And it came to pass on the sixth day, that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one; and all the princes of the assembly came and told Moses.
On the sixth day in the wilderness the manna came double, and the leaders of Israel brought the news to Moses. The extra bread announced the Sabbath — a rest God supplied before He ever commanded it.
The order of events matters.
God provides their rest before He commands it. He gives them the food for the Sabbath before He even mentions the Sabbath. They rest not merely as a duty, but as a privilege.
That silence is itself instructive. God had not yet issued a rule about the seventh day, but He had done something the people could read.
If there is a true way of learning God's mind, it is by weighing what He does as well as what He says. The God who had given Israel the manna gave them a double portion on the sixth day, but none on the seventh. Was this pointless? Was it not for the express purpose of guarding against any activity on His people's part, even gathering manna, on the seventh day? All the leaders came and told Moses that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread. Moses told them this was what the LORD had said: tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD.
God later names the reason for the double portion.
Notice that the Sabbath comes here as a gift. "The LORD has given you the Sabbath." Further on in this book we will find it put in the form of a law, with a curse and a judgment attached if people disobey.
Where this gift falls in Israel's history matters.
Exodus 16:5, 22, 30 — given as a gift in grace to the people while they were under grace, before the law.
The Sabbath does not appear in Israel's story at random. Notice how much has to happen first.
The lamb is killed. The Passover blood is sprinkled. The Lord brings out His redeemed people. They sing the song of redemption. God gives the manna from heaven. And then, and not till then, He formally sets up the Sabbath.
The manna pictures Christ, and the day of rest is joined to it.
"Sabbath" means rest. If the connection here is a picture — and it surely must be — then it teaches this: we find rest for our hearts by taking and enjoying Christ as the Bread from heaven.
The double portion stayed good, and that carries its own lesson.
If they gathered it on any other day in self-will, it became worthless and corrupt. But when they gathered it in obedience, with the Sabbath in view, it stayed sound and good… There is perhaps another thought. Whatever we gain of Christ here becomes our eternal possession and delight. Gather as much manna as we can, two omers instead of one. If we keep it for the rest that remains, it will be a source of strength and joy throughout eternity.
God's answer reached far past one missed day.
They were so little able to value the high and holy privilege of keeping the LORD's Sabbath that on the seventh day some of them went out to gather, and they found none. Their neglect of the Sabbath proved their moral condition to be completely wrong — it proved them to be astray about all the commandments and laws of God. The Sabbath was the great test, the measure and gauge of the real state of their hearts toward the Lord.
This failure runs deeper than one missed day.
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 God 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.
- Given, not demanded. The double portion came before any command about the seventh day. God provided the rest first, so Israel received it as a privilege, not a duty.
- Read His actions. God made His mind plain by what He did: double manna on the sixth day, none on the seventh. His will was there to be read.
- Grace before law. Here the Sabbath is a gift in grace. Only later in this book does it appear as law, with a penalty attached.
- Bread before rest. God sets up the Sabbath only after the blood, the rescue and the manna. Rest for the heart comes through feeding on Christ, the Bread from heaven.
- The keeping test. Manna hoarded in self-will rotted. Manna stored in obedience stayed good. What we gather of Christ now keeps for the rest still to come.
And he said to them, This is what Jehovah has said To-morrow is the rest, the holy sabbath, of Jehovah bake what ye will bake, and cook what ye will cook; and lay up for yourselves all that remains over, to be kept for the morning.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And they laid it up for the morning, as Moses had commanded; and it did not stink, neither was there any worm in it.
A few days earlier, manna kept overnight had bred worms and stank. This time the same act left the food sound — because Moses' word told them to keep it, and a day of rest was waiting for it.
One writer sets the two outcomes side by side, and points to the motive behind the keeping.
If they gathered it that way on any other day in self-will, it became worthless and corrupt. But when they did it in obedience, looking ahead to the sabbath, it stayed sound and good.
The exception did not cancel the everyday rule. Hoarding went wrong in two ways.
