Mah-Na! What Is This Stuff?

Mah-Na! What is this Stuff?

Exodus 16:2-15

We often condemn the complaining of the Children of Israel in the Wilderness. In many ways they were a spectacular failure. It seems that we use them as examples of what we should not do. But this is somewhat unfair. We forget that God had chosen Israel as the apple of His eye, We also need to remember the great acts of faith on the part of many of the children of Israel who are set forth as positive examples to believers. We might add that we are often guilty of complaining about what we consider to be a lack of care from God concerning our “needs.” Finally, we need to consider that the emphasis of the Bible as a whole and this passage we read this morning in particular is upon the marvelous grace of God in spite of out failures and His abundant provision, Having said this, let us examine this text from Exodus 16 more closely.

This passage begins as many of the Old Testament stories do with the children of Israel complaining that Yahweh had taken them out of Egypt only to let them die of starvation or thirst in the desert. their hunger was a true need. Yahweh had provided them water to drink earlier when they were overcome with thirst. Now they were starving. There was no natural means in this desert to provide for such a large multitude. A few nomads could eke out a living in this harsh climate. When Moses fled Egypt, he had spent forty years there as a shepherd of his father-in-law’s sheep. It was a hard life. Moses knew the area, but all his experience would have taught him was that the only hope of feeding such a multitude there would have to come from God.

A reasoned approach of the children of Israel would have been to remember what God had already provided them. He had released them from Egyptian bondage. They did not rise in revolt, which would be the human solution to the matter. No other nation or army had come to their aid and rescued them. It was the hand of Yahweh alone. They had no weapons to defend themselves with when Pharaoh’s chariots came and pinned them against the Red Sea. They could not have swum across the sea, If there were any boat in the area at all, they would not have been enough to have transported them all. No navy had come to help them. They were entirely helpless. But they weren’t. They had the LORD. And the LORD provided for them. Yet now when they in their hunger were reflecting on this, they had concluded that this was because God had a more insidious way for them to perish. How soon they forgot the psalm of deliverance they sung at the far shore when they saw the drowning of Pharaoh’s army. Horse and rider were thrown into the sea.

As we previously mentioned, God had provided a tree to make the poisoned water drinkable. They would have felt the pain of thirst before they felt the pain of hunger. What a disaster it seemed when the only water they found was undrinkable. Yahweh provided for them. There was no water project or desalinization plants, which would have been the way it would be done today. We boast in our own ingenuity and self-reliance. This would not have worked here for Israel.

They should have petitioned the LORD for food. There would have been nothing wrong with their praying. This was a legitimate need. But, instead, they chose to complain. Not only did they accuse Yahweh, but they complained against Moses, whom He had appointed as their pastor. At times, the Children of Israel had threatened, at least under their breath, to slay Moses and appoint another leader who would lead them back to the “good” life in Egypt.

In other passages, the LORD showed a great deal of frustration in dealing with the rebellions of the Children of Israel. But we do not see the expression of God’s wrath in this passage. The LORD simply tells Moses that He will rain down bread from heaven to feed them. The LORD could have chosen any means He desired, including more natural means such as a “chance” landing of a huge flock of quail like He did later for them. But the LORD wanted Israel to know that it was the LORD who provided this bread directly to them. Having bread come down from heaven could not be ascribed to good luck. In fact, the LORD said He was doing this to test them, to see if they would obey the LORD’s commands or not. This does not mean that the LORD did not know how Israel would respond as He knows all things perfectly, including the future. So, this testing was to be for the benefit and/or admonition of Israel, to point out their imperfect faith.