One to whom it is impossible to grow accustomed, even if one has the happiness of beholding Him every day.