THE MANNA
Part 13
Exo. 16: 1-5
Morning Meditation 11/14/16
Verses 1-5 say, “And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness: And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, 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. 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. 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.”
The nation of Israel in the wilderness pictures the carnal Christian. The Promised Land is a picture of the life of victory in Christ. Israel’s national salvation from Egyptian bondage, and God’s dealings with them in bringing them into Promised land, is a marvelous picture of the salvation of the individual soul and its struggle toward maturity and victory in Christ. It is also a graphic illustration of the man who has enough faith to get out of Egypt (he is saved through the blood of the Passover Lamb) but not enough faith to get into the Promised Land (enjoying victory in Christ). We might compare Romans 6 to deliverance from Egypt through the Passover, Romans 7 to the wilderness wanderings, and Romans 8 to entering the Land with all its privileges and blessings. Some Bible teachers advocate skipping Romans 7 in your Christian pilgrimage. No, you will go through Romans 7 on your way to Romans 8. But you don’t have to spend forty years there! It is a shame but many Christians never get out of Romans 7, like Israel in the wilderness, they live and die there.
“And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children if Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after departing out of the land of Egypt.” Elim was a good place. It was the place “where were twelve wells of water” and Israel had experienced the need for good water. Now they were being led away from the good water into the desert.. Moses knew they were out of food supplies and he knew there was no visible prospect. So Moses leads the people into the unknown by faith in the power and faithfulness of God. There is a sense in which Moses is living in Canaan while he is in the desert. It makes the desert much more bearable! It takes faith to leave the fresh water of Elim and face the desert with no known place where the next food and water will be found.
Verse 2 says, “And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:” I want you to notice that it says, “And the whole congregation . . .” When you have between two and three million Jews murmuring, you have a lot of noise. I would not want Mose’s job. It takes a special gifted man to fill this place. Numbers 12:3 says, “(Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)” Now when you get into a situation like this, you do one of two things. You either murmur and complain and blame someone else for the problem or trust the Lord and stand back and watch by faith for His next move. God allowed them to be hungry and without water and we are told why.
Israel complains in verse 3 and says, “Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt . . .” They are out of Egypt but Egypt is not out of them. The new believer in Christ has a struggle leaving the old life behind. It is the “old man’s” response to trials.. The new man in Christ will meet the trial by faith and wait on the Lord. You will never train the old man to respond any other way except by sight. The Christian life is a discipline. To walk by faith is to go against everything you learned in the flesh before you were saved. You will have to go against all the advice that you get from the wise of this world. 1 Cor. 1:18-21 says, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe..” Now we can rationalize all we want to about the value of being wise in this world through education. But God gives His opinion here. And I prize His opinion highly!!! Faith burns its bridges and ceases to dream of the past and places its hopes in the future based on the promises of God. For Israel to remember Egypt and complain when they are hungry, is like a young man taking a girl out on a date, and have her talk about some other boy she likes the whole time. It wouldn’t take you long to get enough of that.
What does God do with this hungry multitude? He says, “. . . Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you . . .” This is a miracle that God sustained for forty years. It was His provision that met the daily needs of an entire nation. We can’t store God’s blessing to take care of us at some future time of great need. We must receive from Him daily.
Verse 4 says, “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.” (Caps mine). There is no getting out of Egypt (salvation) without the “proving” on the journey. God is faithful to do what He says. Are we? Will we keep His Word?
The Manna is a type of Christ. When they went out on the first morning to gather God’s supply for the day, they looked at it and said, “What is this?” That is the meaning of the word manna. So if you were to ask any Jew in that day what they were eating, they would have to say, “I don’t know. Well, I know but I don’t know. We have never figured out a name for it, so we just call what we eat ‘what’s it!’” An undefinable and an unexplainable food kept Israel alive and healthy for forth years. Jesus is undefinable and unexplainable and He is truly the Bread which is provided for us today (John 6:48, 55, 57).
They didn’t plant it and didn’t cultivate it. There were no works of their own mixed with the supplying of it. They simply received it as a gift from God. And I must say it was a gift of grace. Because no matter how far Israel missed the will of God, and how awful they treated Him for the next forty years, He never missed a day in giving the manna. He gave two days in one every Friday. Saturday was the Sabbath from 6:00 p.m. on Friday until 6:00 p.m. on Saturday.
If the Lord had not done something like this, it would not have been long before Israel would have begun to believe that the manna was a natural phenomenon and would have taken all the glory away from God for giving it. The manna would not last if they gathered more than necessary for the day. This is brought out in verse 20 where some gathered more than they needed and left it until the next morning “ . . . and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses with wroth with them.” On Friday they gathered for two days, so they would not have to work on the Sabbath and when they gathered two days supply on Friday, verse 24 says, “And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.” So there was a continual miracle of grace for the entire time that Israel was in the wilderness. When they gathered more than they needed on Sunday through Thursday, and did not do away with it that evening, the next morning it was wormy. But on Friday they gathered two days supply and put the extra day’s supply up for the next day, and when they got up the next morning, there was no manna to be found anywhere on the desert ground, and the days supply that they gathered for the Sabbath had no worms in it. God did not let it spoil. It was a continuing miracle for forty years.
The manna was a type of Christ, and His sustaining grace in our earthly pilgrimage, even as carnal Christians. I will have more to say about this in our next meditation.
May the Lord bless these words to our hearts.
In Christ
Bro. White
