Exodus 16:20

_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._ He that gathered much had nothing over ... Although this miraculous food was provided in great profusion, yet much of it was erelong melted by the sun on being stored up by the avaricious; and it appears, by comparing this passage with 2 Corinthians 8:15, that the daily supply which remained free from putrefaction was just what was equal in amount to an omer for each person throughout the camp of Israel....

13-21 At evening the quails came up, and the people caught with ease as many as they needed. The manna came down in dew. They called it "Manna, Manhu," which means, "What is this?" "It is a portion; it is that which our God has allotted us, and we will take it, and be thankful." It was pleasant food; it was wholesome food. The manna was rained from heaven; it appeared, when the dew was gone, as a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost, like coriander seed, in colour like pearls. The manna fell only six days in the week, and in double quantity on the sixth day; it bred worms and became offensive if kept more than one day, excepting on the sabbath. The people had never seen it before. It could be ground in a mill, or beaten in a mortar, and was then made into cakes and baked. It continued the forty years the Israelites were in the wilderness, wherever they went, and ceased when the...

Verse Exodus 16:20. _IT BRED WORMS_] Their sinful curiosity and covetousness led them to make the trial; and they had a mass of the most loathsome putrefaction for their pains. How gracious is God! He is continually rendering disobedience and sin irksome to the transgressor; that finding his evil ways to be unprofitable, he may return to his Maker, and trust in God alone....

IT BRED WORMS - This result was supernatural: no such tendency to rapid decomposition is recorded of common manna....

EXPOSITION THE PROMISE FULFILLED. Moses had made a double promise to the Israelites in God's name. "The Lord shall give you," he had said," in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full" (Exodus 16:8). And now the time for the fulfilment of the double promise approached. First, however, before they received the blessings, he required them to present themselves before the Lord. As they had rebelled in murmuring, an act of homage was proper; and as they had called in question the conduct of Moses and Aaron. some token that God approved the action of these his faithful servants, and would support them, was needed. Hence the appearance of the Lord to the congregation in the cloud (Exodus 16:10). After this, when evening approached

NOTWITHSTANDING THEY HEARKENED NOT UNTO MOSES,.... That is, not all of them, some of them did, and perhaps the far greater part of them: BUT SOME OF THEM LEFT IT UNTIL THE MORNING; out of distrust, for fear they should have none the next day; being men of little faith, that could not trust God for a supply for the morrow; the Targum of Jonathan says, these were Dathan and Abiram; and so Jarchi: AND IT BRED WORMS, AND STANK; or by an "hysteron proteron", and transposition of the words, the sense may be, that it stank, corrupted, and putrefied, and so produced worms, in which order the words lie, Exodus 16:24, and this was not from the nature of the manna to breed worms so soon, but God so ordering and disposing it, that it should do so; for otherwise it would keep to another day, as what was gathered on the sixth day kept to the seventh, and there was a

Exodus 16:1. _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. And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:_ They have been only about six weeks in the wilderness, and already they are up in arms against their leaders. Remember that we have the same kind of people to deal with as Moses and Aaron had. The children of Israel were no better than any other nation; and I do not think they were any worse. We may take them as a fair average of human nature, which is a discontented, rebellious thing in the best of circumstances. Exodus 16:3. A

LEFT As we are not nourished by the memory of food, so neither can spirituality be sustained on past appropriations of Christ....

XVI. MANNA AND QUAILS (Exodus 16:1 P, Exodus 16:4 a(b) - Exodus 16:5 J, (Exodus 16:6 f., Exodus 16:8) Rp, Exodus 16:9 a (morning) P, Exodus 16:13 b - Exodus 16:15 J, Exodus 16:16 P,...

MOSES SAID, LET NO MAN LEAVE OF IT, &C.— A striking peculiarity of this _bread from heaven_ is here mentioned, which abundantly proves to us, that it was different from common manna; for this putrifies not: whereas that which God sent for the daily food of the Israelites, if _kept till the next morning, bred worms and stank._ See Dr. Bentley's 4th Sermon at Boyle's Lectures. Desirous to keep the people dependent upon his providence, the Almighty determined to give them this heavenly food from day to day. Accordingly, as the preservation of it betrayed great want of faith in the preserver, so was it to no purpose; for, as what remained, after the Israelites had gathered their quantity, _melted away_ by the heat of the sun, so, what they preserved, became utterly unserviceable; see note on Exodus 16:4. Another proof, that this was different from the ordinary manna, is, the way i