Exodus Chapter 16 Verses 9-15

:9 “And Moses spake unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the LORD: for he hath heard your murmurings. 10 And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the 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 Israel: 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. 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. 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. 15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It 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.” 

The children of Israel had murmured against Moses and Aaron saying that in Egypt they had flesh and bread to eat to the full.  God heard their murmurings and responded not with anger but was gracious unto them, knowing what their needs were and gave them flesh, quail, and bread, manna to eat.  Moreover, they had the promise of a daily supply of manna.   

“And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.”  The cloud in the scripture is often associated with the glory of the LORD.  In John chapter 17 Jesus prayed the Father for a restoration of his glory: 5 “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.”  The amazing glory of the Lord is manifest in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Today, the feast of bread and flesh for the children of God is eating spiritually of the knowledge of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus and what he accomplished for us.  Symbolically in the communion service we eat of his body and drink of his blood and this reminds us of his death, burial and resurrection.  Likewise, in the ordinance of water baptism we have a representation of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus which is the glory of the LORD.   

“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 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; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God.”  The children of Israel were to know that the LORD was their God by the provision that he had made for them in feeding them.  Likewise, today, we know that the LORD is our God by the provision of gospel food and of the bread of his word that satisfies our spiritual hungering.   

“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.  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.  And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It 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.”  The LORD fulfilled his promise to the children of Israel in giving them flesh and bread to eat.  The manna as the children of Israel called it was described as a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.  The geometric shape of round is associated with covenants in the scriptures.  As far as worship of God is concerned the Lord has given two covenants: the law covenant to the children of Israel and the covenant of grace to his children today.  As far as our judicial standing with God he has given us two covenants: the covenant of the law of sin and death and the covenant of redemption.  As we have before noted, the manna is typical of the scriptures which are divided into the Old Testament (old covenant) and the New Testament (New Covenant).   

The manna was also very small and had to be gathered every day except on the 7^th day of the week.  To gather something that small to feed a family would require a lot of effort.  Likewise, the study of God’s word to feed our spiritual needs and that of our families requires a lot of effort.  We gather it a little at a time: Is. 28:10 “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:” Just a casual reading of God’s word and then ignoring it after that will neither feed our souls the spiritual food we need nor will it be beneficial to our families.   

Verses 16-21 

: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. 17 And the children of Israel did so, 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. 19 And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning. 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. 21 And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.”   

“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.”  The responsibility for gathering fell upon the man of the house, i.e., the husband and father.  They were to provide for their family.  This is true both naturally and spiritually.  The husband and father is to be the leader of the home and is to be the chief provider.  Fathers are to bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.  To do this, the fathers should set an example for the children in reading and studying the scriptures and to teach their children concerning the things that they have learned.  At the same time the men were gathering for their families they were also providing food for themselves. 

“And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less.  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.”  The men gathered for themselves and their families according to their eating.  There was sufficient for both those whose need was greatest and those whose need was less.  It was sufficient but there was no excess or lack.  The word of God is like that.  When we gather it there is neither excess nor lack.  It is sufficient for our needs and for the needs of our families.  

“And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.  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.”  The children of Israel were to eat what they gathered each day.  They were not to leave and store it up for the next day.  The word of God is like that also.  We are to apply what we study each day.  We should not think that because I studied a lot yesterday that I will not have to study for a few days.  The Lord taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread…”  We need both natural and spiritual food each day that we live.  Would we eat a large meal on Monday and expect that we would not have to eat again until the next Monday?  Likewise, we need a spiritual meal each day and we should be gathering each day and not thinking we can gather more than we need today and save it up for days and weeks to come.   

Moses was wrought with the children of Israel who did not eat all that they gathered.  The reason he was wrought was because they were not following the instructions given unto them by the LORD.  This teaches us that God is not pleased when we fail to follow his instructions.   

“And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.”  The LORD provided for their daily needs and they were to look for his provision each day.  What they did not gather was not going to stick around as it melted.  The next day they would have to go out once again and gather and be dependent upon the LORD to once again provide for their daily needs.  Likewise, spiritually we are to be dependent upon the Lord to provide for our daily needs.  It is good to develop an attitude of daily dependence upon the Lord.