Exodus 16
THE FIRST MURMURING FOR FOOD (vs. 1-3)
From Elim, or the fertile tract extending from Wady Ghurnndel to Wady Tayibeh,
the
Israelites, after a time, removed, and encamped (as we learn from
Numbers
33:10) by the
extending
from the mouth of Tayibeh to the entrance upon the
broad plain
of El Markha. Hence they entered upon “the wilderness
of Sin, which is
between Elim and Sinai” — a tract
identified by some with the coast plain,
El Markha, by others with the inland undulating region known
at the
present day
as the Debbet-er-Ramleh It is difficult to decide
between these
two views.
In favor of El Markha are:
Ø The fact
that the Egyptian settlements in the Sinaitic
peninsula would
thus be avoided, as they
seem to have been, since no contest with
Egyptians is recorded;
Ø The descent
of the quails, who, wearied with a long flight over the Red
Sea, would naturally
settle as soon as they reached the shore;
Ø The greater
openness and facility of the El Markha and Wady Feiran
route, which is admitted
by all; and
Ø The
suitability of the latter to the particulars of the narrative in ch. 18.
In favor of
the route by the Debbet-er-Ramleh are:
Ø The fact
that it is better watered at present than the other;
Ø Its being
somewhat less removed from the direct line between Wady
Ghurundel and Sinai than El Markha; and
Ø A certain correspondency of sound or meaning between some of the
narrative. In “the wilderness of Sin” the Israelites for
the first time
found themselves in want of sufficient nourishment. They had
consumed the grain which they had brought with them out of
though no doubt they had still considerable flocks and
herds, yet they
were unaccustomed to a mere milk and flesh diet, having in
principally upon bread
(v.3), fish (Numbers 11:5), and vegetables (ibid.).
They therefore “murmured,” and accused Moses and Aaron
of an
intention to starve
them. It is quite possible that many of
the poorer sorts
having brought with them
no cattle, or lost their cattle by the way, and not
being helped by their
brethren, were in actual danger of starvation. Hence
God was
not angry, but “heard their murmurings” (v. 9) patiently,
and
relieved them.
1 “And
they took their journey from Elim, and all the
congregation of
the children of
between Elim and
Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month
after their departing out of the
And they took their journey from Elim,
and all the congregation of
the children of
seems
to imply that the Israelites proceeded in detachments from Elim,
and were first
assembled
as a complete host when they reached the “wilderness of Sin.” This
accords
well
with their numbers and with the character of the localities. They could only
assemble all together when they reached some considerable
plain – “which is
between
Elim and Sinai,
on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out
of the
journey of three
days through a wilderness (ch. 15:22), it is evident
that there must
either have
been long stays in several places, or that they must have often encamped in
places
which had no name. Viewed as an itinerary, the record is manifestly incomplete.
2 “And
the whole congregation of the children of
and Aaron in the wilderness:” It has been observed above, that only the
poorer sort
could
have been as yet in any peril of actual starvation; but it may well have been
that
the
rest, once launched into the wilderness, and becoming practically acquainted
with its
unproductiveness,
foresaw that ultimately starvation must come upon them too, when all
the
cattle were eaten up, or had died through insufficient nourishment Nothing is
more
clear
than that, without the miracle of the
manna, it would have been impossible for a
population of two millions to have supported themselves for forty
years, or even for
two years, in such a
region as the Sinaitic peninsula, even though it had been in
ancient times three or four times as productive as at present. The
cattle brought out
of
with them
also great wealth in the precious metals, yet it must have been some time
before they
could establish commercial relations with the neighboring nations so as
to obtain
such supplies as they needed. Thus we can well understand that at
the
expiration
of a month the people generally should have recognized that
their situation
was one of great
danger, and should have vented their discontent upon their leaders.
3 “And
the children of
the hand of the LORD in the
and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye
have brought us forth
into this wilderness, to kill this whole
assembly with hunger.
And the children of
the hand of the LORD in the
with a painless death, as He
did the first-born of the Egyptians! Then we
should
have avoided the painful and
lingering death from starvation which we now see
before us.” The cry puts on the garb of
piety, and names the name of Jehovah,
but indicates a want of faith in Him, His power, and His
promises (chps. 4:8,17;
6:8;
12:25; 13:5, 11), which was sinful, and, after
the miracles that they had seen,
barely excusable. “when we sat by the flesh pots” - Compare Numbers 11:5.
Both
passages make it clear that, whatever the sufferings of the Israelites in
from the
cruelty of the
taskmasters and the hard tasks set them, at any rate their
sustenance
was well cared for — they had abundance of agreeable food - “and when
we did eat bread - It has been said that “bread” here means
“food in general;”
and no
doubt the word has sometimes that sense. But it was probably actual bread,
rather than
anything else, for which the Israelites were longing. See the Introduction
to the chapter.
The
Unreasonableness of their Discontent (vs. 1-3)
The people
of
passage of
the
they are
afraid that they will soon have nothing to eat. They have consumed their dough
(ch. 12:39), their grain, their flour; many of them have
consumed, or lost, their beasts.
The land
around them produces little or nothing that is edible; no settled inhabitants
show
themselves from whom they may purchase food. If there are Egyptian store-
houses in
the district, they are shut against the enemies of
one and
all, begin to despair and murmur. How irrational their conduct! The
unreasonableness
of discontent is shown:
HAVE SEEN FREQUENT INSTANCES
OF IT. The Israelites had been
brought out of
series of wonderful miracles. They had escaped
the pursuit of Pharaoh by
having a path made for them through the waters
of the
witnessed the destruction of Pharaoh’s choicest
warriors by the return of the waves
on either side. They had very recently thought
themselves on the point of
perishing
with thirst; and
then by the simplest possible means God had made the bitter water
sweet and
agreeable. Now, they had found themselves fallen into a new difficulty.
They had no bread, and foresaw a time when all their food would be exhausted.
They were not really, if the rich imparted of their superfluous cattle to the
poor,
in any immediate danger. Yet, instead of
bearing the trial, and doing the best they
could under the circumstances, they began
to murmur and wish themselves
dead. They did not
reflect upon the past; they did not use it as a standard by which
to estimate the future. They acted exactly as they might naturally have done, had they
had
no previous evidence of God’s power to deliver. And so it
is to this day in human
life
frequently. We do not witness miracles, but we witness
signal deliverances of
various
kinds — an enemy defeated at the moment that he seemed about to
carry all
before
him — the independence of a nation saved when it appeared
to be lost-
drought succeeded by copious rains — overmuch rain followed by a glorious
month for harvest. Yet, each time
that a calamity threatens, we despond; we
forget
all the past; we distrust God’s mercy; we murmur; we wish, or say
we
wish, that we had died before the trial came.
POSITION, WITHOUT ITS
COMPENSATING ADVANTAGES, WITH
ALL THE ADVANTAGES, AND NONE
OF THE DISADVANTAGES,
OF SOME PREVIOUS ONE. The Israelites, fearing starvation, thought of nothing
but the delight of sitting by the fleshpots of
omitted
to reflect on their severe toils day after
day, on the misery of feeling
they were slaves, on the murder of their children by one tyrant, and the requirement
of
impossible tasks by another,
on the rudeness to which they were daily exposed,
and the blows which were hourly showered on them. They omitted equally to
consider what they had gained by quitting
the
full liberty of worshipping God after their conscience, the constant society of
their
families, the bracing air of the Desert, the
perpetual evidence of God’s presence
and providential care in the sight of the pillar
of the cloud and of fire, which
accompanied them. And men still act much the same. Oh! for the delights of
boyhood,
they exclaim, forgetting all its drawbacks. Oh! for the time when I
occupied
that position, which I unwisely gave up (because I hated it). The present
situation
is always the worst conceivable — its ills are magnified, its good points
overlooked,
thought nothing of again, how unreasonable! The allegorical tale which
tells
of a pilgrim who wished to change his cross, and after trying a hundred others,
found
that the original one alone fitted him, is applicable to such cases, and should
teach
us a lesson of content. (Why is it that
as humans, we want what we can’t get
and
then when we get it, it wasn’t what we wanted after all? – CY – 2010)
Moses and Aaron were not to blame for the situation in which the Israelites
found
themselves. They had done nothing but obey God from first to last.
God
had commanded the exodus — God had led the way — God had forbidden
the
short route along the shore to the country of the Philistines, and had brought
them
into the “wilderness of the
“the
wilderness of Sin.” Moses and Aaron were but his mouthpieces. Yet the
Israelites murmured against them. Truly did Moses respond — “What are
we?
Your murmurings are not
against us, but against the LORD.” (v. 8) And
so are all murmurings. Men are but God’s instruments; and, in whatsoever
difficulty
we find ourselves, it is God who has placed us there. Murmuring
against
men is altogether foolish and vain. We should
take our grief straight to
God; we should address Him, not with
murmuring, but with prayer. We should
entreat
Him to remove our burden, or to give us strength to bear it, We should
place
all in His hands.
The Promise of
Bread from Heaven (vs. 4-8)
When men who are in real distress make complaint, even
though the tone of their complaint
be not such as it ought to be, God in His mercy is wont to have compassion upon them, to
“hear their mummurings,” and grant them some relief. But the relief is seldom of the kind
which they expect, or pray for. The Israelites wished for
actual bread, made of wheaten or
barley flour. God gave them, not such bread, but a
substitute for it. And first, before giving it,
He promised that it should be given. Thus expectation was
aroused; faith was exercised; the
supernatural character of the relief was indicated; the
power and the goodness of God, were,
both of them, shown forth. And with the promise was given a
law. They were on each
occasion to gather no more than would suffice for the day.
Thus they would continually
“live by faith,” taking no thought for the morrow, but trusting all to
God. (Matthew 6:34)
4 “Then
said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven
for you; and the people shall go out and gather
a certain rate every day,
that I may prove them, whether they will walk in
my law, or no.”
Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread (Compare
Psalm
78:24;
Nehemiah 9:15; John 6:31-51) from
heaven for you - it was called “bread,”
because
it was intended to serve instead of bread, as the main support of life during
the
sojourn of
as descending
on ‘the ground out of the circumambient air; and secondly, as
miraculously
sent by Him, whose seat is in heaven - and the
people shall go
out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove
them, whether they
will walk in my law, or no.” As in
Paradise God coupled with His free gift of
“every tree of the garden,
thou mayest freely eat” the
positive precept, “But of
the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil thou shalt not eat of it: for in the
day that thou eastest thereof THOU SHALT
SURELY DIE!” (Genesis 2:16-17) -
that
He might prove our first parents, whether they would obey Him or not — so
now He
“proved” the
obedience of the Israelites by a definite, positive command -
they
were not to gather on ordinary days more than was sufficient for the day.
All life is intended as a probation.
Murmurings (vs. 1-4)
In the “Wilderness of Sin,” between Elim and
Sinai, on the 15th day of the
second
month after the departing of
month, but how
much can be forgotten even in so brief a space of time!
(Compare ch. 32:1).
Israelites
were failing them. God lets the barrel of meal and the cruse of oil
run out (I
Kings 17:12), before interposing with His help. Thus He tries
what manner of spirit we are of. Our
extremity is His opportunity. Consider
here:
strong relief in the course of the narrative.
1. “The whole congregation of
the children of
2. “He heareth your
murmurings against the Lord, and what are we that
ye murmur against us?” (v. 7).
3.
“The Lord heareth
your murmurings which ye murmur against Him,
and what are we? Your murmurings
are not against us, but against
the Lord”(v. 8).
4.
“He hath heard your
murmurings” (v. 9).
5.
“I have heard the murmurings
of the children of
Ø
They murmured, and did not pray. They seem to have left that to Moses
(compare ch. 14:15).
Remembering what Jehovah had already done for
them — the proofs He had already given them of
His goodness and
faithfulness — we might have thought that prayer
would have been their
first resource. But they
do not avail themselves of it. They do not even
raise the empty cries of ibid. v. 10. It
is a wholly unsubmissive
and
distrustful
spirit which wreaks its unreasonableness on Moses and
Aaron in
the words, “Ye
have brought us forth into the wilderness to kill this whole
assembly
with hunger” (v. 3). We who blame them, however, have only
to observe our own hearts to see how often we
are in the same
condemnation. (See
ever easier, in times of difficulty, to murmur than to pray. Yet how much
better for ourselves, as well as more dutiful to
God, could we learn the
lesson of coming with every trouble to the
throne of grace.
“But with my God I leave my cause;
From Him I seek relief;
To Him in confidence of prayer
Unbosom all my grief”
Had
Ø
Their behavior affords some interesting
illustrations of what the
murmuring spirit is. Distinguish this spirit from states of mind which bear a
superficial resemblance to it.
o
From the cry
of natural distress. When distress comes upon us,
we cannot but acutely feel the pain of our
situation, and with this
is connected the
tendency to lament and bewail it. The dictates
of the highest piety, indeed, would lead us to
imitate David in
studying to
be still before God. “I was dumb,
I opened not my
mouth
because thou didst it” (Psalm 39:9). Yet listen to this
same David’s lamentations over Absalom (II Samuel
18:33).
There are few in whom the spirit of resignation
is so perfectly
formed — in whom religious motives so uniformly
and entirely
predominate — that a wail of grief never escapes
their lips. It
would, however, be cruel to describe these
purely natural
expressions of feeling as “murmurings,”
though it is to be
admitted that an element of murmuring frequently
mingles
with them.
o
From the
expostulations of good men with God, caused by the
perplexity
and mystery of His dealings with them. Such
expostulations, e.g., as those of Moses in ch. 5:22-23; or of
Job,
in several of his speeches (Job 7:11-21;
10:1-22); or of
Jeremiah (Jeremiah 4:10; 20:7). As Augustine
says of Moses,
“These are not words of contumacy or
indignation, but of
inquiry and prayer.”
Ø
Even from
the desperate speeches of good men, temporarily carried
beyond bounds
by their sorrow. Job enters this plea for himself — “Do ye
imagine to
reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which
are as wind” (Job 6:26); and we feel at once the justice of it. This was
not murmuring. These wild speeches — though not
blameless — were but
a degree removed from raving. What elements,
then, do enter into the
murmuring spirit — how is it to be described?
o
At the basis of it there lies distrust and unsubmissiveness. There is
distrust of God’s goodness and power, and want
of submission to
His will in the situation in which He has
placed us. The
opposite
spirit is
exemplified in Christ, in His first temptation in the
wilderness (Matthew 4:1-4; compare Deuteronomy
8:3).
o
Connected with this, there is forgetfulness of, and ingratitude for,
benefits
formerly received. This is very conspicuous in the case of
these Israelites (v. 3).
o
The characteristic feature of this spirit is the entertaining of
injurious thoughts of God — the attempt to put God in the wrong
by fastening on Him the imputation
of dealing harshly and
injuriously with us. The murmuring
spirit KEEPS THE EYE
BENT ON
SELF, AND ON SELF’S FANCIED WRONGS,
and labors
hard to make out a case of ill treatment. (Does
not this spirit spill out from many who are
protesting wrongs
in today’s society? CY – 2017)
Its tone is complaining. It would
arraign the Eternal at its puny bar, and convict
Him of injustice?
