1 And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation
of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is
between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after
their departing out of the land of Egypt.
2 And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:3
And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by
the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh
pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us
forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
(They forgot how Pharaoh had commanded that each male Hebrew baby be killed at birth.)
4
Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven
for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every
day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no. 5
And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that
which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather
daily.
6 And Moses and Aaron said unto
all the children of Israel, At even, then ye shall know that the Lord
hath brought you out from the land of Egypt:7 And in the morning, then
ye shall see the glory of the Lord; for that he heareth your murmurings
against the Lord:and what are we, that ye murmur against us? 8 And Moses
said, This shall be, when the Lord shall give you in the evening flesh
to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the Lord heareth
your murmurings which ye murmur against him:and what are we? your
murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord.
9
And Moses spake unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation of the
children of Israel, Come near before the Lord:for he hath heard your
murmurings.
10 And it came to pass, as
Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that
they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the Lord
appeared in the cloud.
11 And the Lord spake
unto Moses, saying, 12 I have heard the murmurings of the children of
Israel:speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the
morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the
Lord your God.
13 And it came to pass,
that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp:and in the morning
the dew lay round about the host. 14 And when the dew that lay was gone
up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round
thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.
15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna:for they wist not what it was.
And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.
16
This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, Gather of it every man
according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number
of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents.
17
And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less.
18 And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had
nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered
every man according to his eating.
19 And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning. 20 Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank:and Moses was wroth with them.
21 And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating:and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.
22
And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much
bread, two omers for one man:and all the rulers of the congregation came
and told Moses.
23 And he said unto
them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To morrow is the rest of
the holy sabbath unto the Lord:bake that which ye will bake to day, and
seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you
to be kept until the morning. 24 And they laid it up till the morning,
as Moses bade:and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.
25 And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the
Lord:to day ye shall not find it in the field. 26 Six days ye shall
gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there
shall be none.
27 And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.
28 And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?
29 See, for that the Lord hath given you the sabbath, therefore he
giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in
his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. 30 So the
people rested on the seventh day.
31
And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna:and it was like
coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with
honey.
32 And Moses said, This is the thing
which the Lord commandeth, Fill an omer of it to be kept for your
generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the
wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt.
33
And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna
therein, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept for your generations.
34 As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the
Testimony, to be kept. 35 And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan. 36 Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.
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Comments by Joan Boney
They murmured when there was a problem. They complained. How often have we done this same thing? "Why did that have to happen?" Complaining!
The problem gives us opportunity to turn to God and seek His wisdom and when we have HIS wisdom over the problem we see HIM and marvel in what HE has told us.
We are even conformed into the image of Christ as we seek God in the problem and do what God tells us to do.
We pray and often God will remind us of a scripture and when that happens we know how to go in the problem and the will of God.
If they defraud us and we pray and are reminded of I Cor. 6, Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? and we choose to go that way because we believe that is what the Holy Spirit is saying to us, then we are conformed (in that instance) to the image of Christ, the word. This happens to us as long as we live on this earth.
When we turn to God and pray over the problem asking HIM what HE wants us to do ... and when we hear from HIM by a thought brought by the Spirit of God and we choose that way, we are conformed to the image of Christ in the situation.
A man from our little church group was considering building another storage building to store his stuff. As he thought about this, the thought came, "Why don't you just get rid of the stuff?" (Just give it away. You don't need it.)
A woman in my neighborhood became angry with me without cause. I was considering writing her a note to try to explain to her so perhaps she would not continue in anger. I prayed about what to do. And I was reminded of the following: Matthew 15:14 Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
I knew God was showing me to let this woman alone ... This woman is blind and chooses not to see ... There was a previous problem with her and she refused to speak with me when I tried to make peace with her. She even hung up the phone after coldly saying, "I'm not interested." (This woman is Methodist and she knew I am a minister of God but she held to stubbornness and would not live in peace.)
I just tore up the note I was writing to her after I heard the scripture from the Spirit of God, "Let them alone." Mt. 15:14 and I let her alone.
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James 1 ... 2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations (trials); 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. 5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
The problem should cause us to pray to see what God wants us to do. The problem is an opportunity to see God work and build faith in God. If we complain about the problem rather than pray, then faith will not develop. But instead of complaining, if we turn to God, the door is open for God to work and for us to recognize God is working.
Certainly none of us likes problems and the fleshly way is to complain. But we don't have to go that way.