They took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to 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.
Parallel Translations
-
They took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to 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 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 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.
Cross-references (3)
Passages linked to Exodus 16:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Numbers 33:10-12 They traveled from Elim, and encamped by the Red Sea. They traveled from the Red Sea, and encamped in the wilderness of Sin. They traveled from the wilderness of Sin, and encamped in Dophkah.
- Exodus 15:27 They came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water, and seventy palm trees. They encamped there by the waters.
- Exodus 17:1 All the congregation of the children of Israel traveled from the wilderness of Sin, starting according to Yahweh’s commandment, and encamped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (24 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain This is the eighth place wherein they had camped,…
This is the eighth place wherein they had camped, there is another place called Zin, which was the 33rd place wherein they camped: and is also called Kadesh, Num. 33:36.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Exo 16:1 And they took their journey from Elim,…
Exo 16:1 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.
Ver. 1. Unto the wilderness of Sin.] So called because it bordered upon the city of Sin, whereof see Eze 30:15-16; Eze 20:35-36. Or, of the many brambles that grew therein.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain They came not immediately
BC 1491
They came not immediately
Read full note →
to the wilderness of Sin; for there is another stage of theirs by the Red Sea, mentioned Num 33:10, (in which chapter Moses designed exactly to set down all their stations,) but omitted here, because nothing remarkable happened in it; and Moses in this place designed to record only the memorable passages. The wilderness of Sin was a great wilderness between the Red Sea and Mount Sinai, but differing from that Zin mentioned Num 20:1.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain The host of Israel, it seems, took along with…
The host of Israel, it seems, took along with them out of Egypt, when they came thence on the fifteenth day of the first month, a month's provisions, which, by the fifteenth day of the second month, was all spent; and here we have,
I. Their discontent and murmuring upon that occasion, Exo 16:2, Exo 16:3. The whole congregation, the greatest part of them, joined in this mutiny; it was not immediately against God that they murmured, but (which was equivalent) against Moses and Aaron, God's viceregents among them. 1. They count upon being killed in the wilderness - nothing less, at the first appearance of disaster. If the Lord had been pleased to kill them, he could easily have done that in the Red Sea; but then he preserved them, and now could as easily provide for them. It argues great distrust of God, and of his power and goodness, in every distress and appearance of danger to despair of life, and to talk of nothing but being speedily killed. 2. They invidiously charge Moses with a design to starve them when he brought them out of Egypt; whereas what he had done was both by order from God and with a design to promote their welfare. Note, It is no new thing for the greatest kindnesses to be misinterpreted and basely represented as the greatest injuries. The worst colours are sometimes put upon the best actions. Nay, 3. They so far undervalue their deliverance that they wish they had died in Egypt, nay, and died by the hand of the Lord too, that is, by some of the plagues which cut off the Egyptians, as if it were not the hand of the Lord, but of Moses only, that brought them into this hungry wilderness. It is common for people to say of that pain, or sickness, or sore, of which they see not the second causes, "It is what pleases God," as if that were not so likewise which comes by the hand of man, or some visible accident. Prodigious madness! They would rather die by the fleshpots of Egypt, where they found themselves with provision, than live under the guidance of the heavenly pillar in a wilderness and be provided for by the hand of God! they pronounce it better to have fallen in the destruction of God's enemies than to bear the fatherly discipline of his children! We cannot suppose that they had any great plenty in Egypt, how largely soever they now talk of the flesh-pots; nor could they fear dying for want in the wilderness, while they had their flocks and herds with them. But discontent magnifies what is past, and vilifies what is present, without regard to truth or reason. None talk more absurdly than murmurers. Their impatience, ingratitude, and distrust of God, were so much the worse in that they had lately received such miraculous favours, and convincing proofs both that God could help them in the greatest exigencies and that really he had mercy in store for them. See how soon they forgot his works, and provoked him at the sea, even at the Red Sea, Psa 106:7-13. Note, Experiences of God's mercies greatly aggravate our distrusts and murmurings.
Read full note →
II. The care God graciously took for their supply. Justly he might have said, "I will rain fire and brimstone upon these murmurers, and consume them;" but, quite contrary, he promises to rain bread upon them. Observe,
1. How God makes known to Moses his kind intentions, that he might not be uneasy at their murmurings, nor be tempted to wish he had let them alone in Egypt. (1.) He takes notice of the people's complaints: I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, Exo 16:12. As a God of pity, he took cognizance of their necessity, which was the occasion of their murmuring; as a just and holy God, he took cognizance of their base and unworthy reflections upon his servant Moses, and was much displeased with them. Note, When we begin to fret and be uneasy, we ought to consider that God hears all our murmurings, though silent, and only the murmurings of the heart. Princes, parents, masters, do not hear all the murmurs of their inferiors against them, and it is well they do not, for perhaps they could not bear it; but God hears, and yet bears. We must not think, because God does not immediately take vengeance on men for their sins, that therefore he does not take notice of them; no, he hears the murmurings of Israel, and is grieved with this generation, and yet continues his care of them, as the tender parent of the froward child. (2.) He promises them a speedy, sufficient, and constant supply, Exo 16:4. Man being made out of the earth, his Maker has wisely ordered him food out of the earth, Psa 104:14. But the people of Israel, typifying the church of the first-born that are written in heaven, and born from above, and being themselves immediately under the direction and government of heaven, receiving their charters, laws, and commissions, from heaven, from heaven also received their food: their law being given by the disposition of angels, they did also eat angels' food. See what God designed in making this provision for them: That I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or no. [1.] Thus he tried whether they would trust him, and walk in the law of faith or no, whether they could live from hand to mouth, and (though now uneasy because their provisions were spent) could rest satisfied with the bread of the day in its day, and depend upon God for fresh supplies tomorrow. [2.] Thus he tried whether they would serve him, and be always faithful to so good a Master, that provided so well for his servants; and hereby he made it appear to all the world, in the issue, what an ungrateful people they were, whom nothing could affect with a sense of obligation. Let favour be shown to them, yet will they not learn righteousness, Isa 26:10.
2. How Moses made known these intentions to Israel, as God ordered him. Here Aaron was his prophet, as he had been to Pharaoh. Moses directed Aaron what to speak to the congregation of Israel (Exo 16:9); and some think that, while Aaron was giving a public summons to the congregation to come near before the Lord, Moses retired to pray, and that the appearance of the glory of the Lord (Exo 16:10) was in answer to his prayer. They are called to come near, as Isa 1:18, Come, and let us reason together. Note, God condescends to give even murmurers a fair hearing; and shall we then despise the cause of our inferiors when they contend with us? Job 31:13. (1.) He convinces them of the evil of their murmurings. They thought they reflected only upon Moses and Aaron, but here they are told that God was struck at through their sides. This is much insisted on (Exo 16:7, Exo 16:8): "Your murmurings are not against us, then we would have been silent, but against the Lord; it was he that led you into these straits, and not we." Note, When we murmur against those who are instruments of any uneasiness to us, whether justly or unjustly, we should do well to consider how much we reflect upon God by it; men are but God's hand. Those that quarrel with the reproofs and convictions of the word, and are angry with their ministers when they are touched in a tender part, know not what they do, for therein they strive with their Maker. Let this for ever stop the mouth of murmuring, that it is daring impiety to murmur at God, because he is God; and gross absurdity to murmur at men, because they are but men. (2.) He assures them of the supply of their wants, that since they had harped upon the flesh-pots so much they should for once have flesh in abundance that evening, and bread the next morning, and so on every day thenceforward, Exo 16:8, Exo 16:12. Many there are of whom we say that they are better fed than taught; but the Israelites were thus fed, that they might be taught. He led him about, he instructed him (Deu 32:10); and, as to this instance, see Deu 8:3, He fed thee with manna, that thou mightest know that man doth not live by bread only. And, besides this, here are two things mentioned, which he intended to teach them by sending them manna: - [1.] By this you shall know that the Lord hath brought you out from the land of Egypt, Exo 16:6. That they were brought out of Egypt was plain enough; but so strangely sottish and short-sighted were they that they said it was Moses that brought them out, Exo 16:3. Now God sent them manna, to prove that it was no less than infinite power and goodness that brought them out, and this could perfect what was begun. If Moses only had brought them out of Egypt, he could not thus have fed them; they must therefore own that that was the Lord's doing, because this was so, and both were marvellous in their eyes; yet, long afterwards, they needed to be told that Moses gave them not this bread from heaven, Joh 6:32. [2.] By this you shall know that I am the Lord your God, Exo 16:12. This gave proof of his power as the Lord, and his particular favour to them as their God. When God plagued the Egyptians, it was to make them know that he was the Lord; when he provided for the Israelites, it was to make them know that he was their God.
3. How God himself manifested his glory, to still the murmurings of the people, and to put a reputation upon Moses and Aaron, Exo 16:10. While Aaron was speaking, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. The cloud itself, one would think, was enough both to strike an awe upon them and to give encouragement to them; yet, in a few days, it had grown so familiar to them that it made no impression upon them, unless it shone with an unusual brightness. Note, What God's ministers say to us is then likely to do us good when the glory of God shines in with it upon our souls.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And they took their journey from Elim,.... And came…
And they took their journey from Elim,.... And came again to the Red sea, as appears from Num 33:10 perhaps to some bay or creek of it, which ran up from it, and lay in their way, and where for a short time they encamped to look at it, and recollect what had been done for them in bringing them through it; but as their stay here was short, and nothing of any importance or consequence happened, it is here omitted, and their next station is only observed:
and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which still bears the same name, as a late traveller (a) informs us, who passed through it, and says, we traversed these plains in nine hours, being all the way diverted with the sight of a variety of lizards and vipers, that are here in great numbers; and elsewhere (b) he says, that vipers, especially in the wilderness of Sin which might very properly be called "the inheritance of dragons", were very dangerous and troublesome, not only our camels, but the Arabs who attended them, running every moment the risk of being bitten. The Red sea, or the bay of it, they came to from Elim, according to Bunting (c) was six miles, and from thence to the wilderness of Sin, sixteen more. This is a different wilderness from that of Zin, which is written with a different letter, Num 20:1 and was on the other side of Mount Sinai, as this was the way to it, as follows:
Read full note →
which is between Elim and Sinai according to the above writer (d), it was twenty miles from Elim the Israelites travelled, and forty more ere they came to Sinai. Dr. Shaw (e) says, after traversing the plains in nine hours, we were near twelve hours in passing the many windings and difficult ways which lie beteen those deserts and these of Sinai; the latter consists of a beautiful plain more than a league in breadth, and nearly three in length:
on the fifteenth day of the second month, after their departing out of the land of Egypt; the month Ijar, as the Targum of Jonathan, which answers to part of April and part of May, and has its name from the beauty of the flowers, which appear at this time of the year: the Israelites were now come from thence a month or thirty days; for they came out the fifteenth of Abib or Nisan, and now it was the fifteenth of Ijar; and as the first day of this month, as Jarchi says, was on the first day of the week, this day must be so likewise; and yet sometimes the Jews say (f) this was a sabbath day.
(a) Shaw, p. 314. (b) lb p. 444. (c) Travels, p. 82. (d) Ib. (e) Travels, p. 314. (f) T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 87. 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain This chapter gives us an account of the victualling…
This chapter gives us an account of the victualling of the camp of Israel.
I. Their complaint for want of bread, ver. 1-3.
Read full note →
II. The notice God gave them of the provision he intended to make for them, ver. 4-12.
III. The sending of the manna, ver. 13-15.
IV. The laws and orders concerning it.
1. That they should gather it daily, ver. 16-21.
2. That they should gather a double portion on the sixth day, ver. 22-26.
3. That they should expect none on the seventh day, ver. 27-31,
4. That they should preserve a pot of it for a memorial, ver 32.
A month's provision, it seems, the host of Israel took with them out of Egypt, when they came thence on the 15th day of the first month, which, by the 15th day of the second month, was all spent.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain The Israelites journey from Elim, and come to the…
CHAPTER XVI
The Israelites journey from Elim, and come to the wilderness of
Read full note →
Sin, 1.
They murmur for lack of bread, 2, 3.
God promises to rain bread from heaven for them, 4,
of which they were to collect a double portion on the sixth day, 5.
A miraculous supply of flesh in the evening and bread in
the morning, promised, 6-9.
The glory of the Lord appears in the cloud, 10.
Flesh and bread promised as a proof of God's care over them, 11, 12.
Quails come and cover the whole camp, 13.
And a dew fell which left a small round substance on the ground,
which Moses tells them was the bread which God had sent, 14, 15.
Directions for gathering it, 16.
The Israelites gather each an omer, 17, 18.
They are directed to leave none of it till the next day, 19;
which some neglecting, it become putrid, 20.
They gather it every morning, because it melted when the sun
waxed hot, 21.
Each person gathers two omers on the sixth day, 22.
Moses commands them to keep the seventh as a Sabbath
to the Lord, 23.
What was laid up for the Sabbath did not putrefy, 24.
Nothing of it fell on that day, hence the strict observance of
the Sabbath was enjoined, 25-30.