It is:
§
narrow,
§
self-pitying,
and
§
egoistic.
o
It expresses itself in accusations and reproaches. The mental
point of view already indicated prepares the way
for these, and
leads to them being passed off as righteous
charges. God is
charged
foolishly!
o
It is prone to exaggeration. The Israelites can hardly have been
as well off in
(v. 3) show that their rations in bondage must
have been fairly
liberal. But the
wish to make their present situation look as dark
as possible, leads them to magnify the advantages of their former
one. They did not
think so much of it when they had it.
o
Murmuring against God may not venture to express itself directly,
and yet may do so indirectly. The murmuring of the Israelites was
of this veiled
character. They masked their rebellion against God,
and their
impeaching of His
goodness, by directing their
accusations against His servants. It was God against whom they
murmured (vs. 7-8), but they slightly veiled the fact by not
mentioning God, but by speaking only of Moses
and Aaron. We
should remember this, in our contendings
with
persons on whom our murmuring spirit wreaks
itself may be
secondary agents — the voluntary or involuntary
causes of our
misfortunes — or even persons in no way directly
concerned with
our trouble — (I believe when I taught health in
high school,
that this is a defensive mechanism called displacement – CY –
2017) but be they who
they may, if the spirit be bitter and
rebellious, it is God, not they, whom we are
contending
against (compare Genesis 50:19, 20; II Samuel 17:10).
(v. 4). It is a most astonishing fact that on this occasion
there is not, on
God’s part, a single severe word of reproof of the people’s
murmurings,
far less any punishment of them for it. It could not at this
time be said —
“Some of them also murmured,
and were destroyed by the destroyer”
(I Corinthians 10:10). The appearance of the glory in the
cloud warned
and abashed, but did not injure them (v. 10). The reason was
not that
God did not hear their murmuring, nor yet that He mistook
its import, as
directed ostensibly, not against Him, but against Moses and
Aaron. The
Searcher of Hearts knows well when our murmurings are
against Him
(vs. 7-8). But:
Ø He pitied them. They were
really in great need. He looked to their need,
more than to their murmurings. In His great compassion,
knowing their
dire distress, He treated their murmurings almost as if they
were prayers
— gave them what they should have asked. The Father in this
way
anticipated the Son (Matthew 15:32).
Ø He was forbearing with them in the
beginning of their way. God was
not weakly indulgent. At a later time, when the people had
been longer
under training, they were severely punished for similar
offences
(compare Numbers 21:5); but in the preliminary stages of
this
wilderness education, God made large and merciful allowances
for them.
Neither here, nor at the
openly “tempted” Him (ch. 17:1-8), do we read of God so much as
chiding them for their wayward
doings: He bore with them, like a
father bearing with his
children. He knew how
ignorant they were;
how much infirmity there was about them; how novel and trying were
the situations in which He was placing them; and He mercifully gave
them time to improve by His teaching. Surely a God who acts in this
way is not to be called “an hard
master.” Instead of sternly
punishing
their murmurings, He took their need
as a starting-point, and sought
to educate them out of their murmuring disposition.
Ø He purposed to prove them. He would fully supply their
wants, and so
give them an opportunity of showing whether their murmuring
was a
result of mere infirmity — or was connected with a deeply ingrained
spirit of disobedience. When
perversity began to show itself, He did
not spare reproof (v.
28).
5 “And
it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that
which they bring in; and it shall be twice as
much as they gather daily.”
“And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day - That a period of seven days
was known
to the Hebrews as a week appears from the story of Jacob and Laban
(Genesis
29:27). But there is no distinct evidence that the year was as yet divided
into weeks,
much less that the several days of the week were as yet distinguished as
the first,
second, third day, etc. “The sixth day,” here probably means “the sixth
day after’
the first supply of the manna - they shall prepare that
which
they bring in” - The preparation would be, first, by measurement (v.18), and
then
by pounding
and grinding (Numbers 11:8) – “and it shall be twice as
much
as they gather daily.” - Some commentators suppose
that in these words is implied
an
order that on the sixth day they should set themselves to gather a double
quantity.
But
the natural meaning of the words is, that, having gathered the usual quantity,
they
should find, when they measured it, that, by miracle, the supply sufficient for
one
day was multiplied, so as to suffice for two.
This view is in harmony with v. 18,
which
tells of a miraculous expansion and diminution of the manna after it had
been
gathered, and with v. 22, which shows us “the
rulers” surprised
by the
miracle
of the sixth day.
6 “And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of
shall know that the LORD hath brought
you out from the
At even, then ye shall know. See vs. 12-13.
The first evidence which the Israelites
would have,
that God had heard ‘and considered their complaints, would be
the
descent of
the quails at even of the day on which Moses and Aaron addressed them.
That the Lord hath brought you out — i.e., “that it
is not we who, to gratify our
own
personal ambition, have induced you to quit
that all
which we have done has been to act as God’s instruments, and to
carry out
His designs.”
7 “And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the LORD; for that
He
heareth your murmurings against the LORD: and
what are we, that ye
murmur against us?” And in the morning then ye shall see the glory of the
Lord. This has been supposed to refer to the
manifestation of God’s presence
recorded in
v. 10; but the balance of the two clauses in vs. 6-7 implies two similar
manifestations,
and their arrangement shows the priority of the evening one. Now
the manifestation of v. 10 preceded the coming of the quails. The manifestation
which followed it, which was similar, and in the morning, was the fall of the manna.
For that He heareth your murmurings. The connection of this clause with the
preceding
furnishes an additional argument in favor of the exposition that “the
glory of God,” spoken of in this verse is the manna. Against the Lord.
Professedly
and directly against us, but indirectly and really against God,
whose
instruments we have been in the whole matter of the exodus. What
are we? — i.e., “What
power have we of our own? We have no hereditary
rank, no
fixed definite position. We are simply the leaders whom you have
chosen to
follow, because you believed us to have a commission from God.
Apart from
this, we are nobodies. But, if our commission is conceded, we
are to you
in the place of God; and to murmur against us is to murmur
against
Jehovah.”
8 “And
Moses said, This shall be, when the LORD shall give you in the evening
flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the
full; for that the LORD heareth
your murmurings which ye
murmur against Him: and what are we? your
murmurings are not against us, but against
the LORD” When the lord shall
give you in the evening flesh
to eat. Moses must have received a distinct intimation
of the
coming arrival of the quails, trough he has not recorded it, his
desire of
brevity
causing him to retrench all that is not absolutely necessary
for the right
understanding
of the narrative. It is, comparatively, seldom that
he records both
the Divine message and
his delivery of it. In general, he places upon record either
the message
only, or its delivery only. Bread to the full. Compare above,
v. 4; and
infra, vs. 12 and 18. The Lord heareth your murmurings. The latter
part of
this verse is, in the main, a repetition of v. 7; but it emphasizes the
statements
of that verse, and prepares the way for what follows.
The
Mercy of God in Hearing and Helping Even an
Ungrateful and Discontented People (vs.
4-8)
God is very
merciful to those who are in covenant with Him, whom He has chosen for
His own,
and made “the sheep of his pasture.” Very
often, and very far may they go
astray,
turn from the right way, rebel against Him, refuse to hearken to His voice,
murmur,
misuse His ministers and slander them, yet not alienate Him wholly. Indefectible
grace must
not indeed be claimed by any man as his own portion; for none can know that
he
possesses it; yet the way of God, on the
whole, appears to be to reclaim His
wandering sheep; recall them to a sense of what is their duty;
and restore them
to the fold whence they have strayed. All that
can be done with this object He does for
the Church
now, as for the congregation of the children of
even when openly
expressed in speech, He forgives in His mercy, not seven
times only, but “seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:22) How many murmur
at their lot; complain
of their worldly condition, or their lack of spiritual gifts,
or their unhappy position
under ministers of whom they do not approve; or the
coldness and
unsympathetic temper of their friends, or the want of any due
appreciation by others
of their merits! It is, comparatively speaking, rarely
that we meet with a
contented person. Yet God is so merciful, that He
bears with the murmurers — yea, even “hears their murmurings,” and
devises
means for their relief.
every perfect gift” is from
Him, and “cometh down from the Father of
Lights with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow
of turning”
(James 1:17) - The material
sustenance of daily life is one form of “bread
from heaven,” wherewith He daily provides the millions who look to Him.
His holy word is another form, a heavenly gift, the sustenance of many
souls.
But, as He tells us, He Himself is “the
true bread from heaven” (John 6:32-51).
In and through the
Eucharist, He gives us Himself to be our spiritual food and
sustenance, the bread
of life, the true manna, meat indeed. If we worthily receive
the blessed sacrament
of His body and blood, then we “spiritually eat the flesh of
Christ and drink his blood; then we
dwell in Christ, and Christ in us; we are one
with Christ, and Christ with us” — “our sinful bodies are made clean by His
body, and our souls washed through His most precious blood.” Thus, He gives
us, in the highest,
most perfect, and most spiritual way, that which is the great
need
of our souls, “bread from heaven.”
in hand. To every gift God attaches some law of direction for its use.
The gift of the
manna
had its own laws — its law of gathering, and its law of reserving or not
reserving.
The
holy Eucharist has also its one great law — a law fixing the mental attitude —
“Do this in remembrance of me.” To make
it a mere supper, as the Corinthians did
(I Corinthians 11:20-34), albeit a love-feast, symbolical of Christian fellowship
and
unity,
is to break this law. The Eucharist is “for the continual remembrance of the
sacrifice of the death
of Christ” — for the calling to mind His sufferings for our
sins, His atonement for our
guilt, His deliverance of us from Satan, death,
and hell, by His one
oblation of Himself once offered upon the Cross. it is by
this remembrance that our penitence is made acute, our gratitude called forth, our
hearts
enabled to “lift themselves up,” our spirits stirred to love, and joy, and
thankfulness;
and obedience to this law on our part is a necessary condition to our
receiving
the benefits of the Eucharist. Thus we too, when “bread from heaven” is
rained upon us, have a
law given to us to prove us, whether we will walk in God’s
law or not.
THE
PROMISE FULFILLED
Moses had
made a double promise to the Israelites in God’s name. “The Lord shall give
you,” he had said,” in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full”
(v. 8). And
now the time for the fulfillment of the double promise approached.
First,
however, before they received the blessings, he required them to present them-
selves
before the Lord. As they had rebelled in murmuring, an act of homage was
proper; and
as they had called in question the conduct of Moses and Aaron, some token
that God
approved the action of these His faithful servants, and would support them,
was needed.
Hence the appearance of the Lord to the congregation in the cloud (v.10).
After this,
when evening approached, the quails fell. A vast flight of this migratory bird,
which often
arrives in Arabia Petraea from the sea (Diod. Sic. 1:60), fell to the earth
about the
Hebrew camp, and, being quite exhausted, lay on the ground in a state which
allowed of
their being taken by the hand. The Israelites had thus abundant “flesh to
eat” (v. 8), for God “sent them meat enough” (Psalm 78:26-28). The next morning,
the
remainder of the promise was fulfilled. When they awoke, they found that the
vegetation about
the camp was covered with a sort of dew, resembling hoar-frost,
which was
capable of easy detachment from the leaves, and which proved to be an
edible
substance. While they were in doubt about the phenomenon, Moses informed
them that
this was the “bread from heaven”
which they had been promised (v.15).
At the same
time he instructed them as to the quantity which they should gather,
which
he
fixed at an omer for each member of
their family (v. 16). In attempting to carry
out
these instructions, mistakes were not unnaturally made; some exceeded the set
quantity,
others fell short of it. But the result was found to be the same. Whatever the
quantity
gathered, when it was brought home and measured, the amount was by
miracle
made to be exactly an omer for each (v.18).
Afterwards, Moses gave another
order.
The whole of the manna was to be consumed (ordinarily) on the day on which it
was
gathered. When some wilfully
disobeyed this command, the reserved manna was
found
on the next day to have become bad — it had bred worms, and gave
out an offensive odor. This circumstance put a
stop to the malpractice.
9 “And Moses spake unto Aaron, Say unto all the
congregation of the children
of
10 And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the
whole congregation of the
children of
glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud. 11 And the LORD spake unto
Moses, saying, 12 I have heard the murmurings of the children
of
speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat
flesh, and in the morning ye
shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know
that I am the LORD your God.”
I have heard the murmurings of the children of
saying, At even ye shall eat flesh” - Literally, “between the two evenings” –
This phrase
has been explained in two ways. Some regard the first evening as
commencing
when the sun begins visibly to decline from the zenith, i.e.
about
two or
three o’clock; and the second as following the sunset. Others say, that the
sunset
introduces the first evening, and that the second begins when the twilight
ends, which
they consider to have been “an hour and twenty minutes later”
(Ebn Ezra, quoted by Kalisch). “Ye shall eat flesh” The
quails, as appears by the
subsequent
narrative, were supplied, not regularly, but only on rare occasions; in
fact
(so far as
appears), only here in the wilderness of Sin, and at Kibroth-hattaavah
in the
wilderness
of Paran (Numbers 11:31-34). They were not a necessity, but an indulgence.
“and in the morning ye shall be filled with
bread; and ye shall know that I am
the LORD your God.” - The miracle of the manna,
and the timely appearance of the
quails
at the hour announced, will sufficiently show that it is God Himself who has
you
under His charge and watches over you.
He Nurtured Them in the Wilderness (vs. 11-12)
Continual
mention of murmurings; yet all such murmurings do not meet the
same treatment
(compare Numbers 11:31-33). Much alike to outward
seeming,
but not so in the sight of God. (illustration — the ruddy hue of
health; the
hot flush of passion; the hectic of consumption. All much alike
in
appearance, yet how different to those who know what they betoken!)
