WEBVTT - #976 - Exodus 16 – Manna 0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:07.840 Life Audio The Bible Study Podcast, Episode nine hundred and 0:00:07.880 --> 0:00:11.719 seventy six. Today, The Bible Study Podcast continues its study 0:00:11.720 --> 0:00:23.239 of the Book of Exodus with chapter sixteen. Welcome to 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:26.360 the Bible Study Podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. We 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:30.440 continue on with chapter sixteen, Men and Quail, But first 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:35.720 a word from this sponsor. Chapter sixteen, the whole Israelite 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:39.040 community set out from Ilium and came to the desert 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:43.000 of sin which is between Elim and Sinai, on the 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:45.600 fifteenth day of the second month, after they had come 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:49.320 out of Egypt. In the desert, the whole community grumbled 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:52.760 against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, if 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:55.480 only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt. 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:58.320 There we sat around pots of meat and ate all 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:01.120 the food we wanted. So you have brought us out 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:08.440 into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death. Okay, 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:12.280 we were really happy coming out of the Red Sea. 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:15.520 We had a little grumbling because we're having some trouble 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:21.800 finding water, and suddenly we're thinking that again God has 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:26.800 brought us out here to die because we're not just hungry, 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:30.280 we're angry at this point. Then the Lord said to Moses, 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:32.920 I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:35.559 people are to go out each day and gather enough 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:38.440 for that day. In this way, I will test them 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:41.920 and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:45.120 sixth day, they are to prepare what they bring in, 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:48.120 and that is to be twice as much as they 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:51.760 gather on the other days. So Moses and Aaron said 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:54.720 to the Israelites, in the evening, you will know that 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:57.520 it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt. 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:00.080 And in the morning you will see the glory of 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:03.360 the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against him. 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:07.160 Who are we that you should grumble against us? Moses 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:10.360 also said, but you will know that it was the 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:12.880 Lord when he gives you the meat to eat in 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:15.520 the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:19.480 because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:22.680 You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord. 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:26.920 Then Moses told Erin, say to the entire Israelite community, 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:31.120 come before the Lord. He has heard your grumbling. While 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:34.200 Erin was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:37.240 toward the desert, and there was the glory of the 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:41.080 Lord appearing in the cloud. The Lord said to Moses, 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:43.880 I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:46.480 at twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:49.040 you will be filled with bread. Then you will know 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:52.960 that I am the Lord your God. That evening, quail 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:55.240 came and covered the camp, and in the morning there 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:58.000 was a layer of dew around the camp. When the 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:01.760 dew was gone, thin flakes, like frost on the ground 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:05.240 appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:08.120 they said to each other, what is it for They 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:11.960 did not know what it was. Moses said to them, 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:14.400 it is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:18.080 This is what the Lord has commanded. Everyone is to 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:20.720 gather as much as they need. Take an omer for 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:24.359 each person you have in your tent. The Israelites did 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:27.720 as they were told. Some gathered much, some little, And 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:30.160 when they measured it by the omer, the one who 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:33.160 had gathered much did not have too much, and the 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:36.560 one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:42.360 had gathered just as much as they needed. So they're 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:45.680 in the middle of the desert, and they think they 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:49.200 know the problem right, that they need bread, that they 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.480 need food. They want meat, they want bread, they want 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:58.160 the basics. But as they look around, they're in a desert. 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:04.640 They don't see enough food to eat. There's nothing like 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:07.640 grain fields and things like that that they would have 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:09.880 had when they were in Egypt. Egypt was a very 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:14.200 fertile land, lots of grain, lots of wheat grown in Egypt. 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:19.080 They don't see that, and so there's no place to 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:22.360 buy food. There are a lot of people here, hundreds 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:26.520 of thousands of people here, and we don't see a 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:31.120 way out of it. Right. We're looking around for how 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:35.120 we would solve this problem, and there's nothing. There's no 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:40.080 solution that we can see, and so they lose faith. 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:44.920 But you can understand why they lose faith, right. It's 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:49.960 a difficult situation that they don't see us a way out. 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:55.039 But that doesn't matter. We don't have to see what 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:57.680 God is going to do. We have to put our 0:04:57.720 --> 0:05:02.240 faith in God that he will do something. And so 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:05.640 God causes two things to happen. One is meat to 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:08.640 come to them in the form of quail, and the other, 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:12.240 even more strange, is for bread to come to them 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:15.560 in the form of mana manna that is literally so 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:21.400 weird that when they see it, they say what is it? 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:26.919 And the word mana sounds like the Hebrew for what 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:30.880 is it? Literally, when we talk about the mana from heaven, 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:34.640 we're talking about something so strange that when they saw 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:37.600 it they didn't recognize it. It didn't look like bread 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:40.799 that they were used to, but it had what they needed. 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:42.880 And then the other thing that's interesting in terms of 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:45.560 have what they needed is some people are gathering a 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:47.640 lot and some people are gathering a little. But when 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:51.480 it's over, they realize they've all gathered the right about 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:56.200 the people who should have gathered more don't have more. 0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:58.720 The people who should have gathered less or think they 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:02.920 gathered less, don't have less. God is providing for what 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:07.200 they need. Now for what they want. They want to 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:09.559 go back to Egypt. They want to have the life 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:13.279 that they were familiar with. But providing what they need. 