Daily Bread: Trusting the God Who Rains Manna from Heaven

Setting out from Elim, the whole Israelite community came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt. In the wilderness, the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by GOD’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots, when we ate our fill of bread! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to starve this whole congregation to death.” And GOD said to Moses, “I will rain down bread for you from the sky, and the people shall go out and gather each day that day’s portion—that I may thus test them, to see whether they will follow My instructions or not. But on the sixth day, when they apportion what they have brought in, it shall prove to be double the amount they gather each day.” So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “By evening you shall know it was GOD who brought you out from the land of Egypt; and in the morning you shall behold the Presence of GOD, who has heard your grumblings against GOD. For who are we that you should grumble against us? Since it is GOD,” Moses continued, “who will give you flesh to eat in the evening and bread in the morning to the full—because GOD has heard the grumblings you utter—what is our part? Your grumbling is against GOD, not against us!” Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole Israelite community: Advance toward GOD, who has heard your grumbling.” And as Aaron spoke to the whole Israelite community, they turned toward the wilderness, and there, in a cloud, appeared the Presence of GOD. GOD spoke to Moses: “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Speak to them and say: By evening you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; and you shall know that I the ETERNAL am your God.” In the evening quail appeared and covered the camp; in the morning there was a fall of dew about the camp. When the fall of dew lifted, there, over the surface of the wilderness, lay a fine and flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?”; in contrast to others “It is manna.”—for they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “That is the bread that GOD has given you to eat. This is what GOD has commanded: Each household shall gather as much as it requires to eat—an omer to a person for as many of you as there are; each household shall fetch according to those in its tent.” The Israelites did so, some gathering much, some little. But when they measured it by the omer, anyone who had gathered much had no excess, and anyone who had gathered little had no deficiency: each household had gathered as much as it needed to eat. And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over until morning.” But they paid no attention to Moses; some of them left of it until morning, and it became infested with maggots and stank. And Moses was angry with them. So they gathered it every morning, as much as each one needed to eat; for when the sun grew hot, it would melt. On the sixth day they gathered double the amount of food, two omers for each; and when all the chieftains of the community came and told Moses, he said to them, “This is what GOD meant: Tomorrow is a day of rest, a holy sabbath of GOD. Bake what you would bake and boil what you would boil; and all that is left put aside to be kept until morning.” So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered; and it did not turn foul, and there were no maggots in it. Then Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a sabbath of GOD; you will not find it today on the plain. Six days you shall gather it; on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none.” Yet some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found nothing. And GOD said to Moses, “How long will you all refuse to obey My commandments and My teachings? Mark that it is GOD who, having given you the sabbath, therefore gives you two days’ food on the sixth day. Let everyone remain in place: let no one leave the vicinity on the seventh day.” So the people remained inactive on the seventh day. The house of Israel named it manna;. it was like coriander seed, white, and it tasted like wafers uncertain. in honey. Moses said, “This is what GOD has commanded: Let one omer of it be kept throughout the ages, in order that they may see the bread that I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out from the land of Egypt.” And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, put one omer of manna in it, and place it before GOD, to be kept throughout the ages.” As GOD had commanded Moses, Aaron placed it before the Pact, to be kept. And the Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a settled land; they ate the manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. The omer is a tenth of an ephah.

Exodus 16:1–20 records Israel's first grumbling in the wilderness after leaving Elim. God's response was both provision and test: daily bread that required daily trust. The text deliberately stresses that the gift was tied to obedience—'that I may thus test them, to see whether they will follow My instructions or not.' This passage forms the theological backbone for Jesus' later petition, 'Give us this day our daily bread' (Matthew 6:11).