Comparing
the history of one murmuring with that of another, we can see
by God’s
treatment of each how different must have been the states from
which they
resulted. Here it is the impatience of ill-instructed children; later
on, it has
become hostility and rebellion. Consider
in this case:
had time to tell upon the people; so different from the
varied routine of
with many; they had chafed under it, yet, in some sort, they
had relied upon
its restraint as a support. After the first novelty has
passed, unaccustomed
freedom is felt to be a weariness. (Illustration: The
cripple rejoices to be
quit of his supporting irons and crutches, but without them,
at first, he
soon tires.) Present privation, contrasted with past
sufficiency, intensified
the misgivings which were sure to come when the new life was
fairly
entered upon. Freedom wedded to starvation seemed to be but
a poor
exchange for tyranny. “The people
murmured.” It was the murmuring of
the half-weaned child, the yet weak though enfranchised
cripple; it
expressed itself in strong language; but the language was stronger
than the
offense. Under the circumstances murmuring was so natural
that it did not
call for severe censure; it was rather a symptom of
imperfect health,
suggesting the need of strengthening medicine.
shows His knowledge. No rebuke, only a promise, which is to
be, and is,
fulfilled immediately. (Illustration: The doctor does not
take offense at the
irritability of the convalescent; says, “I will send some
strengthening
medicine,” sends it, and relies on the effect.) A table spread in the
wilderness; the love of
freedom revived and strengthened, nurtured by the
longed-for food. What should be the effect of such
treatment? It stays
murmuring, of course; but, further, it should strengthen
against further
murmuring. On the other hand, whilst it may, as it ought to
do, lead to
reliance upon the provider, it may also lead to reliance
upon the food
provided. (Illustration: One patient, strengthened by
medicine, will have
more confidence in the doctor. Another, strengthened in like
manner, will
be always grumbling, whatever the circumstances, if he do
not experience
like treatment.)
Ø God treats us all according to our real character and position “How
unjust,” says one, “that that man should have so much easier
a time than I.
That my comparatively slight offence should be punished so
much more
heavily than his, which is far more heinous!” Nay! By What
standard do
you measure the relative enormity of the offenses? God’s
standard is
character and experience; the child’s open defiance is less
heinous than
the man’s half-veiled impatience.
Ø God’s treatment should inspire
confidence in Himself. All God’s gifts
are index fingers saying, “Look off from us to God.” Our
tendency is to
rest upon them and credit them as the causes of the
satisfaction they
occasion. The same medicine may not be appropriate next
time, but the
same doctor may be trusted. If we forget the doctor and
think only of the
medicine, we shall be as irritable and dissatisfied as ever;
only by
confidence in the Physician himself can we hope to go on “from strength
to strength.” (Psalm 84:7)
13 “And
it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp:
and in the morning the dew lay round about the
host.” - The
quails came up.
Diodorus says that “the inhabitants of Arabia Petraea prepared long nets, spread
them near
the coast for many stadia, and thus caught a great number
of quails
which are
in the habit of coming in from the sea” (2:60). The quail regularly
migrates
from
whence it
returns northwards in immense masses in the spring (Schubert,
Reise, vol. 2. p. 361). Kalisch
thinks that the particular species of quail
intended is
the kata of the Arabs (Tetrao Alchata of Linnaeus); but the
common
quail (Tetrao coturnix) is preferred by most commentators. When
these birds
approach the coast after a long flight over the
often so
exhausted that they rather fall to the ground than settle, and are
then easily
taken by the hand or killed with sticks. Their flesh is regarded
by the
natives as a delicacy. Covered the camp — i.e., covered all
the
ground
between the tents in which the Israelites lived in the wilderness.
The dew lay. Literally,
“there was a layer of dew” — something, i.e., lay
on the
ground outside the camp which looked like dew, and was in part
dew, but
not wholly so.
14 “And
when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of
the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as
small as the hoar
frost on the ground.” The moisture which lay upon the herbage soon
evaporated,
drawn up by
the sun; and then the miracle revealed itself. There remained
upon each
leaf and each blade of grass a delicate small substance, compared here to
“hoar frost”, and elsewhere
(Numbers 11:7) to “coriander seed,” which was easily
detached
and collected in bags or baskets. The thing was altogether a novelty to the
Israelites,
though analogous in some degree to natural processes still occurring in the
country.
These processes are of two kinds. At
certain times of the year there is a
deposit of
a glutinous substance from the air upon leaves and even upon stones, which
may be
scraped off, and which resembles thick honey. There is also an exudation from
various
trees and shrubs, especially the tamarisk, which is moderately hard, and is
found both
on the growing plant and on the fallen leaves
beneath it, in the shape of
small,
round, white or greyish grains. It is this last which
is the manna of commerce.
The
Biblical manna cannot be identified with either of these two substances. In
some
points it
resembled the one, in other points the other; in some, it differed from both.
It came out
of the air like the “airhoney,” and did not
exude from shrubs; but it was
hard, like
the manna of commerce, and could be “ground in mills” and “beaten in
mortars,” which the “air-honey” cannot. It was not a medicament,
like the one, nor
a
condiment, like the other, but a substance suited to be a
substitute for bread, and
to become the main sustenance of the Israelitish
people. It was produced in quantities
far
exceeding anything that is recorded of either manna proper, or air honey. It
accompanied the Israelites wherever they went during the space of
forty years,
whereas the
natural substances, which in certain points resemble it, are confined
to certain
districts, and to certain seasons of the year. During the
whole space of forty
years it fell regularly during six consecutive days, and then
ceased on the seventh. It
“bred worms” if kept till the morrow on all days of the
week except one; on that one
— the Sabbath — it bred no worms, but was sweet and good. Thus, it must be
regarded as a peculiar substance, miraculously created for a
special purpose, but
similar in
certain respects to certain known substances which are still produced in
the Sinaitic region.
15 “And when
the children of
is manna: for they wist
not what it was. And Moses said unto them,
This is the bread which the LORD hath given you
to eat.” And when
the children of
is a gift.” Not knowing what to call the substance, the
Israelites said one to another,
“it is a gift” —
meaning a gift from heaven, God’s gift (compare v. 8); and afterwards,
in
consequence of this, the word man (properly “gift”) became the accepted name of
the
thing – “for they wist not
what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the
bread which the LORD hath given you to eat.
The Provision of the Manna (vs. 1-15)
This
chapter contains an account of the first provision of miraculous bread
for
which it
was given and the regulations for obtaining and using it. This
provision
of bread comes very appropriately after the visits to Marah
and
Elim. The waters had been made sure, and were soon
to be made sure
again (ch. 17.); and now the bread is given (Isaiah 33:16). Before God
takes the
people to Sinai, He does everything to show
that they may
confidently depend on him for necessities, however
vainly they look for
excesses.
Consider:
PRECEDED
THIS GIFT. It is important to notice that such an ample,
gracious and miraculous gift as Jehovah here bestowed was
bestowed on
the unthankful and the evil. With many reasons for faith, they were
unbelieving; instead of
being patient and submissive, considerate towards
their leader, and thankful
for liberty, they broke out into selfish and unjust
complaints. Things were
going far otherwise than as they wanted them to
go. They have now been a month or more out of
wilderness, wilderness, wilderness still! They have
got water, but what is
water without bread; and what is
bread, unless it be the bread along with
the flesh of
their discontent breaks out in the most
expressive way. Discontent is
assuredly at a high pitch in a man’s mind, when he begins to talk of death
as a thing to be
desired. It shows that he has got so
reckless and peevish as
not to care what he says,
what others may think, or who may be hurt by his
random talk. The low ideal
of life on the part of
God has delivered a whole
nation, and this is their idea of why He has
delivered them. They think a life, from which the flesh pots
and the fullness
of bread are absent, is not worth living; and such is indeed
a very excusable
conception of life, if hunger and
thirst after righteousness have not become
vigorous desires within us. If one is to become a freeman simply to die,
then it seems as if one might
just as well live a little longer as a slave. Note
further how the people try to throw the
responsibility of their present
position on Moses. It was a
consequence of their carnal-mindedness that
they could not think of the Jehovah who was behind and above the visible
leader. They are where they are because Moses has brought them. Thus
they utter an unconscious but weighty and significant
testimony to the fact,
that they had not come there of their own accord or wandered
there in an
aimless fashion. But for the mighty power that held them
fast together,
they might have straggled back to
Strange that with such a rebellious spirit, there should yet
be such a
measure of outward obedience. Evidently they had invisible
constraints all
around them, so that they could not help but follow the
cloud.
MIND. As He
dealt in supplying the water so He deals in supplying the
bread. There was a real and pressing want, and though the people made it
the occasion for foolish
talk, it was also to be the occasion for immediate
Divine supply. God does
not let the existence of the unthankful and evil
fail, for presently, at Sinai, they will
have the chance of learning such things
as may lead them into a
thankful, trustful and noble spirit; (So the question
is: What profit are you getting from a life of God’s mercy and
providence?
Jesus said that “He maketh His sun to rise on the evil
and on the good,
and sends His rain on the
just and the unjust.” Matthew
5:45 – CY – 2017)
and so He hastens to meet Moses with the cheering promise —
cheering in the
substance of it, and cheering none the less in the expression
— “I will rain
bread from heaven.”
Ø They shall have bread. He does not yet tell Moses what shape the bread
will take; but the people shall have
something to sustain them, and that
something in sufficient
quantity.
Ø The bread shall be rained from heaven. We do not read that Moses
repeated this expression to the Israelites; but it must have
been very
cheering to himself. The words “rain” and “heaven” were enough to
put fresh courage into the man. Then we find too that when
the promise
came to be fulfilled, these words were not taken in a
figurative way.
The manna came with the dew,
and when the dew disappeared there
the manna lay, waiting to be gathered. Hence for the supply of bread
the people were to look heavenward; and doubtless Moses
himself did
so look. In whatsoever part of the
wilderness they might be, however
sterile and unpromising the
earth was below, the same heavens
stretched out above them, distilling from
their treasuries the daily
manna. The contrast
is thus very striking between the varying earth
and the unchanging, exhaustless heaven; and as to the
rain, we may
be very sure that when God says, “I will rain,” He means a copious
and
adequate shower. But even in this immediate promise
of copious giving Jehovah combines demands with gifts. If there is
great grace, there are great expectations. He gives and at
the same time
He asks. He points
out to Moses the manner in which the food was to
be gathered. Though given copiously, it was not therefore
given
carelessly; nor was it to be used carelessly. It was given
on certain
principles and with certain restrictions, so as to be not
only the means
of staying hunger but of disciplining
bread, they were to learn habitual
faith and habitual and exact
obedience. God is
ever showing men how He can make one thing
to serve more purposes than one.
The ugliest sight in the world is one of those
thoroughbred loafers,
who would hardly hold up his basin if it were to
rain with porridge;
and for certain would never hold up a bigger pot
than he wanted filled
for himself. Perhaps, if the shower should turn
to beer, he might wake
himself up a bit; but he would make up for it
afterwards.
(John Plowman)
* “Everyman ought to have patience and pity for
poverty, but for laziness a long whip.”
* “A man who wastes his time in sloth offers
himself to be a target for the devil, who
is an
awfully good rifleman. In other words, idle men tempt the devil to tempt them.”
* A
sluggard is fine raw material for the devil, he can make anything he likes out
of
him,
from a thief up to a murderer.”
* “If the devil catch a man idle he will send
him to work [for him], and find him
tools.”
* “Idle folks often never know what leisure
means, they are always in a hurry and a mess,
by
neglecting to work at the proper time they always have a lot to do.”
* “Trying to insruct
an idle man is like trying to hold water in a seive
or fatten a
greyhound”
* “Our Lord Jesus told us, the enemy sowed while
men slept. It is by the door of
sluggishness that evil enters the heart more often it seems to me than
any other.”
* “My advice to my boys has been to get out of
the sluggards way, or you may catch
his
disease and never get rid of it. I am always afraid of their learning the ways
of
the
idle and I am very watchful to nip anything of the sort in the bud, for you
know
it is
best to kill a lion when it’s a cub”
* “Some professors [of Christianity] are
amazingly lazy and make sad work for the
tongues
of the wicked. I think a godly plowmen ought to be the best man in the
field
and let no team beat him. When we are at work, we ought to be at it, and not
stop
the plow to talk, even though the talk may be about religion. For then we not
only
rob our employers of our own time, but of the time of the horses, too. I used
to hear
people say, “Never stop the plow to catch a mouse,” and it’s quite as silly
to stop
for idle chat; besides, the man who loiters when the master is away is an
eye-server, which, I take it, is the very opposite of a Christian.”
* “Religion never was designed to make us idle.
Jesus was a great worker, and
His
disciples must not be afraid of hard work”
* John Ploughman : “For once I was going to give
our minister [Spurgeon] a pretty
long
list of the sins of one of our people he was asking after, I began with, “He’s
dreadfully lazy”, “That’s enough!” said the old gentleman, “all sorts of
sins are
in that
one, that’s enough to know a full pledged sinner.” (C. H. Spurgeon)
PEOPLE (vs.
6-10). Though it is not expressly said that he spoke thus by
Jehovah’s instructions, yet these remonstrances
evidently accorded with His
will. For the people to complain as they did was not
only an unjust thing to
Moses; it was also a perilous thing
for themselves. They could not thus
vent their spleen on the visible Moses without despising the
invisible God.
Their insult to their brother man on earth was as nothing
compared with
their insult to Jehovah on high. And, indeed, we cannot too
much consider
that all
murmuring, when it is brought to its ultimate ground and effects,
is
a reproach against God. For it is either a complaint because we cannot
get our own way, or it is an impeachment of God’s way as not being a
loving and a wise one. What a
different scene life would become, how
much more equable, serene and joyous, if we could only take
the invisible
as well as the visible into all our thoughts. The people
felt the lack of
bread, the loss of
for; and Moses could sympathize with all these feelings;
although of
course, after forty years of shepherd life in Midian, the hardships his
brethren complained of were as nothing to him. But at the
same time,
Moses felt very keenly what many of his brethren did not
feel at all, the
mysterious presence of God. More and more distinctly would
the words
now be rising to his mind, “Ye shall serve
God upon this mountain”
(ch. 3:12); for the cloud was
taking the multitude nearer and nearer to Sinai.
It is very significant of the feeling in Moses’ mind that he
dwells on this
charge of murmuring, returning to the word again and again. He wanted
these people who so felt the pangs of hunger to be equally sensitive to the
perils of impiety. Jehovah
had heard their reckless speeches as well as
Moses; and now, in recognition, He was about to make
manifest His
glorious presence. The connection of the cloud with Himself
was to be
proved by the appearing of His glory in it. What the people
found fault with
was that they had been guided wrong: and now the nature of
the guidance
stands out, distinct, impressive, and full of warning. He
who found fault
with Moses really found fault with Jehovah. Remember the
words of Jesus:
“He that despiseth
you despiseth me; and he that despiseth
me despiseth
him that sent me.” (Luke
10:16.) If we presumptuously neglect the
apostleship of any one, we have to do with the Being who
made him an
apostle. Wherefore we should show all
diligence to keep murmuring off
our lips; and the
only effectual way is to keep it out of our hearts by filling
them with a continual sense of
the presence of God. Instead of murmuring,
let there be honest shame because of the selfishness that
runs riot in our
hearts. God can do
everything to make our lives joyous, and banish causes
of complaint for ever, if only we will take right and
sufficient views of His
purposes toward us and His claims upon us.
dealings of God. The necessary and permanent supply of bread
is preceded
by a special and occasional supply of quails. By this gift He,
as it were, runs
towards
thing they missed the most, and it comes first, in the
evening; whereas the
manna did not come till the next morning. By this supply of
the quails God
showed an attentiveness to the feelings of the people which
should have
had the best effect on their minds. They
murmured against Moses, forgot
Jehovah, and yet Jehovah gave them in reply a delightful feast of quails.
