And the children of Israel said to them, Would that we had died by the hand of Jehovah in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, when we ate bread to the full; for ye have brought us out into this wilderness, to kill this whole congregation with hunger!
One month out of Egypt, the food runs out, and the whole camp turns on Moses and Aaron with a wish that God had killed them back in Egypt. Their words show what the desert was there to expose: what a rescued people carry in their hearts when supplies run out.
The place and the date matter. The camp is in the wilderness of Sin, on the road between the springs of Elim and Mount Sinai. God has not yet given the law. This stretch of the journey is marked only by His kindness.
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.
Their account of Egypt is true about the food and silent about everything else. The plagues and the slave labour have dropped out, leaving only the cooking pots.
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.
Put as a plain question, the choice they are making is absurd:
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.
God's power had not changed; their view of it had. All they could see was an empty desert.
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.
The people shouted at Moses and Aaron, but they were not the real target. The answer that came back was not what their words deserved.
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 same point is made about the gift itself: grace, not payback, is stamped on it.
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.
God could have fed them from day one. The hunger was deliberate, and the ugly words it produced served a purpose.
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.
Their charge was that Moses had brought them out to kill them with hunger. The hunger had the opposite aim.
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 wish to have died in Egypt is not a small lapse of mood. Left alone, it darkens a person's whole reading of God.
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.
- Hunger — God let them feel the lack on purpose, to bring out what was already in their hearts and to stir a new appetite for Himself.
- Memory — the empty stomach edited Egypt down to full meat pots, deleting the slavery that came with them.
- Sight — a month after the Red Sea they judged by what the eye could see, so they saw only death ahead.
- Grace — they aimed their murmuring past Moses at God, and God answered with bread, meat and His glory instead of judgment.
- Warning — an unthankful heart goes dark. It stops trusting God's hands for good and starts fearing them for harm.
Then said Jehovah to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather the daily need on its day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or not.
God answers a hungry, complaining people with bread out of the sky, not with punishment. In the same breath He calls that bread a test. Free giving and daily gathering stand side by side in this verse.
Israel had been murmuring, hungry and looking back to Egypt. God's answer is provision. One writer sets this beside a later scene, where a similar cry met a very different response:
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.
God also let the hunger come first, and answered only when they felt it:
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.
The words "that I may test them" hang on the gift itself, not on some separate ordeal:
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."
The test found something out about Israel:
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.
God had not yet given the law. That shapes how "walk in my law" reads here:
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 instruction is not simply "gather", but "gather a day's portion every day". God ruled out storing on purpose:
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.
The daily habit has an hour and a priority:
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.
Writers read the manna as a picture of Christ — food for people still travelling:
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.
Jesus pointed past Moses to the Giver:
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.
- Grace first. Complaint deserved judgment; God answered with bread, because Israel stood under grace and not yet under law.
- Grace proves. The gift was the test — nothing exposes a heart more than kindness, and the manna revealed hearts still tied to Egypt.
- Grace is daily. A day's portion for a day, gathered fresh and early. Hoarded manna bred worms, and yesterday's enjoyment of Christ will not feed today.
- Grace humbles. God let them hunger before He fed them, so they would take what He chose rather than what the flesh demanded.
- Grace has a Person. The bread from heaven pictures Christ in His lowliness. He claimed the reality for Himself: the Father gives the true bread from heaven.
And it shall come to pass on the sixth day, that they shall prepare what they have brought in; and it shall be twice as much as they shall gather daily.
A hungry nation grumbles, and God answers by promising bread out of heaven. One detail sounds strange: on the sixth day they gather twice as much, for a rest they have never been told to keep.
The double portion is the first hint of the Sabbath in Israel's history. It comes before God has given the law. One writer marks how long the silence lasted before this moment:
Notice this carefully: God gave the Sabbath of Jehovah's rest before the law, along 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. I know of no other single instance where the people rested on the Sabbath day. From Adam to Moses, right up to this chapter, more than 2,500 years passed. In all that time the Spirit never uses the word Sabbath, in its root or in any of its forms. And here, in the wilderness of Sin, it is God's gift to His redeemed people, in perfect grace.
