Exodus 16:2–4

Here we find Israel in a very striking and important position. It is still the wilderness, of course, but this is a key stage of it: "between Elim and Sinai." Elim was the place where they had just tasted the refreshing springs of God's ministry. Sinai was the place where they stepped right off the ground of free and sovereign grace, and put themselves under a covenant of works... Here they are still under the same grace that had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, and so God meets all their murmurings at once with His own supplies.

The first word we must look at is "murmurings." It translates a Greek word said something like "gongusmos." You can almost hear the grumbling and muttering in the sound of it. The children of Israel murmured very often. It was one of their chief sins. They murmured at the Red Sea (Ex. 14:11)... They murmured at Marah (Ex. 15:24)... We find it again in Ex. 16:2 in the wilderness of Sin; and again in Ex. 17:3 at Rephidim.

They were taken up with their present distress. They thought only of the cooking pots of Egypt and the bread they ate until they were full. But what about the bitter slavery and the cruelty of their slave-drivers while they were held in the land of Egypt?

God had heard the murmurings of the children of Israel against Him. They may say they were complaining only against Moses and Aaron. But what were those two men except God's representatives? So Moses insists that their murmurings were not against Moses and Aaron, but against the Lord (v. 8).

We can see that God dealt with Israel in unmixed grace, whatever their murmurings might be, until they reached Sinai. He did it so that they might know how fully He was for them... In chapter 16, when they murmured for food, God gave them quails as well as manna, without a word of reproach. Israel was to know that God was feeding them on the ground of perfect grace. But later, when they murmured for meat again, they were under law by then. We read that while the meat was still in their mouths, the anger of the Lord burned against the people.

In His grace God answered their murmuring by giving them meat and manna, and also by letting His glory appear (Ex. 16:2-10). God did not scold them for murmuring. He appeared in His glory to show His care for them in wonderful grace.

When we have set out to walk in His ways, we are ready to murmur and rebel at the first sign of pressure or trial... We forget ten thousand mercies the moment one hardship comes... our path through the desert is scattered with countless mercies. Yet let one cloud the size of a man's hand appear on the horizon, and at once we forget the rich mercies of the past because of that single cloud — which, after all, may only break in blessings on our head.

Up to Sinai, everything rested on what God was for them in His mercy and love. From that time on, by their own action, they changed the ground to what they were for God. That is the difference between grace and law, and that is what makes the journey between Elim and Sinai so interesting. But under grace or under law, the flesh stayed the same. It used every chance it got to show its corrupt and incurable character.

It was easy to be glad to escape Egypt while God's terrifying judgements were falling on it one after another. At that moment the meat pots, the leeks, the onions and the garlic held little attraction. They came tied to the heavy plagues sent from the hand of an offended God. But now they have forgotten the plagues, and they remember only the meat pots.

Which was better — to toil at Pharaoh's brick-kilns, or to travel in the desert with God? Who could have any difficulty about that for a moment? They had forgotten their slavery. All they remembered was what they had eaten.

Sad to say, the people were walking by sight. The wonders of the Passover night and the crossing of the Red Sea had happened within the month, yet they had completely forgotten the power of their God. They remembered only the meat pots of Egypt, and they reproached Moses and Aaron. They saw nothing ahead but death, and they would have preferred it in Egypt rather than in the wilderness.

When the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, it was against God they were complaining. But God in His grace answered their murmuring. He gave them flesh and manna, and He also let His glory appear (Ex. 16:2-10). God did not rebuke them for murmuring. He appeared in His glory to show His care for them in wonderful grace.

The character of grace is stamped on this gift of the manna for the people's need. Their murmuring, instead of bringing down judgment, is met by the supply for their need.

It is a great mercy of God that He sometimes deprives us of food to such an extent that we become extremely hungry. He did this to Israel after He delivered that nation from the slavery of Egypt through the crossing of the Red Sea. He could easily have provided the food they needed from the start of their journey. Instead He allowed them to hunger — that is, to feel their lack enough to stir up serious concern within them. This concern reached the point of bitter complaint and murmuring, but in a certain sense this was good. Why? Because it brought out what was actually in their hearts.

The Lord has His purpose in letting us go hungry: to wean us from the meat pots of Egypt and to draw us to Himself... In their unbelief the children of Israel accused Moses of planning to kill them with hunger. But their hunger was meant to create another appetite in them, and only that appetite could sustain their true life.

The heart that stops keeping a thankful sense of God's goodness will soon become "dark." So Israel lost the sense of being in God's hands... This is the path a soul travels when it has lost touch with God. It first loses the sense of being in God's hands for good, and finally begins to think itself in His hands for evil.

The first thing to notice is the grace with which God meets the desires of the people. In Numbers 11 He also meets their desire in similar circumstances. But there "the anger of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck down the people with a very great plague." Here there is no sign of judgment — only patient and forbearing grace. The difference springs from the dispensation. In Numbers they were under law, and God dealt with them on that ground. Here they are under grace, and so grace reigned despite their sin.

When they were hungry enough to cry out for bread, God gave them bread. How true for us also! If He had first given them bread before they were hungry, they might well have complained that they wanted something different. The flesh in us always thinks it knows what we need better than God.

Even God's grace in this way proves us. In fact, nothing proves us more than grace. The very name "manna" carries as much meaning in the picture as it did in the history. It reminds us how little even the people of God enter into what we have here. "They said to one another, 'manna' (what is it?), for they did not know what it was."

Only a heart weaned from Egypt's influences could be satisfied with "bread from heaven," or enjoy it. In fact, we know that the people were not satisfied with it. They despised it, called it "light food," and craved meat. So they showed how little their hearts were free of Egypt, or willing to walk in God's law… It takes a heavenly taste to feed on bread from heaven. Nature cannot enjoy such food.

The people were not yet formally under the law, so the Lord at once stepped in with mercy. Yet by the bread from heaven there would be a first testing: would they walk in His law when He gave it, or would they not? This we see in verse 4.

The manna was a daily provision for daily need. No one could hoard it; if anyone tried, it bred worms and stank. In the same way we cannot live on yesterday's enjoyment of Christ. We must enjoy Him today… Constant dependence upon God, constant drawing from Him, is what He appoints as the way of blessing for us. He would keep us with Himself. We must recognise the hand of God that supplies us, and gives us no store that would let us live, even a little, independently of Him.

We must gather the heavenly manna fresh every morning. We must make Christ our primary object. We must seek Him "early," before "other things" have had time to take possession of our poor, easily-captured hearts.

Manna was food for the wilderness, and presents to us Christ, a humbled Christ in this world. This uniquely attractive picture brings before us the matchless, heavenly grace that marked Him in His lowly path of pleasure for His God and Father. It shows His obedience, meekness, gentleness, dependence, His love of righteousness, His hatred of lawlessness, and every other feature of perfection.

The Lord Jesus said to the Jews, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven" (John 6:32). What a beautiful answer to murmuring is God's tender action. Here were these people all murmuring, and the Lord steps in and "rains bread from heaven" for them.