So to speak, He was heaping coals of fire on their heads: and
we should take
special note of this Divine conduct, just
in this particular place. It is very
natural that as we consider
God’s severity rather than any other feature of His
character. The whole
tenor of the New Testament — the contrast between the law
and the
gospel — makes this view inevitable. But as we read the
whole of this
chapter, and ponder it carefully, how shall we do other than
confess
“Verily, Jehovah is love”? It is love
that leads to Sinai. And assuredly there
is not less of love in the thunders, lightnings
and terrors of Sinai than in the
gift of the quails. The expression is different — that is
all. The quails were
but a slight, passing thing, bestowed upon
on a child. There is love in the gift of a toy; but there is love also in the
discipline and chastisement
which soon may follow from the same hand. So
there was love in the quails; but there was equal love,
stretching out to far
deeper results, in the demonstrations of Sinai and the
commandments
which accompanied them.
Christ the Bread from Heaven (v. 15)
The manna,
which is described in v. 4 as “bread from heaven,” was
typical of
Christ, who is “the true bread from heaven”
— “the bread of
God which cometh down from heaven and giveth
life unto the world”
(John
6:31-34). The connection in John 6 is with the Jews’ demand for
a sign. The
interrogators reminded Christ of how their fathers did eat
manna in
the desert; as it was written, He gave them bread from
heaven to
eat! (Psalm 105:40). The design of Jesus in His reply
was, first, to wean
their
hearts away from merely carnal expectations in connection with His
appearing,
and, secondly, to lead them to see in the gift of manna, as well
as in the
miracle He had just performed — the feeding of the multitudes —
some-thing
more than the mere supplying of bodily necessities; — to see in
them “signs” (John 6:26 — “Ye seek me, not because ye
saw signs,”
etc.
Revised Version) i.e. types, allegories, suggestive earthly symbols,
of
spiritual
realities — of what He was in Himself, of the work He came to do, of
the
relations in which He stood to perishing men. The manna is thus figured as
“spiritual meat” (I Corinthians 10:3), a type of Christ as the
living
bread for
the souls of men. Consider in illustration of this analogy:
Israelites were in the desert, where nature, if left to
itself, would inevitably
perish. Their supplies of food were exhausted. The whole
multitude would
have died of hunger, had not Divine
mercy interposed for their relief. The
manna which God gave them literally stood between them and
death. In
this circumstance we see one feature imaged in which Christ
clearly
appears as the bread of life. When He uses: this language of
Himself He
means to tell us, that just as these Israelites under Moses
absolutely hung
for any hope of life they had on that food which was
miraculously supplied
to them; so does the world hang —
hang absolutely — for its life, its
salvation, its eternal well-being ON HIM. It needs
eternal life. Its heart craves
for it. It is perishing for want of it. But if it
is ever to get it, Christ says, it
must get it through HIM, through
receiving Him, through appropriating
what He is, and what He has done for it as Saviour.
There could be no question as to the supernatural character
of the supply in
the case of the manna. The Israelites needed to be saved,
and God saved
them by a miracle. There was, as it were, a distinct opening
of heaven for
their benefit. The hand that fed them came from the unseen.
In like manner,
Christ lays emphasis on the fact that He — the bread of life for men — is
“bread from heaven.” The
salvation that embodies itself in Him is no
salvation of man’s devising, nor one which, even had the
thought of it
entered his mind, man could ever from his own resources have
achieved. If
the world is to be saved at all, if it is to be delivered
from its woes, if it is
to have eternal life, the Saviour and salvation must come
from heaven. Our
hope, as of old, is in God, and IN GOD ONLY! It is not for us to provide,
but only thankfully to receive, and earnestly to appropriate
the salvation. God
gives
us the bread from heaven; gives it
freely; gives it as bread which no
efforts of our own, however laborious, could have enabled us
to procure;
gives it, that is, as a Divine, supernatural bread, the boon
of sovereign
grace.
was given in abundance. There was neither lack nor stint.
The table that
was spread in the wilderness was one of royal bounty; as in
the later
miracle of the loaves, “they did all
eat, and were filled” (Matthew 14:20).
There was, as in the father’s house in the parable, “Enough and to
spare” (Luke
15:17), overflowing provision. How significant a fact
when the heart is putting to itself the question, Will
Christ’s death avail for
me? He calls Himself “the true bread which
cometh down from heaven;”
and it cannot be but that this feature in the type will be
reflected in the
antitype. THERE IS PROVISION ENOUGH IN
CHRIST FOR ALL!
He gives His flesh for the life of the world John 6:51). He
is come that men
“might have life, and that
they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
No stint, no lack, no scarcity in the salvation of Christ.
APPROPRIATED. It was nothing
to the Israelites that the manna,
sparkling like pearls in the morning sunshine, lay all
around them; they
must gather, they must eat, they must make the “bread from heaven” food
for their own life. So with Christ and His salvation. He calls
Himself
“bread,” to bring
out strongly, not only what He is in Himself in relation to
human wants, but what men must do
with
Him, if they would partake in the
life He comes to give. He must be received, “eaten,” inwardly appropriated,
fed upon, made part, so to speak, of our very selves; only
thus will the new
life be begotten in us. This “eating” of Christ
is parallel with the “believing”
of other verses (vs. 29, 40, 47). Some, remembering this,
may be
disposed to say, it is only believing. But the use of such
a metaphor should
rather teach us how real, and inward, and appropriating a
principle, this
believing on Jesus is. It is clearly no slight, transitory
act of mind or heart
which is denoted by it, but a most
spiritual, most inward, most vital and
personal energy of
appropriation; a process of reception, digestion, and
transformation into spiritual substance, and new powers of
spiritual life, of
what we have in the Saviour. HOW GREAT CHRIST MUST BE, who thus
declares Himself to be the
bread of life for the whole world — the support
and food (consciously
or unconsciously) of all the spiritual life there is in it!
No wonder that
the work of works which God requires of us is that we
believe on Him whom He has
sent (John 6:29).
WORLD’S
BREAD OF LIFE. We set aside as unsupported the analogies
which some have sought between the roundness, sweetness,
whiteness,
etc., of the manna, and qualities in the person and work of
the Redeemer.
It is, however, clear that if Christ is the antitype of the
manna, and the true
bread which cometh down from heaven, it must be in virtue of
certain
qualities in Him which admit of being specified. And what
these are, it is
not difficult to show. HE IS THE BREAD
OF LIFE TO MEN:
Ø
As incarnate God. In the humanity
of Jesus Christ, the Divine
is brought
near to us,
and made apprehensible, and provision is also made for the
communication
of the Divine life in its fullest, richest form to our souls. In
Him dwells
the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9). He is
the medium
of the communication of that Divine fullness to us (John
1:16). In
Him, the Divine life is embodied in a holy, perfect humanity; and
in that form — a
form which brings it within our reach, which makes
apprehension and assimilation possible — it is presented to us TO BE
PARTAKEN OF!
Ø
As an atoning Saviour. Did Christ not bear this character of Atoner, He
would not be truly bread of life to the guilty. Our guilt, our sin, our whole
moral condition, stands between us and God, an insuperable barrier to the
peace and
fellowship for which we
crave. But Christ has taken away that
barrier. He has made
a sacrifice of Himself for sin (John 6:51). To
appropriate what I have in Christ, is, accordingly,
to appropriate to myself:
o
the certainty of forgiveness through His death,
o
the assurance of peace with God, and
o
the knowledge of reconciliation.
And to have done this is already to have begun
to live. It is to feel the
awakening within me of new-born powers of love,
and trust, and service;
to feel the dread and despair that before
possessed me vanishing like a dark
nightmare from my spirit, to be replaced by the joy of pardon, and the sense
of the
Divine favor. It is to realize the accomplishment of that spiritual change
which the Scriptures describe as a “passing from death unto life” (John 5:24).
“Old things
have passed away; behold, all things have become new”
(II Corinthians 5:17).
Ø
As a life-giving Spirit. Jesus is what He is to man, in virtue of His
possession of the holy, life-giving Spirit — the personal Holy Ghost
— by whom He dwells
in the hearts of His people, and through
whom He
communicates to them all the fullness of His own life. This operation of the
Spirit is already implied in what we have said
of the results of faith in Him.
He is the effectual agent in:
o
converting,
o
quickening,
o
enlightening,
o
sanctifying,
o
comforting,
o
strengthening,
o
beautifying,
and
spiritually edifying
the souls of such as attain to salvation. The influences of this Spirit in the
soul are but another name for eternal life. And Christ is the giver of this
Spirit. It is from Him the Spirit comes. His
work on earth has opened the
way for the free communication of the Spirit’s
influences. He dwells by this
Spirit in each of His members, nourishing,
strengthening, and purifying
them. To nourish ourselves upon Christ is to
take more of this Spirit into
our hearts and lives. Thus is CHRIST THE BREAD OF LIFE!
16
“This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man
according to his eating, an omer
for every man, according to the number of
your persons; take ye every man for them which
are in his tents.”
This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man
according to his eating, an omer
for every man, According
to Kalisch, the omer
is
about two quarts (English): but this estimate is probably in excess. Josephus
makes
the measure one equal to six cotyles, which would be
about a quart
and a
half,
or three pints – “according to the number of your persons;
take ye
every man for them which are in his
tents. Rather,
“in his
tent.”
The Gift of Manna (vs. 4-16)
Quails also
were given, on this occasion in mercy, and on a later occasion
in wrath
(Numbers 11:31-34); but it was the manna which was the
principal
gift, both as providing
and as having
a permanent significance in the history of God’s dealings
with his
Church (vs. 32-35).
Ø
God would
rain bread from heaven for them (v. 4). He would spread a
table for them, even in the wilderness, a thing they had deemed impossible
(Psalm 78:19). He would give them to eat of “the corn of heaven”
(ibid. v. 24). He
would thus display Himself as Jehovah, — the God
of exhaustless resources, — able and willing to
supply all their need
(compare Philippians 4:19). He would remove from
Himself the reproach
wherewith they had reproached Him, that He had
brought them into the
wilderness, “to
kill this whole assembly with hunger” (v. 3). He would
testify of His loving care for them (compare
Deuteronomy 1:31).
Ø
The supply would
be continuous — “Every day” (v. 4). The regularity
of the supply would be a daily proof of God’s faithfulness — another
of the
Jehovah
attributes. We have a similar proof of the Divine
faithfulness in the
constancy of the laws of nature on which our own
supplies of food depend;
in particular, in the regular succession of
seed-time and harvest, and cold
and heat, and summer and winter, which God has
promised to maintain
(Genesis 8:22; compare Psalm 119:89-92).
Ø
The gift of
quails and manna would be a manifestation of His glory as
Jehovah (vs. 6-7; also v. 12 — “and ye
shall know that I am Jehovah
your God”). His Jehovah character would be revealed in it. Note, in
addition to what is said above, the following
illustrations of this.
o
The gift of manna was an act of free
origination. Compare with Christ’s
multiplication of the loaves, brought in John 6
into close association
with this miracle.
o
So far as natural materials were utilized in the
production of the manna
(dew, etc.), it was shown how absolutely plastic
nature was in the hands
of its Creator.
o
The gift of quails was a further testimony to
God’s supreme rule in
nature.
o
It was a special feature in this transaction
that God was seen in it acting
solely from
Himself — finding the law
and reason of what He did
in
HIMSELF
ALONE! He interposes with a simple “I will” (v. 4). It was
neither the
people’s merits nor the people’s prayers,
which moved Him
to give the
manna. Merits they had none; prayers they did not offer.
But God, who
brought them out of
covenant with their
fathers, found a reason in Himself for helping
them,
when He could find
none in them (compare Deuteronomy 9:4-5). He
showed them this kindness for His own name’s
sake (compare
Psalm 106:8); because HE WAS JEHOVAH, WHO CHANGED
NOT! (Malachi 3:6).
Ø
The gift of
manna would prove a trial of obedience (v. 4). God bound
Himself to send the manna day by day, and this
would be a test of His
faithfulness. But rules would be prescribed to
the people for gathering the
manna, and this would be a test of their
obedience. God’s design in giving
the manna was thus not merely to supply the
people’s natural wants. He
would also train them to dependence. He would
test their characters. He
would endeavor to form them to habits of
obedience. A like educative and
disciplinary purpose is to be recognized as
bound up with all God’s leading
of us. Gifts are at the same time trusts. They
impose duties upon us, and
lay us under responsibilities. There are rules
to be observed in the use of
them which test our inner dispositions. There is
a law of temperance in the
use of food. There is a law of modesty in dress.
There are the laws relating
to the acquisition and expenditure of money —
honesty in acquisition,,
economy in use, liberality in giving (compare
Deuteronomy 15:7-12),
devotion of the first fruits of income to God.
There is the supreme law,
which includes all others — “Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or
whatsoever
ye do, do all to the glory of God” (I Corinthians
10:31).
There is no action, no occupation, however
seemingly trivial, which has
not important relations to the formation of
character. “The daily round, the
common task,” etc.
the people to draw near before the Lord. Then, as they came
together, and
looked toward the wilderness, lo! “the glory of the Lord appeared in the
cloud.” It is a suggestive
circumstance that it is Aaron, who by command
of Moses, collects the congregation (v. 10). Moses,
according to his
wont, had probably withdrawn to pray (compare ch.14:15). In
this, as in
other instances, Moses might be taken as an example of secrecy
in prayer.
His prayers are never paraded. They are even studiously kept
in the
background — a proof surely of the Mosaic authorship of the
book. When
they come to light, it is often incidentally (ibid.). On one
notable occasion an
intercessory prayer of his was not made known till near the
end of his life
(Deuteronomy 9:25). We know of his prayers mostly by their
results. This
appearance of the glory of God to
Ø
As a rebuke of the people’s murmurings. Unlike the “look” from the
pillar of fire with which the Lord discomfited
the Egyptians (ch. 14:24),
it was a look with as much mercy as anger in it.
Yet it conveyed
reproof. It may be compared with the theophany which terminated the
dispute between Job and his friends, and caused
the patriarch to abhor
himself, and to repent in dust and ashes (Job
38:1; 42:6); or to the look
of sorrow and reproof which the Lord cast on
Peter, which caused him to
go out, and weep bitterly (Matthew 26:75). How
abashed, humbled,
and full of fear, those murmurers
would now be, as with mouths
stopped
(Romans 3:19), they beheld that terrible glory
forming itself in the
cloud, and looking down full upon them!