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:16.800 Then Moses said to them, no one is to keep 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:19.760 any of it until morning. However, some of them paid 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:22.080 no attention to Moses. They kept part of it until morning, 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:24.360 but it was full of maggots and began to smell, 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:28.400 so Moses was angry with them. Each morning, everyone gathered 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:30.600 as much as they needed and when the sun grew hot, 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:33.679 it melted away. On the sixth day, they gathered twice 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:36.760 as much, two omers for each person, and the leaders 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:39.599 of the community came and reported this to Moses. He 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:43.440 said to them, this is what the Lord commanded. Tomorrow 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:46.200 is to be a day of sabbath rest, a holy 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:48.920 sabbath to the Lord. So bake what you want to bake, 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:51.840 and boil when you want to boil, save whatever is left, 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:55.400 and keep it until morning. So they saved it until morning, 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:58.560 as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:01.760 maggots in it. Eat it today, Moses said, because today 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:04.280 is a sabbath to the Lord, you will not find 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:07.080 any of it on the ground. Today six days you 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:09.880 are to gather it, But on the seventh, the Sabbath, 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:12.760 there will not be any. Nevertheless, some of the people 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:15.000 went out on the seventh day to gather it, but 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:17.720 they found none. Then the Lord said to Moses, how 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:21.720 long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions. 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:24.320 Bear in mind that the Lord had given you the sabbath. 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:26.640 That is why on the sixth day he gives you 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:30.000 bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where they 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:32.640 are on the seventh day, no one is to go out. 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:36.520 So the people rested on the seventh day, so you 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:41.600 can keep the bread on Friday, you can gather twice 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:44.320 as much for Saturday, which is the Sabbath at that point, 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:48.680 not Sunday, but any other day. If you try and 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:53.400 keep the bread, it will go bad. It's a great trick. 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:56.960 You got to love the fact that they are told 0:07:57.000 --> 0:07:59.360 not to keep it, try and keep it. And of course, 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:02.360 sure enough, when they do try and keep it, which 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:05.400 is almost inevitable, it goes bad. It gets full of 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:09.480 worms and starts smelling. But not on the weekend, not 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:12.080 when you're saving it up so that you don't have 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:16.640 to work on this new thing, this new thing called 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:20.480 a sabbath, this new day of rest. I say new, 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:23.280 I mean Genesis talked about a day of rest that 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:25.400 God rested on the seventh day, and that's where we 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:30.240 get this idea of sabbath from. But they haven't really 0:08:30.320 --> 0:08:34.360 celebrated the Sabbath. So this is a new thing for them, 0:08:34.920 --> 0:08:40.160 and God shows them in this way that this is 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:43.600 how they should behave this. What rest means, you're not 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:46.360 going to gather or prepare food. You're not going to 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:49.960 go out and get the manna. But God will take 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:54.200 care of you by making the mana last two days. 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:59.160 The people of Israel call the bread mana. It was 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:03.439 white like co anderseed and tasted like wafers made with honey. 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:07.040 Moses said, this is what the Lord has commanded. Take 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:10.040 an omer of manna and keep it for the generations 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:12.560 to come, so that they can see the bread I 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:15.200 gave you to eat in the wilderness when I brought 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:18.400 you out of Egypt. So Moses said to Erin, take 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:20.360 a jar and put an omer of manna in it. 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:23.240 Then place it before the Lord to be kept for 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:27.440 the generations to come. As the Lord commanded, Moses Aaron 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:30.440 put the manna with the tablets of the Covenant Law 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:34.400 so that it might be preserved. The Israelites ate mana 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:37.640 for forty years until they came to the land that 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:40.840 was settled. They ate manna until they reached the border 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:45.800 of Canaan owner is one tenth of an epha. Well, 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:48.079 that's rather helpful for those of you who are wondering 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:52.600 how does an omer compare to an fha. But you 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:57.319 may not know that, but it's possibly about six pounds, 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:01.280 where it's possibly about three pounds. Different ideas in terms 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:04.040 of how much an omer is, but basically, an omer 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:08.360 is enough food for one day for one person, and 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:13.400 interesting only enough although it lasts only one day, normally 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:15.560 last two days of the weekends. They're going to put 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:18.280 some in a jar, which apparently is going to last 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:22.680 forever as they remember that God gave them manna in 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:27.760 the wilderness. Now it's interesting they put it with the tablets. 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:33.800 They put it with the commandments, But we haven't really 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:38.440 talked about the commandments yet, so that's something we're going 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:42.240 to get to later as we get to Mount Sinai 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:44.880 and we're a couple of different chapters from there. But 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:47.080 for now, we're going to wrap up this episode of 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:50.560 the Bible Study Podcast. If you have any questions, send 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:53.520 an email to Chris two x at gmail dot com, 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:56.800 or better yet, leave a comment on this episode at 0:10:57.120 --> 0:11:01.360 the Bible Study Podcast dot com. And as always, thanks 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:13.640 so much for listening. I want to take just a 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:16.040 second to thank the team at Life Audio for their 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:18.840 partnership with us on this podcast. If you go to 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:22.840 lifeaudio dot com, you'll find dozens of other faith centered 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:28.200 podcasts in their network. They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:29.080 and more.