The Israelites name the substance that fell with the dew manna;
its appearance and taste described, 31.
An omer of the manna is commanded to be laid up for a memorial of
Jehovah's kindness, 32-34.
The manna now sent continued daily for the space of forty
years, 35.
How much an omer contained, 36.
NOTES ON CHAP. XVI
Verse 1. The wilderness of Sin] This desert lies between Elim and Sinai, and from Elim, Dr. Shaw says, Mount Sinai can be seen distinctly. Mr. Ainsworth supposes that this wilderness had its name from a strong city of Egypt called Sin, near which it lay. See Eze 30:15-16. Before they came to the wilderness of Sin, they had a previous encampment by the Red Sea after they left Elim, of which Moses makes distinct mention Nu 33:10-11.
The fifteenth day of the second month] This was afterwards called Ijar, and they had now left Egypt one month, during which It is probable they lived on the provisions they brought with them from Rameses, though it is possible they might have had a supply from the seacoast. Concerning Mount Sinai, See Clarke on Ex 19:1.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Exo 16:1. Came into the wilderness of Sin —…
Exo 16:1. Came into the wilderness of Sin — Not immediately, for there is another stage of their journey by the Red sea, mentioned Num 33:10, (in which chapter, it appears, Moses designedly set down all their stations,) but omitted here, because nothing remarkable happened in it.
This was a great wilderness between the Red sea and mount Sinai, different and far distant from that Zin mentioned Num 20:1, which was near the land of Edom.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The the wilderness of Sin - The desert tract,…
The the wilderness of Sin - The desert tract, called Debbet er Ramleh, extend nearly across the peninsula from the Wady Nasb in a south-easterly direction, between the limestone district of Et Tih and the granite of Sinai. The journey from the station at Elim, or even from that on the Red Sea, could be performed in a day: at that time the route was kept in good condition by the Egyptians.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Sin, after they had encamped on the Red Sea,…
Sin, after they had encamped on the Red Sea, Numbers xxxiii. 10. The 33d station was also in the desert of Sin, or Cades. But that is far remote from this desert, Numbers xx. 1. (Calmet) --- Month of May, Jiar. Their provisions lasted a whole month. On their failure, they presently have recourse to murmurs.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain THE MURMURING IN THE DESERT OF SIN, Exo_16:1-3.
THE MURMURING IN THE DESERT OF SIN, Exo_16:1-3.
1. The wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai — That is, between them by the route which a caravan of this kind would naturally take, not between them as a bird would fly. If Elim be Gharandel, as we think to be certain, there is no other way for such a host as this to have reached Sinai than by the Wady Taiyebeh, which leads to the seashore and the great maritime plain of el Murkha. See Introduction, (1.) The “wilderness of Sin” seems, then, to be this flat seacoast strip of desert, which, further south, broadens into el Ka’a (or el Ga’ah) stretching down to Ras (Cape) Mohammed. This is a vast, flat waste of sand and black flints, without shade, or water, or life, except in the lower ends of the few wadies which lead up from it into the Sinai mountains, and is, perhaps, the most desolate tract in all Arabia. How natural that in this thirsty, featureless wilderness they should remember all the good things of the fat Nile-land whose far-off mountains they had seen so clearly as they descended into the plain, and probably now saw dimly sketched against the western horizon. Probably they brought water upon their cattle and in their wagons from the Wady Taiyebeh, and encamped at the mouths of several wadies which led down into the plain.
Read full note →
All the congregation — Implying a rallying of all the scattered parties from the slopes and valleys of Mount Hammam into the plain, in order to make a “new departure,” and turn into the mountains of Sinai. Fifteenth day of the second month of the year of the Exode; just a month after they left Rameses.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1. the congregation] P’s standing expression (Exo_12:3). So v.…
1. the congregation] P’s standing expression (Exo_12:3). So v. 2 &c.
the wilderness of Sin] Exo_17:1, Num_33:11-12†. In Num_33:10 the people are said to have halted, between Elim and the wilderness of Sin, at the Red Sea. Accepting the oasis in W. Gharandel as Elim (on Exo_15:27), the ‘Red Sea’ station can hardly have been anywhere but at or near the mouth of Wâdy Ṭaiyibeh,—perhaps in the littoral plain of el-Murkheiyeh, just beyond it. There is no passage along the coast from W. Gharandel to W. Ṭaiyibeh, the abrupt projecting cliffs of the lofty Jebel Ḥammam Far‘un (‘Mountain of Pharaoh’s Bath,’—1570 feet) effectually stopping it: the Israelites, if they came in this direction, must have retraced their steps up the W. Gharandel to the point where (see on Exo_15:26) W. Hawwârah enters it (Ordn. Surv. 75, 76), and then have turned to the right for 12 miles over the desert uplands at the back of J. Ḥammam Far‘un, till they arrived at the top of W. Shebeikeh (the ‘Wâdy of network’), by which they could descend, ‘through an amazing labyrinth of chalky hillocks and ridges,’ to the head of W. Ṭaiyibeh, and so pass straight down to the coast—in all 21 miles (O.S. 156). In W. Ṭaiyibeh, a little above its mouth, there are a few brackish springs, with some stunted palms growing near them (O.S. 81).
Read full note →
From the mouth of W. Ṭaiyibeh there are two principal routes to Jebel Serbâl and Jebel Mûsâ—one, the northern route, back up to the head of W. Ṭaiyibeh again (4 miles), then to the right along the W. Ḥamr (18 miles), to the long upland plain called Debbet er-Ramleh (the ‘Plain of sand’), and thence through a succession of mountain valleys to either J. Mûsâ or J. Serbâl; the other, the coast route, on to the broad flinty plain of el-Markhâ, and then, either leaving this plain on the E., up the Seiḥ Sidreh, and afterwards along the W. Mukatteb into the Wâdy Feiran, or else keeping along the coast for 7 miles beyond the SE. end of el-Markhâ, and there ascending the W. Feiran from its mouth,—in either case, the W. Feiran leading on to both Serbâl and J. Mûsâ. Knob., followed by Keil and Canon Cook, advocated the former of these routes, supposing the ‘wilderness of Sin’ to be the Debbet er-Ramleh. But, if the Israelites were already on the ‘Red Sea’ (Num_33:10), at the mouth of W. Ṭaiyibeh or beyond, the latter is much the more natural route for them to have followed (so Rob. i. 73, 120; and the members of the Ordnance Survey Expedition): in this case el-Markhâ will be the wilderness of Sin. But it must be admitted that neither Debbet er-Ramleh nor el-Markhâ is at all naturally described, as a glance at the map will shew, as ‘between’ Elim and Sinai, at least if Elim be in the W. Gharandel.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) They took their journey from Elim. The stay…
XVI.
THE JOURNEY FROM ELIM.—THE MANNA GIVEN.
Read full note →
(1) They took their journey from Elim. The stay at Elim was probably for some days. “Sin” was reached exactly one month after the departure from Egypt, yet there had been only five camping-places between Sin and Rameses, and one journey of three days through a wilderness (Exo_15:22). Long rests are thus clearly indicated, and probably occurred at Ayun Musa, at Marah, and at Elim. The places named were the head-quarters of the camp on each occasion, but the entire host must have always covered a vast tract, and the flocks and herds must have been driven into all the neighbouring valleys where there was pasture. Wadys Useit, Ethal, and Tayibeh are likely to have been occupied at the same time with Wady Ghurundel.
All the congregation . . . came unto the wilderness of Sin.—“All the congregation” could only be united in certain favourable positions, where there happened to be a large open space. Such an open space is offered by the tract now called El Markha, which extends from north to south a distance of twenty miles, and is from three to four miles wide in its more northern half. To reach this tract, the Israelites must have descended by Wady Useit or Wady Tayibeh to the coast near Ras Abu Zenimeh, and have then continued along the coast until they crossed the twenty-ninth parallel. This line of march is indicated in Num_33:10-11, where we are told that “they removed from Elim, and encamped by the Red Sea; and they removed from the Red Sea, and encamped in the wilderness of Sin.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain Exodus 16
Exodus 16
"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 departure out of the land of Egypt." (Chap. 16: 1) Here we find Israel in a very marked and interesting position. It is still the wilderness, no doubt, but it is a most important and significant stage thereof, namely, "between Elim and Sinai." The former was the place where they had so recently experienced the refreshing springs of divine ministry; the latter was the place where they entirely got off the ground of free and sovereign grace, and placed themselves under a covenant of works. These facts render "the wilderness of Sin" a singularly interesting portion of Israel’s journey. Its features and influences are as strongly marked as those of any point in their whole career. They are here seen as the subjects of the same grace which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, and, therefore, all their murmurings are instantly met by divine supplies. When God acts in the display of His grace, there is no hindrance. The streams of blessing which emanate from Him, flow onward without interruption. It is only when man puts himself under law that he forfeits everything; for then God must allow him to prove how much he can claim on the ground of his own works.
Read full note →
When God visited and redeemed His people, and brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, it assuredly was not for the purpose of suffering them to die of hunger and thirst in the wilderness. They should have known this. They ought to have trusted Him, and walked in the confidence of that love which had so gloriously delivered them from the horrors of Egyptian bondage. They should have remembered that it was infinitely better to be in the desert with God, than in the brick-kilns with Pharaoh. But no; the human heart finds it immensely difficult to give God credit for pure and perfect love. It has far more confidence in Satan than God. Look, for a moment, at all the sorrow and suffering, the misery and degradation which man has endured by reason of his having hearkened to the voice of Satan, and yet he never gives utterance to a word of complaint of his service, or of desire to escape from under his hand. He is not discontented with Satan, or weary of serving him. Again and again, he reaps bitter fruits in those fields which Satan has thrown open to him; and yet, again and again, he may be seen sowing the self-same seed, and undergoing the self-same labours.
How different it is in reference to God! When we have set out to walk in His ways, we are ready, at the earliest appearance of pressure or trial, to murmur and rebel. Indeed, there is nothing in which we so signally fail as in the cultivation of a confiding and thankful spirit. Ten thousand mercies are forgotten in the presence of one single trying privation. We have been frankly forgiven all our sins, "accepted in the Beloved," made heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, the expectants of eternal glory; and, in addition to all, our path through the desert is strewed with countless mercies; and yet let but a cloud, the size of a man’s hand, appear on the horizon, and we at once forget the rich mercies of the past in view of this single cloud, which, after all, may only "break in blessings on our head." The thought of this should humble us deeply in the presence of God. How unlike we are in this, as in every other respect, to our blessed Exemplar! Look at Him - the true Israel in the wilderness - surrounded by wild beasts, and fasting for forty days. How did He carry Himself? Did He murmur? Did He complain of His lot? Did He wish Himself in other circumstances? Ah! no. God was the portion of His cup and the lot of His inheritance. (Ps. 16) And, therefore, when the tempter approached and offered Him the necessaries, the glories, the distinctions, and the honours of this life, He refused them all, and tenaciously held fast the position of absolute dependence upon God and implicit obedience to His word. He would only take bread from God and glory from Him likewise.
Very different was it with Israel after the flesh ! No sooner did they feel the pressure of hunger than "they murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness." They seemed to have actually lost the sense of having been delivered by the hand of Jehovah, for they said, "Ye have brought us forth into this wilderness." And, again, in Ex. 17, "the people murmured against Moses and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt to kill us, and our children, and our cattle with thirst?" Thus did they, on every occasion, evince a fretful, murmuring spirit, and prove how little they realised the presence and the hand of their Almighty and infinitely gracious Deliverer.
Now, nothing is more dishonouring to God than the manifestation of a complaining spirit on the part of those that belong to Him. The apostle gives it as a special mark of Gentile corruption that, "when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful." Then follows the practical result of this unthankful spirit. "They became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." (Rom. 1: 2) The heart that ceases to retain a thankful sense of God’s goodness will speedily become "dark." Thus Israel lost the sense of being in God a hands; and this led, as might be expected, to still thicker darkness, for we find them, further on in their history, saying, "Wherefore hath the Lord brought us into this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children shall be a prey?" (Num. 14: 3) Such is the line along which a soul out of communion will travel. It first loses the sense of being in God’s hands for good, and, finally, begins to deem itself in His hands for evil.
Melancholy progress this! However, the people being so far the subjects of grace, are provided for; and our chapter furnishes the marvellous account of this provision. "Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you." They, when enveloped in the chilling cloud of their unbelief, had said, "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." But now the word is, "bread from heaven." Blessed contrast! How amazing the difference between the Flesh-pots, the leeks, onions, and garlic of Egypt, and this heavenly manna - "angels’ food!" The former belonged to earth, the latter to heaven.
