Exodus chapter 16 gives a vivid picture of God’s grace! The chapter begins by telling us, after one month, the whole community of Israel moved from Elim to the Desert of Sin on the way to Sinai. We read, “The whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron“. They said, We could have died in Egypt, “There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted… but you have brought us here to starve… to death!” It seems they conveniently forgot the slavery and cruelty. God reacts to their complaints with provision not punishment. He tells Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you…go out each day and gather enough for that day… on the sixth day, gather twice as much as they do on the other days.” Moses told the people, “In the evening you will know it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt.” How short their memory was! Moses continues, “In the evening you will eat meat and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God“. What will it take for you to know that Jesus Christ is your Lord?
“That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared.” They said, “What is it?” Moses explained, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat…each one is to gather as much as he needs… no one is to keep it until morning“. Isn’t it interesting that the Lord provided the manna, but the people had to work to collect it. Predictably, “some people paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots“. “Each morning everyone gathered as much as they needed and when the sun grew hot, it melted away.” What a true picture of how God provides; our tendency would be to hoard up as much as we could so we can trust ourselves, but God desires for us to trust Him daily for our needs.
Moses reminded the people, “tomorrow is to be a day of rest, the holy Sabbath“. They were to gather twice as much and prepare it for the following day, and only on the Sabbath did it remain pure for the next morning. The Sabbath day is important to us because we require time to recharge spiritually and physically. Mark 2:27 tells us, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath“. Isn’t it interesting that the Israelites works 6 days and then rested, but as believers in Christ we get to rest on the first day of the week! We don’t have to earn the right to rest, the work was already completed on the cross, all we need to do is accept it by faith. Again, some of the Israelites did not listen to Moses and went to gather the manna on the seventh day, and the Lord said, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my instructions?” We are told the Manna “tasted like wafers made with honey“, and we are also told, “the Israelites ate it for forty years until they came to the land they settled” because of their rebellion.
In John chapter six, Jesus declares, “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and they died… I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, they shall live forever“. By God’s grace, we are given the gift of salvation through Christ. All we have to do to receive it is ask. If you feel like you are wondering in the wilderness hungry and lost, call on Jesus. “Truly truly, I say to you he who believes has eternal life.”