Speaker 1: Life Audio The Bible Study Podcast, Episode nine hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy six. Today, The Bible Study Podcast continues its study
Speaker 1: of the Book of Exodus with chapter sixteen. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Bible Study Podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. We
Speaker 1: continue on with chapter sixteen, Men and Quail, But first
Speaker 1: a word from this sponsor. Chapter sixteen, the whole Israelite
Speaker 1: community set out from Ilium and came to the desert
Speaker 1: of sin which is between Elim and Sinai, on the
Speaker 1: fifteenth day of the second month, after they had come
Speaker 1: out of Egypt. In the desert, the whole community grumbled
Speaker 1: against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, if
Speaker 1: only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt.
Speaker 1: There we sat around pots of meat and ate all
Speaker 1: the food we wanted. So you have brought us out
Speaker 1: into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death. Okay,
Speaker 1: we were really happy coming out of the Red Sea.
Speaker 1: We had a little grumbling because we're having some trouble
Speaker 1: finding water, and suddenly we're thinking that again God has
Speaker 1: brought us out here to die because we're not just hungry,
Speaker 1: we're angry at this point. Then the Lord said to Moses,
Speaker 1: I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The
Speaker 1: people are to go out each day and gather enough
Speaker 1: for that day. In this way, I will test them
Speaker 1: and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the
Speaker 1: sixth day, they are to prepare what they bring in,
Speaker 1: and that is to be twice as much as they
Speaker 1: gather on the other days. So Moses and Aaron said
Speaker 1: to the Israelites, in the evening, you will know that
Speaker 1: it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt.
Speaker 1: And in the morning you will see the glory of
Speaker 1: the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against him.
Speaker 1: Who are we that you should grumble against us? Moses
Speaker 1: also said, but you will know that it was the
Speaker 1: Lord when he gives you the meat to eat in
Speaker 1: the evening and all the bread you want in the morning,
Speaker 1: because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we?
Speaker 1: You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.
Speaker 1: Then Moses told Erin, say to the entire Israelite community,
Speaker 1: come before the Lord. He has heard your grumbling. While
Speaker 1: Erin was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked
Speaker 1: toward the desert, and there was the glory of the
Speaker 1: Lord appearing in the cloud. The Lord said to Moses,
Speaker 1: I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them,
Speaker 1: at twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning
Speaker 1: you will be filled with bread. Then you will know
Speaker 1: that I am the Lord your God. That evening, quail
Speaker 1: came and covered the camp, and in the morning there
Speaker 1: was a layer of dew around the camp. When the
Speaker 1: dew was gone, thin flakes, like frost on the ground
Speaker 1: appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it,
Speaker 1: they said to each other, what is it for They
Speaker 1: did not know what it was. Moses said to them,
Speaker 1: it is the bread the Lord has given you to eat.
Speaker 1: This is what the Lord has commanded. Everyone is to
Speaker 1: gather as much as they need. Take an omer for
Speaker 1: each person you have in your tent. The Israelites did
Speaker 1: as they were told. Some gathered much, some little, And
Speaker 1: when they measured it by the omer, the one who
Speaker 1: had gathered much did not have too much, and the
Speaker 1: one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone
Speaker 1: had gathered just as much as they needed. So they're
Speaker 1: in the middle of the desert, and they think they
Speaker 1: know the problem right, that they need bread, that they
Speaker 1: need food. They want meat, they want bread, they want
Speaker 1: the basics. But as they look around, they're in a desert.
Speaker 1: They don't see enough food to eat. There's nothing like
Speaker 1: grain fields and things like that that they would have
Speaker 1: had when they were in Egypt. Egypt was a very
Speaker 1: fertile land, lots of grain, lots of wheat grown in Egypt.
Speaker 1: They don't see that, and so there's no place to
Speaker 1: buy food. There are a lot of people here, hundreds
Speaker 1: of thousands of people here, and we don't see a
Speaker 1: way out of it. Right. We're looking around for how
Speaker 1: we would solve this problem, and there's nothing. There's no
Speaker 1: solution that we can see, and so they lose faith.
Speaker 1: But you can understand why they lose faith, right. It's
Speaker 1: a difficult situation that they don't see us a way out.
Speaker 1: But that doesn't matter. We don't have to see what
Speaker 1: God is going to do. We have to put our
Speaker 1: faith in God that he will do something. And so
Speaker 1: God causes two things to happen. One is meat to
Speaker 1: come to them in the form of quail, and the other,
Speaker 1: even more strange, is for bread to come to them
Speaker 1: in the form of mana manna that is literally so
Speaker 1: weird that when they see it, they say what is it?
Speaker 1: And the word mana sounds like the Hebrew for what
Speaker 1: is it? Literally, when we talk about the mana from heaven,
Speaker 1: we're talking about something so strange that when they saw
Speaker 1: it they didn't recognize it. It didn't look like bread
Speaker 1: that they were used to, but it had what they needed.
Speaker 1: And then the other thing that's interesting in terms of
Speaker 1: have what they needed is some people are gathering a
Speaker 1: lot and some people are gathering a little. But when
Speaker 1: it's over, they realize they've all gathered the right about
Speaker 1: the people who should have gathered more don't have more.
