I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, “At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.” (Exod. 16:12)

Have you ever enjoyed a time of success or happiness, only to find yourself disappointed soon after? Imagine a group of mountain climbers who celebrate when reaching a summit only to discover that they’ve crested a ridge, and the trail will lead back downhill before another steep ascent to the actual peak.

            Today’s lesson finds Israel dropping like a rock from the mountain top experience of being delivered from Egypt (Exodus 14) to the ugly depths of running out of food in the wilderness. Exodus 15 is a memorable song of praise: the following chapter is a cry of complaint.

A short-lived celebration

(16:1-3)

Yahweh’s sea-parting act of deliverance was so impressive that one imagines the people of Israel walking on air as they sang and danced while watching the Egyptians drown (Exodus 14-15). As their journey continued, however, food ran short and feet grew tired. Both sandals and tempers began to wear thin. In the space of six weeks (16:1), the people of Israel were ripe for rebellion against Moses. [DD]

Israel had camped for a time at an oasis called Elim (15:27) before Moses led them on and into the “Wilderness of Sin.” No doubt many sermons have been preached on the dangers of wandering into the “Wilderness of Sin,” but sîn is not one of the Hebrew words for human wrongdoing: it is probably related to “Sinai.” [DD]

            Little is said of the time between Israel’s dramatic deliverance at the sea and their arrival in the Wilderness of Sin. By then, however, the excitement surrounding Yahweh’s act of deliverance had begun to fade. Israel again began to complain, resurfacing themes that had appeared in 14:11-12, where they claimed they would rather have died as slaves than to be killed in the wilderness.

In the present text, their complaint relates to food. With exaggeration born of distorted memories, they fondly recalled pots of spicy meat and piles of bread in Egypt, where they claimed to have eaten their fill, as if slavery had been a holiday (vv. 2-3). The people complained to Moses (and suddenly, to Aaron, too) that they would have preferred to die as well-fed slaves than to starve as liberated beggars.

Neither Moses nor Aaron had asked for their job as leaders of Israel. Moses had tried to avoid the heavy responsibility. Yet, they were accused of guiding Israel into the wilderness for their own perverse pleasure in watching the people famish.

The phrase “grumble against” occurs no less than seven times in five verses (vv. 2, 7, 8, 9, 12). Careful studies have shown that in the Pentateuch, a murmuring motif usually precedes a memorably miraculous event, and this text is no exception.

It’s easy to criticize those who complained against Moses, but after six weeks in the desert with little food, wouldn’t we also be complaining? The people seemed slow to learn, unconvinced that Yahweh had their best interests at heart. Perhaps we may remember times when a parent, teacher, or mentor led us through a difficult experience of personal growth that we could not appreciate or understand until later.

A long-running complaint

(16:4-8)

The people complained to Moses and Aaron, but Yahweh heard and responded to Moses, who apparently relayed everything to Aaron. God promised to rain bread from heaven (vv. 4-5) and to give the Israelites their fill.

The people were instructed to gather one day’s supply of food for five days, and a two-day supply on the sixth day, so that it would last them through the Sabbath. Rules for Sabbath-keeping don’t appear until chapter 20, but the narrator assumes they were already practiced among the Israelites.

Although only bread (which came in the morning) was included in Yahweh’s promise of vv. 4-5, Moses and Aaron declared to Israel that they would be given meat in the evening as well as bread in the morning. A second account of Yahweh making the promise also includes meat (vv. 11-12).

The narrator believed this method of providing food was done with divine purpose, as Yahweh explained to Moses that it was a test to see if Israel would obey the simple instructions regarding the amount of food they should gather. [DD]The practice would require a daily exercise of trust. Gathering one day’s worth for five days implied confidence that Yahweh would provide more manna on the following day. Gathering a double provision on the sixth day, when leftovers had putrefied on previous days, required trust that Yahweh would not allow the Sabbath provisions to rot overnight.

In one way or another, most stories in Exodus relate to trust in God. Yahweh’s mighty acts of deliverance made a great impression on Israel, but the people also needed a faith sufficient for every day, not just in times of crisis. The gift of manna on the first six days of every week, along with the specific instructions for handling it, were a daily lesson in dependence upon God’s beneficent provision.

We note an interesting use of vocabulary in vv. 6 and 7. In 14:4 and in 14:17-18, Yahweh had declared that the miraculous works would gain God glory (kabôd) in the eyes of the Egyptians, so that Pharaoh and his band would know (yāda‘) that Yahweh was Lord. In their message to Israel, Moses and Aaron insisted that through the evening provision of food Israel will know (yāda‘) that Yahweh had delivered them, and through the morning harvest of bread, they would see the glory (kabôd) of God.

Vocabulary related to God’s delivering and sustaining presence is found in six times in vv. 6-12. [DD]

Though the people complained to Moses and Aaron, who they could see, the issue was really between them and Yahweh. Moses and Aaron responded: “For what are we, that you complain against us? . . . Your complaining is not against us but against the Lord” (vv. 7-8).

Most of us have little worry about whether we can find and afford food for today or the near future. On the other hand, some persons are so poor that sustenance is a daily concern. Which group will feel more of a need to trust in God? Could Jesus’ model prayer, which includes “give us this day our daily bread,” have some connection with the lesson that Yahweh wanted to teach Israel?

A daily provision

(16:9-36)

The remainder of the chapter may derive from a different source, but in context it appears as a more detailed account of how the promised provisions came to pass. First, Yahweh called out to the people from the cloud, instructing them in much the same manner as Moses and Aaron (vv. 9-12). A specific reference to a visitation of quails as the source of evening meat appears in v. 13 (a similar story in Num. 11:31-32 is more extensive), followed by a detailed account of the manna’s first appearance (vv. 14-15).

The people’s first response to the manna was a question: “What is it?” The Hebrew phrase for “What is it?” is mān-hû’, an apparent attempt to explain the source of the name first given in v. 31: “The house of Israel called it manna” (Hebrew mân). Our word “manna” is a rough transliteration of the Hebrew term.   

The next verse provides instructions for gathering the divinely provided foodstuff (v. 16), which appeared with or in the dew each morning, drying to a flaky substance that appears to have been more like grain than bread, for it could reportedly be ground, baked, or boiled. Each person was to gather an “omer,” just enough for one person to have enough, but no more.

An editorial note defines an omer as a tenth of an ephah (v. 36). Neither measure is known with certainty, but evidence suggests that an omer was about two quarts.

 This is followed by an account of Israel’s experience with harvesting and cooking the manna (vv. 17-30). Once collected, whether cooked or not, the manna would become infested with maggots and foul-smelling if kept overnight—except on the sixth day. Here, the consequence for failing to follow instructions was built in: those who tried storing it up were unlikely to do it a second time. Likewise, the uselessness of going out to gather on the seventh day reinforced the command to observe Sabbath rest (v. 23).

Knowing that readers who had no experience with manna would be curious, the narrator attempted to describe its appearance and taste, saying it was the size and shape of coriander seeds (small, round, and brown to gray), but white in color, tasting like crisp flatbread made with honey.

The theological significance of manna is seen in the need for daily trust in God, and in the instruction that a representative omer should be kept as a tangible reminder to future generations of how Yahweh had provided for their ancestors in the wilderness (vv. 32-35) [DD]

We no longer anticipate manna in the morning or quail in the evening, but the story reminds us to remember that such daily blessings as we have—including our ability to work and earn a living—are gifts of God that should not be forgotten or accumulated in a greedy fashion. As the memorial pot of manna spoke to Israel, symbols such as the cross remind Christians that both deliverance and provision remain available to those who put their trust in God.