Ø
As a fitting introduction to the miracle that was to follow. It gave
impressiveness to the announcement — showed
indubitably the source of
the miraculous supply — roused the minds of the
people to a high pitch of
expectation — prepared them for something grand
and exceptional in the
Divine procedure. It
thus checked their murmurings, convinced them of
their sin
in distrusting God, warned them of the danger of further rebellion,
and
brought them back to their obedience. God’s words — “I have
heard
the
murmurings of the children of
them that he was fully aware of all their “hard speeches” which they had
spoken against Him. (Jude 1:15)
Ø
As an anticipation of the revelation of Sinai. These chapters are full of
anticipations. In ch.15:25-26, we have “statute and an ordinance,”
anticipatory of the later Sinaitic
covenant; in this chapter, we
have an anticipation of Sinai glory and also of
the sabbath law (v. 23); in
ch. 18:16, we have an anticipation of the civil code of Sinai; for
Moses makes the people “know the statutes of God, and His laws.”
next morning the manna fell with the dew. We observe
concerning it:
Ø
That it came in a not unfamiliar form. The “angel’s
food” (Psalm
78:25), wore the dress, and had the taste of the
ordinary manna of the
desert. We miss in the miracles of the Bible the
grotesque and bizarre
features which mark the supernatural stories of
other books. They testify to
the existence, as well as respect the laws, of
an established natural order.
The plagues of
of that country, and made the largest possible
use of existing agencies. The
crossing of the
of natural conditions and agencies. There is in
all these miracles the
constant observance of the two laws of:
o
economy — utilizing the natural so far as it will go; and
o
congruity — keeping as closely as possible to the type of the natural,
even when originating supernatural phenomena.
Ø
That it was a direct production of the power of God. It was in the truest
sense bread from heaven, and is thus a type of
Christ, the Bread of Life
(see below). Yet the power exerted in the
creation of the manna — and it
is important to remember this — is but the same
power, only more visibly
put forth, which operates still in nature,
giving us our yearly supplies of the
good things of the earth. The annual harvest is
only not a miracle, because
it comes regularly, season after season, and
because numerous secondary
agencies are employed in its production. You
plough, that is, break up the
ground to receive the seed; but whence came the
seed? From last year’s
gift. You sow it in the fields, cover it up
again and leave it — to whose
care? To God’s. (“cast seed into the ground; And should
sleep, and
rise
night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he
knoweth not how!”
- Mark 4:26-27 – CY – 2017) It is He
who now takes
the matter
into His own hands, and in what remains you can but wait upon
His will.
It rests with Him to send His rains or to withhold them; to order
the
sunshine and heat; to bless or blast your harvest. What man does is but
to put matters in train for God’s working — God
Himself does the rest; in the
swelling and germination of the seed, in all
the stages of its growth, in the
formation of the blade, in the modeling of the
ear, in the filling of it with
the rich ripe grain, His
power is absolutely, and all throughout, THE
ONLY POWER
AT WORK! And how great the gift is when it comes!
It is
literally God opening His hand and putting into ours the food
necessary
for our sustenance. (Psalm 104:27-31; 145:16) But for that gift,
year by year
renewed, man and beast would utterly perish.
(Consider the
value of a year’s produce in the
51.5 billion in 2016) It is as if God had made a direct gift of that sum
of money to our nation in the year named, only it was given in a better
than money form — in food, but the surplus is so great that it is
turned into money, TRULY MAKING THE UNITED STATES A
by arguing on the Lord’s Day and throughout
the week over some real
or imagined slight converted into an
exhibition of someone standing or
kneeling at a sporting event? the timing of
which seems purposely
scheduled to conflict with the
i.e. the
Super Bowl – and to compete for and undermine the murmuring
fickle spiritual soul of
Below is a list of goods God delivers and THAT
EVERY YEAR!:
oats Raspberries
wheat Papayas
corn Peaches
sorghum Pears
Artichokes Plums
asparagus Prunes
Beans Pineapple
Broccoli Almonds
Cabbage Hazelnuts
Cantaloupes Walnuts
Celery Macadamian
Corn, sweet Pistachios
Cucumbers Pecans
Garlic Millet
Honeydews Rice
Olives canola
Lettuce cotton
Onions flax
Peppers peanuts
Pumpkins soybeans
Squash sunflowers (Crop Values
2016 Summary
Spinach mustard
February 2017 – taken from
Tomatoes sugar
cane USDA National
Agricultural
Watermelons beets Statistics
Service)
Grapefruit lentils
Lemons chickpeas
Tangelos maple syrup
Tangerines mushrooms
Mandarins sweet
potatoes
Apples taro
Apricots peppermint
Avocados spearmint
Bananas barley
Blackberries $13,360,998,000
– Commerical Vegetables - 2016
Blueberries 51,703,698,000 – Corn - 2016
Boysenberries 1,351,427,000 -
Sorghum - 2016
Cherries, 151,335,000 – Oats - 2016
Coffee 942,180,000 – Barley - 2016
Cranberries 9,104,215,000 - Wheat - 2016
Dates 23,708,845,000 – Rice - 2016
Figs 33,689,000 – Millet - 2016
Grapes 69,237,000 –
Guavas 1,077,480,000 – Peanuts - 2016
Kiwifruit 40,943,775,000 – Soybeans - 2016
Nectarines You
Get the Picture! God’s Goodness to the USA
How little we think of it! Men are proud and
self-sufficient, and speak
sometimes as if they would almost disdain to accept or acknowledge a
favor from the Almighty. While yet, in truth, they are, like others,
THE
VERIEST PENSIONERS on His
bounty, sustained by His power,
seeing by His light, warmed by His sun, and fed
year by year by the crumbs
that fall from His table. Were God for a single year to
break the staff of
bread over the whole earth, where would either it or they be?
Ø
That it was given day by day, and with regularity. (The Lord’s “compassions
fail
not. They are new every morning” Great is His
faithfulness! Lamentations
3:22-23; – CY – 2017) Thus the manna taught a daily lesson of
dependence
on God, and so played an important part in the
spiritual education of
Yet familiarity must have done much then, as it
does still, to deaden the
impression of God’s hand in the daily gift.
Because the manna came to them,
not by fits and starts, but regularly; because
there was a “law” in its coming —
they would get to look on it as quite a common
occurrence, no more to be
wondered at than the rising and setting of the
sun, or any other sequence in
nature. “Laws
of nature” tend, in
precisely the same way, to blind us
to the
agency of
God working behind and in them, as well as to
hide from us His
agency in the origination
of the sequences that now flow so uniformly. We
have spoken of God’s agency in the production of the harvest. But there
is good ground for speaking of our cereal crops as in yet another sense —
“bread from heaven.” These cereal plants, it is affirmed, are never found in
a wild state; cannot by any known process be developed from plants in a
wild state; and if once allowed to degenerate, can never again be reclaimed
for human food. Not inaptly, therefore, have they been represented as even
now a kind of standing miracle — a proof of direct creative interposition
for the good of man. (See “The Cerealia: a Standing
Miracle,” by Professor
by the fact that “all
things continue as they were from the beginning of the
creation” (II Peter 3:4).
Ø
That it was a food entirely suitable to the circumstances of the
Israelites. It was light, nutritious, palatable; comprised
variety by admitting
of being prepared in different ways (baked,
seethed, v. 23; compare
Numbers 11:8); was abundant in quantity, readily
distinguishable by the
eye, and being of a granulated nature, and
strewn thickly throughout all the
camp, could be collected with a very moderate
expenditure of labor. It
was thus,
like so much in our own surroundings, and in the provision
which God
makes for our wants, a constant witness to the care, goodness,
wisdom, and
forethought of the great Giver.
17“And
the children of
And the children of
and
gathered what they supposed to be about an omer; but,
as a matter of course,
some
of them exceeded the amount, while others fell short of it. There was no
willful
disobedience thus far – “and gathered, some
more, some
less.
18 “And when they did mete it with an omer, he
that gathered much had
nothing
over, and he that gathered little had no
lack; they gathered every man according
to his eating.” On returning to their tents, with the manna
which they had collected,
the
Israelites proceeded to measure it with their own, or a neighbor’s, omer measure,
when
the wonderful result appeared, that, whatever the quantity actually gathered by
any
one, the result of the measurement showed, exactly as many omers
as there were
persons
in the family. Thus,he that had gathered much found
that he had nothing
over,
and he that had gathered little found that he had no lack
Bread
from Heaven (vs. 14-18)
Our Lord
tells us that the manna was a type of Him, and that He was the “true bread
from heaven” (John 6:32). We may
profitably consider, in what respects the type held
good.
OF THE
SOUL. The manna constituted almost the sole
nourishment of the
Israelites from this time forth
until they entered
So Christ is the food of the soul
during its entire pilgrimage through the
wilderness of this world, until it
reaches the true
Israelites were in danger of
perishing for lack of food — they murmured —
and God gave them the manna. The
world was perishing for lack of
spiritual nourishment — it made a
continual dumb complaint — and God
heard, and gave His own Son from
heaven. Christ came into the world, not
only to teach it, and redeem it, but
to be its “spiritual
food and
sustenance.” He feeds us with the bread of life. He gives us
His own self for
nourishment. Nothing else can truly
sustain and support the soul — not
creeds, not sacraments, not even His
own Word without Him. (John 6:53)***
AS CHRIST
IS GIVEN’ TO BE THE SAVIOUR OF THE WHOLE
WORLD. The manna fell all around the camp of
they had but to stretch out the hand and take
it. None could lack sufficient
sustenance except by his own fault. If he
refused to gather, he might starve;
but not otherwise. So Christ gave Himself for
all men, “not willing
that any
should
perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (II Peter
3:9)
His was “a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the
whole
world.” Even they
who know Him not may be saved by Him, “if
they will
do the works
of the law written in their hearts,” (Romans 2:15) or, in
other words, act up to the light that has been vouchsafed them. Thus,
His salvation is free, and
open to all. In Christian lands it is close to all,
made palpable to all, shown them openly, daily pressed upon them.
(Romans 10:6-13)*** - He
who starves here in
save by his own fault — because he will not stretch out
his hand to gather
of the bread of life, will not take it when it is offered to
him, rejects it,
despises it,
“loathes” it.
PURE
AND SPOTLESS, AND SWEET TO THE SOUL. A master mind
of these modern times has made his
hero, a well-disposed heathen, see in
Christ, even before he could bring
himself to believe in him, “the WHITE
Christ.” “Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,” (Hebrews
7:26) - He presents Himself to all
who will read His life, and contemplate His
character, as pure, stainless,
innocent. The Lamb is His fitting
emblem. Driven
snow is not purer or more speckless. “Thou art
all fair, my love; there is no
spot
in thee” (Song of Solomon 4:7). And He is sweet also. “Thy lips, O my
spouse,
drop as the honeycomb; honey and milk are under thy tongue” (ib,
v. 11). “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey
unto
my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103). His words, His life, His promises,
His influence, His presence, are all
sweet, especially the last. Let those who
know Him not, once “taste and see how gracious the Lord is,”
(Psalm 34:8)
and they will desire no
other nourishment.
to us, not “with observation” (Luke 17:20) — not in the wind, or in the fire,
or in the earthquake, but in silence
and in quietude, when other voices are
hushed within us and about us, when
we sit and watch, in patience possessing
our souls. (Luke 21:19) - His
doctrine drops as the rain, and His peace distils as
the dew. It comes down “like the rain into a fleece
of wool, even as the drops
that water the earth.” In the whirl
of passion, in the giddy excitement of
pleasure, in the active bustle of
business, there is no room for Christ, no fit
place for His presence. Christ
comes to the soul when it is calm and
tranquil, when it waits for Him, and
believing in His promise that He will
come, is at rest.
GATHERED MELTED AWAY. “Remember thy Creator in the days of
thy
youth.” (Ecclesiastes 12:1) - Unless we will seek Christ early, we
have no
warrant to expect that He will
condescend to be found of us. If we slight Him, if
we dally with the world, if we put
off seeking Him till a “more convenient
season,”
(Acts 24:25) we may find, when we wake up from our foolish
negligence, that He has withdrawn Himself, has (as it were)
melted away. If an
Israelite put off his gathering of
the manna until the sun was hot, he obtained
nothing — the manna no longer lay
ready to his hand. So with the Christian who
is slothful, self-indulgent,
careless — when, after long neglect, he at length
seeks spiritual food, he may find
it too late, the opportunity may be irrevocably
gone.
19 “And
Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.” Moses, divinely
instructed,
warned the people that they were not to lay up in store any of
their manna
to be eaten the next day. God would have them trust
their
future wants to Him, and “take no thought for the
morrow.” (Matthew 6:34)
Some of them, however, were disobedient, with the result stated in the next verse.
20 “Notwithstanding
they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them
left of it until the morning, and it bred worms,
and stank: and Moses was
wroth with them.” it bred worms - This
was a supernatural, not a natural result.
It served
as a sort of
punishment of the disobedient, and effectually checked the
practice of
laying up in store – “and Moses was wroth with them.
God’s
Curse on Ill-Gotten Gain (vs. 19-20)
In order to
try the Israelites, whether they would be obedient to him or no (v. 4), God
gave them,
by the mouth of Moses, a positive law — “Let
no man leave of the manna
till the morning.” By some
the law was disobeyed. Disregarding
the Divine command
— perhaps
distrusting the Divine promise (v.
4), to give them food day by day, a certain
number of the Israelites, kept some of the manna
till the morning. They wished to have
a store
laid up, on which they might subsist, should the daily supply fail. But God
would not
be disobeyed with impunity. His curse was on the ill-gotten gain —
“it bred worms and stank” becoming a
source of annoyance both to themselves
and their
neighbors. So, God’s curse is ever on ill-gotten gains:
Some provision
for the future is required of us. “Go to
the ant, thou
sluggard,”
says the wise man, “consider her
ways, and be wise.” (Proverbs
6:6) - “He that doth not provide for them of his own household,” Paul
declares, “is worse than an infidel.” (I Timothy 5:8) - Prudence is a
Christian,
no less than a heathen virtue. But to hoard everything, to
give nothing away, to
make the accumulation of wealth our main object, is to fly in the face of a
hundred plain precepts, and necessarily brings God’s curse upon us. (see
Luke
12:16-21) - The wealth rots — the concerns wherein it is invested
fail — it
disappears and is brought to nought — and
all our careful saving advantages us
nothing. God vindicates His own honor; and disperses or
destroys the hoard
accumulated contrary to His will.
