And Moses said, This is the thing which Jehovah has commanded Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread that I gave you to eat in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.
Israel had just learned that manna kept overnight bred worms and went bad. Now God tells Moses to save an omer of it — one day's portion for one person — and keep it for ever. Why keep the one food that would not keep? And what were later generations meant to see in it?
The food that spoiled when stored for a second day is the food God ordered kept for the land ahead.
Manna could not be kept in the wilderness, even to meet the need of one more day. Yet it could be kept for the land of Canaan. So we will find that we cannot feed on yesterday's experience and make it meet today's need. But it will be a rich blessing when we look back over it with our Lord above.
The jar stood before the Lord, and it held one man's daily portion. What it recorded was not Israel's obedience but God's care for people who had feared starvation.
What a precious memorial of the faithfulness of God! He did not let them die of hunger, as their unbelieving, foolish hearts had expected. He rained bread from heaven for them. He fed them with angels' food. He watched over them as tenderly as a nurse. He put up with them and carried them on eagles' wings... So the pot of manna held one man's daily portion, and it lay before the Lord. It gives us a whole volume of truth. There was no worm in it and no rot. It was the record of the Lord's faithfulness in providing for those whom He had redeemed out of the hand of the enemy.
"Throughout your generations" points past the people standing there. The manna would stop. The memory of it would not.
The day was certain to come when the manna would stop falling and the wilderness journey would be over. But the Lord wanted the generations to come to understand the goodness of God, who had kept His people alive with bread from heaven.
The jar God chose was gold. Commentators read the manna as a picture of Christ's lowly life on earth, and the gold as the setting God gave that life.
It means that God will never forget, nor will He allow to be forgotten, that lowly life of Jesus here. It was a short life as men speak — thirty-three and a half years, not more. A short life, but the glory of it is going to fill eternity... God has taken the One whom men despised and hated. He has set Him at the very centre of His glory and crowned Him there with glory and honour. And yet, when God raised His beloved Son to that high place, He did not add any glory to Him. He was only setting what is glorious beyond measure in the only place fit to receive it... Infinite grace showed itself in that lowly life. Now, with Christ exalted and in His true setting, God invites us into His own presence to share His joy in what Christ was to Him when He was humbled here below.
Others press what the gold says about the One who stooped. The lowliness was real, and so was the glory inside it.
The golden pot seems to stress the divine glory of the One who humbled Himself here to be the food of His people. Even in that lowliness He was still "God over all." But God has set that lowliness inside the glory of deity. He has reversed, we may say, the form in which He appeared here.
Israel's descendants were only meant to look at the preserved omer. The promise in Revelation 2:17 goes further than looking.
There is surely a reference to this in the promise to the one who overcomes in the church at Pergamos: "To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna" (Revelation 2:17). So Christ in His humiliation is never to be forgotten. He is always to be remembered, and His people will feed on Him with thanks throughout eternity.
- Kept. The one food that spoiled overnight is the one food God ordered kept. Today's supply cannot feed tomorrow. But the whole journey will be a joy to look back on at the end.
- Kept as a record. The jar held no worm and no rot. It stood before the Lord as proof that He had fed the very people who feared He would let them starve.
- Kept for children. The manna would one day stop falling. So God set His goodness where a generation that never tasted it could still see it.
- Kept in gold. Commentators read the manna as Christ's lowly life on earth. The golden pot is God treasuring that life, since the glory is the only setting fit to hold it.
- Kept to be eaten. Israel could only look at the jar of manna. The promise of the hidden manna goes further: His people feed on that remembered life for ever.
And Moses said to Aaron, Take a pot, and put in it an omer full of manna, and deposit it before Jehovah, to be kept for your generations.
God had been feeding Israel in the desert with manna, and now one jar of it is set aside and never eaten. Why keep a sample of food that would not last a single night, and what were Israel — and what are we — meant to see in it?
The jar was not for eating. It was a record. One writer reads it as God's answer to Israel's fear that He would let them starve.
Most precious memorial of the faithfulness of God! He did not allow them to die of hunger, as their foolish hearts had unbelievingly expected. He rained bread from heaven for them. He fed them with angels' food. He watched over them with all the tenderness of a nurse. He bore with them and carried them on eagles' wings... The pot of manna, then, containing as it did a man's daily portion, and laid up before the Lord, gives us a volume of truth. There was no worm in it, and no taint. It was the record of the Lord's faithfulness in providing for those whom He had redeemed out of the hand of the enemy.
The jar held one omer — no more. One writer finds the whole point of the memorial in that small measure.
An omer was the measure commonly used in the tents of Israel for ordinary purposes, and it held the usual portion of a man's daily food. So it made the gift of the manna personal to the need of every single person in the host. The application is plain. God fed each of His redeemed people on earth, and the memory of that bread will never pass from their memories — not in all eternity.
Commentators read the manna as a picture of Christ's life on earth. So the jar that held it points to where He is now.
We also read of "the golden urn holding the manna" (Hebrews 9:4). This is Christ again, the eternal memento in glory of that divine vessel which held a perfect, humbled, human life on earth. The Jesus who was down here is the Jesus who is up there. And the Holy Spirit would have you fix your eye on Him — the Jesus who walked down here and said, "Follow me."
Exodus says only "a jar." Hebrews adds that it was gold (Hebrews 9:4). Writers take the metal itself as part of the message.
The golden urn holding the manna went into the ark, an ark of acacia wood overlaid with gold, speaking of the Deity and Humanity of Christ. In the same way, the manna pictures the marvellous grace shown in His Humanity, come down from heaven. That manna lay before God in a golden vessel, and that golden vessel pictured His Deity.
"Before the Lord" came to mean inside the ark, out of Israel's sight. One writer weighs how long the jar stayed there unseen.
