I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel speak to them, saying, Between the two evenings ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God.
Israel is hungry and complaining. God answers with food at both ends of the day, and He gives the reason: by that food they will know who their God is. Why does grumbling draw out supply instead of punishment? And why does God tie the knowledge of Himself to an ordinary evening meal and morning meal?
Israel will demand meat again later, and that time ends very differently. One writer sets the two occasions side by side.
Exodus 16 shows us Israel murmuring again, but the Lord answers with nothing but grace. Yet, as Moses and Aaron said, the murmuring was against Him, and not against them... Wrath did come on them another day. They despised the manna, demanded meat, and kept on craving, when they should have been ashamed and grieved at their self-will and unbelief... But this was after the law came in. God was right to judge sinners who dared to make the blessing depend on their own power to obey it. But up to Sinai it was not law, but grace... Their absolute need was now plain. In the wilderness, who but God could supply bread for such a multitude?
Their complaint did not drive God away. One commentator sees here a pattern that runs from Eden onward.
Their murmurings were the occasion of the display of the glory of the Lord. So the sight of what man is draws out of the depths of God's heart the revelation of what He is. It was so in the garden of Eden, and indeed all down the line of His dealings with man... Note, moreover, that murmuring against Moses and Aaron was murmuring against the Lord. All sin is really against God.
The verse names two foods at two times of day. One writer weighs what each of them is for.
What may we learn from the meat given in the evening? Does it not tell us of the provision God makes to meet our bodily needs?... So, "in the evening quail came up and covered the camp." There was abundance. God provides for the natural needs of His saints... The evening quails meet every bodily need. In the same way, the morning bread teaches us to begin each day with Him who alone sustains the soul... The quails are as much His gift as the bread; both are of His grace. The quails only meet bodily needs, so they are not laid up before the Lord, but the manna, the bread from heaven, is.
Commentators differ over the quails. One writer finds no teaching in them at all.
The quails have no special teaching connected with them, while the manna is a very striking picture of the Lord Jesus. The quails were given to satisfy the desires of the people, but brought no blessing... God may hear the cry of His people, even in their unbelief, and grant them their desires — but for discipline rather than for present blessing.
Verses 6 and 7 had already told them what evening and morning would each show.
What took place at evening? God gave them meat to eat. It was God's proof that He had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and that if He led them through the wilderness, He would feed them too. But the morning would show more than this. Then they would have not only proof that God had freed them from slavery; they would also see the glory of the LORD.
Jesus Himself takes up this desert food and reads it as pointing to Him.
There is a far deeper meaning in the manna than this. You remember how the Lord interprets it in John 6... "It was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven." Then He adds, "I am the bread of life." He is the fulfilment of the manna. Our God provides the food we need for this wilderness life. The wonder of it is so great that no one has ever been able to take it in. "God manifest in the flesh!"
The bread arrives with the morning dew, before anyone is awake to work for it.
This is how divine grace serves, and they depend on it completely. No human hands bestowed this bread. God Himself showers it around their tents in the night while they sleep. It comes in the dew, the beautiful figure of the Spirit, who ministers Christ, and not Himself — the dew lifts and leaves the manna on the ground. But it lies there, an insignificant thing, and small as the frost.
- Complaint — Israel aimed the murmuring at Moses and Aaron, but it landed on God. All sin is against Him.
- Grace — before Sinai, God answered that complaint with food, not judgment. The same demand met wrath later, once the law had come in.
- Glory — what man is drew out what God is. Their complaint became the occasion for His glory to appear.
- Gift — quails and manna both came from His hand: one feeds the body, one feeds the soul. Only the manna had a place before the Lord, and only the manna pictures Christ.
- Knowledge — evening proved He had brought them out of Egypt. Morning showed His glory in bread that fell while they slept — the bread Jesus points to as Himself.
And it came to pass in the evening, that quails came up, and covered the camp; and in the morning the dew lay round the camp.
Israel had complained against God in the desert. His answer came as food, not punishment — and commentators read both the evening birds and the morning dew as pointing far beyond one meal.
God had every reason to rebuke them. Notice what He sent instead.
But grace, without judgment, answers their murmuring, and provides for their need. Jehovah heard them, but did not scold them. They cried for bread, and He rained it down from heaven. He gave them flesh every evening, and bread every morning.
Notice also how the bread reached them.
So divine grace ministers, and they are dependent entirely upon it. No human hands gave this bread. God Himself showers it around their tents in the night while they sleep.
The birds settled on the camp in the evening and met plain, physical hunger. One writer asks what that teaches.
Does it not tell us of the provision God makes for our bodily needs? After the work of the day the body needs refreshment... He who sent the quails is the same One who said, "Do not be anxious about tomorrow"... And just as the evening quails meet the body's needs, so the morning bread teaches us to begin each day with Him who alone sustains the soul... The quails are as much His gift as the bread; both are of His grace. The quails, since they only meet the body's needs, are not laid up before the Lord, but the manna, the bread from heaven, is.
The evening gift told Israel something about God. The morning gift showed them more.
We take our stand with the hungry people at the end of the anxious day. And look — "In the evening quail came up and covered the camp." Here was the flesh they wanted. Jehovah, their salvation, had not appointed Israel to perish! It was He who had brought them out from the land of Egypt, and this the quails showed to Israel. But there was more — in the morning they were to see the glory of Jehovah... It was God's glory in the wilderness — it was the gift of God.
The proportions of the text carry a message.
Only part of one verse deals with the miracle of the quails. All the rest of our chapter gives the details of the manna. That is because the manna is a picture fulfilled in Christ, the wilderness food of His saints. The Lord's own words in John 6 make this clear. The manna was the picture, but He is the "true bread from heaven."
The same writer looks at the flight itself, and at what happened when the miracle came again later, under the law:
The word of the Lord came true in an extraordinary flight of quails that evening. This bird migrates and is easy to catch, but the huge numbers settling on the camp made the event a miracle. Nothing more is said here about them. But when this miracle was repeated under the law, judgment followed, as we see in Numbers 11:31-34.
One writer sees the order as deliberate: flesh before bread, evening before morning.
A flight of quails comes before the manna, in the evening. It supplies the people with the flesh they had been promised. We know well what this death as the food of life means, so it raises no difficulty here. The Lord Himself, in His sermon on this text of manna (John 6), assures us that we must not only eat His flesh, but drink His blood, or we have no life in us. His person and His work are both necessary to us. And His sacrifice must come first. In the same way, Israel could eat the lamb only inside the house sprinkled with blood. So the quails come first, and in the evening.
Commentators differ on what the dew pictures. One connects it with the Holy Spirit:
But notice, it was in connection with the dew that the manna came. It is the Holy Spirit who makes Christ our food; and may there not be a fitness in the dew being withdrawn so that the manna may be seen? The Spirit always presents Christ and none but Him. But the same things that removed the dew also melted the manna. The sun of this world soon drives away, as far as our enjoyment goes, what should be our food.
Another reads the same dew as a picture of Scripture:
Water in Scripture is a figure of the word of God in its cleansing or purifying power. The Israelites got manna in connection with dew — we receive Christ through the word.
- Murmuring — Israel complained, and God did not punish them. Grace answered with supper and breakfast.
- Gift — No human hand brought it. God scattered it around their tents while they slept, so they lived on pure dependence.
- Evening — The quails proved that He who brought them out would feed them. God cares for plain bodily need.
- Morning — The evening gave proof. The morning gave glory: God's own gift in the wilderness.
- Christ — Half a verse for the quails, a chapter for the manna. Flesh first, then bread: His sacrifice, then His life as our daily food.