They were not to store it up for the next day, as if a heavenly supply, like that of earth, would come to an end. Those who hoarded it found only worms and what stank, because of their disobedience. In the hoarding there was not only a misuse of the food, there was also a misunderstanding of what it was. It was not only sent fresh from heaven each day; it also reached man each day in its heavenly freshness. Christ is "the same yesterday and today and forever" (Heb. 13:8), and He is never to be brought down to the level of the ordinary supplies of earth; to do that is corruption.
God gave the double portion before He gave any law about the seventh day. That order changes what kind of day it was.
And now, along with the manna, the Sabbath appears. God provides for it in the double measure of the sixth day before He commands it: they rest not as a mere duty, but as a privilege.
Israel had done nothing to earn the extra bread, or the rest it made possible. One writer also notices how rare that rest was.
Here the people rested on the seventh day, and I am not aware of another single instance where the people rested on the Sabbath day... Just as God gave them twice as much as they could eat, so they rested on the seventh day. In the same way, by the gift of His beloved Son He has more than met our deepest need. So they rested by gift, not by command. And so in Christ we rest by grace, and not by works.
Manna pictures Christ, and the sabbath pictures God's rest. So what they gathered on the sixth day was what they ate on the seventh.
What is taught here is that when we share in God's rest, in His grace, throughout eternity, Christ will still be our food. You might even say that our enjoyment of that rest will consist in feasting with God on the once humbled Christ... There is perhaps another thought. Whatever we gain of Christ here becomes our eternal possession and delight. Let us gather as much manna as we may, two omers instead of one. If we keep it for the rest that remains, it will be a source of strength and joy throughout eternity.
That raises a question about the sabbath: has the rest it pictures already come?
The fulfilment of the Sabbath is not the "Lord's day" of the present period; it is still in the future (Heb. 4:9). "There remains therefore a keeping of Sabbath — sabbatismos — to the people of God." To keep Sabbath in that sense now would be to cut it off from Christ, which is to miss its whole connection. The same principle is true for the soul: it has rest with God only as it grasps Christ.
This was not the last manna to escape corruption. Later in the same chapter God told Moses to keep a jar of it for good.
A small pot — an omer, the tenth part of an ephah — was to be filled with manna and laid up before the Lord. In due time Aaron laid it up before the Testimony. There it kept, without stinking or breeding worms, from generation to generation and from century to century.
- Kept by word. The manna kept fresh because God told them to keep it. The same act in self-will had bred worms days before.
- Kept as gift. The double portion came before any command about the seventh day. Israel rested by gift, not by duty — as we rest in Christ by grace, not works.
- Kept fresh. The one exception never cancelled the daily rule. To hoard bread from heaven is to treat it as if it could run out.
- Kept for the rest. They ate during the sabbath what they gathered before it. Whatever we gain of Christ now becomes an eternal possession and joy.
- Kept forever. Aaron later laid up a jar of manna before the Lord, and it kept century after century — untouched by the rot that claimed the hoarders' portion.
And Moses said, Eat it to-day; for to-day is sabbath to Jehovah to-day ye shall not find it in the field.
Moses tells Israel to eat what is already in their hands, because on this day nothing will fall outside the camp. Here the bread from heaven and the rest of God meet for the first time. That raises a question every reader faces: on what basis does anyone enter God's rest?
No one gathered food on this day. God had given it the day before, in double measure.
Just as God gave them twice as much as they could eat, so they rested on the seventh day. In the same way, by the gift of His beloved Son He has more than met our greatest need. So they rested by gift, not by command. And so in Christ we rest by grace, and not by works.
Commentators note how God Himself describes the day a few verses later.
Notice that the Sabbath comes here as a gift. "The LORD has given you the Sabbath." Later in this book it appears in the form of a law, with a curse and a judgment attached for disobedience. But whether fallen man gets a privilege or a law, a blessing or a curse, it comes to the same thing. His nature is bad. He can neither rest with God nor work for God.
The order in the chapter is deliberate. Bread from heaven is given first; only then is a day of rest named.
The manna, as we have seen, is a picture of Christ, and so the connection teaches that it is Christ, and Christ only, who can lead us into the rest of God. He is the only way. The apostle says, "We who have believed enter that rest" (Heb. 4:3) — that is, it belongs to those who believe in Christ to enter into rest. This does not mean, as some have taught, that the rest is a present thing. The context shows clearly that it is a future blessing.