The extra gathering serves the seventh day. That order shows which of the two God treats as greater:
So we find that God made the "manna" — the heavenly food He supplied to meet His people's daily need — serve the "rest" which He appointed for them. That rest outweighed every other consideration. The Lord says, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath."
So where is that rest found? One writer answers from the meaning of the word itself:
"Sabbath" means rest. Here, if the connection means anything as a type — and it surely must — then the teaching is clear. Our hearts find rest as we take in and enjoy Christ as the Bread from heaven.
Every other day, extra manna rotted. The sixth day was the one time storing it was right, and the exception proves the rule:
Everyone had to gather it every day according to his eating (Ex. 16:16); and if he gathered more — unless it was for "the Sabbath" — it would certainly become corrupt. No, dear friends, there must be constant feeding upon Christ, day by day and hour by hour; and we can never receive more than we need at the time. This keeps us in continual dependence, with our eyes always on Christ.
Why the manna was gathered decided whether it rotted or kept. One writer takes that further, into eternity:
Collected this way on any other day, out of self-will, it became worthless and rotten. But done in obedience, with the Sabbath in view, it stayed sound and good. The truth taught is that when we share in God's rest, in His grace, throughout eternity, Christ will still be our food. There is perhaps another thought. It is that whatever we gain of Christ here becomes our eternal possession and delight. Gather as much manna as we may, two omers instead of one; if it is kept for the rest that remains, it will be a source of strength and joy throughout eternity.
Commentators also read the sixth day as a picture of the journey's last stretch. One takes the doubled gathering as work that grows heavier before it ends:
On the sixth day they were to gather twice as much as on other days, to provide for the Sabbath, when they were not to gather at all (v. 5). As a type this teaches two things. There will be no labour of gathering in eternity, but that labour increases as eternity draws near.
Another sees that same day as both hard and fruitful:
On the sixth day the amount is twice as much as usual. The sixth day is the day of discipline, and it is also the day of spiritual harvest.
- Given, not demanded. The Sabbath first appears here as a gift to a redeemed people. It came before the law, as a privilege, not a command.
- Gathered daily. The ordinary rule is no hoarding: enough for today only, which keeps the eye fixed on Christ.
- Doubled once. The sixth day is the lone exception. God gives the extra portion for one reason: the rest that follows.
- Kept without decay. Manna held back in self-will rots. Manna held for the Sabbath stays good. What we take in of Christ with that rest in view is never lost.
- Resting in Christ. The bread from heaven and the day of rest belong together: the rest is found in feeding on Him.
And Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, In the evening, then shall ye know that Jehovah has brought you out from the land of Egypt;
Israel had blamed Moses and Aaron for marching them into a desert to starve. The two men answer by pointing away from themselves. By evening, they say, Israel will know whose hand really brought them out of Egypt — and the food God sends will be the proof.
The complaint in verse 3 had a target: Moses and Aaron. Verse 6 corrects that charge. One writer shows how fast the people had changed their story about their own rescue.
They say they wish they had died in the land of Egypt, while they sat by the meat pots and had plenty to eat. But they forgot the harsh slavery they had suffered under, complaining bitterly all the while! They accuse Moses and Aaron of bringing them out of Egypt. Yet only a short time before, they had sung in triumph to the Lord, thanking Him for His great deliverance. How is it possible that their eyes had grown so dim, and in so short a time?
Another writer traces the same forgetfulness to walking by sight:
By now they had surely eaten all the food they brought out of Egypt, and in the wilderness there was no visible source of supply. 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.
Moses takes no credit for the miracles and no blame for the hunger. One writer notes that wonders worked through God's servants point away from those servants.
These miracles gave no honour to the men who worked them, though of course they proved that their ministry came from God. They were wholly a testimony to the Living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, and all He taught. This is true even of Moses' works of power. In Exodus 16:8 and elsewhere we read, "What are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the LORD."
Verse 6 promises knowledge by evening. Verse 7 promises glory in the morning. One writer draws out the difference between the two.
It was as great a miracle to bring the quails, but seeing the glory is not said in connection with them. God had promised, "in the morning you shall see the glory of the LORD." What took place at evening? God gave them flesh to eat. That was God's proof that He had brought them out of the land of Egypt. It showed that if He led them through the wilderness, He would feed them also. But more than this was to be seen in the morning.