But, then, this heavenly food was, of necessity, a test of Israel’s condition, as we read, "That I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or no." It needed a heart weaned from Egypt’s influences, to be satisfied with, or enjoy "bread from heaven." In point of fact, we know that the people were not satisfied with it, but despised it, pronounced it "light food," and lusted for flesh. Thus they proved how little their hearts were delivered from Egypt, or disposed to walk in God’s law. "In their hearts they turned back again into Egypt." (Acts 7: 39) But, instead of getting back thither, they were, ultimately, carried away beyond Babylon. (Acts 7: 43) This is a solemn and salutary lesson for Christians. If those who are redeemed from this present world, do not walk with God in thankfulness of heart, satisfied with His provision for the redeemed in the wilderness, they are in danger of falling into the snare of Babylonish influence. This is a serious consideration. It demands a heavenly taste to feed on bread from heaven. Nature cannot relish such food. It will ever yearn after Egypt, and, therefore, it must be kept down. It is our privilege, as those who have been baptised into Christ’s death, and "risen again through the faith of the operation of God," to feed upon Christ as "the bread of life which came down from heaven." This is our wilderness food - Christ as ministered by the Holy Ghost, through the written word; while, for our spiritual refreshment, the Holy Ghost has come down, as the precious fruit of the smitten Rock - Christ, as smitten for us. Such is our rare portion, in this desert world.
Now, it is obvious that, in order to enjoy such a portion as this, our hearts must be weaned from everything in this present evil world - from all that would address itself to us as natural men - as men alive in the flesh. A worldly heart - a carnal mind, would neither find Christ in the Word, nor enjoy Elim if found. The manna was so pure and delicate that it could not bear contact with earth. It fell upon the dew, (see Num. 11: 9) and had to be gathered ere the sun was up. Each one, therefore, had to rise early and seek his daily portion. So it is with the people of God now. The heavenly manna must be gathered fresh every morning. Yesterdays manna will not do for today, nor today’s for tomorrow. We must feed upon Christ every day, with fresh energy of the Spirit, else we shall cease to grow. Moreover, we must make Christ our primary object. We must seek Him "early," before "other things" have had time to take possession of our poor susceptible hearts. Many of us, alas! fail in this. We give Christ a secondary place, and the consequence is, we are left feeble and barren. The enemy, ever watchful, takes advantage of our excessive spiritual indolence to rob us of the blessedness and strength which flow from feeding upon Christ. The new life in the believer can only be nourished and sustained by Christ. "As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me." (John 6: 57)
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the One who came down from heaven, to be His people’s food is ineffably precious to the renewed soul; but, in order to enjoy Him thus, we need to realise ourselves, as in the wilderness, separated to God, in the power of accomplished redemption. If I am walking with God through the desert, I shall be satisfied with the food which He provides, and that is, Christ as come down from heaven. "The old corn of the land of Canaan" has its antitype in Christ ascended up on high, and seated in the glory. As such, He is the proper food of those who by faith, know themselves as raised up together and seated together with Him in the heavenlies. But the manna, that is, Christ as come down from heaven, is for the people of God, in their wilderness life and experience. As a people journeying down here, we need a Christ who also journeyed down here; as a people seated in spirit up there, we have a Christ who is seated up there. This may help to explain the difference between the manna and the old corn of the land. It is not a question of redemption; that we have in the blood of the cross, and there alone. It is simply the provision which God has made for His people, according to their varied attitudes, whether as actually toiling in the desert, or in spirit taking possession of the heavenly inheritance.
What a striking picture is presented by Israel in the wilderness! Egypt was behind them, Canaan before them, and the sand of the desert around them; while they themselves were called to look up to heaven for their daily supply. The wilderness afforded not one blade of grass nor one drop of water for the Israel of God. In Jehovah alone was their portion. Most touching illustration of God’s pilgrim people in this wilderness world! They have nothing here. Their life, being heavenly, can only be sustained by heavenly things. Though in the world, they are not of it, for Christ has chosen them out of it. As a heaven-born people, they are on their way to their birth-place, and sustained by food sent from thence. Theirs is an upward and an onward course. The glory leads only thus. It is utterly vain to cast the eye backward in the direction of Egypt; not a ray of the glory can there be discerned. "They looked toward the wilderness, and behold the glory of the Lord appeared in the clouds." Jehovah’s chariot was in the wilderness, and all who desired companionship with Him should be there likewise; and, if there, the heavenly manna should be their food, and that alone.
True, this manna was strange sustenance, such as an Egyptian could never understand, appreciate, or live upon; but those who had been "baptised in the cloud and in the sea," could, if walking in consistency with that significant baptism, enjoy and be nourished by it. Thus is it now in the case of the true believer. The worldling cannot understand how he lives. Both his life and that which sustains it lie entirely beyond the range of nature’s keenest vision. Christ is his life, and on Christ he lives. He feeds, by faith, upon the powerful attractions of one who, though being "God over all, blessed for ever," "took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." (Phil. 2: 7) He traces Him from the bosom of the Father to the cross, and from the cross to the throne, and finds Him, in every stage of His journey, and in every attitude of His life, to be most precious food for his new man. All around, though, in fact, Egypt, is morally a waste howling wilderness, affording nothing for the renewed mind; and, just in proportion as the Christian finds any material to feed upon, must his spiritual man be hindered in his progress. The only provision which God has made is the heavenly manna, and on this the true believer should ever feed.
It is truly deplorable to find Christians seeking after the things of this world. It proves, very distinctly, that they are "loathing" the heavenly manna, and esteeming it "light food." They are ministering to that which they ought to mortify. The activities of the new life will ever show themselves in connection with the subjugation of "the old man with his deeds;" and the more that is accomplished, the more will we desire to feed upon the "bread which strengthens man’s heart." As in nature, the more we exercise, the better the appetite, so in grace, the more our renewed faculties are called into play, the more we feel the need of feeding, each day, upon Christ. It is one thing to know that we have life in Christ, together with full forgiveness and acceptance before God, and it is quite another to be in habitual communion with Him - feeding upon Him by faith - making Him the exclusive food of our souls. Very many profess to have found pardon and peace in Jesus, who, in reality, are feeding upon a variety of things which have no connection with Him. They feed their minds with the newspapers and the varied frivolous and vapid literature of the day. Will they find Christ there? Is it by such instrumentality that the Holy Ghost ministers Christ to the soul? Are these the pure dew-drops on which the heavenly manna descends for the sustenance of God’s redeemed in the desert? Alas! no; they are the gross materials in which the carnal mind delights. How then can a true Christian live upon such? We know, by the teaching of God’s word, that he carries about with him two natures; and it may be asked, Which of the two is it that feeds upon the world’s news and the world’s literature? Is it the old or the new? There can be but the one reply. Well, then, which of the two am I desirous of cherishing? Assuredly my conduct will afford the truest answer to this enquiry. If I sincerely desire to grow in the divine Life - if my one grand object is to be assimilated and devoted to Christ - if I am earnestly breathing after an extension of God’s kingdom within, I shall, without doubt, seek continually that character of nourishment which is designed of God to promote my spiritual growth. This is plain. A man’s acts are always the truest index of his desires and purposes. Hence, if I find a professing Christian neglecting his Bible, yet finding abundance of time - yea, some of his choicest hours - for the newspaper, I can be at no loss to decide as to the true condition of his soul. I am sure he cannot be spiritual - cannot be feeding upon, living for, or witnessing to, Christ.
If an Israelite neglected to gather, in the freshness of the morning hour, his daily portion of the divinely appointed food, he would speedily have become lacking in strength for his journey. Thus is it with us. We must make Christ the paramount object of our souls’ pursuit, else our spiritual life will inevitably decline. We cannot even feed upon feelings and experiences connected with Christ, for they, inasmuch as they are fluctuating, cannot form our spiritual nourishment. It was Christ yesterday, and it must be Christ today, and Christ for ever. Moreover, it will not do to feed partly on Christ and partly on other things. As, in the matter of life, it is Christ alone; so, in the matter of living, it must be Christ alone. As we cannot mingle anything with that which imparts life; so neither can we mingle anything with that which sustains it.
It is quite true that, in spirit, and by faith, we can, even now, feed upon a risen and gloried Christ, ascended up to heaven in virtue of accomplished redemption, as prefigured by "the old corn of the land." (See Joshua 5) And not only so, but we know that when God’s redeemed shall have entered upon those fields of glory, rest, and immortality, which lie beyond the Jordan, they shall, in actual fact, be done with wilderness food; but they will not be done with Christ. nor with the remembrance of that which constitutes the specific nourishment of their desert life.
Israel were never to forget, amid the milk and honey of the land of Canaan, that which had sustained them during their forty years’ sojourn in the wilderness. "This is the thing which the Lord commandeth, Fill an omer of is 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 land of Egypt..... As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the testimony, to be kept." (Ver. 32) Most precious memorial of the faithfulness of God! He did not suffer them to die of hunger, as their foolish hearts had unbelievingly anticipated. He rained bread from heaven for them, fed them with angels’ food, watched over them with all the tenderness of a nurse, bore with them, carried them on eagles’ wings; and, had they only continued on the proper ground of grace, He would have put them in eternal possession of all the promises made to their fathers. The pot of manna, therefore, containing, as it did, a man’s daily portion, and laid up before the Lord, furnishes a volume of truth. There was no worm therein nor ought of taint. It was the record of Jehovah’s faithfulness, in providing for those whom He had redeemed out of the hand of the enemy.
Not so, however, when man hoarded it up for himself. Then the symptoms of corruptibility soon made their appearance. We cannot, if entering into the truth and reality of our position, hoard up. It is our privilege, day by day, to enter into the preciousness of Christ, as the One who came down from heaven to give life unto the world. But if any, in forgetfulness of this, should be found hoarding up for tomorrow, that is, laying up truth beyond his present need, instead of turning it to profit in the way of renewing strength it will surely become corrupt. This is a salutary lesson for us. It is a deeply solemn thing to learn truth; for there is not a principle which we profess to have learnt which we shall not have to prove practically. God will not have us theorists. One often trembles to hear persons make high professions and use expressions of intense devotedness, whether, in prayer or otherwise, lest. when the hour of trial comes, there may not be the needed spiritual power to carry out what the lips have uttered.
There is a great danger of the intellect’s outstripping the conscience and the affections. Hence it is that so many seem, at first, to make such rapid progress up to a certain point; but there they stop short and appear to retrograde. Like an Israelite gathering up more manna than he required for one day’s food. He might appear to be accumulating the heavenly food far more diligently than others; yet every particle beyond the day’s supply was not only useless, but far worse than useless, inasmuch as it "bred worms." Thus is it with the Christian. He must use what he gets. He must feed upon Christ as a matter of actual need, and the need is brought out in actual service. The character and ways of God, the preciousness and beauty of Christ, and the living depths of the Word are only unfolded to faith and need. It is as we use what we receive that more will be given. The path of the believer is to be a practical one; and here it is that so many of us come short. It will often be found that those who get on most rapidly in theory are the slowest in the practical and experimental elements, because it is word a work of intellect than of heart and conscience. We should ever remember that Christianity is not a set of opinions, a system of dogmas, or a number of views. It is pre-eminently a living reality - a personal, practical, powerful thing, telling itself out in all the scenes and circumstances of daily life, shedding its hallowed influence over the entire character and course, and imparting its heavenly tone to every relationship which one may be called of God to fill. In a word, it is that which flows from being associated and occupied with Christ. This is Christianity. There may be clear views, correct notions. sound principles, without any fellowship with Jesus; but an orthodox creed without Christ will prove a cold, barren, dead thing.
Christian reader, see carefully to it that you are not only saved by Christ, but also living on Him. Make Him the daily portion of your soul. Seek Him "early," seek Him "only." When anything solicits your attention, ask the question, "Will this bring Christ to my heart! Will it unfold Him to my affections or draw me near to His Person?" If not, reject it at once: yes, reject it, though it present itself under the most specious appearance and with the most commanding authority. If your honest purpose be to get on in the divine life, to progress in spirituality, to cultivate personal acquaintance with Christ, then challenge your heart solemnly and faithfully as to this. Make Christ your habitual food. Go, gather the manna that falls on the dew-drops, and feed upon it with an appetite sharpened by a diligent walk with God through the desert. May the rich grace of God the Holy Ghost abundantly Strengthen you in all this!* {*My reader will find it profitable to turn to John 6, and prayerfully meditate upon it, in connection with the subject of the manna. The Passover being near, Jesus feeds the multitude, and then takes His departure to a mountain, there to be alone. From thence He comes to the relief of His distressed people, tossed upon the troubled waters. After this He unfolds the doctrine of His Person and work, God declares how He was to give His flesh for the life of the world, and that none could have life save by eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Finally, He speaks of Himself as ascending up where He was before and of the quickening power of the Holy Ghost. It is, indeed, a rich and copious chapter, in which the spiritual reader will find a vast fund of truth for the comfort and edification of his soul.}
There is one point more in our chapter which we shall notice, namely the instigation of the Sabbath, in its connection with the manna and Israel’s position, as here set forth. From Genesis 2 down to the chapter now before us, we find no mention made of this institution. This is remarkable. Abel’s sacrifice, Enochs walk with God, Noah’s preaching, Abraham’s call, together with the detailed history of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, are all presented; but there is no allusion to the Sabbath until we find Israel recognised as a people in relationship and consequent responsibility to Jehovah. The Sabbath was interrupted in Eden; and here we find it again instituted for Israel in the wilderness. But alas! man has no heart for Gods rest. And it came to pass that " There went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? 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." (Ver. 27-29) God would have His people enjoying sweet repose with Himself. He would give them rest, food, and refreshment, even in the wilderness. But man’s heart is not disposed to rest with God. The people could remember and speak of the time when they "sat by the flesh pots" in Egypt; but they could not appreciate the blessedness of sitting in their tents, enjoying with God "the rest of the holy Sabbath," feeding upon the heavenly manna.