The same order runs through the whole rescue from Egypt.
The lamb is killed and the Passover blood sprinkled. The Lord brings out His redeemed people. The song of redemption is sung. God gives the manna from heaven. Then, and not until then, He formally sets up the Sabbath.
Writers also mark how late this day first appears.
This fixes the meaning of the sabbath, or the seventh day. Notice that it is the seventh and no other day. That shows clearly that it is God's rest… The sabbath is therefore a picture of God's rest. As given to man, it expresses the desire of God's heart that he should share His rest with Him. It is found here for the first time. There is not a trace of it through the whole patriarchal age, or during the stay of the children of Israel in Egypt.
Within the week some ignored that instruction and went out looking anyway.
They were so little able to appreciate the high and holy privilege of keeping the Lord's sabbath that "on the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. And the LORD said to Moses, 'How long will you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?'" Their neglect of the sabbath proved their moral condition to be all wrong — proved them to be astray about all the commandments and laws of God. The sabbath was the great test, the measure and gauge of the real state of their hearts toward the Lord.
The empty field carries a picture of its own.
The time for the manna will then be past forever. Christ will never again be known in that character, because the wilderness circumstances of His people will have passed away forever. The store they collected while in the desert may still be enjoyed, but there will be no more to gather.
Even inside God's rest, the food does not change.
What this teaches is that when we share in God's rest, in His grace, throughout eternity, Christ will still be our food. You might even say that our enjoyment of that rest will consist in feasting with God on the once humbled Christ… There is perhaps another thought: whatever we gain of Christ here becomes our eternal possession and delight. Gather as much manna as we can, two omers instead of one. If we keep it for the rest that remains, it will be a source of strength and joy throughout eternity.
- Given, not gathered. God supplied the day's food in advance. Israel rested on a gift, "not by command," and believers rest in Christ "by grace, and not by works."
- Bread first, then rest. Redemption from Egypt and the manna come first. Only "then, and not until then," does God set up the Sabbath.
- God's own rest. The seventh day marks God's rest, and expresses "the desire of God's heart that he should share His rest with Him."
- No field to search. Those who went out anyway "found none," and their neglect became "the measure and gauge of the real state of their hearts."
- Eating still. In the rest there will be "no more to gather," but "Christ will still be our food," and what we gain of Him here "becomes our eternal possession and delight."
Six days shall ye gather it; but on the seventh day is sabbath on it there shall be none.
Israel gathered bread from heaven six days a week. On the seventh, none fell. Why does God hold back His supply on the day He calls His own? And what does that weekly pattern teach a rescued people?
This is the first place the Bible uses the word "sabbath." Its meaning comes from God's own rest at creation.
We read in Genesis 2 that "God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all His work that He had done in creation." This fixes the meaning of the sabbath or the seventh day. Notice that it is the seventh day and no other. That shows it is God's rest. The sabbath is therefore a picture of God's rest, and as God gave it to man it expresses the desire of God's heart that he should share it with Him. It appears here for the first time. There is no trace of it in the age of Israel's forefathers, or during their stay in Egypt. But here it stands next to the manna, and that gives it a most blessed significance.
The order matters. God did not offer this rest to slaves in Egypt, or before the bread from heaven came.
Christ's death is the only way to bring the sinner into the real rest of God. In the same way, if the sabbath were a shadow of God's rest in Christ, man could not enter the rest it pictures until the blood of that passover lamb was shed. That lamb pointed to the great sacrificial Lamb of God. So the lamb dies — the passover blood is sprinkled — the Lord brings out His redeemed people — they sing the song of redemption — the manna from heaven comes — and then, and not till then, God establishes the sabbath.
This day arrives before Sinai and before any command attached to it.
Notice that Jehovah gave the sabbath of His own rest before the law, along with the eating of this bread from heaven. He first gave it to Israel as a privilege, not as a command, and not on the principle of law. Here, in the wilderness of Sin, it is God's gift to His redeemed people, in perfect grace.