The evening flesh and the morning bread meet different hungers, and both are gifts.
The bread that Israel gathered every morning was only a type of the true bread... But the flesh in the evening, what may we learn from that? Does it not tell us of the provision God makes to meet our bodily needs? After the toil of the day the body needs refreshment... Just as the evening quails meet every bodily need, 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.
Numbers 11 records a similar scene with a very different ending. One writer explains why the same request met a different answer.
In Numbers 11 He also meets their desire in similar circumstances. But there "the wrath 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, if we may so describe it, from the way God was dealing with them at the time. In Numbers they were under law, and God treated them accordingly. Here they are under grace, and so grace reigned despite their sin. Their grumbling was also the occasion for the display of the glory of the Lord. So when man shows what he is, God reveals from the depths of His heart what He is.
The same grace shapes how God draws near to them:
He does not judge them. Instead, He lets His glory draw near, so that the light of His presence might shine in on this grumbling people.
- Forgetting — Within a month of the Red Sea, Israel remembered Egypt's food and forgot Egypt's chains. They forgot the power that had rescued them.
- Misdirected — They aimed the complaint at Moses and Aaron. "What are we?" Moses answers. The grumbling was against the Lord.
- Proof — The flesh at evening was God's evidence that He had brought them out. The God who led them would also feed them.
- Glory — Morning went further. Their grumbling became the occasion for the Lord to display His glory.
- Grace — Under grace no judgment fell. The same failure under law in Numbers brought a plague. What man is drew out what God is.
and in the morning, then shall ye see the glory of Jehovah; for he has heard your murmurings against Jehovah; -- and what are we, that ye murmur against us?
Israel is in the wilderness, and the camp turns on Moses and Aaron. Moses answers with a promise for that evening and that morning. He also corrects them about who they are really complaining against.
The people had a visible target for their anger. Moses points them past it, to God.
God had heard the murmurings of the children of Israel against Him. They may say they were complaining only against Moses and Aaron. But these men were nothing more than representatives of God. So Moses insists that their murmurings were not against Moses and Aaron, but against the Lord (v. 8).
Moses' question is not mere modesty. God's servants took no honour for the works of power they performed.
These miracles gave no honour at all to the people who performed them. Of course they confirmed the divine character of their ministry. They were entirely a testimony to the Living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, and to all He taught. This is true even of Moses' works of power, as in Exodus 16:8 and elsewhere: "What are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the LORD."
The promise has two halves. The evening would settle who had brought them out. The morning would show them something they had not pictured.
Moses and Aaron speak to the children of Israel, to subdue them before the Lord. They tell them that at evening they will have a fresh reminder that the Lord — not Moses and Aaron — has brought them out of Egypt. Then the next morning they would see the glory of the Lord in a way they had not imagined.
No judgment falls on the complainers here. One writer ties that to timing: this happened before God gave the law.
Look back at Exodus 16 and 17. Those chapters record their murmurings and complaints before God gave the law. We see a difference at once. Then no judgment followed, as it did later in Numbers 11. It illustrates the statement that "sin is not counted where there is no law" (Rom. 5:13), and also that other statement of the apostle, "when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died" (Rom. 7:9).
The grumbling itself is the reason given for the coming display. One writer treats that as a principle in all of God's dealings.
Their murmurings were the occasion of the display of the glory of the Lord (v. 10). So the display of what man is draws out from the depths of the heart of God the revelation of what He is. It was so in the garden of Eden, and indeed all the way down the line of His dealings with man. We see this principle in perfection at the cross. There man appeared in all the utter corruption of his evil nature, and God showed Himself fully.
The same glory does not always land the same way on the same people.
God in His grace answered Israel's murmuring. He gave them flesh and manna, and He also appeared in His glory (Ex. 16:2-10). God did not rebuke them for murmuring, but appeared in His glory to show His care for them in wonderful grace. It was not until the people had undertaken to keep the law that the glory of God brought terror to the hearts of Israel.
The verse gives God's hearing as the reason for what follows. One writer turns that into a test for our own words.