As a memorial of God's grace to His people, a jar full of manna was laid up before the Lord (Exodus 16:33), a "golden urn," as Paul tells us (Hebrews 9:4). For about 500 years this "hidden manna" told its story of Christ in humiliation, but to God alone. Hidden in the ark, the most sacred of the vessels, it stayed out of the people's sight. Probably no human eye saw it in all those five centuries.
Manna would not keep overnight, yet this portion lasted for centuries. One writer turns that contrast on our own experience.
It is truly remarkable. The manna would not keep for one day's need in the wilderness, yet it kept for the land of Canaan. So we are assured of this. We cannot feed on yesterday's experience as though it met and satisfied today's need. Yet that experience will bring rich and eternal blessing when we review it with our blessed Lord, as we enjoy the rest of the Father's house.
Another writer takes the promise in Revelation 2:17 as the sequel. He presses the difference between Israel's part and ours.
So the food of the wilderness stayed, but stayed only as a memorial, to be seen. To the overcomer at Pergamum, on the other hand, the promise is: "I will give him of the hidden manna" (Revelation 2:17) — he will share in it, not simply see it. The Christ we enjoy in the wilderness we will enjoy afresh in the glorious land we are going to. It will surely be more perfect there, for everything will be perfect there. And yet — mark it well — it is the very wilderness food itself.
- Kept — the jar was a memorial: God's own record that He fed His redeemed people instead of letting them starve.
- Measured — an omer was one person's daily food, so the memorial spoke to each Israelite, not just to the nation.
- Golden — Hebrews adds that the jar was gold. Writers see Christ's Humanity in the manna and His Deity in the gold that held it.
- Hidden — inside the ark, unseen by Israel for centuries, it told its story of Christ humbled to God alone.
- Shared — what would not keep for a day kept for Canaan. Christ promises the overcomer a share in that store, not just a view of it.
As Jehovah had commanded Moses, so Aaron deposited it before the Testimony, to be kept.
Aaron puts the jar of manna away in the sanctuary, just as God had said. It is the one portion of bread from heaven that no one ever ate. Manna gathered for tomorrow rotted, yet this jar was to last for generations.
Israel would one day settle in a rich land, far from the desert. The jar stood there as proof that God had not let them starve, though their unbelief had expected it.
Israel were never to forget, in the middle of the milk and honey of Canaan, what had sustained them during their forty years in the wilderness... What a precious memorial of the faithfulness of God! He did not let them die of hunger, as their foolish hearts had unbelievingly expected. He rained bread from heaven for them, fed them with angels' food, watched over them with all the tenderness of a nurse... The pot of manna, then, holding a man's daily portion and laid up before the Lord, gives us a volume of truth. There was no worm in it and no taint. It was the record of the Lord's faithfulness in providing for those He had redeemed out of the hand of the enemy.
The same food that bred worms overnight lasted for centuries once Aaron placed it before the Lord. That difference carries a lesson for how we feed on Christ now, and how we will look back on it later.
It is remarkable that the manna would not keep for one day's need in the wilderness, yet it kept for the land of Canaan. And so this assures us of two things. We cannot feed on yesterday's experience to meet and satisfy today's need. Yet it will be a rich and eternal blessing when we review it with our blessed Lord, as we enjoy the rest of the Father's house.
Hebrews 9:4 places the golden jar with the ark. But does "before the Testimony" mean inside the ark, or beside it? One writer weighs what the words can and cannot prove.
Reading Exodus 16:34 and Numbers 17:10, we might not have gathered that the pot and the rod were in the ark. Still, we cannot say those passages rule it out... The golden pot and the rod never entered the Temple. When the ark reached its final resting place, Scripture tells us plainly that there was nothing in it except the two tables of the Testimony. That remark, however, seems to point back to a time when other things had been in it too. And the words of Exodus 16 and Numbers 17, "before the Testimony," may mean they were put where the tables were kept. That is all we can say. Had it been written "before the ark of the Testimony," we should have known they were never inside it.
Hebrews adds a detail Exodus leaves out: the jar was gold. One writer sets that gold beside the wood and gold of the ark itself.
Here is one of them — "the golden pot that had manna" (Hebrews 9:4). The ark held it: acacia wood overlaid with gold, speaking of the Deity and Humanity of Christ. In the same way, the manna pictures the marvellous grace shown in His Humanity, come down from heaven. It was laid up before God in a golden vessel, and that gold pictured His Deity.
Israel later grew tired of the manna and complained about it. Yet God had told them to store a portion of it in His own dwelling.
But God said of what they despised, "Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the LORD to be kept throughout your generations. As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept." It was as though God said, "That manna is precious to Me. The people may despise it, but it will be preserved in My dwelling place forever."
So what became of the jar once Israel settled in the land?
For about 500 years this "hidden manna" told its tale of Christ in humiliation, but to God alone. Hidden in the ark, the most sacred of vessels, it was out of the people's sight. Probably no human eye ever saw it in all that time.
What was withheld from Israel's eyes is promised to the one who overcomes at Pergamum, who is given the hidden manna to eat.
So Christ in His humiliation is never to be forgotten, but always to be remembered, and gratefully fed upon throughout eternity by His people.
- Commanded — God asked for one day's portion to be set aside, and Aaron obeyed to the letter.
- Kept — food that spoiled in a day lasted for generations before the Lord. Today's need still calls for today's supply.
- Golden — Hebrews tells us the jar was gold. The manna pictures Christ's Humanity, the gold His Deity.
- Treasured — the people came to loathe this bread. God kept it in His dwelling as precious to Himself.
- Hidden — unseen for centuries in the ark, it becomes the overcomer's promised food, enjoyed forever.