Since none falls on the seventh day, the day before carries twice the supply.
If the people of Israel were to do no work at all on the sabbath, then a merciful and gracious Jehovah provided a double portion of manna on the sixth day. In its original nature it was not a mere ban, but a positive blessing.
Some went out anyway. Finding nothing exposed more than a scheduling mistake.
Moses said, "Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field." So little were they able to appreciate the high and holy privilege of keeping Jehovah's sabbath that "on the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none." Their neglect of the sabbath proved their moral condition to be all wrong. The sabbath was the great test, the measure and gauge of the real state of their hearts toward Jehovah.
The way Israel gathered the manna decided whether it kept or spoiled.
If they collected it on any other day in self-will, it went rotten and useless. When they collected it in obedience, with the sabbath in view, it stayed sound and good. Whatever we gain of Christ here becomes our eternal possession and delight. Gather as much manna as we can, two measures instead of one. If we keep it for the rest that remains, it will be a source of strength and joy throughout eternity.
So what answers to the sabbath now?
The reality that answers to the sabbath is not the "Lord's day" of the present time; it is still in the future (Heb. 4:9). "So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God." To keep sabbath in that sense now would separate it from Christ, and that misses its whole connection. In spiritual terms the same principle holds: only as we grasp Christ does the soul have rest with God.
The seventh day has no manna in it, and that silence points forward too.
The time for the manna will then be for ever past. Christ will never again be known in that character, for the wilderness circumstances of His people will have passed away for ever. The store they gathered while in the desert may still be enjoyed, but there will be no more to gather.
- Bread first. The lamb, the exodus, then the manna — and only then the sabbath. Rest follows rescue; it never comes first.
- Bread doubled. God supplies two portions on the sixth day. He pays for the rest He asks for: blessing, not a bare ban.
- Bread withheld. On the seventh day the field is empty by design; there is nothing to gather because there is nothing left to do.
- Bread tested. Those who went out anyway found none, and their walk on that day measured the true state of their hearts.
- Bread kept. What Israel gathered with the rest in view stayed sound — and what we take in of Christ now becomes joy in the rest still to come.
And it came to pass on the seventh day that there went out [some] from the people to gather [it], and they found none.
God had told Israel what to expect. Gather double on the sixth day, He said. Nothing would lie on the ground on the seventh. Yet some went out anyway. Their empty hands that morning say more about the human heart than about the manna.
God had not yet given a written commandment about the seventh day. He taught it by what He did. A double supply one morning, nothing the next — that left no one with an excuse.
Even before this, when He gave the manna, He had marked its importance in a clear and solemn way. God had made it so plain that His people had no excuse if they ignored it. Yet they broke it outright — though there was no command even then, we may notice. But if there is a true way of learning God's mind, it is by weighing what He does as well as what He says. And the God who had given Israel the manna gave them a double portion on the sixth day, but none on the seventh. Was this pointless? Was it not done on purpose, to guard against any work by His people — even gathering manna on the seventh day?
Here the seventh day is not yet a rule with a penalty. God hands it to His people as a gift.
And note that the Sabbath is here presented as a matter of gift. "The Lord has given you the Sabbath." Further on in this book we find it given as a law, with a curse and a judgement attached if people disobey. But whether fallen man receives a privilege or a law, a blessing or a curse, it is all the same. His nature is bad. He can neither rest with God 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.
Why walk out into a field God says is empty? Because sitting still felt like nothing, and Egypt still felt like something.
But sad to say, man has no heart for God's rest… 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 inclined to rest with God. The people could remember and talk about the time when they "sat by the meat pots" in Egypt. But they could not appreciate the blessedness of sitting in their tents.
Notice the order God set. The daily bread served the day of rest, not the other way round.
So God placed the "manna" — the heavenly food He supplied to meet His people's daily need — below the "rest" He appointed for them. That rest surpassed every other consideration. The Lord says, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." (Mark 2:27)
God had shown these people grace again and again. It changed nothing inside them.
Some of the people ignored the instruction and went out on the seventh day to gather manna. They found none (v. 27). Whatever displays of grace there were, man's heart remained the same. Disobedience belongs to his corrupt nature. It shows itself the same way under law and under grace. Through Moses the Lord rebuked what His people had done, though He bore with them in His patience and tender mercy.