All our complaints, our expressions of unbelief, our murmurings, are against the Lord, and come straight into His ears. If the Lord were visibly before our eyes, we would not dare to say what we often allow ourselves to say in the hastiness of our unbelief. And yet we really are before Him, His eyes are upon us, and He hears our every word.
God's answer was food that kept coming for forty years. One writer reads the manna as a picture of Christ.
How does God answer the murmurers? And how does He answer us if we are walking in their path? Read the whole of Exodus 16 for the answer. For forty years — the whole time of their wanderings in the wilderness — He gave them manna. He puts Christ before us the whole time of our wilderness journey. Christ is the always humble, dependent, obedient One. He is the only One who accepted everything in the wilderness path as from God His Father, without a single murmur. The manna is Christ in humiliation, seen here as a dependent Man. That is how God meets your murmuring and mine.
- Complaint. "What are we?" The grumbling went past Moses and Aaron, God's representatives, and landed on the Lord Himself.
- Heard. God hears every word of it. Our complaints reach His ears as we speak them.
- Grace. No judgment falls here. God had not yet given the law, and where there is no law, sin is not counted.
- Glory. What man showed became the occasion for what God showed — a principle seen in full at the cross.
- Bread. God met the grumbling with forty years of manna. One writer reads it as Christ, the one Man who crossed the wilderness without a single complaint.
And Moses said, When Jehovah gives you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for Jehovah hears your murmurings which ye murmur against him ... and what [are] we? your murmurings are not against us, but against Jehovah.
Israel had barely left Egypt when hunger in the desert turned into complaint against Moses and Aaron. Moses sends the complaint on to its true address. The leaders were never the real target, and the God they were complaining against had already heard them.
Moses does not defend himself and Aaron. He points past them to the One they served.
God had heard the murmurings of the children of Israel against Him. They may say they were complaining only against Moses and Aaron, but those two men were nothing more than God's representatives. So Moses insists that their murmurings were not against Moses and Aaron, but against the Lord (v.8).
What is true of this one complaint is true of every sin:
Note also that murmuring against Moses and Aaron was murmuring against the Lord. (v. 8.) All sin is really against God. (See Psalm 51:4; Luke 15:18-21.)
Take away the food shortage and the leaders, and one thing remains underneath the grumbling.
We generally find out where we are by a murmuring spirit. Nothing is easier than for a murmuring spirit to get into the heart of a believer, or a whole church... The murmuring was really against God, and not against the servants of God. Examine any murmuring honestly. It is not against the circumstances, nor against God's people. It is always the outcome of downright unbelief towards God. That is the point.
That unbelief carries a specific charge against God's character:
Don't murmur, Christian, for it is a most unchristian, a most ungodly thing to do. Nothing dishonours God more, nothing does greater damage to the soul. Of all the sins Israel committed in the wilderness, this was the chief one. It meant they did not believe their God was fit to be trusted.
The verse says the Lord has heard them. What He does next is the surprise of the chapter.
The people murmured. They showed how much they wanted to go back to Egypt, almost as soon as God had rescued them from it... But grace, without judgment, answers their murmuring, and provides for their need. The Lord heard them, but did not rebuke them. They cried for bread — it was rained from heaven; He gave them flesh every evening, and bread every morning.
One writer presses this home to the reader:
We do not remember often enough that all our complaints, our expressions of unbelief, our murmurings, are against the Lord, and come straight into His ears. How often our sinful words would die away on our lips if this thought were in our minds! If the Lord were visibly before our eyes, we would not dare to say what we often allow ourselves to say in the hastiness of our unbelief. And yet we really are before Him, His eyes are upon us, and He hears our every word.
Later on, the same sin met a very different answer. Commentators trace the difference to where Israel stood at the time. This scene falls before Sinai, before the law came.
In chapters 15, 16 and 17 the Lord bears their murmurings with long-suffering and tenderness, and He meets their needs out of the fulness of His unwearied love. But after Sinai, murmurings of the same kind bring judgment. The reason is simple: the people themselves had asked to be put under law.
God's answer was not only food. Notice what drew out the sight of His glory — not their obedience, but their complaining.