And, be it remarked, that the Sabbath is here presented as a matter of gift. "The Lord hath given you the Sabbath." Further on, in this book, we shall find it put in the form of a law, with a curse and a judgement attached to it, in the case of disobedience; but whether fallen man gets a privilege or a law, a blessing or a curse, it is all alike. His nature is bad. He can neither rest with, nor work for, God, If God works and makes a rest for him, he will not keep it; and if God tells him to work, he will not do it. Such is man. He has no heart for God. He can make use of the name of the Sabbath as a something to exalt himself, or as the badge of his own religiousness; but when we turn to Exodus 16 we find that he cannot prize God’s Sabbath as a gift; and when we turn to Numbers 15: 32-38, we find he cannot keep it as a Law.
Now, we know that the Sabbath, as well as the manna, was a type. In itself, it was a real blessing-a sweet mercy from the hand of a loving and gracious God, who would relieve the toil and travail of a sin stricken earth by the refreshment of one day of rest out of the seven. Whatever way we look at the institution of the Sabbath, we must see it to be pregnant with richest mercy, whether we view it in reference to man or to the animal creation. And, albeit, that Christians observe the first day of the week - the Lord’s day, and attach to it its proper principles, yet is the gracious providence equally observable, nor would any mind at all governed by right feelings, seek, for a moment, to interfere with such a signal mercy. "The Sabbath was made for man;" and although man never has kept it, according to the divine thought about it, that does not detract from the grace which shines in the appointment of it, nor divest it of its deep significancy as a type of that eternal rest which remains for the people of God, or as a shadow of that substance which faith now enjoys in the Person and work of a risen Christ.
Let not the reader, therefore, suppose that in anything which has been, or may be, stated, in these pages, the object is to touch, in the slightest degree, the merciful provision of one day’s rest for man and the animal creation, much less to interfere with the distinct place which the Lord’s day occupies in the New Testament. Nothing is further from the writer’s thoughts. As a man he values the former, and as a Christian he rejoices in the latter, far too deeply to admit of his penning or uttering a single syllable which would interfere with either the one or the other. He would only ask the reader to weigh, with a dispassionate mind, in the balance of Holy Scripture, every line and every statement, and not form any harsh judgement beforehand.
This subject will come before us again, in our further meditations, if the Lord will. May we learn to value more the rest which our God has provided for us in Christ, and while enjoying Him as our rest, may we feed upon Him as the "hidden manna," laid up, in the power of resurrection, in the inner sanctuary - the record of what God has accomplished, on our behalf, by coming down into this world, in His infinite grace, in order that we might be before Him, according to the perfectness of Christ, and feed on His unsearchable riches for ever.
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 1-3. THE FIRST MURMURING FOR FOOD. From Elim,…
Vers. 1-3. THE FIRST MURMURING FOR FOOD. From Elim, or the fertile tract extending from Wady Ghurnndel to Wady Tayibeh, the Israelites, after a time, removed, and ca-camped (as we learn from (Num_33:10) by the Red Sea, probably along the narrow coast tract 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 favour of El Markha are:
1. 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;
Read full note →
2. The descent of the quails, who, wearied with a long flight over the RedSea, would naturally settle as soon as they reached the shore;
3. The greater openness and facility of the El Markha and Wady Feiran route, which is admitted by all; and
4. The suitability of the latter to the particulars of the narrative in ch. 18.
In favour of the route by the Debbet-er-Ramleh are,
1. The fact that it is better watered at present than the other;
2. Its being somewhat less removed from the direct line between Wady Ghurundel and Sinai than El Markha; and
3. A certain correspondency of sound or meaning between some of the present geographical names along this route and those of the Mosaic narrative. In "the wilderness of Sin" the Israelites for the first time found themselves in want of sufficient nourishment. They hall consumed the grain which they had brought with them out of Egypt; and though no doubt they had still considerable flocks and herds, yet they were unaccustomed to a mere milk and flesh diet, having in Egypt lived principally upon bread (ver. 3), fish, (Num_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" (ver. 9) patiently, and relieved them.
They journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation came. It has been noted (Cook) that the form of expression 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. Between Elim and Sinai. This expression must be regarded as vague to some extent. On the direct line, as the crow flies, there is no "wilderness" (midbar) between Wady Ghurundel and Sinai. All is mountain and valley. All that the writer means is that "the wilderness of Sin" lay upon the ordinary, or at any rate an ordinary route between Elim and the great mountain. This is equally true of El Markha and the Debbet-er-Ramleh. On the fifteenth day of the second monthi.e. , on the 15th of Zif, exactly one month after their departure from Egypt. As only seven camping places are mentioned, (Num_33:5-11) and one journey of three days through a wilderness, (Exo_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.
Vers. 1-3. The unreasonableness of discontent.
The people of Israel experience now the second trial that has come upon them since the passage of the Red Sea. First, they had nothing which they could drink; (Exo_15:24) now they are afraid that they will soon have nothing to eat. They have consumed their dough, (Exo_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 Egypt. So the Israelites, one and all, begin to despair and murmur. How irrational their conduct! The unreasonableness of discontent is shown
I IN DISTRUSTING GOD"S POWER OF DELIVERANCE, WHEN WE HAVE SEEN FREQUENT INSTANCES OF IT. The Israelites had been brought out of Egypt "by a mighty hand delivered through means of a series of wonderful miracles. They had escaped the pursuit of Pharaoh by having a path made for them through the waters of the Red Sea. They had 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.
II IN CONTRASTING ALL THE DISADVANTAGES OF OUR PRESENT 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 Egypt, and eating bread to the full. They 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 Egypt the consciousness of freedom, 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.
III IN ITS VENTING ITSELF TOO OFTEN ON THE WRONG PERSON. 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 Red Sea," and that desolate part of it called "the wilderness of Sin." Moses and Aaron were but his mouthpieces. Yet the Israelites murmured against them. Truly did Moses respond are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD." 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 burthen, or to give us strength to bear it, We should place all in his hands.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR Vers. 1-4. Murmurings.
In the "Wilderness of Sin," between Elim and Sinai, on the 15th day of the second month after the departing of Israel out of Egypt (ver. 1). One short month, but how much can be forgotten even in so brief a space of time! (cf. Exo_32:1) Egypt now lay at a little distance. The supplies of the Israelites were failing them. God lets the barrel of meal and the cruse of oil run out, (1Ki_17:12) before interposing with his help. Thus he tries what manner of spirit we are of. Our extremity is his opportunity. Consider here
I THE PEOPLE"S MURMURINGS (ver. 2). These are brought into strong relief in the course of the narrative. "The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured" (ver. 2). "He heareth your murmurings against the Lord, and what are we that ye murmur against us?" (ver. 7). "The Lord heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him, and what are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord" (ver. 8). "He hath heard your murmurings" (ver. 9). "I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel" (ver. 12).
1. They murmured, and did not pray. They seem to have left that to Moses. (Exo_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 Exo_14:10. 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" (ver. 3). We who blame them, however, have only to observe our own hearts to see how often we are in the same condemnation. (See Hamilton"s "Moses," Lect. 14. It is 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 Israel prayed more, relief might have come sooner.
2. Their behaviour affords some interesting illustrations of what the murmuring spirit is. Distinguish this spirit from states of mind which bear a superficial resemblance to it.
(1) 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". (Psa_39:9) Yet listen to this same David"s lamentations over Absalom. (2Sa_18:19) 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.
(2) 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 Exo_5:22, Exo_5:23; or of Job, in several of his speeches; (Job_7:11-21 Job_10:1-22, etc.) or of Jeremiah. (Jer_4:10 Jer_20:7) As Augustine says of Moses, "These are not words of contumacy or indignation, but of inquiry and prayer.
3. Even from the desperate speeches of good men, temporarily carriedbeyond bounds by their sorrow. Job enters this plea for himself 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?
(1) 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. (Mat_4:1-4; cf. Deu_8:3)
(2) Connected with this, there is forgetfulness of, and ingratitude for, benefits formerly received. This is very conspicuous in the case of these Israelites (ver. 3).
(3) 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 labours hard to make out a case of ill treatment. Its tone is complaining. It would arraign the Eternal at its puny bar, and convict him of injustice. It is narrow, self-pitying, egoistic.
(4) 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. (Job_1:22)
(5) It is prone to exaggeration. The Israelites can hardly have been as well off in Egypt as they here pretend, though their words (ver. 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.
(6) 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 (ver. 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 Providence. The 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 but be they who they may, if the spirit be bitter and rebellious, it is God, not they, whom we are contending against. (cf. Gen_50:19, Gen_50:20; 2Sa_17:10)
II GOD"S SURPRISING TREATMENT OF THESE MURMURINGS (ver. 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 of them also murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer". (1Co_10:10) The appearance of the glory in the cloud warned and abashed, but did not injure them (ver. 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 (vers. 7, 8). But,
1. 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. (Mat_15:32)
1. 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; (cf. Num_21:5) but in the preliminary stages of this wilderness education, God made large and merciful allowances for them. Neither here, nor at the Red Sea, nor later, at Rephidim, when they 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 "a hard master." Instead of sternly punishing their murmurings, he took their need as a starting-point, and sought to educate them out of the murmuring disposition.
2. He purposed to prove them. He would fully supply their wants, and sogive 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 (ver. 28). J.O.
Manna for the soul; a homily on grace.
am the living bread he shall live for ever." Joh_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 kingdom of God"s grace. These 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 Joh 6 Avoid small typologies small every waye.g. , that the roundness of the manna stands for Christ"s eternity; its whiteness for his purity; its sweetness for the preciousness of Christ. When men would estimate the majesty of a mountain they play not with the pebbles at its feet.
I THE OBJECT OF GOD IN THE GIFT OF THE HEAVENLY MANNA. Why Christ? Long before Israel cried, the Father saw the 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 describe; but there is something higher in man the spiritual not only a yuch, but a pneuma for which provision must be made.
II THE FAMINE OF THE SOUL WITHOUT CHRIST. Very difficult to 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 endeavour 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!
III THE SUPPLY OF THE SOUL WITH CHRIST. Having seen what the world would be without Christ, see positively what Christ is to the world. The understanding cannot live without objective truth (mere opinion will not suffice); Christ is that truth: nor the heart without a supreme object of love; Christ that object: nor the conscience without authority behind its moral imperative; Christ is that authority: nor the will without a living inward abiding power; and Christ is that power. In very real and intelligible sense, Christ is the manna, bread, nutriment, sustenance, vitality, and power of the believing soul.
IV THE FULNESS OF THE SUPPLY..All we need certainly in bread, probably in the manna, assuredly in Christ.
V ITS FREENESS. Men may confuse themselves, and imagine they "get" their own bread. But manna was manifestly the free gift of heaven. So Christ. This the one truth, which it is so difficult for men to receive. See 1Jn_5:11, 1Jn_5:12; Rom_6:23.
VI ITS MYSTERY. The name of the desert provision was "Man-Hu? is it?" Men did not solve the mystery ere they ate. Why shouldmen wait to solve the mystery of Christ"s person, office, etc. etc., ere they eat "the living bread"?
VII ITS NEARNESS. Both the manna and Christ at every man"s tent-door.
VIII ITS APPROPRIATION. Vain that manna for the two millions, if no man went out to gather; so vain the all-sufficiency of Christ, if no man "comes," "believes," appropriates. Joh_6:35, Joh_6:37, Joh_6:40, Joh_6:47, Joh_6:57.
IX ITS EVERY-DAYNESS. NO man can live upon a past experience of the sufficiency of Christ.
X ITS ORDER. Full and free as the supply of manna was, its appropriation and use were under Divine direction, were according to a certain order. So are there now channels, means, ordinances of grace, which no man can safely neglect.
XI THE AIM IN MAN"S APPROPRIATION. Not self-indulgence; not merely his own growth. No man 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, that we may save. The end of bread is labour.
XII The subject carries our thoughts on to THE HIDDEN MANNA. Rev_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 Joh_6:27. R.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG Vers. 1-15. The provision of the manna.
This chapter contains an account of the first provision of miraculous bread for Israel in the wilderness. We are told very fully the circumstances in 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. (Isa_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 superfluities. Consider
I THE STATE OF MIND AMONG THE ISRAELITES WHICH PRECEDED THIS GIFT. It is important to notice that such an ample, gracious and miraculous gift as Jehovah hero 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 Egypt and it is 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 Egypt? And, letting their minds dwell on these lost delicacies, 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 Israel is here revealed. 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 fulness 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 Egypt with its comforts and delights. 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.