COMMAND. There are some who, in their
haste to be rich, disregard the
Divine injunction to keep holy one day in
seven, and pursue their secular
calling without any intermission. Conveyancers draw out their
deeds, barristers study their
briefs, business men balance their books,
authors ply their pens, as busily on
the Sunday as on week days. What
blessing can be expected on the
gains thus made? Is it not likely that they
will breed corruption? Still
more wholly under a curse are gains made by
unlawful trades or dishonest
practices — by the false weight or the scant
measure, or the adulterated article
— or again by usurious lending, by
gaming, by brothel-keeping.
GOD’S PROMISES. (Is this
not a reference to the tithe? See
Malachi
3:8-12 – CY – 2017) God bids us not to be anxious for the morrow,
what
we shall eat, or what we shall
drink, or what we shall put on (Matthew
6:31) — and promises that, if we
will “seek first the
His
righteousness, all these things shall be added unto us” (ibid. v.
33). He
caused David to declare — “I have been young and now am old, yet
saw
I never the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread.”
(Psalm 37:25) – If men hoard in
distrust of these gracious words, not believing
that God will make them good, and
thinking to assure the future of wife or
child, or both, by their own
accumulations, they provoke God to bring their
accumulations to nothing. Riches,
however invested, can make themselves
wings and disappear, if God’s
blessing does not rest on their possessor.
(I personally believe that if a
person will not tithe, that he does not believe
that God will provide for him, so
that he must take care of himself. – CY –
2010)
21 “And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating:
and when the sun waxed hot, it
melted.” The manna had
to be
gathered
early. What had not been collected before the sun grew hot,
melted away
and disappeared from sight. In this respect the miraculous
manna
resembled both the manna of commerce and the “air-honey.”
God and Nature (vs. 9-21)
NATURE’S
SERVANT. A school of
modern thought places nature above
God, or at, any rate on a par with God. It is an absolute impossibility, we are
told, that a law of nature should be broken or
suspended. Miracles are
incredible. But all this, it must be borne in
mind, is mere assertion,
and assertion without a tittle of
proof. All that we can know is, that we
ourselves have never witnessed a miracle. We may further
believe, that
none of our contemporaries have witnessed any. But that
miracles have
never taken place, we cannot know. There is abundant testimony
in the records of humanity that they have. To say that they
are impossible,
is to assume that we know the exact relation of God to
nature, and that
that relation is such as to preclude any infraction or
suspension of a natural
law. (I recommend Genesis 17 – EL SHADDAI – The Names
of God by
Nathan Stone – this web site – CY – 2010) So far from nature being
independent of God, nature wholly
proceeds from God, is His creation,
and momentarily depends on
Him both for its existence and its laws. Its laws
are simply the laws which He imposes on it; the rules which
He sees fit under
ordinary circumstances to lay down and maintain. And He has
nowhere bound
Himself to maintain all His laws perpetually without change.
He will not, we
may be sure, capriciously or without grave cause, change or
suspend a law,
because HE IS HIMSELF IMMUATABLE and “without shadow of turning.”
(James 1:17) But,
like a wise monarch, or a wise master of a
household, He
will make exceptions under exceptional circumstances. And thus
it was at this
time.
a prolonged course of training to be rendered fit for its promised inheritance.
Geographically,
the wilderness was the
necessary scene of
the nation to be supported during the interval? Naturally the wilderness
produced only a scanty
subsistence for a few thousand nomads. How was
it to support two millions
of souls? There was no way but by
miracle. Here
then was a “dignus vindice nodus,” — a fitting occasion for the exertion of
supernatural power — and God
gave by miracle the supply of which His
people had need.
NATURE,
WORKS TO A LARGE EXTENT THROUGH NATURE.
The Israelites needed, or at any rate craved for flesh. God
did not create for
them new animals, as
He might have done (Genesis 1:25), or even give them
meat by any strange and unknown phenomenon. He brought a
timely flight of
quails — a migratory bird, in the habit of visiting
and made them alight exactly
where the camp was fixed, in too exhausted
a condition to fly further — a phenomenon not at all unusual
at the particular
season and in the particular country. The
Israelites needed bread, or some
substitute for it. God gave them
manna — not a wholly new and unknown
substance, but a modification of known substance. He made
previously
existing nature His basis, altering and adding qualities, greatly augmenting
the quantity, but not
exerting more supernatural power than was necessary,
or departing further from the established course of nature
than the occasion
required. The same “economy” is seen in the sweetening of the waters of
Marah by the wood of a particular
tree (ch. 15:25). The method of
God’s
supernatural working is to
supplement, not contradict, nature.
The
Gathering of the Sixth Day (vs. 22-30)
When the
Israelites, having collected what seemed to them the usual quantity of
manna on
the sixth day, brought it home and measured it, they found the yield to be,
not an omer a head for each member of the family, but two omers. The result was
a surprise
and a difficulty. They could not consume more than an omer
a piece.
What was to
be done with the remainder? Was it to be destroyed, or kept? If kept,
would it
not “breed
worms”? To resolve their
doubts, the elders brought the matter
before
Moses, who replied: “This is that which
the Lord hath said.” It is to be
supposed
that, in his original announcement to the elders of God’s purposes as to
the manna,
Moses had informed them that the quantity would be double on the sixth
day (v. 5);
but his statement had not made any deep impression at the time, and now
they had
forgotten it. So he recalls it to their recollection. “This is no strange thing —
nothing that should have surprised you — it is
only what God said would happen.
And the
reason of it is, that tomorrow, the seventh day is, by
God’s ordinance,
the rest of the Holy Sabbath,” — or rather “a rest
of a holy Sabbath to the Lord.”
Whether or
no the Sabbath was a primeval institution, given to our first parents in
an
institution by the Hebrews during their sojourn in
to them,
the first promulgation of it. Hence, in the original, it is not called
“the sabbath,” as if
already known, but “a sabbath,” — i.e., a rest — until v. 29.
22 “And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much
bread, two omers
for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came
and told Moses. 23
And he said unto them,
This is that which the LORD
hath said, To morrow is the rest of the
holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake
that which ye will bake to day, and seethe
that ye will seethe; and that which
remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the
morning.” This is that
which the Lord hath said. Rather, “said,” i.e., declared to me when He announced
the manna.
See v. 5. It has been supposed
that Moses had not communicated the
declaration
to the elders; but this seems unlikely. The rest of the holy sabbath.
If this
translation were
correct, the previous institution of the sabbath, and
the
knowledge
of its obligation by the Hebrews, would follow; but
the absence of
the article is a strong indication that the whole idea was
new, at any rate to those
whom Moses
was addressing. Bake that which ye will bake, etc. “Do,”
i.e., “as you have done on other
days — bake some and seethe some —
but also
reserve a portion to be your food and sustenance to-morrow.”
The Law of the Manna (vs. 16-22)
God had
said (v. 4) that rules would be given in connection with the
manna by
which the people would be proved, whether they would walk in
His law, or
no. One rule is given in v. 5, and the rest are given here.
Consider:
eating,” in this
passage, means, according to the quantity allowed to each
person for consumption. This was fixed at an omer a head (v. 16). The
simplest way of explaining what follows is to suppose that
each individual,
when he went out to gather, aimed, as nearly as possible, at
bringing in his
exact omer; but, necessarily, on
measuring what had been gathered, it
would be found that some had brought in a little more, some
a little less,
than the exact quantity; excess was then to go to balance
defect, and the
result would be that, on the whole, each person would
receive his omer. It
may be supposed, also, that owing to differences of age,
strength, agility,
etc., there would be great room left for one helping
another, some
gathering more, to eke out the deficiencies of the less
active. If the work
were conscientiously done, the result, even on natural
principles, would be
pretty much what is here indicated. The law of averages
would lead, over a
large number of cases, to a mean result, midway between
excess and
defect, i.e., to the net omer. But a special superintendence of providence
— such, e.g., as that which secures in
births, amidst all the inequalities of
families, a right proportion of the sexes in society as a
whole — is
evidently pointed to as securing the result.
We cannot suppose, however,
that an intentionally indolent or unconscientious
person was permitted to
participate in this equal dividend, or to reap, in the way
indicated, the
benefit of the labors of others. The law here must have
been, as with
Paul, "if any would not work,
neither should he eat” (II Thessalonians
3:10). There is nothing said as to the share to be allotted
to juveniles: these
may be supposed to have received some recognized proportion
of an omer.
The lessons of all this and its importance as a part of the
spiritual education
of
Ø
That what is of Divine gift is meant for common benefit. The individual
is entitled to his share in it; but he is not
entitled selfishly to enrich himself,
while others are in need. He gets that he may
give. There was to be a
heavenly communism practiced in respect of the
manna, in the same way as
a common property is recognized in light and
air, and the other free gifts of
nature. This applies to intellectual and
spiritual wealth. We are not to rest
till all have shared in it according to their
God-given capacity.
Ø
That in the
weaker, and of the richer to help the poorer. This is the lesson drawn from
the passage by Paul in II Corinthians 8:12-16.
It is presumed in his
teaching, first, that there is the “willing mind,” in which case a gift “is
accepted
according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath
not” (v. 12). Each gatherer of the manna was honestly to do his part, and
put what he could into the common stock. The end
is not, secondly, that
other men be eased, and the Corinthians burdened
(v. 13). But, each
doing what he can, the design is, thirdly, that
the abundance of one may be
a supply, for the deficiency of another, that so
there may he equality (v. 14).
This is a principle of wide application in
Church finance, and also in
the aiding of the poor. Strong congregations
should not be slow to aid
weak ones, that the work of the latter may go on
more smoothly, and their
ministers may at least be able to subsist
comfortably. The Scottish Free
Church has given a praiseworthy illustration of
this principle in her noble
“Sustentation Fund.”
Ø
That where a helpful spirit is shown by each towards all, there will be
found no lack of what is needful for any. God will see that all are provided
for. The tendency of the rule is to encourage a friendly, helpful, unselfish
spirit
generally, and in all relations. The gatherer of
manna was forbidden
to act selfishly. A Nemesis would attend an
attempt on the part of any to
appropriate more than his proper share.
Ø
The manna
was to be gathered in early morning. The people had to be
up betimes, and had to bestir themselves
diligently, that their manna might
be collected before “the
sun waxed hot” (v. 21). If not collected then, the
substance melted away, and could not be had at
all. A lesson, surely, in the
first instance, of diligence in business; and
secondly, of the advantage of
improving morning hours. The most successful
gatherer of manna, whether
in the material, intellectual, or spiritual
fields, is he who is up and at his
work early. Albert Barnes tells us that all his
commentaries were due to
this habit of rising early in the morning, the
whole of them having been
written before nine o’clock in the day, and without encroaching on his
proper
ministerial duties.
Ø
On six days of the week only (v. 5). God
teaches here the lesson of
putting
forward our work on week days, that we may be able to enjoy a
SABBATH
FREE FROM DISTRACTION. He puts honor on the
ordinance of the Sabbath itself, by requiring
that no work be done upon it.
till the morning. We have here again a double lesson.
Ø
A lesson
against hoarding. God gave to each person his quantity of
manna; and the individual had no right to more.
What excess he had in his
gathering ought to have gone to supplement some
other person’s
deficiency. But greed led some of the Israelites
to disobey. It would save
them trouble to lay by what they did not need,
and use it again next day.
They might make profit out of it by barter. All
such attempts God defeated
by ordaining that the
manna thus hoarded should breed worms, and grow
corrupt. A significant emblem of the suicidal effects of hoarding generally.
Hoarded treasure is never an ultimate benefit to
its possessor. It corrupts
alike in his heart and his hands. It breeds
worms of care to him, and
speedily becomes a nuisance (compare Matthew
6:19-20).
Ø
A lesson
against distrust. Another motive for laying up the manna would
be to provide for the morrow in case of any
failure in the supply. But this
was in direct contradiction to God’s end in
giving the people their manna
day by day, viz., to foster trust, and keep
alive their sense of dependence
on Him. (I personally believe that one who does
not tithe is distrustful
of God's care for him, preferring to take care
of himself instead of
relying on God.
CY - 2017) Christ warns us
against the spirit of distrust,
and of anxiety for the morrow, and teaches us to pray for “daily bread”
(Matthew 6:11, 31). We
should desire never to be independent of God.
They failed at each point. They tried to hoard (v. 20). They
went out to
gather on the Sabbath (v. 27). This showed
both disobedience and
unbelief, for it had been distinctly said of the seventh
day, “in it there shall
be none” (v. 26).
What a lesson!
Ø
Of the sottish
insensibility of human nature to God’s great acts of
goodness. God had miraculously supplied their
wants, yet so little sensible
were they of His goodness — so little did it
influence them — that they
declined
to obey even the few
simple rules He had laid down for the
reception
and use of His benefits.
Ø
Of its ineradicable contumacy and self-will (comare Deuteronomy 9; and
Psalms 78, and 106).
24 “And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not
stink,
neither was there any worm therein.” They laid it up. The great bulk of the
Israelites
obeyed Moses, and laid by a portion (half?) of the manna gathered
on the
sixth day. On the morning of the seventh, this was found to be perfectly
good, and
not to have “bred
worms” in the night. Either this was a miracle, or the
corruption previously
noticed (v. 20) was miraculous.
25 “And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath
unto the LORD:
to day ye shall not find it in the field. 26 Six days ye shall gather it; but on
the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.” And Moses said.
The Sabbath
being come, Moses explained fully the reason for the order which he
had given,
and generalized it. God required the Sabbath to be “a day of holy rest”
— no manna
would fall on it, and therefore none could be gathered — the produce
of the
sixth day’s gathering would be found to suffice both for the sixth day and
the
seventh.
27 “And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the
seventh day
for to gather, and they found none.” There will
always be some persons in a nation,
or in a Church, who will refuse to believe God’s ministers, and even GOD HIMSELF!
They persuade
themselves that they “know better” — it will not be as announced — it
will be as
they wish it to be. More especially is this so where the idea of continuance
comes in — where some interruption of the ordinary course
of things is announced,
which they
deem unlikely or impossible. Compare Genesis 19:14.
28 “And the LORD said unto Moses, How long
refuse ye to keep my
commandments and my laws?” Though Moses is addressed, it is the people
who
are
blamed. Hence the plural verb, “refuse ye.” Already there
had been one act of
disobedience
in connection with the manna (v. 20) — now there was another —
when would such sinful folly come to an end? When would
the people learn
that they
could gain nothing by disobedience? It was “long” indeed before
they
were taught the lesson.
29 “See,
for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath,
therefore he
giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days;
abide ye every
man in his place, let no man go out of his place
on the seventh day.”
“See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore He giveth you
on the sixth day the bread of two days” - Consider that God has
given you the
Sabbath,
or the holy rest: and therefore it is that He gives you on the sixth day
the
food for two days — that the rest may not be
INTERFERRED WITH!
“abide ye every man in his place, let no
man go out of his place on the seventh day.
