They had gone through one little “wilderness” (Ex. 15:2222So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. (Exodus 15:22)), or rather I should. say, they had gone across a little corner of a big wild waste where nobody lived, and now the children of Israel were led across another wilderness, for there are very few places in the peninsula of Sinai where anyone lives, or anything grows. Great stretches of shifting sand have to be crossed from one oasis (like Elim) to another.
Their course was now away from the sea altogether, for before this, up to the end of chapter fifteen, the people had been traveling near to the Red Sea ever since they crossed it with the Egyptian army behind them. A month had been passed on the journey. That is not a very long time, but it seems to have been long enough for nearly everyone that came out of Egypt to forget what a hard time they had had; how cruelly they had all been treated there. Perhaps they really had not forgotten those dreadful days and nights when they just about wished that they had never been born, but Satan surely put into their hearts what they said to Moses and Aaron, as we read in the third verse.
They said that they would rather have died, like some of the people did in Egypt, under God’s punishment in the land of their cruel slavery, than to be brought into the country of sand and rocks, to die of starvation. There, where they had been, the people said, they “sat by the flesh pots,” and “did eat bread to the full;” here, it was to die with hunger. We read on, to see what God did, or said, to people so ungrateful, so slow to trust Him, and what do we find?
“Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you ... .every day.”
How kind, how unwilling to be angry He was, He is! They had forgotten that the Lord had brought them, out from the land of Egypt, but He had not forgotten, and would not forget, them. He knew all about their clothes, their shoes, food and drink, everything indeed, He would take care to see that they had all the way, though God would let them wait a little now and then, test them, as we sometimes say, before giving them what they needed.
Aaron, at Moses’ word, called the people to come near, telling them that God had heard their murmurings, and as they looked toward the wilderness, the brightness of God’s presence was seen in the cloud that went before them on their journeys. To Moses God said, “I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel; speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread.” How was this to be? The thirteenth verse tells; in the evening a great flock of the birds called quails came by, flying low, as travelers tell us they frequently do in that region, so that they would be easily caught; and in the morning there was another surprise.
When the dew was gone with the heat of the rising sun, there lay on the ground thousands of small round white things, having a taste like honey. The people called them manna, and Moses told them it was the bread God had promised. They gathered enough for their families each morning, and it had to be eaten the same day. But on the sixth day they gathered enough for two days, and then the next day’s portion did not go bad, nor was there any manna found on the seventh day.
Some of the people did not pay much attention to what Moses had said, for they went out on the morning of the next day, which was the Sabbath, looking for the manna as usual. Of course they did not find any. Why did not God send any manna on the seventh day? This is the first time we have read of that day since the second chapter of Genesis. It was after six days of work that God rested on the seventh day. And He wanted His people to share His rest. He has finished a greater work than creation, and He wants everyone to believe it, and trust Him about it. Do you know what that work is?
The manna was food from heaven. God gives the saved ones food from heaven, now, but it is not the same kind. The food now is food for our souls, and it is the Word of God, the story of Jesus and His love to us. So the Lord is our spiritual food, as we read about Him, think about Him, try to do what will please Him, and we get spiritual strength in that way.
Some of the manna was put away to be kept always. By and by the people would have other food, the food of the country they were going to, but they were never to forget the food of the desert. And while they were going through the desert, they were to gather it every morning.
Christians ought to read God’s Word, enough to get “food” for the day out of it, every morning, I think, don’t you? And when we are in the home, made ready for those who love Jesus, we shall always remember how good it was to know Him in this world.