The empty ground has its own message. It is tied to what the manna stood for.
The manna prefigures Christ. So the connection teaches that it is Christ, and Christ only, who can lead us into the rest of God. He is the only way… The Sabbath is a picture of God's rest. Since sin came in, that rest is still future. So there is a clear lesson in there being no manna on the Sabbath. The time for the manna will then be for ever past. Christ will never again be known in that character. The wilderness conditions of His people will have passed away for ever. They may still enjoy the store they gathered in the desert, but there will be no more to gather.
If sin is what spoils the rest, the cure cannot be harder effort. It has to come from God's side.
It is true that the Sabbath of rest set up for man bore no fruit for him. Sin, into which he had fallen, kept him from enjoying it… So, to give His people the enjoyment of the Sabbath they had forfeited, God must take their sanctification on Himself.
- Given — the seventh day arrives here as something God hands over, before it is ever a law with a penalty.
- Gauged — a double portion on the sixth day, bare ground on the seventh. God showed His mind without a word of command, and left no one an excuse.
- Grasping — they could not sit still in the tent. Hearts that remembered Egypt's meat pots had no appetite for God's rest.
- Graded — God set His gift of rest above the daily bread He was sending. Looking for food that day meant chasing the lesser thing.
- Grace — disobedience showed itself under grace as much as under law. Only God can make that rest enjoyable, by taking their sanctification in hand.
And Jehovah said to Moses, How long do ye refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?
God sent manna every morning. He told Israel to gather twice as much on the sixth day, because none would fall on the seventh. Some went out anyway and found nothing. The Lord's answer to Moses turns one small act into a question about the heart of a whole nation.
God asks about "my commandments and my laws." Yet the rest He is speaking of came to Israel first as a gift, not as a rule.
And notice that the Sabbath is presented here as a matter of gift. "The Lord has given you the Sabbath." Further on in this book we will find it put in the form of a law. It carries a curse and a judgment for anyone who disobeys. But whether fallen man gets a privilege or a law, a blessing or a curse, it makes no difference. His nature is bad. He can neither rest with God 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.
The double portion on the sixth day made the point before any command enforced it.
And now, along with the manna, the Sabbath appears. The double measure of the sixth day provides for it before any command requires it: they rest not as mere duty, but as privilege.
God does not only mention the seventh day. He asks about His commandments and laws — both in the plural. One act of gathering showed what the whole nation was like.
They were so little able to value the high and holy privilege of keeping the Lord's sabbath... Their neglect of the sabbath proved that their moral condition was all wrong — proved that they had gone astray from all the commandments and laws of God. The sabbath was the great test, the measure and gauge of the real state of their hearts toward the Lord.
The words "How long" look back over more than one day. Israel had been fed by a miracle every morning, and it changed nothing in them.
The second thing is that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather manna, despite the instruction they had received. They found none. Whatever the displays of grace, man's heart remained the same. Disobedience belongs to his corrupt nature, and shows itself in the same way, whether under law or grace.
God speaks the rebuke to Moses, though the people were the ones who went out.
As God had told them, He gave no manna on the sabbath. The work of gathering was not to disturb God's day of rest. Even so, some of the people went out to gather (v. 27). God placed the blame for this on Moses, the representative of the people (v. 28). He stressed that the people were to keep the sabbath strictly by staying in their own places.
God had given the day freely. After Israel treated it lightly, He guarded it with penalties.
But in Exodus 16 we find that some of the people dishonoured this day, which the Lord had guarded so closely. They ignored His word and went out as usual to gather manna. As a result, God wrote the keeping of the sabbath straight afterwards into the ten commandments of the law, and fenced it about with a curse on anyone who broke it.
Israel could not keep God's rest. The chapter sets the manna beside the sabbath, and that points to the one who can bring people into rest.
The manna, as we have seen, prefigures Christ, and so the connection teaches that it is Christ, and Christ only, who can lead us into the rest of God. He is the only way. The apostle therefore says, "We who have believed enter that rest" (Heb. 4:3).