30 “So the people rested on the seventh
day.” Having found by experience
that
nothing was
to be gained by seeking manna on the sabbath, and
having received the
severe
rebuke of v. 28, the people henceforth obeyed the new commandment, and
“rested on the sabbath day.” Of the nature of the “rest” intended more will be
said in the
comment on ch. 20:8-11.
The Manna and the Sabbath (vs. 22-30)
ON THE
SEVENTH IS A PROOF OF THE EXISTENCE OF THE
SABBATH, It would
certainly seem from this passage that the Israelites
had not up to this time been very good Sabbath keepers; that
if they knew
of any special distinction attaching to the seventh day,
they had no very
strict ideas as to its observance; that its sanctity was but
little recognized by
them. It could scarcely have been otherwise with a people
just escaped
from a long and degrading bondage. It does not follow,
however. that this
was the first institution of the Sabbath. There is every
reason for believing
the contrary. That God had the Sabbath in view in the
arrangements made,
and the laws laid down, about the manna, every one admits.
The only
question which arises is, whether these arrangements were
modeled on the
basis of a division of time already existing, or whether
this was absolutely
the first indication to mankind of a weekly day of rest.
Ø Presumptively — this
latter alternative seems improbable. It is incredible
that so important an institution as the Sabbath should be
introduced in
this casual, unannounced way — should be taken for granted
in certain
outward arrangements relating to a different matter, and
then, when
curiosity has been excited by these arrangements, should be
first made
known by the side-door of an explanation of the novel injunctions.
Such
a case of the existence of an important institution being
assumed before
the law which gives it existence has been either promulgated
or heard of,
is without precedent or parallel in history. It seems plain
that whether
arrangements in view of it. The inference is that the
religious observance
of the seventh day had been sanctioned by old tradition, but
had fallen
largely into disuse.
Ø On Biblical grounds — it seems
certain that the Sabbath is of older date
than the sojourn in the wilderness. We need not review all
the evidence
which points in the direction of a primeval institution of
the Sabbath. It is
sufficient to instance the primary text upon the subject (Genesis
2:1-4),
which speaks with a voice as plain as could well be wished
to those who
are willing to hear.
Ø Historically — it has
been recently proved that the Sabbath was known
in ancient Assyria and
Orientalist will any longer question, in
face of the evidence furnished by
the recently deciphered cuneiform tablets, that a Sabbath
was observed in
ancient Arcadian records, which go as far back as 2000 B.C., and many
of which have been deciphered by the aid of competent
Assyrian
translators, show that a Sabbath was observed in the very
earliest time.
The very name “Sabattu,” with the
meaning “a day of rest for the heart,”
has been found in the old Arcadian tongue (see “Records of
the Past,”
vol. 3. p. 143; “Assyrian Discoveries,” by George Smith; the
Academy,
Nov. 1875). Special
points in these researches will need confirmation,
but on the whole, the early and wide-spread observance of
the Sabbath
must be held as established. In the light of Oriental
discovery, it will
soon be regarded as an anachronism to speak of prolepsis in
connection
with Genesis 2:1-4; or to urge the view that the Sabbath is
a purely
Judaic institution, and originated with Moses.
ON THE
SIXTH DAY, AND LAYING BY FOR THE SEVENTH,
TAUGHT
THE LESSON OF A PROPER RESPECT FOR THE
SABBATH. It taught:
Ø That the
Sabbath was to be kept free from unnecessary work.
Ø That in
order to leave the Sabbath clear, as a day of rest, work was to be
forwarded
on week days.
Ø That God has a respect for His own ordinance.
AND
SECURING ITS PRESERVATION ON THE SEVENTH, GOD
TAUGHT
THAT HIS BLESSING RESTS UPON THE SABBATH,
AND THAT
HIS PEOPLE WILL BE NO LOSERS BY KEEPING IT.
ORDINANCE
OF THE SABBATH IN
IMPORTANCE
OF THE INSTITUTION AS BEARING ON HEALTH,
MORALS,
AND RELIGION. It must be reckoned a noteworthy
circumstance that, in arranging the affairs of
recovery of His people from the low and
demoralized condition, physically,
morally, and spiritually,
into which they had fallen, and with a view to their
elevation to a state of
prosperous national existence, God’s first step, even
before the law was given from Sinai, was to put on a proper
foundation,
the observance of the Sabbath.
PEOPLE WHO
WENT OUT TO GATHER ON THE SABBATH,
SHOWS HIS
ZEAL FOR THE HONOR OF THE COMMANDMENT
(vs. 27-29). The thing chiefly condemned, no doubt, was the
spirit of
disobedience, which showed itself in more ways than one
(compare v. 20).
But is it not plainly reckoned a special aggravation of the
offence of these
would-be gatherers, that they so defiantly
set at naught God’s
ordinance of
a day of
rest?
The
Institution of the Sabbath (vs. 23-30)
That, in
some sense, the Sabbath was instituted in
Genesis
2:3. It was at any rate then set apart by Divine counsel and decree. And it is
quite
possible that a revelation of its sanctity was made to Adam. The week of seven
days may,
however, have arisen simply out of the lunar month, the four weeks
corresponding
to the moon’s four phases. In any case, as the early Egyptians had no
such
institution as a weekly sabbath, and certainly would
not have tolerated abstinence
from work
on the part of their Hebrew slaves one day in seven, (AS MANY MODERN
EMPLOYERS DEEM – CY – 2010) we must suppose that the sabbatical
rest, if ever
known to
the Hebrews, had fallen into desuetude during their Egyptian sojourn. God
now
formally either instituted or re-instituted it. He seized the occasion of giving
the
manna, to
mark in the strongest way, and impress upon the people, the strict
observance of a sabbatical rest, which forty
years’ experience would engrain into
the habits of the nation. The chief
practical points of interest connected with Sabbath
observance
in the present condition of the Christian world are:
Ø The
relation of the Christian Sunday to the Jewish Sabbath;
Ø The
authority upon which the change of day has been made; and
Ø The proper
mode of keeping the Lord’s day at the present time.
A few words
will be said on each of these points:
SABBATH. Both the
Christian Sunday and the Jewish Sabbath have for
their basis the expediency of
assigning to the worship and contemplation of
God some definite and regularly
recurring portions of human life, instead
of leaving individuals free to
choose their own times and seasons. Temporal
concerns so
much occupy men, that, if there were no definite rule, they
would be apt to
push religious observance into the odd corners of human
life, if not even
to oust it altogether. This evil is prevented, or at any rate
checked, by the appointment of a
recurrent day, which is also almost a
necessity for the practice of common
worship. In both the Christian and the
Jewish religion the same proportion
of time is fixed upon, the appointment
being that of one day out of seven, or one-seventh part of life, which
certainly cannot be said to be an
undue requirement. Thus far then the two
institutions resemble one the other;
but in the primary characteristics of the
observance there is a remarkable
contrast. The Jewish Sabbath was
emphatically a day of holy rest —
the Christian Sunday is a day of holy
activity. The keynote of our Lord’s teaching
on the subject is to be found
in the words — “It is lawful to do
good on the Sabbath day.” (Matthew
12:12) - The Jews thought they “hallowed the Sabbath” by mere
inaction —
some, as we have seen, would not
move all day from the place and attitude in
which their waking moments found
them. Christ taught that there was no virtue
in idleness. “My Father worketh hitherto” (on the
Sabbath), He said, “and I
work.” (John
5:17) - On the Sabbath day He did His miracles, He
taught the
people, He
walked through the cornfields, He journeyed to Emmaus. And the
Christian Church has,
in the main, continued true to her Founder’s teaching. The
Christian Sunday has been, and is, a
day of holy joy and holy activity.
Ministers
are of necessity more active on it
than on any other. Lay people have felt it to be
the special day for imitating their
Lord in “going about and doing good” (Acts
10:38) - in teaching the ignorant,
visiting the poor and the afflicted — reading to
them, praying with them, ministering
to their necessities.
Cessation from worldly
business has come to be the rule on
the Lord’s day,
not from any superstitious
regard for mere rest, but in order that the
active duties peculiarly belonging to the
day shall not be neglected. The
Christian Sunday has taken the place of the
Jewish Sabbath, and occupies in the
Christian system the position which the
Sabbath occupied in the Jewish. By what authority, then, has the change been
made? How are
Christians justified in keeping holy the first day instead of the
seventh? Not, certainly, by any direct command of our Lord, for
none such is
recorded. Not even by any formal
decision of the Apostolic college, for the
question was untouched at the only
council which they are known to have held
(Acts 15:6-29). But, as it would seem, by
consentient apostolic practice. The
apostles appear, both by Scripture
and by the records of primitive Christian
antiquity, to have practically
made the change — i.e., they sanctioned the
discontinuance of seventh-day
observance (Colossians 2:16; Galatians 4:9-10),
and they
introduced first-day observance in its stead (John 20:19, 26; Acts 2:1,
20:7; I Corinthians 16:2). They
regarded the Jewish sabbath as abrogated
with
the rest of the ceremonial law; and
they established by their own authority, and
doubtless by the direction of the Holy Ghost,
the keeping holy of the “Lord’s
Day,” by
meetings for Holy Communion, worship, and instruction on that, the
first day of the week, instead. With respect to the proper mode of keeping
the
Lord’s Day at the present time,
there would seem to be different degrees of
obligation as to different parts of
the customary observance. Attendance at
Holy Communion, and by analogy at
other services, has distinct apostolic
sanction (Acts 20:7; Hebrews 10:25),
and is obligatory in the highest sense.
Cessation from worldly business is a
matter of ecclesiastical arrangement, in
which individual Christians should follow
the regulations or traditions of their
own ecclesiastical community. Mere
inaction should not be regarded as in any
sense a “keeping” of the day — the time abstracted from worldly affairs should
be given to
prayer, reading of the Scriptures, and works of mercy. Gentle and
healthful
exercise should not be interrupted, being needful to make the body a
useful
instrument of the soul. Relaxations,
not required by adults or by those
who are rich, should be allowed to children and to the poor,
every care being
taken that Sunday be not made to
them a day of gloom, restraint, and
discomfort. Sunday was intended to be the
Christian’s weekly festival, a day of
cheerfulness and holy joy, a foretaste of the joys of
Heaven.
“The
Sundays of man’s life,
Threaded
together on Time’s string,
Make bracelets for the wife
Of
the Eternal King.
On Sunday, heaven’s gate stands open
Blessings
are plentiful and ripe —
More
plentiful than hope.”
The
Physical Appearance of Manna,
Its
Continuance and Its Deposition in the Tabernacle
(vs. 31-36)
In
bringing the subject of the manna to a conclusion, the writer adds a few words:
Ø On its
appearance;
Ø On its
deposition by divine command in the Ark of the Covenant; and
Ø On its
continuance during the forty years of the wanderings.
It is evident that vs.
32-34 cannot have been written until after the
sojourn in Sinai, and
the command to make a tabernacle (ch. 26.): as
also that v. 35 cannot have
been written till the arrival of the Israelites at
the verge of the
militates against the
Mosaic authorship of the whole.
31 “And the house of
like coriander seed, white; and the taste
of it was like wafers made with honey.”
Manna. Literally,
as in the Septuagint, man — the word used when they first beheld
the
substance (v. 15), and probably meaning “a gift. The
elongated form manna,
first
appears in the Septuagint rendering of Numbers 11:6-7. It was like coriander
seed. This is “a
small round grain of a whitish or yellowish grey.”
The comparison is
made again
in ibid. v.7, where
it is added that the color was that of bdellium —
either the
gum so called, or possibly the pearl. The taste of it was like wafers made
with honey. Such
wafers or cakes were constantly used as offerings by the Egyptians,
Greeks, and
other nations. They were ordinarily compounded of meal, oil,
and honey.
Hence we
can reconcile
with the present passage the statement in ibid. v. 8, that
“the taste of it was as the
taste of fresh oil.”
Divine Provision for Daily Need (vs. 13-31)
Ø Their varied need was met. Flesh as well as bread was given.
God gives
us richly all things to
enjoy. (I
Timothy 6:17)
Ø They came in the order and at the time God said they would come. The
evening brought the quails — the morning the manna. Nothing failed of
all that he had promised.
Ø They were given in abundance. The quails “covered the camp;” of the
manna they “had no lack.” There is
princely bounty with God for all
who trust in Him. He gives richly, even where He has made no
covenant:
He fills “men’s hearts with food and
gladness.” (Acts 14:17) How
much more then will He bless those whom He
has pledged Himself
to sustain!
TABLE.
Ø They wait on Him. The supply He sends is only for the day, and He is
trusted for the days that
are to follow. They do not refuse to pass on
further upon the wilderness path, because they do not see at
the
beginning all the needed provision for the way.
Ø They obey God’s call to toil.
o They “gathered” of it every man according to his eating.”
o They did not
miss the opportunity God gave them. “When
the sun waxed hot it melted;” and they
therefore gathered
it “in the morning.” Be “not slothful in business.”
(Romans 121:11)
Ø In
attempting to save themselves from the toil which God commanded,
they kept the manna for next day’s use in defiance of the command to
preserve none of it till the morning (v. 27).
Ø In refusing to rest on the Sabbath. The
contradiction and willfulness
of unbelief: it hoards to
be able to abstain from toil, and refuses to
obey God’s command to rest.
Ø Public indifference to the existence of sin. These
things were done by a
few only; but they called forth no public condemnation or
holy fear of
God’s anger. The Christian community which does not mourn
the sin
abounding in its midst has itself no living trust in God.
32 “And Moses said, This is the thing which the LORD commandeth,
Fill an
omer of it to be kept for your generations;
that they may see the bread
wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness,
when I brought you forth from
the
See the
introductory paragraph. Fill an omer. In the
original it is “the omer,” and so
the Septuagint;
but the reason for the introduction of the article is obscure. For your
generations — i.e., “for your descendants.”
33 “And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer
full of manna
therein, and lay it up before the LORD, to
be kept for your generations.”
Take a pot. The word
here translated “pot” does not
occur elsewhere
in Scripture,
and is
believed to be of Egyptian origin Gesenius translates it “basket;” but the
author of
the Epistle to the Hebrews 9:4 follows the
Septuagint in representing the
word used
by στάμνος – stamnos – urn – which certainly means “a jar” or “pot.”
Lay it up before the Lord. The “pot of manna” was
laid up before the Lord with
the “tables of the covenant,’’ and “Aaron’s rod that budded” as
symbolical that
God’s mercy was as eternal and essential, and as
much to be remembered as
His justice, and perhaps also as especially symbolizing the
“true bread of life –
JESUS CHRIST, THE RIGHTEOUS SON OF GOD”!
34 “As
the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony,
to be kept.: -“the Testimony” is not the Ark of the Covenant, which is
never so
called,
but the Covenant itself, or the
two tables of stone engraved by the finger of
God, which are termed “the testimony” in ch. 25:16-21; 40:20).
