Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost: Old Testament, Exodus 16:2-15

Exodus 16:2-15

I love the accounts highlighting the children of Israel immediately after their deliverance from Egypt. Into the wilderness they go. And it doesn’t take long for them to become impatient and begin their complaints. “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full ….” (Ex. 16:3b). And then the great accusation against Moses that he had actually led them to the wilderness to die.

Clatter and chatter. Words between Moses and God, Moses and Aaron, the clamoring and complaints of God’s delivered ones. God turns Moses toward His future plans of provision and instructs the great leader in doing the same for his flock.

Here’s what I love most here. When God provides meat at night and bread in the morning, He gives bread in a form they had not been used to. They cry, “What is it?” (v. 15). The very Hebrew word “manna” is used in their inquiry. God’s provision is a mystery to His wandering children. I suggest that is still true to this day. As the children of Israel continued on their way, the mystery bread sustained them until they entered the land of promise. 

For your consideration and this is solely my thinking so if I am off the mark, it’s me and no one else. But God sustains us in our wilderness wanderings as well. With bread that IS is His body and wine that IS is blood, our meal is no less mystery. And by His promise, He will sustain us by this meal until we see Him face to face. For He is our land of promise.