Exodus Chapter 16 Deep-Dive: Manna From Heaven

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EX CH 16 ISRAEL HAS WITNESSED THE PLAGUES YAHWEH SENT ON EGYPT, PARTICIPATED IN THE PASSOVER, PASSED THROUGH THE RED SEA, SUNG THE SONG OF MOSES ABOUT THEIR AMAZING RESCUE BY YAHWEH, EXPERIENCED THE MIRACLE OF THE BITTER WATER MIRACULOUSLY MADE SWEET AT MARAH, AND HAVE CAMPED AT THE OASIS OF ELIM. NOW BEFORE WE CONTINUE ON THE EXODUS LET’S STOP AND LISTEN TO A LITTLE INSIDE BASEBALL … WHAT WAS ISRAEL’S CONDITION AT THIS TIME?

Josh 24: 14“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods (PRESENT TENSE) your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River (Terah, Nahor, and Abraham), and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Joshua at the end of his life, after he had spied out the land with Caleb, had to sit in the wilderness 40 yrs while that depraved unbelieving generation, which had witnessed first hand the delivery from Egypt, died off, then he led their children to conquer the promised land:

Why is Joshua able to remind them of this?

• Because HE HAD BEEN A YOUNG MAN IN Egypt when Moses showed up. HE WAS THERE … HE HAD WITNESSED THE WHOLE THING!

• In Israel’s FIRST military encounter Joshua was tasked by Moses to lead the army. Ex 17:8 Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. 9So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” 10So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. 12But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. 13And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword. 4Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” 15And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The Lord Is My Banner (Jehovah Nissi), 16saying, “A hand upon the throne of the Lord! The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”

• HE WAS MOSES’ ASSISTANT!

  • He accompanied Moses to Mt Sinai when the law was given (Ex 24:13)

  • He was there when Moses confronted Aaron and the people at the golden calves incident (Ex 32:17)

  • He spent a lot of time in the tent of meeting where Moses met face to face with God (Ex 33:11)

Joshua knew the Israelites intimately, going all the way back to Egypt … AND IT WAS NOT PRETTY! In their heart of hearts they were idolators.

The prophet Ezekiel’s witness. When Judah had been sent by God into captivity in Babylon this is what God said about Israel through the prophet Ezekiel (exiled in Babylon, during the 22 years from 593 to 571 BC) God was remembering what they were like just a few generations after Jacob & Joseph:

Ez 20:4 Will you judge them? Will you judge them, son of man (Ezekiel)? Make known to them the detestable things of their ancestors. 5 And you must say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “On the day of my choosing Israel ⌊I swore⌋ to the offspring of the house of Jacob, and I made myself known to them in the land of Egypt, and ⌊I swore⌋ to them, ⌊saying⌋, ‘I am Yahweh your God.’ 6 On that day ⌊I swore⌋ to them to bring them out from the land of Egypt to the land that I had searched out for them, flowing with milk and honey—it is the most beautiful of all of the lands. 7 Then I said to them, ‘Let each one throw away the detestable things of his eyes, and you must not make yourselves unclean with the idols of Egypt! I am Yahweh your God.’ 8 But they rebelled against me, and they were not willing to listen to me; each one ⌊did not throw away⌋ the detestable things of their eyes; and ⌊they did not abandon⌋ the idols of Egypt, and I decided to pour out my rage on them, to fully vent my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. (SLAVERY & OPPRESSION) 9 “But I acted for the sake of my name ⌊to keep it from being profaned⌋ before the eyes of the nations ⌊among whom they lived⌋, where I made known to them before their eyes, to bring them out from the land of Egypt. 10 And I brought them out from the land of Egypt, and I brought them to the desert,

• Israel had fallen into idolatry when they were in Egypt even though God had revealed himself to them (v5 I made myself known to them in the land of Egypt)

• GOD poured out His WRATH when they did not respond to Him: (v8 I decided to pour out my rage on them, to fully vent my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt).

• Yet, God was faithful to the promise He had made to Abraham Acts7:17 (NT, Stephen’s defense before the Sanhedrin) “As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased. 18Then ‘a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.’

• God responded when his people cried out to Him.

  • Ex3:7The Lord said (to Moses from the burning bush), “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring (YOU BRING!) my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” God causes suffering to elicit a response from sinful people, then responds when they turn to Him:

  • Neh 9:9 “You saw the misery of our ancestors in Egypt, and you heard their shout at the Red Sea. 10 You gave signs and wonders against Pharaoh, all of his servants, and all of the people of his land because you knew that they (the Egyptians) acted arrogantly against them. You made a name for yourself, as it is this day. 11 And you divided the sea before them, and they passed through the sea on dry ground, but their pursuers you threw into the depths like a stone into mighty waters:

SO, A MERCIFUL GOD RESCUES HIS PEOPLE, BUT, THEY WERE NASTY REBELLIOUS IDOLATORS WHO HAD RESISTED HIS INTERVENTIONS THROUGHOUT THEIR TIME IN EGYPT … BOTTOM LINE, AT THE END OF THE EXODUS, THIS IS HOW GOD FELT ABOUT THESE PEOPLE … Ps 95:10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” 11Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”

BACK TO EX 16: Bread from Heaven

1They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin(SINAI) (DESERT … LITERALLY A PLACE WHERE PEOPLE CAN’T LIVE, DEATH AND DANGER), which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. (A MONTH) 2And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness , 3and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” MORE COMPLAINING … GET USED TO IT!

4Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. 5On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” ONE DAY AT A TIME, EXCEPT FOR THE SABBATH 6So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, 7and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. For what are we, that you grumble against us?” 8And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.”

9Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, ‘Come near before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.’” 10And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. 11And the Lord said to Moses, 12“I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’” THE ONE WHO CAUSES THINGS TO BE

13In the evening quail came up and covered the camp FRESH DEAD BIRDS LAYING ON THE GROUND, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. 14And 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. 15When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” (MANNA) For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. 16This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer, according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.’” 17And the people of Israel did so. They gathered, some more, some less. 18But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat. 19And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over till the morning.” 20But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. 21Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.

22On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, 23he said to them, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’” 24So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. 25Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. 26Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.”

27On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. 28And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? 29See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.” 30So the people rested on the seventh day. THE SABBATH WAS GIVEN TO ISRAEL BEFORE THE LAW

31Now the house of Israel called its name manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. 32Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” 33And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the Lord to be kept throughout your generations.” 34As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept. (THIS IS BEFORE THE ARK IS MADE) 35The people of Israel ate the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land. They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan. 36(An omer is the tenth part of an ephah.) AGAIN, LATER GENERATIONS EXPLAINING WHAT AN OMER WAS AT THE TIME OF THE EXODUS … EDITING AND UPDATING THE SCRIPTURES.

GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD … EVERYTHING WE NEED FROM GOD FOR THAT DAY … JESUS, THE BREAD OF HEAVEN … UNLESS YOU EAT MY FLESH YOU HAVE NO PART WITH ME ...

AND THAT WILL WRAP UP CH 16

 

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