II THE MANNER IN WHICH GOD TREATS THIS STATE OF 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; 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 will rain bread from heaven.
1. 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.
2. 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 Israel at the same time. In eating 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.
III THE EXPOSTULATIONS OF MOSES AND AARON WITH THE PEOPLE (vers. 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 (lid 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 Egypt, the hardships of a life unfamiliar and unprepared for; and Moses could sympathise 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"; (Exo_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." (Luk_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.
IV THE ACTUAL GIVING. Here again we notice the tender and gentle 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 Israel to soothe their murmurings. The flesh of Egypt was the 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 Israel in the wilderness, we should think of 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 Israel much as a toy is bestowed 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. Y.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain The wilderness of Sin.
Exo_16:1-12
The wilderness of Sin.
Read full note →
Moses in the wilderness of Sin
People may be strong and hopeful at the beginning of a project, and most effusively and devoutly thankful at its close, but the difficulty is to go manfully through the process.
I. Processes try mens temper. See how the temper of Israel was tried in the wilderness! No bread, no water, no rest! How do processes try mens temper?
1. They are often tedious.
2. They, are often uncontrollable.
3. They often seem to be made worse by the incompetency of others.
II. The trials of processes are to be met, not all at once, but a day at a time. Daily hunger was met by daily bread. This daffy display of Divine care teaches--
1. That physical as well as spiritual gifts are Gods.
2. That one of Gods gifts is the pledge of another. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Why am I to be easy about to-morrow? Because God is good to-day! He is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.
III. Processes show the different dispositions of men. Though the people were told in the distinctest manner that there would be no manna on the seventh day, yet they went out to gather it just as if they had never been warned! Such men are the vexation of the world. They plague every community of which they are a portion.
1. We have the means of life at our disposal: the manna lies at our tent-door!
2. We are distinctly assured that such means are given under law: there is a set time for the duration of the opportunity: the night cometh!
IV. All the processes of life should be hallowed by religious exercises. There was a Sabbath even in the wilderness.
1. The Sabbath is more than a mere law; it is an expression of mercy.
2. No man ever loses anything by keeping the Sabbath: The Lord giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days.
3. He is the loser who has no day of rest.
V. Processes should leave some tender and hope-inspiring memories behind them. Fill an omer of it to be kept, etc.
VI. The process will end. Are you ready? (J. Parker, D. D.)
The pilgrimage of life
In the anecdote books of our boyhood we used to be told the story of an Indian faquir who entered an Eastern palace and spread his bed in one of its antechambers, pretending that he had mistaken the building for a caravanserai or inn. The prince, amused by the oddity of the circumstance, ordered--so ran the tale--the man to be brought before him, and asked him how he came to make such a mistake. What is an inn? the faquir asked. A place, was the reply, where travellers rest a little while before proceeding on their journey. Who dwelt here before you? again asked the faquir. My father, was the princes reply. And did he remain here? No, was the answer; He died and went away. And who dwelt here before him? His ancestors. And did they remain here? No; they also died and went away. Then, rejoined the faquir, I have made no mistake, for your palace is but an inn after all. The faquir was right, Our houses are but inns, and the whole world a caravanserai. (Clerical Library.)
Bread, the supreme question
During the French Revolution hundreds of market-women, attended by an armed mob of men, went to Versailles to demand bread of the National Assembly, there being great destitution in Paris. They entered the hall. There was a discussion upon the criminal laws going on. A fishwoman cried out, Stop that babbler! That is not the question; the question is about bread. (Littles Historical Lights.)
Murmuring, the result of forgetfulness
What unbelief and sad forgetfulness of God betrayed itself in these words! They quite forgot the bitter bondage of Egypt under which they had sighed and groaned so long. They now thought only of its flesh-pots and its bread. They altogether overlooked the mercy and the grace which had spared them when the firstborn of the Egyptians were slain. The miracles of love at the Red Sea and at Marah, so great and so recent, had passed away from their memories. They thought nothing of the promise of the land flowing with milk and honey. The argument, so evident and so comforting, Can the faithful God who has brought us out of bondage mean to let us perish in the wilderness? did not withhold them from the impatient conclusion, Ye have brought us forth into the wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger. And if you watch your own hearts, you will find that there is always this forgetfulness in a murmuring and discontented spirit. We forget, first, that we deserve nothing but punishment at Gods hands; and, secondly, we forget all the mercy and love which He has shown us in His acts and promises. (G. Wagner.)
Grumbling, an added burden
If I grumble because life is so arranged that I tear my clothes, and get many a scratch in the upward journey, my grumble is only an added burden. The difference between a soul that is soured by unbelief and a soul that honestly struggles and strives as the gymnast does, who tries to lift the heavy weight, knowing that, whether he succeeds or fails, the muscular development, which is the end sought, is still attained, is incalculable. To trudge along the moor after nightfall, then now knee deep, with the feeling that you are going nowhere, is indeed discouraging; but to do the same thing with the feeling that you are going home to the fireside of the loved and expectant, is to keep both feet and hands warm through our power of anticipating the heat and the welcome under the roof tree not far off. Rude, discourteous experience has taught us that an evil which is all an evil is a double evil, and that an evil with a joy behind it or beyond it is the healthy and invigorating toil by means of which a man may acquire a lasting good.
Ingratitude of the public
Daniel Webster, after his wonderful career, and in the close of his life, writes: If I were to live my life over again, with my present experiences, I would under no considerations allow myself to enter public life. The public are ungrateful. The man who serves the public most faithfully receives no adequate reward. In my own history those acts which have been, before God, most disinterested and the least stained by selfish considerations, have been precisely those for which I have been most freely abused. No, no; have nothing to do with politics. Sell your iron, eat the bread of independence, support your family with the rewards of honest toil, do your duty as a private citizen to your country, but let politics alone. It is a hard life, a thankless life. I have had in the course of my political life, which is not a short one, my full share of ingratitude, but the unkindest cut of all, the shaft that has sunk the deepest in my heart, has been the refusal of this administration to grant my request for an office of small pecuniary consideration for my only son. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Ingratitude of grumbling
I heard a good man say once, as we passed the home of a millionaire: It doesnt seem right that such a man as he is should be rolling in wealth, while I have to work hard for my daily bread. I made no reply. But when we reached the home of the grumbler, and a troop of rosy children ran out to meet us, I caught one in my arms, and, holding him up, said: John, how much will you take for this boy? And he answered, while the moisture gathered in his eyes: That boy, my namesake! I wouldnt sell him for his weight in gold. Why, John, he weighs forty pounds at least, and forty pounds of gold would make you many times a millionaire. And you would probably ask as much for each of the others. So, according to your own admission, you are immensely rich. Yes, a great deal richer than that cold, selfish, childless millionaire whom you were envying as we came along. Nothing would tempt you to change places with him. Then you ought to be grateful instead of grumbling. You are the favourite of fortune, or, rather, of Providence, and not he. (H. W. Beecher.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain
CHAPTER XVI.
MURMURING FOR FOOD.
Read full note →
Exo_16:1-14.
The Israelites were now led farther away from all the associations of their accustomed life. From the waters and the palms of Elim they marched deeper into the savage recesses of the desert, haunted by fierce and hostile tribes, such as presently hung upon their rear-guard and cut off their stragglers (Deu_25:18). Nor had they quite emerged from the shadow of their old oppressions, since Egyptian garrisons were scattered, though sparsely, through this district, in which gems and copper were obtained. Here, cut off from all natural modes of sustenance, the hearts of the people failed them. Such is the frequent experience of renewed souls, when privilege and joy are followed by trouble from without or from within, and the peace of God is broken by the strife of tongues, by mental perplexities, by temptations, by physical pain. It is quite as wonderful that paltry disturbances should mar for us the life divine, when once that life has become a realised experience, as that men who moved under the shadow of the marvellous cloud could be agitated by fear for their supplies. And of this our experience, what befel Israel is not a mere type or symbol, it is a case in point, a parallel example. For it also meant the breaking-in of the flesh upon the spirit, the refusal of fallen nature to rise above earthly wants and cravings even in the light of trust and acceptance, the self-assertion of the baser instincts, and the sacrifice to them of the higher life. We recognise the herd of slaves, from whence it must perplex the unbeliever to remember that the seed of immortal heroism and prophetic insight and apostolic service was yet to ripen, in their poor desire, if they must perish, to perish well fed rather than emancipated (Exo_16:3). Most people, we may fear, would choose to live enslaved rather than to die free men. But there is a special meanness in their regret, since die they must, that they had not died satiated, like the firstborn whom God had slain: "Would that we had died by the hand of Jehovah in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots and when we ate bread to the full, for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." And today, among those who scorn them, how many are far less ambitious of dying holy and pure than rich, famous or powerful, having glutted their vanity if not their appetite. In the sight of angels this is not a much loftier aim; and the apostle reckoned among the works of the flesh, emulation as well as drunkenness (Gal_5:19-21).
Tertullian draws a striking contrast between Israel, just now baptized into Moses, but caring more for appetite than for God, and Christ, after His baptism, also in the desert, fasting forty days. "The Lord figuratively retorted upon Israel His reproach" (Baptism, xx.)
We are not to suppose that but for their complaining God would have suffered them to hunger, although Moses declared that the reason why flesh should be given to them in the evening, and in the morning bread to the full, is "for that the Lord heareth your murmurings." But there would have been some difference in the time of the grant, to ripen their faith, some more direct manifestation of His grace, to reward their patience, if unbelief had not precipitated His design. Thus the disciples, when they awakened Jesus in the storm, received the rescue for which they clamoured, but forfeited some higher experience which would have crowned a serener confidence: "Wherefore did ye doubt?" Israel receives what is best in the circumstances, rather than the ideal best, now made unsuitable by their impatience and infidelity. But while the Lord discontinued the test of need and penury, which had proved to be too severe a discipline, He substituted the test of fulness. For we read that the removal of their suspense and anxiety by the gift of manna from heaven was "to prove them whether they will walk in My laws or no" (Exo_16:4). And in so doing it was seen that worldly and unthankful natures are not to be satisfied; that the disloyal at heart will complain, however favoured. For "the children of Israel wept again and said, Who will give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt for nought, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlick: but now our soul is dried away; there is nothing at all: we have nought save this manna to look to" (Num_11:4-6). Onions and garlick were more satisfactory to gross appetites than angels' food.
At this point we learn that what is called prosperity may indeed be a result of spiritual failure; that God may sometimes abstain from strong measures with a soul because what ought to mould would only crush; and may grant them their hearts' lust, yet send leanness withal into their souls. Perhaps we are allowed to be comfortable because we are unfit to be heroic.
And we also learn, when prosperous, to remember that plenty, equally with want, has its moral aspect. The Lord tries fortunate men, whether they will be grateful and obedient, trusting in Him and not in uncertain riches, or whether they will forget Him who has done so great things for them, and so perish in calm weather--
"Like ships that have gone down at sea
When heaven was all tranquillity."
There is an experiment being tried upon the soul, curious, slow, little-suspected, but incessant, in the giving of daily bread.
In promising relief, God required of them obedience and self-control. They were to respect the Sabbath, and make provision in advance for its requirements. And this direction, given before the Mount of the Lord was reached, has an important bearing upon the question whether the Fourth Commandment was the first institution of a holy day--whether, except as a Church ordinance, the duty of sabbath-keeping has no support beyond the ceremonial law. "For that the Lord hath (already) given you the Sabbath, therefore He giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days" (Exo_16:29).
While conveying the promise of relief, Moses and Aaron rebuked the people, whose murmurs against them were in reality murmurs against God, since they were but His agents, and He had been visibly their Leader. And the same rebuke applies, for exactly the same reason, to many a modern complaint against the weather, against what people call their "luck," against a thousand provoking things in which the only possible provocation must come directly from heaven. It is because our religion is so shallow, and our consciousness of God in His world so dim and rudimentary, that we utter such complaints idly, to relieve our feelings, and hear them spoken without a shock.
Such dulness is not to be removed by sounder views of doctrine, but by a more vivid realisation of God. The Israelites knew by what hand they should have fallen if they had died in Egypt; yet in fact they forgot their true Captain, and upbraided their mortal leaders. So do we confess that afflictions arise not out of the ground, yet lose the impress of divinity upon our daily lives, while we ought, like Moses, to "endure as seeing Him who is invisible."
