Coromandel Baptist Church

Sunday 7 June 2009 Exodus 16:1-30; John 6:35-58

God’s Glory to Grumbling People

Israel’s response of joyful worship to the Lord’s gracious and merciful deliverance at the Red Sea was short lived. The worship songs ended with the exaltation of the Lord for his rescuing mercy (Ex. 15:21), but the very next verse begins the account of Israel’s grumbling by the waters of Marah (Ex. 15:22ff.). The account then traces their journey Elim, a place of abundant provision for their needs.

From Exodus 16:1, we can deduce that Israel stayed at Elim for about six weeks. Doubtless this gave them time to settle and regroup after the remarkable events of the Passover/Red Sea battle, but it also gave them time to reflect on what had happened at Marah. We soon learn that they had not learned anything from the preceding incidents. Exodus 16:2ff indicates widespread grumbling amongst the whole congregation, brought on by the resumption of the journey into the wilderness. They longed for meat and bread to the full, and while there is no indication that that they were in fact dying of hunger, this is the complaint that they raise (Ex. 16:3). In a reversal of their view of Egypt as a place full of graves (Ex. 14:11) they now see the place of their hard labour and bitter bondage as the place full of abundant provision for their needs! They complain that the Lord’s hand had not put them to death, so exaggerated is their view of the deficiencies of the situation! The Lord’s hand had delivered them from death by the hand of Pharaoh (Ex. 7:5; 9:3; 13:3, 14; 14:30;15:6; etc.), and now the people complain that the Lord’s hand was not able to provide for their needs, so they would have been better off if he had killed them directly!

As with all sin, this response is totally illogical. But then, the problem with sin could never be solved by human reasoning. The outbursts of sinful words and deeds flow from the heart, which is wicked beyond measure (Gen. 6:5; 8:21; Jer. 17:9; Mk. 7:21ff.; Rom. 1:18-32; 3:9-18; Gal. 5:19ff.; etc). There is no inherent difference between Israel and Egypt. Indeed, Israel is elsewhere pictured as having a heart like flint, hardened against the Lord’s word in stubborn rebellion (Zech. 7:12). God’s choice of Israel is solely because of his love for them, expressed in grace that delivered them and brought them to himself. His plan and purpose is a new heart for all his people (Deut. 30:6; cf. Jer. 32:39ff.; Ezk. 11:19-20; 36:22ff.; etc.) but this would not be because of the worthiness of the people, or their comparative righteousness. This theme of God’s completely free love and grace abounding to hardened sinners becomes a repeated motif in the journey narratives and the later history of Israel in the land.

It cannot be emphasized strongly enough in our day that the human heart has not changed one iota. The history of the last 150 years should indicate that plainly enough on a global scale, but yet we persist in thinking that we are basically good people, that our hearts and instincts can be trusted and that we are able to save ourselves by the inevitable progress that social improvement, health reforms and educational opportunities will bring! And, just as with Israel of old, we grumble incessantly that things are not as we think they ought to be in God’s universe.

The repetition evident in Exodus 16:7-8 takes us to the very core of the matter (the verses are not accidental duplications, but written this way for emphasis). The grumbling of Israel against Moses and Aaron is in fact grumbling against the Lord himself. God’s response to the grumbling is amazing! He reveals his glory to them (Ex. 16:10) and it is plain from the context that this revelation is in response to the grumblings of his people (Ex. 16:7-8, 9, 12). The glory cloud was already with them (Ex. 13:22), but God now appears to use this visible revelation of his glory to show that the content and meaning of his glory is grace and mercy. This becomes explicit later in the narrative where the Lord proclaims his Name to Moses, seemingly as an answer to his request to see the Lord’s glory (Ex. 33:18 cf. 34:5ff.). The glory is not in its appearing, but in the moral character of the one whom it represents. Here, the glory cloud comes to meet the sin of the Lord’s grumbling people with abundant provision, raining both bread and meat on the camp (Ex. 16:4, 13).

The provision of the manna (see the origin of the word in Ex. 16:15!) cannot be explained by a natural phenomenon (in Ps. 78:25 it is called ‘the bread of angels’), and while quails were and are not uncommon in the region, the miracle lay in the timing and extent of the provision (cf. Ps. 78:26f.). The Lord’s provisions are complete for each one, none lacking what was needed (Ex. 16:18), though they could not store it up for the next day (Ex. 16:19f.). On the day before the Sabbath they were to collect double the usual amount (Ex. 16:22) which would not spoil, but whether it be the regular gathering of the manna or the pre-Sabbath ingathering of the extra, they had to trust that the Lord would fulfill his word in giving enough day by day and not allowing Friday’s manna to spoil. The instructions about the Sabbath are extensive (Ex. 16:22-30), indicating that the later law enshrined in the fourth commandment was already being enacted, doubtless because its basis lies in the creational order. There was no equivalent to the Sabbath in Egypt and so Israel again was given the chance to learn about the Lord’s grace in contrast to Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt. Not only did he deliver them, fight for them, defend them, feed them and lead them, but he also gave them rest!