- Given — God gave the rest to Israel as a gift long before He made it a law. The double portion on the sixth day provided for it in advance.
- Refused — Man will not take God's rest as a gift, and he cannot keep it as a law either. Under grace or under law, his nature is the same.
- Exposed — One small act of gathering measured everything. It showed the people astray from all God's commandments, not just one.
- Blamed — God spoke His rebuke to Moses, the people's representative, and told the people to keep the rest by staying where they were.
- Fulfilled — No one can gather this rest. The manna points to Christ, and He alone leads into the rest of God.
See, for Jehovah hath given you the sabbath; therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread for two days. Abide every man in his place let no man go from his place on the seventh day.
Israel is a few weeks out of Egypt. Every morning bread falls with the dew, and on the sixth day twice as much lies on the ground. This verse says why: the Lord has handed them a day of rest. Then it draws a line around that day.
The word "sabbath" appears here for the first time in Scripture. It arrives in a desert called the wilderness of Sin, with no penalty attached to it.
Now it is worth special notice that God gave the Sabbath of Jehovah's rest before the law, in connection with the eating of this bread from heaven. It was first given to Israel as a privilege, not by command, or on the principle of law. And here the people rested on the seventh day... From Adam to Moses — yes, right up to this chapter, more than 2500 years — the Spirit never uses the word sabbath in any form. And here, in the wilderness of Sin, it is God's gift to His redeemed people, in perfect grace.
Notice the order in the verse. God does not tell Israel to stop working and then leave them to find food. They already hold two days' bread before He names the seventh day.
God provides their rest before He requires it of them. So the food for the Sabbath comes before any mention of the Sabbath. They rest not merely as a duty, but as a privilege. And the Lord connects this rest with the reception or rejection of Himself in a striking way in the Gospels. The Son of Man was the Lord of the Sabbath. They could not reject the Son of Man and have a Sabbath at all.
Scripture says nothing about the sabbath from Eden until this chapter. The word returns once God has rescued a people and fed them from heaven.
Then sin came in, and God could no longer own the sabbath, and His word says nothing more about it. We read of the sabbath no more until God takes up His people in delivering mercy, and gives them manna from heaven. Then the sabbath day becomes a marked thing, and rest follows — a picture of Jesus sent down from above. God makes rest once more. He was giving to man in grace when He brought Israel out of Egypt, and the sabbath was the fitting sign of it.
Two things stand behind the day: what God had done for them, and what they gathered each morning.
God gave Israel the Sabbath on the basis of redemption. They had the sabbath because they were redeemed. But they only rested on it, or enjoyed it, by gathering the heavenly manna — and this on the principle of pure grace.
Moses told the people to stay in place after some went out looking for manna that was not there. Later generations turned that word into a measured rule about travel.
[A sabbath day's journey] is the greatest distance a Jew could travel on the Sabbath. The law gives no instruction about this. It goes back to the Sabbath when some of the people went out to gather manna, and Moses told them to stay in their place and not leave it on the seventh day. Ex. 16:29. In New Testament times people understood that a person might travel two thousand cubits (about five furlongs)... The Lord perhaps referred to this custom. He told the disciples to pray that, when judgement fell on Jerusalem, their flight would not be "on a Sabbath." Matt. 24:20.
Israel went out searching on the seventh day anyway. That failure says something about human nature, not just about one nation.
And note that the Sabbath is here presented as a matter of gift. "The Lord has given you the Sabbath." Later in this book we will find it put in the form of a law, with a curse and a judgement attached if anyone disobeys. 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.
The seventh day is God's own rest. So how does anyone enter it? The bread lying beside it gives the answer.
The manna, as we have seen, is a picture of Christ. So the connection teaches that it is Christ, and Christ only, who can lead us into the rest of God. He is the only way. The apostle says, "We who have believed enter that rest" (Heb. 4:3). That is, those who believe in Christ are the ones who enter rest. It does not mean, as some have taught, that the rest is something we already have. The context clearly shows that it is a future blessing.
- Given, not demanded — the sabbath first appears here as a gift of grace, with no law, penalty or curse attached.