As our Lord was in the habit of asking for some confession, or demanding some small co-operation from those He was about to bless, so the smoking flax of Hebrew faith is tended: it is a promise, and not the actual relief, which calms them. There is a curious difference in the manner of the communications now made to the people. First of all the two brothers unite their energies to hush their outcries: "At evening ye shall know that Jehovah is your leader from Egypt, and in the morning ye shall behold His glory; and what are we, that ye murmur against us?" Then Moses affirms, with all the energy of his chieftainship, that in the evening they shall eat flesh, and in the morning bread to the full. Again he asks them "What are we?" and more sternly and directly charges them with murmuring against Jehovah. And this is a good example of the true meaning of his "meekness." He is fiery enough, but not for his own greatness; rather because he feels his littleness, and that the offence is entirely against God, does he resent their conduct; absence of self-assertion is his "meekness," and thus we read of it when Miriam and Aaron spake against him, declaring that they were commissioned as well as he (Num_12:3). Finally, when order was restored, and some mysterious manifestation was at hand, he resumed the solemn and formal usage of conveying his orders through his brother, and in cold, compact, impressive words, said unto Aaron, "Say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the Lord, for He hath heard your murmurings." All this is very dignified and natural. And so is--what after ages could scarcely have invented--the impressive reticence of what follows. "They looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud."
Were they not then intended to "come near"? and was it as they turned their faces to draw nigh that the Vision revealed itself and stopped them? And what was the untold sight which they beheld? The narrative belongs to a primitive age; it is quite unlike the elaborate symbolisms of Ezekiel and Daniel, or even of Isaiah, but yet this undescribed, mystic and solitary glory is not less sublime than the train which covered the Temple-floor, while, hovering above it, reverent seraphim veiled their faces and their feet, or the terrible crystal and the wheels of dreadful height, or the throne of flame whence issued a fiery stream, and before which thousands of thousands and myriads of myriads stood (Isa_6:2; Eze_1:22, Eze_1:18; Dan_7:9-10). But the point to observe is that it is different, more primitive, an undefined and lonely vision of awe well fitted for the desert wilds and for the gaze of men whose hearts must not be misled by the likeness of anything in heaven or earth; the glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud (most probably, but not of necessity, the cloud which guided them), and in the direction whence they were so fain to turn away.
No later inventor would have known how to say so little, much less to make that little harmonise so exactly with the lessons meant to be suggested by the wild and solemn solitudes into which they were now plunged.
And now the Lord Himself repeats the promise of relief, but first solemnly announces that He is not heedless of their ill-behaviour while He tolerates it. The question is suggested, although not asked, How long will His forbearance last?
Well for them if they learn the lesson, and "know that I am Jehovah your God," mindful of their needs, entitled to their fealty. In the evening, therefore, came a flight of quails; and in the morning they found a small round thing, small as the hoar-frost, upon the ground.
MANNA.
Exo_16:15-36.
The manna which miraculously supplied the wants of Israel was to them an utterly strange food, the use of which they had to learn. Thus it was another means of severing their habitual course of life and association of ideas from their degraded past. And while we may not press too far the assertion that it was the "corn of heaven" and "angels' food" (i.e. "the bread of the mighty"-- Psa_78:24-25, R.V.), yet the narrative shows, even without help from later scriptures, that it was calculated to sustain their energies and yet to leave their appetites unstimulated and unpampered. For they were now called to purer joys than those of the senses--to liberty, a divine vocation, the presence of God, the revelation of His law and the unfolding of His purposes. Failing to rise to these heights, they fell far, murmured again, and perished by the destroyer, not merely to avenge the petulance of an hour, but for all that it betrayed, for treason to their vocation and radical inability to even comprehend its meaning. In the language of modern science, it answered to Nature's rejection of the unfit.
Their calling was thus, though under very different forms, that which the apostles found so hard, yet did not quite refuse: it was to mind the things of God and not the things of men.
It is well known that the manna of the Israelites bore some resemblance to a natural product of the wilderness, still exuded by certain plants during the coolness of the night, and formerly more plentiful than now, when all vegetation has been ruthlessly swept away by the Bedouin. But the differences are much greater than the resemblance. The natural product is a drug, and not a food; it is gathered only during some weeks of summer; it is not liable to speedy corruption, nor could there be any reason for preserving a specimen of this common product in the ark; it could not have sufficed, however aided by their herds and flocks, to feed one in a hundred of the Hebrew multitudes, even during the season of its production; nor could it have ceased on the same day when they ate the first ripe corn of Canaan.
And yet the resemblance is suggestive. Unbelievers find, in the links which connect most of our Scripture miracles with nature, in the undefined and gradual transition from one to the other, as from a temperate day to night, an excuse for denying that they are miraculous at all. But the instructed believer finds a confirmation of his faith. He reflects that when Fancy begins to toy with the supernatural, she spurns nature from her: the trammels under which she has long chafed are hateful to her, and she flies from them to the utmost extreme.
It could not be thus with Him by whom the system of the world was framed. He will not wantonly interfere with His own plan. He will regard nature as an elastic band to stretch, rather than as a chain to break. If He will multiply food, in the New Testament, that is no reason why His disciples should fare more delicately than Providence intended for them: they shall still eat barley loaves and fish. And so the winds help to overthrow Pharaoh and to bring the quails; and when a new thing has to be created, it approaches in its general idea to one of the few natural products of that inhospitable region.
Now let it be supposed for a moment that the supply of manna had never ceased, so that until this day men could every morning gather a day's ration off the ground. Such continuance of the provision would not make it any the less a gift; but only a more lavish boon. And yet it would clearly cease to be regarded as miraculous, an exception to the course of nature, miscalled her "laws," since men do strive to subvert the miracle by representing that such manna, however scantily, may still be found. And this may expose the folly of a wish, probably sometimes felt by all men, that some miracle had actually been perpetuated, so that we could strengthen our faith at pleasure by looking upon an exhibition of divine power. In truth, no marvel could excel that which annually multiplies the corn beneath the clod, and by the process of decay in springtime feeds the world in autumn. Only its steady recurrence throws a veil over our eyes; and it is a vain conceit that the same web would not be woven by use between man and the Worker of any other marvel that was perpetuated. Already the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord, for all who have eyes to see.
It is also to be observed that the manna was not given to teach the people sloth. They were obliged to gather it early, before the sun was hot. They had still to endure weary marches, and the care of their flocks and herds.
And, in curious harmony with the manner of all the gifts of nature, the manna sent from heaven had yet to be prepared by man: "bake that which ye will bake, and seethe that which ye will seethe." Thus God, by natural means and by the sweat of our brow, gives us our daily bread; and all knowledge, art and culture are His gifts, although elaborated by the brain and heart of generations whom He taught.
Moreover, there was a protest against the grasping, unbelieving temper which cannot trust God with tomorrow, but longs to have much goods laid up. That is the temper which forfeits the smile of God, and grinds the faces of the poor, to make an ignoble "provision" for the future. How often, since the time of Moses, has the unblessed accumulation become hateful! How often, since the time of St. James, the rust of such possession has eaten the flesh like fire! Men would be far more generous, the difference between wealth and poverty would be less portentous, and the resources of religion and charity less crippled, if we lived in the spirit of the Lord's prayer, desirous of the advance of the kingdom, but not asking to be given tomorrow's bread until tomorrow. That lesson was taught by the manner of the dispensation of the manna, but the covetousness of Israel would not learn it. The people actually strove to be dishonest in their enjoyment of a miracle. It is no wonder that Moses was wroth with them.
Among the strange properties of their supernatural food not the least curious was this: that when they came to measure what they had collected, and compare it with what Moses had bidden,[31] the most eager and able-bodied had nothing over, and the feeblest had no lack. Every real worker was supplied, and none was glutted. This result is apparently miraculous. St. Paul's use of it does not, as some have supposed, represent it as a result of Hebrew benevolence, sharing with the weak the more abundant supplies of the strong: the miracle is not cited as an example of charity, but of that practical equality, divinely approved, which Christian charity should reproduce; the Christian Church is bidden to do voluntarily what was done by miracle in the wilderness: "your abundance being a supply at this present time for their want, that their abundance also may become a supply for your want, that there may be equality; as it is written, He that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack" (2Co_8:15).
It is quite in vain to appeal to this passage in favour of socialistic theories. In the first place it applies only to the necessities of existence; and even granting that the state should enforce the principle to which it points, the duty would not extend beyond a liberal poor rate. When contributions were afterwards demanded for the sanctuary, there is no trace of a dead level in their resources: the rulers gave the gems and spices and oil, some brought gold, with some were found blue and linen and skins, and others had acacia-wood to offer (Exo_35:22-24).
In the second place, this arrangement was only temporary; and while the soil of Canaan was distinctly claimed for the Lord, the enjoyment of it by individuals was secured, and perpetuated in their families, by stringent legislation. Now, land is the kind of property which socialists most vehemently assail; but persons who appeal to Exodus must submit to the authority of Judges.
Socialism, therefore, and its coercive measures, find no more real sanction here than in the Church of Jerusalem, where the property of Ananias was his own, and the price of it in his own power. But yet it is highly significant that in both Testaments, as the Church of God starts upon its career, an example should be given of the effacing of inequalities, in the one case by miracle, in the other by such a voluntary movement as best becomes the gospel. Is not such a movement, large and free, the true remedy for our modern social distractions and calamities? Would it not be wise and Christ-like for the rich to give, as St. Paul taught the Corinthians to give, what the law could never wisely exact from them? Would not self-denial, on a scale to imply real sacrifice, and fulfilling in spirit rather than letter the apostle's aspiration for "equality," secure in return the enthusiastic adhesion to the rights of property of all that is best and noblest among the poor?
When will the world, or even the Church, awaken to the great truth that our politics also need to be steeped in Christian feeling--that humanity requires not a revolution but a pentecost--that a millennium cannot be enacted, but will dawn whenever human bosoms are emptied of selfishness and lust, and filled with brotherly kindness and compassion? Such, and no more, was the socialism which St. Paul deduced from the equality in the supply of manna.
SPIRITUAL MEAT.
Exo_16:15-36.
Since the journey of Israel is throughout full of sacred meaning, no one can fail to discern a mystery in the silent ceaseless daily miracle of bread-giving. But we are not left to our conjectures. St. Paul calls manna "spiritual meat," not because it nourished the higher life (for the eaters of it murmured for flesh, and were not estranged from their lust), but because it answered to realities of the spiritual world (1Co_10:3). And Christ Himself said, "It was not Moses that gave you the bread out of heaven, but My Father giveth you the true Bread from heaven," making manna the type of sustenance which the soul needs in the wilderness, and which only God can give (Joh_6:32).
We note the time of its bestowal. The soul has come forth out of its bondage. Perhaps it imagines that emancipation is enough: all is won when its chains are broken: there is to be no interval between the Egypt of sin and the Promised Land of milk and honey and repose. Instead of this serene attainment, it finds that the soul requires to be fed, and no food is to be seen, but only a wilderness of scorching heat, dry sand, vacancy, and hunger. Old things have passed away, but it is not yet realised that all things have become new. Religion threatens to become a vast system for the removal of accustomed indulgences and enjoyments, but where is the recompense for all that it forbids? The soul cries out for food: well for it if the cry be not faithless, nor spoken to earthly chiefs alone!
There is a noteworthy distinction between the gift of manna and every other recorded miracle of sustenance. In Eden the fruit of immortality was ripening upon an earthly tree. The widow of Zarephath was fed from her own stores. The ravens bore to Elijah ordinary bread and flesh; and if an angel fed him, it was with a cake baken upon coals. Christ Himself was content to multiply common bread and fish, and even after His resurrection gave His apostles the fare to which they were accustomed. Thus they learned that the divine life must be led amid the ordinary conditions of mortality. Even the incarnation of Deity was wrought in the likeness of sinful flesh. But yet the incarnation was the bringing of a new life, a strange and unknown energy, to man.
And here, almost at the beginning of revelation, is typified, not the homely conditions of the inner life, but its unearthly nature and essence. Here is no multiplication of their own stores, no gift, like the quails, of such meat as they were wont to gather. They asked "What is it?" And this teaches the Christian that his sustenance is not of this world. They were fed "with manna which they knew not ... to make them know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God doth man live" (Deu_8:3). The root of worldliness is not in this indulgence or that, in gay clothing or an active career; but in the soul's endeavour to draw its nourishment from things below. And spirituality belongs not to an uncouth vocabulary, nor to the robes of any confraternity, to rigid rules or austere deportment; it is the blessedness of a life nourished upon the bread of heaven, and doomed to starve if that bread be not bestowed. Let not the wealthy find an insuperable bar to spirituality in his condition, nor the poor suppose that indigence cannot have its treasure upon earth; but let each man ask whence come his most real and practical impulses and energies upon life's journey. If these flow from even the purest earthly source--love of wife or child, anything else than communion with the Father of spirits, this is not the bread of life, and can no more nourish a pilgrim towards eternity than the husks which swine eat.
There is no mistaking the doctrine of the New Testament as to what this bread may be. By prayer and faith, by ordinances and sacraments rightly used, the manna may be gathered; but Jesus Himself is the Bread of life, His Flesh is meat indeed and His Blood is drink indeed, and He gives His Flesh for the life of the world. Christ is the Vine, and we are the branches, fruitful only by the sap which flows from Him. As there are diseases which cannot be overcome by powerful drugs, but by a generous and wholesome dietary, so is it with the diseases of the soul--pride, anger, selfishness, falsehood, lust. As the curse of sin is removed by the faith which appropriates pardon, so its power is broken by the steady personal acceptance of Christ; and our Bread and Wine are His new humanity, given to us, until He becomes the second Father of the race, which is begotten again in Him. An easy temper is not Christian meekness; dislike to witness pain is not Christian love. All our goodness must strike root deeper than in the sensibilities, must be nourished by the communication to us of the mind which was in Christ Jesus.