How very solemn it is that the first mention of the display of God's glory has to do with meeting their murmurings... Aaron, directed by Moses, said to the whole congregation, "Come near before the Lord: for He has heard your murmurings." Then the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud (verse 10). Although Israel had murmured, God was dealing with them in grace. He answered their murmurings in grace, with the rich provision of flesh and manna.
God did not drive them away. He called them nearer:
He does not judge them. On the contrary, He lets His glory draw near, so that the very light of His presence might shine in on this murmuring people.
- Heard. The Lord hears complaints that people aim at someone else. Moses and Aaron were only His representatives, so the words went past them to God — and our words reach Him the same way.
- Traced. Follow any murmur to its root and you find unbelief — the verdict that God is not fit to be trusted. All sin is really against God.
- Answered. He heard without rebuking: flesh at evening, bread in the morning. Grace, not judgment, met the grumbling.
- Timed. This is before Sinai. Once the law came, the same murmuring brought judgment. The ground the people stood on made the difference.
- Displayed. God's glory appears in Scripture for the first time in answer to complaint. He told the murmurers to come near, not to keep away.
And Moses spoke to Aaron, Say to all the assembly of the children of Israel, Come near into the presence of Jehovah; for he has heard your murmurings.
The people had just complained that Moses and Aaron brought them into the desert to starve. God's reply comes through Aaron: gather the whole congregation and bring them near. And look at the reason He gives. They are called near not because He missed their complaint, but because He heard it.
You would expect God to act against people He has heard grumbling. Here He does the opposite.
And that is the lesson we learn here, in the wilderness of Sin. It is met by the words, "Come near before the LORD, for He has heard your grumbling" (Ex. 16:9). Ah, He does not judge them. On the contrary, He lets His glory draw near, so that the very light of His presence might shine in on this complaining people. They had said, "Would that we had died" (Ex. 16:3)... They had forgotten their bondage. All they remembered was what they had fed upon. They were away from the meat pots of Egypt. But they had not yet learned that the fullness of God's hand is enough.
The complaint sounded like it was against Moses and Aaron. One writer shows where it actually landed, and what God drew out of it.
Notice, further, that murmuring against Moses and Aaron was murmuring against the Lord (v. 8). All sin is really against God... Their complaints were also the occasion for the display of the glory of the Lord (v. 10). So the display of what man is brings out of the depths of the heart of God 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. The cross shows this principle perfectly. There man displayed the complete corruption of his evil nature, and God revealed Himself fully.
Moses and Aaron carried the message, but took no credit for it. One writer links this to every miracle God's servants performed.
These miracles were kept completely separate from any honour given to the people who performed them. Of course they proved the divine character of their ministry. But they were wholly a testimony to the Living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, and all He taught. This is true even as to Moses' works of power; as Exodus 16:8, and elsewhere, "What are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the LORD."
Moses had already learned this lesson himself. His call to the people to come near grows out of what he had been taught.
He asks the people to "come near" before the Lord who had heard their complaints. He had known that effect in himself. Like a wise master builder, he wanted to lead his brothers into the same thing, even if it was by a different path. The glory of the Lord and the resources of the Lord had already taught him. Now he wants the people to receive the same blessed teaching, even though their discontent and complaining is what draws it out... Let us note that a servant's discipline must always be in advance of the service required of him. He cannot lead beyond that point to which he himself has been led.
Coming near involved a change of direction. Their hearts were still fixed on the country behind them.
While the glory-cloud of Jehovah's presence shaded and lit up the camp, the hearts of Israel were on Egypt. Their faces were turned that way, and it needed Aaron's words to change their attitude, but after a while "they looked toward the wilderness" (v. 10). In these words, "they looked toward the wilderness," lies the key we seek. God had displayed His glory in judgment, both in Egypt and in the Red Sea; He would now display His glory in the wilderness.
This scene belongs to a stretch of the journey that ends at Sinai, where Israel promised to obey the law.
God was the Provider. The bitter water was made sweet; the manna came down each night; the water flowed out of the hard rock — and all for a complaining people. What grace, what patient dealing by God! And until they reached Sinai and promised to obey the law, God dealt with them in pure grace. He supplied each need, and He did not punish them for their complaining.