- Given in advance — the double portion falls on the sixth day. God supplies the rest before He asks for it, so they rest as a privilege, not only a duty.
- Given with the manna — rest returns to the story only after God rescues His people and feeds them from heaven. Redemption and bread come first.
- Given a boundary — "remain each of you in his place" fenced the day. Later custom turned it into a measured sabbath day's journey.
- Given, and refused — some went out looking anyway. Man can neither rest with God nor work for Him. The rest itself still waits, and Christ alone brings anyone into it.
And the people rested on the seventh day.
Exodus 16 closes its week of bread from heaven with one quiet line: the people sat still. Commentators call it a landmark: the first time Scripture records people keeping a rest God made for them, and they ask why it comes with the manna and not at Sinai.
One writer notes the long silence before this day, and how rare the day itself is:
Now note this carefully: God gave the Sabbath of the LORD's rest before the law, in connection with eating this bread from heaven. It was first given to Israel as a privilege, not by command, or on the principle of law. And here the people rested on the seventh day. I know of no other place where the people rested on the Sabbath day. From Adam to Moses, right up to this chapter — that is, for more than 2,500 years — the Spirit never uses the word "sabbath" in any form. Once they are under law, the Spirit never once repeats the words, "They rested on the Sabbath day."
Another writer compares Israel with the nations around them:
After the fall of man came death and toil in a suffering world. From then until God gave the manna from heaven in the wilderness, His revelation makes no mention of sabbath. As a way of dividing time, the seven days were sacred in Chaldea. In Egypt the month had three sections of ten days. But a holy sabbath to the LORD was a new thing on the earth.
The Lord told Israel He had given them the sabbath. One writer weighs that word against what comes later in the same book:
And note that the Sabbath is here presented as a matter of gift. "The LORD has given you the Sabbath." Further on in this book we will find it given as a law, with a curse and a judgement attached if they disobey. But whether fallen man gets a privilege or a law, a blessing or a curse, it makes no difference. His nature is bad. He can neither rest with God nor work for God.
One writer ties the gift back to redemption:
Do not forget that God expressly gave Israel the Sabbath on the ground of redemption. They had the sabbath because they were redeemed. But they only rested on it, or enjoyed it, by gathering the heavenly manna, and this on the principle of pure grace.
Israel could rest on the seventh day only because a double portion fell on the sixth.
In the wilderness, in the ways of divine grace, the LORD set up the Sabbath in connection with the manna that came before it. God told Israel to gather a portion each day, but double on the sixth, laying up for the seventh. The Lord called that day "a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD." This is no longer His creation and rest, but the gathering of manna, and rest. That surely points to the blessed Christ becoming the true Bread come down from heaven, who would establish rest for us also.
For six days gathering was everything. On the seventh it stopped. One writer draws out the order of priority:
The manna was the heavenly food God supplied to meet His people's daily need. Yet He made it secondary to the rest He ordained for them, a rest that surpassed every other consideration. The Lord says, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath."
Just before this verse, some of the people went out to gather on the seventh day and found nothing. One writer reads that failure as a test of the heart:
Their neglect of the sabbath proved that their moral condition was all wrong. It proved that they were astray as to all the commandments and laws of God. The sabbath was the great test, the true measure of their hearts toward the LORD.
One writer presses the lesson on the reader:
And God gave them enough for the sabbath, and so they rested. God has given you rest, my fellow believer. Do you not enjoy it? Do you not rest? Then you have not gathered enough manna. Read the word more. Think more on Christ.
Another writer reads the double measure saved for that day as something that outlasts the wilderness:
Gather as much manna as we can, two omers instead of one. If we keep it for the rest that remains, it will be a source of strength and joy throughout eternity.
- Given — the sabbath arrives here as a gift in grace before the law, not as a command with penalties attached.
- Gathered — they could rest only because a double portion of bread from heaven fell the day before.
- Ranked — God set even the daily food below the rest, which outweighed every other consideration.
- Tested — those who went out to gather on the seventh day found nothing; their restlessness showed the true state of their hearts.
- Rested — the people who had gathered enough sat still, and whatever we store up for that rest becomes lasting joy.