And this food is universally given, and universally suitable. The strong and the weak, the aged chieftain and little children, ate and were nourished. No stern decree excluded any member of the visible Church in the wilderness from sharing the bread from heaven: they did eat the same spiritual meat, provided only that they gathered it. Their part was to be in earnest in accepting, and so is ours; but if we fail, whom shall we blame except ourselves? In the mystery of its origin, in the silent and secret mode of its descent from above, in the constancy of its bestowal, and in its suitability for all the camp, for Moses and the youngest child, the manna prefigured Christ.
Every day a fresh supply had to be laid up, and nothing could be held over from the largest hoard. So it is with us: we must give ourselves to Christ for ever, but we must ask Him daily to give Himself to us. The richest experience, the purest aspiration, the humblest self-abandonment that was ever felt, could not reach forward to supply the morrow. Past graces will become loathsome if used instead of present supplies from heaven. And the secret of many a scandalous fall is that the unhappy soul grew self-confident: unlike St. Paul, he reckoned that he had already attained; and thereupon the graces in which he trusted became corrupt and vile.
The constant supply was not more needful than it was abundant. The manna lay all around the camp: the Bread of Life is He who stands at our door and knocks. Alas for those who murmur for grosser indulgences! Israel demanded and obtained them; but while the flesh was in their nostrils the angel of the Lord went forth and smote them. Is there no plague any longer for the perverse? What are the discords that convulse families, the uncurbed passions to which nothing is sacred, the jaded appetite and weary discontent which hates the world even as it hates itself? what but the judgment of God upon those who despise His provision, and must needs gratify themselves? Be it our happiness, as it is our duty, to trust Him to prepare our table before us, while He leads us to His Holy Land.
The Lord of the Sabbath already taught His people to respect His day. Upon it no manna fell; and we shall hereafter see the bearing of this incident upon the question whether the Sabbath is only an ordinance of Judaism. Meanwhile they who went out to gather had a sharp lesson in the difference between faith, which expects what God has promised, and presumption, which hopes not to lose much by disobeying Him.
Lastly, an omer of manna was to be kept throughout all generations, before the Testimony. Grateful remembrance of past mercies, temporal as well as spiritual, was to connect itself with the deepest and most awful mysteries of religion. So let it be with us. The bitter proverb that eaten bread is soon forgotten must never be true of the Christian. He is to remember all the way that the Lord his God hath led him. He is bidden to "forget not all His benefits, Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, Who healeth all thy diseases ... Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things." So foolish is the slander that religion is too transcendental for the common life of man.
FOOTNOTES:
[31] The "omer" of this passage is not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture: it is known to have been the one-hundredth part of the homer with which careless readers sometimes confuse it, and its capacity is variously estimated, from somewhat under half a gallon to somewhat above three-quarters.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Exo_16:1-3
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Exo_16:1-3
MURMURINGS
Read full note →
We find the Israelites now in a very important and interesting stage of their great journey between Elim and Sinai; the former the place of joyous rest, and the latter the place of stern law. This period of their march is marked by much ingratitude, and by the abundant mercy of God. The Israelites are murmuring for want of bread. We observe—
I. That people will murmur immediately after the happiest experiences of life. The children of Israel had left Elim as the last stage of their march; they had only just left the wells of water and the three score and ten palm trees, and yet immediately after this they commence to murmur against the servant of God. And so it is with men in our own time, they will murmur after the richest mercies have been permitted to them.
1. The murmurings of Israel were general. The complaint seems to have been expressed by the princes of the people as well as by the people themselves. The elders murmured. We should certainly have thought that they would not have been guilty of such conduct,—they ought to have known better, and ought to have set the people a better example. They ought to have helped Moses in this perplexity. The best men, and the most useful, are sometimes given to the sin of complaining against the Divine providence of daily life. The lack of temporal resource awakens them to discontent; man is very sensitive on the side of his physical nature.
2. The murmurings of Israel were ungrateful. The Israelites had just seen the goodness and severity of God in their own deliverance and in the destruction of the Egyptians. The wrecked army ought to have made them afraid of murmuring against the Author of such desolation: their own safety ought to have banished all thought of distrust from their minds. But the judgments and mercies of life do not deter men from discontent; the most afflicted and the most wealthy alike share this unholy sentiment. Even after the bitter has been made sweet, the soul will indulge ungenerous thoughts of God. What ingratitude for a son to murmur against his father, for a scholar to murmur against his teacher, and for a slave to murmur against his benevolent emancipator; yet this is but a faint emblem of the vast ingratitude men show to God day by day. How soon the mercy of God is forgotten; we soon forget our Red Sea deliverances,—the mercies of the night are forgotten in the morning. If we forget the Divine mercy to us, we shall be sure to indulge a murmuring spirit.
3. The murmurings of Israel were inconsiderate. The Israelites did not think that they were in a condition of life in which they should expect some hardship. They were only freed slaves travelling in a wilderness. Their hope was in the future, in the promised Canaan. And so all the murmurings of men should be silenced by the fact that this life is probationary, and that it is only preparatory to another, in which every real need will be eternally supplied. Discontent is an evidence that we centre our thoughts too much on this world. How inconsiderate are men in their murmurings; some want bread, some want rain, some want gold, and others want social position, as though it would be well for each to have that which he desired. Want is a salutary discipline. If we were considerate of the providence of God, of the discipline of life, and of the welfare of others, there would be much less grumbling in the world.
4. The murmurings of Israel were Divinely regarded. God heard the murmurings of Israel and sent them food. It would have been better if prayer had done the work which seems to have been accomplished by discontent. God sees the discontent of the soul. He sometimes answers its cry in anger, and sometimes in compassion. How mercifully He bears with the murmurings of men!
II. That people will murmur against those who are rendering them the greatest service. The Israelites thus murmured against these two ministers of God. These men of God had only a little time ago brought them out of bend-age, and given them a freedom in which they greatly rejoiced. And ministers have often to contend with murmuring congregations. The things regarded as joys at first are afterwards by discontent turned into sorrows. At first conversion is welcomed as a great blessing, but when the difficulties of the wilderness are experienced, then the soul commences to murmur at the truth which set it free. Men often grumble at the agencies which have given them freedom. They think more of secondary agencies than they ought, they think more of Moses and Aaron than of the God whose servants they are. This is cruel and foolish, for the secondary agents are in need of bread quite as much as the multitude they lead, and cannot produce it without Divine warrant.
1. Thus the conduct of Israel was unreasonable.
2. This conduct of Israel was cruel and culpable.
3. This conduct of Israel is often repeated in the world now. And thus discontented people often murmur at those who do not deserve it; they often murmur to those who can render them no assistance; they often act as though there were no God to help them; and they present a sad spectacle of weakness to those who behold them in this unhappy mood.
(1.) They are unmindful of happy memories—of freedom from slavery.
(2.) They are unmindful of helpful service—Moses and Aaron had aided them in their march.
(3.) They are unmindful of happy destiny—they were being led to Canaan. Yet they murmured at the men who were thus befriending them. We are not to interpret our life work by the murmurings of others. Discontented people do not know their true friends.
III. That people when murmuring often manifest a degrading inclination of soul. “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” (Exo_16:3). As though they had said, We care not for our deliverance out of Egyptian bondage, we are no better even under His guidance than we were under the rule of Pharaoh.
1. Thus the Israelites were blind to the advantages of their new condition of life. They thought that they had not bettered their condition by exchanging Egypt for the wilderness. They measured their welfare by their temporal circumstances; they could not see through these a sublime improvement in their method of life. How many men measure their success in life by the condition of their flesh-pots. They prefer well-filled flesh-pots and slavery to hanger and freedom. And often is it thus with the Christian; he is rendered sad by the difficulties of the wilderness-path to heaven. He experiences longings after the old life of the soul. Then there were times of enjoyment. Then food was abundant. There were not all these constant difficulties which are now realised. True, sin was a hard service, and at times was followed by severe mental anguish, but it was soon appeased and removed, and thus the young Christian is tempted in gloomy mood to think the present incomparable to the past. He sees not the worth of moral freedom. He sees not the glory of being led by God. He sees not the shield by which he is protected. He sees not the splendid destiny awaiting him. If he saw these things as he ought, neither a temporary trial, nor the flesh-pots of his sinful life, would lead him to cast a longing look to the past. Satan often tempts the soul to apostacy, by presenting the past life of sin in all its attractiveness, and by magnifying the difficulties of the Christian journey.
2. Thus the Israelites were in danger of a degrading and cowardly retreat to their old condition of life. If they had returned to Egypt, how degrading and cowardly would have been their conduct. What an utter lack of confidence would they have shown in the Supreme Being. And if men, who have once entered into the freedom of the Christian life, return to their old habits, they will indeed degrade their manhood, and beat a cowardly retreat, which will gladden hell, and which will awaken the ridicule of the world. God has provided for the pure soul something better than the flesh-pots of its old life. Some men always make the past brighter than the present; they love the flesh-pots.
IV. That people when murmuring often anticipate evils which never will happen. “For ye have brought us forth into the wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (Exo_16:3). Here was unbelief on the part of Israel. They had no more trust in God than to suppose that He was making all these deliverances for them simply to lead them to a grave. Truly God does not save men to destroy them. When men are converted it is that they may be made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, and not that they may perish ultimately in their sins. Here was hopelessness on the part of Israel. The Divine help they had received in the past should have made them hopeful in the moment of trial. Men want to be more hopeful in their spiritual life than to imagine that they are going to die in this way; they have everything to inspire hope. And thus many murmuring Christians anticipate perils they will never experience; a murmuring spirit fills life with fictitious evils, it will dig graves in the most fragrant gardens. LESSONS:—
1. Let us have more respect for the joys of the Christian life than to murmur at its sorrows.
2. Let us be too grateful to the helpers of our spiritual life than to grumble at them.
3. Let us never cast a degrading look at the fancied joys of the old life of the soul.
4. Let us look to God rather than to our difficulties.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Exo_16:1. Comfortable stations in this life God will have His Church to leave (Mat_17:4.)
Dreadful and barren deserts does God appoint for His Church, instead of better places, for trial.
The saddest deserts are but the way of the Church into the mountain of God.
The days of the travel and redemption of the Church are punctually remembered by God.
Exo_16:2-3. Multitudes of sinners are usually stirring up all to murmur upon changes.
Wilderness trials put unbelievers in the visible Church to the test.
God and His ministers suffer all indignities from unbelieving sinners.
Unbelieving sinners are ready to imprecate destruction on themselves in time of temptation.
God’s most gracious acts are changed by the wicked to be their destruction.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Elim-Sinai! Exo_16:1. The scene of the miracles of quails and manna was strikingly appropriate. Professor Palmer in his Desert of the Exodus gives a vivid description of the scene and sufferings. Familiar as we had grown with desert scenes, we were not prepared for such utter and oppressive desolation as this. As far as the eye could reach, there stretched a dull, flat, sandy waste—unrelieved by any green or living thing. The next morning he and his friends again set out, passing over a tract of sand equally dreary with that of the day before. It was, however, covered with a sombre carpet of hard, black flints; thus affording a firmer foothold for the pedestrian. But alike on the sand as on the rock, the sun shone with a fierce glare—scorching and blistering their hands and faces. Such no doubt was the experience of Israel. And such is the Christian’s life-path. Believers journey along bare sandy wastes, or bleak rocky plains; with the burning sun of worldly persecution. No wonder they were weak, those Israel hosts. The Lord pitieth His children. He pitied Israel, when, as the Psalmist says, hungry and thirsty their soul fainted in them.
Divine Ways! Exo_16:1. We learn lessons ofttimes when the head is low; just as, when the sun is set, the stars come out in their blessed beauty, and darkness shows us worlds of light we never saw by day. In the glad summer time, when the leaves are on the trees, we go into the woodlands, and we sport among their branches. They arch over us, hiding from us the other world, and causing us to revel in the beauty and blessedness of this. But the blasts of winter come and scatter the leaves; then the light of heaven comes in between, to remind us that our sufficiency is of God. No doubt during the five or six weeks after the Red Sea Triumph, the host had gradually been losing sight of God—slowly but too surely forgetting their entire dependence upon heaven. So the supplies run short, and Israel is reminded that man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Such are the ways of God in the Christian life. We begin to forget our dependence on the great Deliverer; so He arres’s our sources of sustenance—stays the flowing channels of grace—stops the sunshine in the heavens—and strips our trees of their bright green and glossy foliage. Then we remember what helpless creatures we are, and are reminded that our sufficiency is of God.
“With shattered pride, and prostrate heart,
We seek the sad-forgotten God.”
—Cook.