- Heard. God does not ignore the complaint. He answers it — and the answer starts with a call to come closer, not an order to stand back.
- Aimed. The grumbling hit Moses and Aaron, but it was really aimed at God; all sin is really against Him.
- Displayed. What man showed of himself became the occasion for God to show what He is. At the cross this reaches perfection.
- Turned. Israel had to stop facing Egypt and look toward the desert before the glory came into view.
- Provided. The One they complained against fed them. Until Sinai, He met every need and never punished their complaining.
And it came to pass, when Aaron spoke to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, that they turned toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of Jehovah appeared in the cloud.
Israel left Egypt only two months earlier, and now the whole camp is complaining about hunger in the desert. Instead of rebuke, God gives them a sight: they turn toward the empty wilderness and see His glory shine out of the cloud.
Moses had already told the people that their words were aimed past him. One writer sees a rule that runs through the whole Bible. The people's grumbling became the moment God showed what He is.
Their grumbling was the occasion of the display of the glory of the Lord (v. 10). So the display 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. The cross shows this principle in perfection. There man appeared in all the utter corruption of his evil nature, and God revealed Himself fully... Notice too that grumbling against Moses and Aaron was grumbling against the Lord (v. 8). All sin is really against God.
The glory appears, yet nothing is struck down. One writer points to the words that met their complaint, and to what God did with a people who had just wished themselves dead.
It is met by the words, "Come near before the LORD, for He has heard your grumbling" (Ex. 16:9). Ah, He does not judge them. On the contrary, He lets His glory draw near, so that the very light of His presence might shine in on this grumbling people. They had said, "Would that we had died" (Ex. 16:3)... Which was better: to toil at the brick-kilns of Pharaoh, or to travel in the desert with God?
The verse records a turn of the head before it records the vision. Their hearts were still on Egypt. One writer calls that change of direction the key to the whole scene.
While the glory-cloud of Jehovah's presence shaded and lit up the camp, the hearts of Israel were on Egypt. Their faces were turned that way. It took Aaron's words to change their attitude, but after a while "they looked toward the wilderness" (v. 10). In these words, "they looked toward the wilderness," lies the key we are looking for. God had displayed His glory in judgment, both in Egypt and at the Red Sea; He would now display His glory in the wilderness.
Another writer notes that Moses had known this nearness to God himself before he called the people into it.
He desires the people to "come near" before the Lord who had heard their grumbling. He had known the effect in himself. Like a wise master-builder, he would lead his brothers into the same, though by a different path. The glory of the Lord, and the resources of the Lord, had already taught him. Now he wants the people to receive the same blessed teaching, even though their discontent and grumbling drew it out.
The glory did not stop with the cloud. They were to see it again in the morning, and what came then was new on earth.
But more — in the morning they were to see the glory of Jehovah. And "in the morning dew lay around the camp. And when the dew had gone up," a new thing happened, one which had never been before on earth... "Manna?" — "What is this?" — the people exclaimed. It was God's glory in the wilderness — it was the gift of God.
One writer links that gift to Christ Himself:
Exodus 16 teaches us much. It is where the manna first appears, and along with it the glory of God appeared in the wilderness. Those whose eyes were opened saw in Jesus here God manifest in the flesh, Emmanuel, come near to us to bless us.
This first appearing of the glory is often set beside a second one that came later.
The second appearing of the glory came in very different circumstances, for Israel had bound themselves by a covenant of death to keep the whole law. The contrast between these two appearings of the divine glory is very striking. It shows the difference between the Lord's dealings with Israel under grace and under law. Those who seek to stand before God on the ground of law deal with a God who is a consuming fire. Those who deal with God in grace, as made known in Jesus, learn His goodness in the rich provision He has made for His people.
- Complaint — grumbling at the leaders was grumbling at God; in the end all sin is against Him.
- Occasion — what people are became the very moment God showed what He is, a pattern seen from Eden to the cross.
- Grace — the glory drew near instead of striking; God answered a death-wish with the light of His presence.
- Direction — they saw the glory only when they turned from Egypt to face the wilderness, where God meant to display it.
- Gift — the glory came down to the ground as manna, pointing to Christ, who came down to feed His people on the way.