The pot of manna
was laid up
inside the ark (Hebrews 9:4) in front of the two tables.
Memorials of Mercy (vs. 32-34)
It is
indicative of the weakness and imperfection of human nature, that memorials of
mercies should
be needed. But frail humanity cannot do without them; and God in
His
goodness, knowing this, sanctions them. As He had the rod of Aaron, which
budded
(Numbers 17:10), and the pot of manna, made permanent portions of the
furniture
of the tabernacle for memorials, so He had memorial days
established:
Ø Sabbath,
Ø Passover,
and
Ø Pentecost,
and memorial seasons, as:
Ø the feasts
of unleavened bread and
Ø tabernacles,
that the
children of
Christians
have no such material memorials as the tables of stone, the rod, and the
manna. We
have, however, memorials of mercies:
reminder of the great mercy of
Christ’s Resurrection, the earnest, and
efficient cause, of our own.
Christmas Day, Good Friday, Ascension-day,
are memorials of the same kind; not
so universally acknowledged, but
useful memorials, where they are
established and observed. Christianity
commands that no man shall judge another
in respect of such observances;
but it would be an ill day for
Christendom, if they were universally given
up (as anti-Christian secularism
would have us do – CY – 2010) Thousands
find them great helps to devotion,
great stimulants to gratitude and love.
Crown of Thorns, the Vine, the Rose,
the Lily of the Valley, wherever we
behold them, are memorials of divine
mercies, never sufficiently
remembered, most useful in recalling
to our minds the acts, events,
persons, wherewith they are scripturally connected. Some minds are so
constituted as not to require such
reminders. But to the mass of men they
are of inexpressible value, waking
up (as they do) twenty times a day holy
thoughts that might otherwise have
slumbered, and stirring the heart to
devotions that might otherwise have
been unthought of.
Israelites in the wilderness, what
the temple, so long as it stood, was to the
Israelite nation, such to Christians
are their cathedrals, abbeys, churches,
chapels, oratories, perpetual
reminders of holy things, memorials pointing
heavenwards, and bringing to mind all that God has done for us. That they
are also intended for practical use
as places where we may worship in
common, and be taught in common,
does not prevent their being at the
same time memorials. It is as
memorials that they lift themselves up so
high, ascending in tier over tier of
useless pinnacle, and high-pitched roof,
and spire-crowned tower. They aim at catching our attention, forcing us to
look at them,
and making us think of God’s mercies.
The Pot of Manna (vs. 32-34)
Aaron was
ordered to take a pot, and put an omer full of manna
therein,
and lay it up
before the Lord, to be kept for future generations. The pot of
manna is
alluded to in Hebrews, where it is described as “golden,” and as
laid up in
the ark (Hebrews 9:4). It may be questioned how so
corruptible
a substance admitted of preservation. But it is not so plain that
the manna
had in itself any tendency to corrupt, so that the miracle is
perhaps to
be looked for, not in the keeping fresh of the portion laid up in
the ark,
but in the smiting with corruption of any portions
sinfully hoarded
by the Israelites (v. 20). We are taught:
TO BE
REMEMBERED BY US. It is fitting, even in the Church, to
appoint memorials of them.
SPECIALLY TO
BE KEPT IN REMEMBRANCE. Among these note the
following:
Ø “Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God.” (compare Deuteronomy
8:3; Matthew 4:4).
Ø The lesson
of dependence on God for supply of daily wants
(Matthew 6:11).
Ø Typical
lessons. The manna reminds us of Christ, our Bread of Life, in
heaven. “Your life is hid with Christ
in God” (Colossians 3:3). The
“hidden manna” in Revelation
2:17, would seem to indicate the
spiritual nourishment in
communion with God and Christ which
will maintain soul and body
for ever in the possession of an
incorruptible life — life undecaying, self-renewing, everlasting.
DEALINGS
WITH HIS CHURCH. The pot of manna was laid up (after
the ark was made) “before the
testimony, to be kept” (v. 34). The law is
the stern background, but near it is the golden pot, filled
with the manna
which told of God’s goodness and grace to a people whom mere law
would have condemned. God can be thus gracious to his Church, not
because His law has been set aside, but because it has been
magnified and
made honorable by Christ, whose blood pleads at the mercy-seat for the
transgressor.
35 “And the children of
land inhabited; they did eat manna, until
they came unto the
borders of the
observes
that the actual time was not forty full years, but about one month
short of
that period, since the manna began after the fifteenth day of the
second
month of the first year (v. 1) and terminated just after Passover
of the
forty-first year (Joshua 5:10-12). It may be added that Moses
cannot have
written the present passage later than about the eleventh
month of
the fortieth year (Deuteronomy 1:3; 34:10; Joshua 4:19);
when the
manna had continued thirty-nine years and nine months. Until
they came to a land inhabited. What the
writer intends to note is,
that the
manna continued all the time they were in the wilderness, until they
reached
inhabited territory, and then further (in the next clause), that it
lasted
after that, until they came to the borders of
that it
even then left off. He writes exactly as Moses might be expected to
have
written towards the close of his life. A later writer would, as Canon
Cook
observes, have been more specific.
36 “Now an
omer is the tenth part of an ephah.” An omer. The “omer”
must be
distinguished from the “homer” of later times.
It was an Egyptian
measure, as
also was the “ephah.” It is not improbable that the verse is an
addition by
a later writer, as Joshua, or Ezra.
The Manna of the Body — A Homily on
“They said one to another, what is this? (margin) for they wist not what it
was” (v. 15). Introduction: — Trace the journey from Elim to
the sea
(Numbers 33:10); and thence to the wilderness of Sin; and give
a
thoroughly good exegetical exposition of the facts of the manna story. It
would be
well also to show the supernatural character of the manna; and,
at the same
time, that the manna supernatural was not unlike (and yet
unlike
also) the manna natural of the desert of today; that God, in a word,
did not
give the food of either Greenland or
wilderness.
The spiritual lessons of the miracle move on two levels, one
higher than
the other. There is a body, and a soul: food for the one, and for
the other.
There are then in the manna story truths concerning Divine
providence,
and also touching Divine grace. Hence two homilies on the
manna. This
on the manna of providence.
prayed, its need cried: so now with twelve hundred millions
of men. No
man “gets his own living,” but God gives it. Imagine one famine round the
world, and every living
thing would become dumb and dead. The world’s
need is one majestic monotone of
prayer.
stint now. A picture of the fullness with which God ever
gives bread. There
has never been such an event as universal famine. Psalm
104:21-28.
text, and the wonder of the people, which was never relieved
through all
the forty years. So with bread today. A great mystery! A
common thing to
common minds; and perhaps to uncommon minds, that would
like, as
scientists, to bow all mystery out of the universe. But as there was mystery
in the manna, so is there in every grain of corn. No scientist could produce
one, were he to try for fifty years. Why? Because the secret of life is a
secret of God; and the
creation of organization LIES IN HIS POWER
ALONE!
if God hears the moaning of the world’s need, and gives
answer, why is
there so much want? Murmuring against Moses and
murmured against the Lord; so we, grumbling against
secondary causes,
may be arraigning the First Cause. But the blame lies not
there. Political
economy might give answer to the question: — Why want? But
behind its
answers lie deeper causes — all summed up
in the one word SIN — not
only the folly and sin (lacking foresight, drunkenness,
etc.) of the
individual, but of all the ages, that is to say, self-centredness (the root
principle of sin), forming and solidifying customs and
institutions, which
have for their effect the oppression and privation of
millions. The instances
are numberless.
(“For even when we were with
you, this we commanded you, that if
any would not work, neither
should he eat.” II
Thessalonians 3:10 –
That was until Welfare; there seems to be a similarity with
slavery in
on their hands – maybe that is the source of protests today
over entitlements
which some fantacize they deserve
– CY - 2017)
Here enforce, not only the dignity of work, but the Christian
duty thereof.
The idle, whether in high life or low, are the dangerous
classes. If exempted
from toil for bread, all the more obligation to labor:
Ø for the good of man and
Ø the glory of God.
·
YET —
THERE MUST BE SABBATH.
·
A HINT AGAINST
MERE HOARDING. Distinguish between
extravagance, a due providence, and hoarding after a miserly
fashion.
The via media here, as elsewhere, the right ethical path.
view of Moses as to the purpose of the manna, in the light
of experience,
after the lapse of forty years, in Deuteronomy 8:3. (compare
Matthew
4:4). Man is to live, not for
that which is lowest in him, but for that which
is highest. Life is to be DEPENDENCE
UPON GOD;
Ø for leading,
Ø for
support.
This was the object of the giving of the manna.
Manna for the Soul: A Homily on Grace (vs. 1-36)
“I am the living bread… if any man eat of this breat,
he shall live for ever.”
(John 6:51).
Having given the manna story, discussed the miracle, and given
the lessons
bearing on our providential path, we now go up to the higher level,
and listen
to the truths taught in relation to the
gather
round the central truth — that the Lord Jesus Christ is the
nutriment of
the soul. For that truth we have His own supreme
authority. [See the full
discourse
from His own lips on the manna, in John 6]
MANNA. Why
Christ? Long before
coming distress; and resolved to give the manna to meet it.
So with Christ.
Christ was given for
atonement, and to bring from under the
cloud of
condemnation; but also
for other reasons beyond, to give life and strength
to the moral and spiritual man. There is a rich provision in
the world for
the body and for the mind [See list above of foodstuffs God
has provided
for man and rest assured that He has
provided the same for the soul! - CY –
2017) ]; but there is something higher in man
— the spiritual — not only
a ψυχή - psuchae – soul, but a πνεῦμα
–
pneuma – spirit
- for which
PROVISION MUST BE MADE!
imagine a world without bread; more to suppose a
world without Christ.
His name, His history, His
death, His reign, His presence, power, and love
are implied, and involved
always, everywhere, in all the phenomena of life.
But endeavor to imagine Christ annihilated — no name of Christ to
entwine in the lullaby at the cradle, and so on through
every stage and
circumstance of life, till the
dying moment — no Christ for the guilty,
sinning, sorrowing, tempted, etc. etc. WHAT A FAMINE OF THE SOUL!
the world would be without Christ, see positively WHAT CHRIST IS TO
THE WORLD!
Ø The
understanding cannot live without objective truth (mere
opinion will not suffice – AS WE CAN TELL BY
CONTEMPORARYCULTURE);
CHRIST IS THAT TRUTH;
Ø nor the
heart without a supreme
object of love; CHRIST IS
THAT
OBJECT:
Ø nor the conscience without authority behind its moral
imperative;
CHRIST IS
THAT AUTHORITY:
Ø nor the will without a living inward abiding power; and
CHRIST IS
THAT POWER!
In very real
and intelligible sense, CHRIST IS
THE:
Ø manna,
Ø bread,
Ø nutriment,
Ø sustenance,
Ø vitality, and
Ø power
of the
believing soul!
assuredly is IN CHRIST!
their own bread. But manna was
manifestly the free gift of heaven. SO
IS
CHRIST! This is the
one truth, which it is so difficult for men
to receive???? See I John 5:11-12; Romans 6:23.
— “What is it?” Men did not solve the mystery ere they ate it.
(Same for those bitten by the fiery serpents in the
wilderness. All
they had to do was “Look and
live!” I highly
recommend: Spurgeon Sermon,
#1500 or the Lifting up of the Brazen Serpent - #6 – this
website – CY – 2017)
Why should men wait to solve
the mystery of Christ’s person, office,
etc.,
ere they eat “the living bread”?
TENT DOOR!are at every
man’s tentdoor.
(“Behold, I stand at the
door,
and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door,
I will come in
to him, and sup with
him, and he with me.” Revelation
3:20)
man went out to gather; so vain the all-sufficiency of Christ, if no man:
Ø comes,
Ø believes, or
Ø appropriates. (John 6:35, 37, 40, 47, 57).
the sufficiency of Christ.
appropriation and use were under Divine direction, and
according to a
certain order. So there are now channels,
means, ordinances of grace,
which no man can safely
neglect.
merely his own growth. No man is an end unto himself. The final end of
food is strength, work, good
for others. The danger of middle-class
evangelicalism is that of making personal salvation the
ultimate aim of
God’s grace. We are saved to win others
to Christ! The end of bread is labor.
(Revelation 2:17). CHRIST will be the soul’s nutriment
in heaven.
“Hidden,” for there will be in heaven as yet undiscovered glories of
CHRIST THE LORD! For the
final lesson see John 6:27.
The Manna:
Regulations for thee Gathering and Using of It (vs. 16-36)
responsibilities and opportunities of the family relation,
which had been
touched upon in the institution of the Passover, are here
touched upon
again. Each head of a household had to see that the daily
supply was
gathered for his family. Thus God shows that He is not only
attentive for
that great nation which now, as a whole, is so clearly
dependent on His
providing, so visibly cut off from secondary grounds of
confidence, but
also has his eye on the
under-providers. What He is to all the children of
men, He expects earthly parents to be in their measure and
opportunity.
Earthly parents, even though evil, are yet able to give some
good gifts; and
God will hold them
responsible thus to give what they can. The peculiar
and transcendent gifts of grace they are not able to bestow;
but seeing God
has constituted them the channels of certain blessings, woe be to them if
they block up the channels,
or in any way diminish the flow of blessings
through them.
and some less; but the gathering amounted to the same thing
in the end.
There was neither defect nor superfluity. We may take it
that those who
gathered more did it in a spirit of unbelief and worldly
wisdom, a spirit of
anxious questioning with
regard to the morrow. They wanted to make
sure, lest the morrow’s manna did not come. God disappointed their plans,
and doubtless soon altered their conduct, by reducing the
quantity gathered
to the stipulated omer. Thus
unbelief’s labor was lost. And those who
gathered less did so through straitened opportunity. It may
be they had less
time; it may be they were feeble or aged. But we are sure
that, whatever
the cause of their deficiency, they must have been those who
did their best;
and God honored their honest
endeavors by making up the deficiency. If
they had been careless, it is pretty certain they would have
had to go
starving. God has ever taken care of
the principle that, if a man will not
work, neither shall He eat. (Our
government thinks differently! – CY –
2017 – See where it is getting us - so much selfishness and unrest in
American society – CY – 2017) All that is required is, that we should do
our
best according to our opportunities; but so much, at least,
assuredly is required.
Remember the teaching of the parable (Matthew 20:1-16). The lord
of
the vineyard gave the same amount to those coming in at the
eleventh hour
as to those who began early in the morning. He considered pressing
need
to be as important a thing as actual exertion. But at the
same time he had
his eye on what had really been done. Those who entered at
the eleventh
hour had to do their best even though it was but for a short
time. Thus the
lord of the vineyard respected need on the one hand and
disposition and