Speaker 1: The people who should have gathered less or think they
Speaker 1: gathered less, don't have less. God is providing for what
Speaker 1: they need. Now for what they want. They want to
Speaker 1: go back to Egypt. They want to have the life
Speaker 1: that they were familiar with. But providing what they need.
Speaker 1: Then Moses said to them, no one is to keep
Speaker 1: any of it until morning. However, some of them paid
Speaker 1: no attention to Moses. They kept part of it until morning,
Speaker 1: but it was full of maggots and began to smell,
Speaker 1: so Moses was angry with them. Each morning, everyone gathered
Speaker 1: as much as they needed and when the sun grew hot,
Speaker 1: it melted away. On the sixth day, they gathered twice
Speaker 1: as much, two omers for each person, and the leaders
Speaker 1: of the community came and reported this to Moses. He
Speaker 1: said to them, this is what the Lord commanded. Tomorrow
Speaker 1: is to be a day of sabbath rest, a holy
Speaker 1: sabbath to the Lord. So bake what you want to bake,
Speaker 1: and boil when you want to boil, save whatever is left,
Speaker 1: and keep it until morning. So they saved it until morning,
Speaker 1: as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get
Speaker 1: maggots in it. Eat it today, Moses said, because today
Speaker 1: is a sabbath to the Lord, you will not find
Speaker 1: any of it on the ground. Today six days you
Speaker 1: are to gather it, But on the seventh, the Sabbath,
Speaker 1: there will not be any. Nevertheless, some of the people
Speaker 1: went out on the seventh day to gather it, but
Speaker 1: they found none. Then the Lord said to Moses, how
Speaker 1: long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions.
Speaker 1: Bear in mind that the Lord had given you the sabbath.
Speaker 1: That is why on the sixth day he gives you
Speaker 1: bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where they
Speaker 1: are on the seventh day, no one is to go out.
Speaker 1: So the people rested on the seventh day, so you
Speaker 1: can keep the bread on Friday, you can gather twice
Speaker 1: as much for Saturday, which is the Sabbath at that point,
Speaker 1: not Sunday, but any other day. If you try and
Speaker 1: keep the bread, it will go bad. It's a great trick.
Speaker 1: You got to love the fact that they are told
Speaker 1: not to keep it, try and keep it. And of course,
Speaker 1: sure enough, when they do try and keep it, which
Speaker 1: is almost inevitable, it goes bad. It gets full of
Speaker 1: worms and starts smelling. But not on the weekend, not
Speaker 1: when you're saving it up so that you don't have
Speaker 1: to work on this new thing, this new thing called
Speaker 1: a sabbath, this new day of rest. I say new,
Speaker 1: I mean Genesis talked about a day of rest that
Speaker 1: God rested on the seventh day, and that's where we
Speaker 1: get this idea of sabbath from. But they haven't really
Speaker 1: celebrated the Sabbath. So this is a new thing for them,
Speaker 1: and God shows them in this way that this is
Speaker 1: how they should behave this. What rest means, you're not
Speaker 1: going to gather or prepare food. You're not going to
Speaker 1: go out and get the manna. But God will take
Speaker 1: care of you by making the mana last two days.
Speaker 1: The people of Israel call the bread mana. It was
Speaker 1: white like co anderseed and tasted like wafers made with honey.
Speaker 1: Moses said, this is what the Lord has commanded. Take
Speaker 1: an omer of manna and keep it for the generations
Speaker 1: to come, so that they can see the bread I
Speaker 1: gave you to eat in the wilderness when I brought
Speaker 1: you out of Egypt. So Moses said to Erin, take
Speaker 1: a jar and put an omer of manna in it.
Speaker 1: Then place it before the Lord to be kept for
Speaker 1: the generations to come. As the Lord commanded, Moses Aaron
Speaker 1: put the manna with the tablets of the Covenant Law
Speaker 1: so that it might be preserved. The Israelites ate mana
Speaker 1: for forty years until they came to the land that
Speaker 1: was settled. They ate manna until they reached the border
Speaker 1: of Canaan owner is one tenth of an epha. Well,
Speaker 1: that's rather helpful for those of you who are wondering
Speaker 1: how does an omer compare to an fha. But you
Speaker 1: may not know that, but it's possibly about six pounds,
Speaker 1: where it's possibly about three pounds. Different ideas in terms
Speaker 1: of how much an omer is, but basically, an omer
Speaker 1: is enough food for one day for one person, and
Speaker 1: interesting only enough although it lasts only one day, normally
Speaker 1: last two days of the weekends. They're going to put
Speaker 1: some in a jar, which apparently is going to last
Speaker 1: forever as they remember that God gave them manna in
Speaker 1: the wilderness. Now it's interesting they put it with the tablets.
Speaker 1: They put it with the commandments, But we haven't really
Speaker 1: talked about the commandments yet, so that's something we're going
Speaker 1: to get to later as we get to Mount Sinai
Speaker 1: and we're a couple of different chapters from there. But
Speaker 1: for now, we're going to wrap up this episode of
Speaker 1: the Bible Study Podcast. If you have any questions, send
Speaker 1: an email to Chris two x at gmail dot com,
Speaker 1: or better yet, leave a comment on this episode at
Speaker 1: the Bible Study Podcast dot com. And as always, thanks
Speaker 1: so much for listening. I want to take just a
Speaker 1: second to thank the team at Life Audio for their
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