Exodus Chapter 16 Manna in the morning and Meat in the evening

Exodus 16:1-36 – Manna in the morning and Meat in the evening

Manna (Hebrew “man” meaning “what’) is bread from heaven. God miraculously provided the ancient Israelites with manna (bread) from heaven in the morning and quail meat in the evening for 40 years.

Exodus 16 can be read with Numbers 11.

When the people of Israel saw the manna, they said to one another, “What (man) is it?” (v15)

And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. (Exo 16:14 ESV)

Now the house of Israel called its name manna (Hebrew “man”). It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. (Exo 16:31 ESV)

Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium. (Num 11:7 ESV)

“Grumbled,” “grumble” and “grumbling” occur seven times in this chapter (vs 2, 8, 7, 9, 12). It also means complaining or murmuring.

“A complainer who is sinfully grumbling is showing discontentment with his lot in life. Complaining is certainly not a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23); a complaining spirit is, in fact, detrimental to the peace, joy, and patience that come from the Spirit. For the Christian, complaining is destructive and debilitating personally and serves to make one’s witness to the world more difficult.” Read more in What does the Bible say about complaining? | GotQuestions.org

The ancient Israelites complained of hunger at the desert or wilderness of Sin between Elim and Mount Sinai, [“Sin” is the Mesopotamian or Babylonian god of the moon.]  They longed for the meat pots and bread to the full in Egypt (Exo 16:3). This murmuring against Moses and Aaron was really against the LORD (vs2, 7-8). The LORD provided quail meat in the evening and bread to the full in the morning (v8).

Israelites tested & disobeyed God at least 10 times (Num 14:22).

Significant ones recorded for us to learn are:

(1) Before the crossing of the Red Sea (Exo 14:11–12)
(2) Bitter water at Marah (Exo 15:24)
(3) Bread to the full and meat pots of Egypt @ Desert of Sin (Exo 16:3)
(4) Balanced manna bred worms (Exo 16:20)
(5) No manna on the Sabbath (Exo 16:27–29)
(6) No water at Rephidim (Exo 17:2–3)
(7) Burning wrath of God in the golden calf incident (Exo 32:7–10)
(8) Burning fire of God at Taberah (Num 11:1–2)
(9) Buffet in Egypt is preferred to manna from God (Num 11:4)
(10) Brink of entry @Kadesh-barnea, Wilderness of Paran (Num 14:1–4)

The Israelites disobeyed God’s instructions to trust Him for daily manna and meat.

• Some of them gathered more manna than they can eat in the morning. By noon time, it melted. The leftover manna bred worms.
• Instead of worshipping God and resting on the Sabbath, some of them went out to gather manna, but found nothing.
• Instead of trusting God for daily manna and meat. They craved for the meat pots of Egypt. They ate so much quail meat for the whole month that it became loathsome to them. God also struck those who had the craving with a great plague (Num 11:19, 34).

Reflections

1. How can I as a believer in Jesus Christ learn from the grumblings of the ancient Israelites?

“We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1Cor 10:10-12 ESV)

2. Can I trust God for His provisions instead of striving for self-sufficiency?