Human Murmurs! Exo_16:2. It has been suggested that murmuring must have been a malady characteristic of the Hebrew people, or else a disease peculiar to the desert. They were always murmuring. And such is man! The noxious weed—the root of bitterness, with its cleaving burrs and envenomed spines, has not become a fossil-flora. It is still only too prevalent. Of an Englishman, the foreigner says that it is his nature to grumble, and he himself claims it as his prerogative. Alas! it is man’s propensity. As Dr. Todd tells of the farmer, he murmured when the rain fell because it would injure the wheat—and when the sun shone because it would damage the rye—and when the air was cold because it would nip the grass. He thought himself the one especial target at whose prosperity and peace Nature was bent on a perpetual flight of arrowy shafts. So Israel! And so man! He forgets not only that others feel the pointed barb, but also that there is a design in it all. Moreover, murmuring never travels alone. He is an invader followed by a molley host of plunderers. As Thomas Brooks puts it, murmuring is a sin that breeds and brings forth many sins at once; and so doth the River Nile bring forth many crocodiles, and the scorpion many serpents. On the edge of some plantations we read a notice:—“Mantraps and spring-guns! “Murmuring and peevish discontent is such a tangled thicket, closely set with guns and snares. So Israel found to his cost:—“Unto whom I sware in my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest.” Christians should be the last to murmur.
“As brooks, and torrents, rivers, all
Increase the gulf in which they fall,
Such thoughts, by gathering up the rills
Of lesser griefs, spread real ills;
And with their gloomy shades conceal
The landmarks hope would else reveal.”
—Dinnies.
Backslidings! Exo_16:3. Watching the golden eagle, as he basks in the noon’s broad-light—balances with motionless wings in the high vault of heaven—or rushes forth like the thunderbolt to meet the clouds on the pathway of the blast, can you conceive that he would give up his free and joyous life to drag out a weary bondage in a narrow and stifling eage? Would not that kingly bird—that cloud-cleaving bird—prefer death to slavery. Foolish Israel! They longed to give up their freedom for the foul bondage of Egypt. How often God’s spiritual Israel are thus tempted to go back to the serfdom of sin!—
“Shall I back to Egypt go,
To my flesh corruption sow!
No, with sin I cannot dwell;
Sin is worse then death and hell.”
—Wesley.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain There can be nothing more sobering than the truth…
Exo 16:4
There can be nothing more sobering than the truth that this life is a state of trial and preparation for another. There is at the same time something wonderfully satisfying in the idea. It puts life before us in a point of view which satisfactorily explains it.
Read full note →
I. This account of the end of life simplifies matters in our journey through life. The principle of trial as the end of life shoves aside a multiplicity of irrelevant ends to make way for the true one; it reduces the purpose of life to the greatest possible simplicity, reduces it, as we may say, to a unit—to the effect upon the individual himself, what he does and how he turns out under these circumstances. The idea of probation thus gives a singular unity to the whole design and plan of life. It throws the individual upon himself as the rationale of the whole.
II. The principle of the end of life being probative applies mainly to all the ordinary external advantages of life and our pursuit of them; but it also affects another and less ordinary class of human objects—the objects connected with the good of others, those useful and benevolent works and those public religious works which good men propose to themselves. There is one defect to which good men are liable: they become too much absorbed in the success of their own plans. The important truth for such men to realize is this very principle, viz., that of the end of life being trial. If they brought this truth home to themselves, they would see that the only important thing to them was, not that a useful undertaking should answer, but that they should have done faithfully their best for that purpose.
III. God makes use of us as His instruments, but the work that we do as instruments is a far inferior work to that which we do to fulfil our own personal trial. The general end of life, as trial, is superior to all special ends; it is the end which concerns the individual being, his spiritual condition, his ultimate prospects.
J. B. Mozley, Sermons Parochial and Occasional, p. 287.
References: Exo 16:6-8.—J.Hamilton, Works, vol. v., p. 191. Exo 16:7,—G. Matheson, Moments on the Mount, p. 75; J. Van Oosterzee, The Year of Salvation, vol. i., p. 58. Exo 16:21.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 198. Exo 16:29.—T. J. Crawford, The Preaching of the Cross, p. 319. 16—Parker, vol. ii., p. 119; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 134. Exo 17:1-16.—W. M. Taylor, Moses the Lawgiver, p. 149. Exo 17:8.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii., No. 712. Exo 17:8-13.—W. Harris, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 320; J. S. Bartlett, Sermons, p. 236. Exo 17:9.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii., No. 112. Exo 17:10-13.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. vi., p. 330. Exo 17:11.—J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Holy Week, p. 472. Exo 17:12.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 107.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain Third Murmuring. Sending of the Manna
Third Murmuring. Sending of the Manna
1. Pursuing their march southward, the Israelites come at the end of the first month after their departure from Egypt to the wilderness of Sin, forming the SW. border of the peninsula: see on Exo_15:22. All the stations in the march are not mentioned. In Num_33:10 allusion is made to an 'encampment by the Red Sea' between Elim and the wilderness of Sin. It must be remembered also that, owing to the vast extent of the host, there must have been a simultaneous encampment at different places. From Elim, the Israelites might have gone by a more direct route to Sinai, but this would have led them past the copper mines among the mountains, where there was an Egyptian garrison.
Read full note →
2. This was the third murmuring. The first was at Pi-hahiroth (Exo_14:10-12), the second at Marah (Exo_15:24). The supplies which the Israelites had brought with them out of Egypt being now exhausted, they expect to perish with hunger, and begin to regret having left Egypt, where, with all their hard bondage, they had been well fed: see on Num_11:4, Num_11:5.
4. A certain rate every day] RV 'a day's portion every day': see Exo_16:16-21. That I may prove them] The miracle had a moral purpose. It was intended not merely to satisfy their hunger, but to teach them dependence upon God and obedience to Him. The goodness of God should lead to repentance (Rom_2:4).
5. The sixth day] the day before the sabbath, an indication that the sabbath was known previous to the giving of the law at Sinai: see on Exo_20:8. On the method of preparing the manna, see Num_11:8.
6. Ye shall know] by the quails.
9. Before the Lord] This common phrase denotes the place where God specially manifests Himself: see Exo_16:33, Exo_16:34. Here it seems to mean at the pillar of fire in front of the host.
10. Toward the wilderness] As they are at present in the wilderness, this must mean 'towards the interior of the wilderness,' in the direction of the march and the guiding pillar. The glory of the Lord] Here a special radiance is meant. God's self-manifestation is frequently accompanied with an appearance of fire: see on Exo_3:2, and cp. Exo_19:18; Exo_24:17; Exo_29:43; Exo_40:34.
13. Quails] The quail is a bird belonging to the partridge family, about 7 in. long, and of a buff colour. Its flesh is considered a great delicacy. Quails are migratory. In spring vast flocks pass northwards from the interior of Africa to Syria, crossing the peninsula of Sinai in their flight. They also cross the Mediterranean in great numbers. In a single season, 160,000 have been netted on the small island of Capri. Quails always fly with the wind. After a sea flight they are easily captured, as they fly low, their bodies being heavy and their wings wet: see on Num_11:4-31. Here, again, God employed a natural means in providing deliverance for His people. The miracle did not consist in a new creation, but in the timely arrival and vast quantity of the quails.
15. It is manna] Heb. 'what is it?' so rightly in RV. What is now known as manna is a sweet gum which exudes from various shrubs and from the tamarisk tree, and is used medicinally. None of its varieties corresponds to the description given here. These are found only in small quantities, in special localities and at certain seasons, from about May to August; they are not suitable for food, and cannot be cooked as manna was (see Exo_16:23 Num_11:8). Moreover, the manna of commerce can be kept for an indefinite time (cp. Exo_16:20). What is meant here is clearly a miraculous substance. Whether, again, the miracle took place on the basis of a natural product cannot with certainty be made out. This is not improbable in the light of the previous wonders. Our Lord employs the manna as a type of Himself, as giving eternal life to those who believe in Him: see Joh_6:31-58. St. Paul calls it 'spiritual meat,' and regards it as a type of the Lord's Supper wherein the faithful are made partakers of the life that is in Christ: see 1Co_10:3.
16. An omer is a little more than seven pints. Ten omers make an ephah, which is. roughly, equal to a bushel: see Exo_16:36. The pint measure is called a 'log': see e.g. Lev_14:10.
18. Mete] i.e. measure: cp. Mat_7:2. The total quantity of manna amounted exactly to an omer per head. This is evidently regarded here as miraculous, and designed to check want of trust and greed on the one hand and over anxiety on the other. Those who gathered too much wasted their labour, and those who gathered too little were at no disadvantage. St. Paul cites this fact as an incentive to brotherly charity; the rich ought to make up the deficiency of the poor: see 2Co_8:14, 2Co_8:15.
20. God's gift is spoiled by selfish and miserly hoarding.
21. Every morning] cp. the petition 'Give us this day our daily bread.'
22. See on Exo_16:5. The divine sanction of the sabbath is shown by the cessation of the manna on that day as well as by the double quantity sent on the previous day. The people are to observe the sabbath by resting from the labour of gathering manna: see Exo_16:30. Those who faithlessly and disobediently persist in looking for manna find none.
29. Let no man go out of his place] Jewish legalists interpreted this commandment to mean strictly that throughout the sabbath day a man must maintain the same posture in which he was found at its commencement. As this was practically impossible it was held to be allowable to walk on the sabbath day a distance not exceeding 2,000 ells, which was supposed to be the distance from the centre of the camp to its circumference.
31, Coriander] an annual plant much cultivated in the East. The seeds have an aromatic flavour, and are used as a seasoning in cookery and also medicinally. Wafers] thin cakes.
32-34. These vv. seem to be a later insertion, as they presuppose the erection of the tabernacle (Exo_16:33-34). There would be no need to gather a pot of manna for preservation till the end of the wanderings and the cessation of the manna.
34. The Testimony] the Law which 'testifies' to God's will, inscribed on the two tables of stone and deposited in the ark (Exo_25:16), which is accordingly called the 'ark of the testimony' (Exo_25:22; Num_4:5) and sometimes simply 'the testimony'; see Num_17:4. The tent containing the ark is called the 'tent or tabernacle of the testimony': see Num_9:16. The pot of manna is here said to have been deposited before the testimony; but according to Heb_9:4 it was in the ark. The pot of manna was a favourite symbol among the Jews. From the remains of the synagogue at Capernaum it seems that a pot of manna was carved on the lintel of the door of that synagogue. This must have given point to our Lord's discourse on the 'bread of life' there: see Joh_6:24.
35. See Jos_5:10-12.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain second month
second month
i.e. May.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Murmuring about the Food
The Murmuring about the Food
v. 1. 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 eastern shore of the Gulf of Suez, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.
Read full note →
v. 2. And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. Their dissatisfied complaint was directed against both leaders, and so against the divine act of bringing them out of Egypt, that is, against Jehovah Himself.
v. 3. 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, in the last great plague which cut off the first-born of the Egyptians, when we sat by the flesh-pots, and when we did eat bread to the full, when they, in spite of all their other afflictions, at least had their food in sufficient quantities; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger, which was an unjust accusation bordering upon insolence and, moreover, with an amount of falsehood, for they still had at least some of their cattle with them, and the congregation was by no means on the edge of starvation.
v. 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, a certain amount day after day, that I may prove them whether they will walk in My law or no. The Lord intended to test their faith and obedience in connection with this miraculous gift of bread.
v. 5. And it shall come to pass that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in, they should measure the portion very carefully and set it aside; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. Cf v. 22.
v. 6. And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, At even, then ye shall know that the Lord hath brought you out from the land of Egypt, they would be given further unmistakable evidence that it was the Lord who had brought about their deliverance;
v. 7. and in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the Lord, they would be given definite proof of His almighty power and majesty, of His glorious presence; for that He, God, heareth your murmurings against the Lord, Jehovah, the Son of God, who was the real leader of the people in its desert journey, 1Co 10:4. And what are we, that ye murmur against us? The persons of Moses and Aaron counted for nothing; it was as the ambassadors of Jehovah that they were here concerned; the people should realize that their complaint was directed against God.
v. 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. Thus the people were reproved for their sinful murmuring.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 wilderness of Sin
wilderness of Sin
The word "Sin" here is the Hebrew name of the wilderness. It is not the English word "sin." (See: How to Translate Names)
Read full note →
on the fifteenth day of the second month
This time coincides with the end of April and the beginning of May on Western calendars. AT: "on day 15 of the second month" (See: Hebrew Months and Ordinal Numbers)
The whole community of Israelites complained
"All the Israelites complained." This is a generalization. Moses and Aaron did not complain. AT: "The Israelites complained" (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)
complained
"were angry and spoke"
If only we had died
This is a way of saying that they wished that they had died. AT: "We wish that we had died"
by Yahweh's hand
The phrase "Yahweh's hand" represents Yahweh's action. AT: "by Yahweh's action" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
Israel
desert
Sinai
day
Egypt
Moses
Aaron
die
Yahweh
hand
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 16:1-36 God demonstrated care for his people by providing…
16:1-36 God demonstrated care for his people by providing manna and quail as food for them.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.