Quail and Manna from ADONAI
11: 4-9
Quail and manna from ADONAI DIG: Who were the rabble? Were there any believers among them? What was the real reason for their complaining? How does complaining show our lack of trust in God and His purposes? What is the attitude of the Israelites in this chapter compared to Exodus 16? Have you ever complained about God’s purpose for your life?
REFLECT: Slowly, the people had become so accustomed to the miracles of ADONAI in their lives that they began to take Him for granted. Does that sound familiar? The Israelites’ long journey is so much like ours. Sometimes, too much like ours! Thank the Lord that He knows what is best for us and provides us with all we need to accomplish His purposes.
A second rebellion.
The rabble with them had an intense desire for meat (11:4a). This account appropriately begins with the rabble (Hebrew: ‘asafsuf, sometime translated riffraff, appears only here in the TaNaKh), an appropriate term for the Gentiles who followed the Hebrews out of Egypt (see the commentary on Exodus, to see link click Ca – At the End of the 430 Years, to the Very Day). This term points to a recurring source of complaints and trouble in the camp (see Bp – Complaining at Tav’erah). Those who did not know YHVH and His mercies too easily incited those who did know Him to rebel against Him. But, however the complaining began, it soon spread throughout the camp of Isra’el. It only takes a little sin to leaven the whole lump (First Corinthians (5:6-7). It is likely that familiar texts on the need for separation from people who do not share biblical faith have their genesis in this account. We can see this in the Torah (see the commentary on Deuteronomy Dy – Israelite Distinctiveness), and also in the B’rit Chadashah (see Second Corinthians Bi – Do Not be Unequally Yoked with Unbelievers). Yet, not all the people termed rabble (or who began as rabble) were unbelievers! That is, we may expect that many Gentiles would have come to faith in God in view of their daily contact with Hebrews who did believe (Exodus 14:30-31). Among the non-Hebrew people we may presume had come to faith in Ha’Shem was the Kushite (African) wife of Moshe (Numbers 12:1-2).
Whatever their origin, the rabble caused Moshe and the people of Isra’el a great deal of trouble. A similar group is creating problems for us today. In the parable of the wheat and the weeds (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ev – The Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds), Yeshua taught that whenever ADONAI plants His true children, the Adversary comes along and plants counterfeits. Satan is an imitator and an infiltrator (Jude 4:2; Second Peter 2:1-2), which explains why Paul warned the Church about some who pretended to be believers (see the commentary on Galatians Ax – False Brothers slipped in to Spy Out our Freedom in Messiah), are false ministers (see the commentary on Second Corinthians Bz – Servants of Satan) and practice a false Gospel (see Galatians Aj – No Other Gospel).181
How did their complaining lead to rebellion? They complained about the lack of meat. The quail provided in Exodus 16 had apparently been a one-time treat. But their complaining eventually spread to the Israelites, who started wailing and joined in and declared: If only we had meat to eat! First, we suspect that meat wasn’t common food of the slaves in Egypt; secondly, it wasn’t true that they had no meat to eat. They had both flocks and herds. In Exodus 12:38 we learn that a mixed multitude also went up with the Israelites, with a great number of both flocks and herds. When they arrived in the Land forty years later, they still had flocks and herds because Numbers 32:1 tells us that the descendants of Reuben and the descendants of Gad had vast quantities of livestock. So, the question remains, what were they complaining about?
Then, they changed their minds and wanted fish. We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost. Let’s see . . . fish in the wilderness! It seems that the riffraff was so miserable that they were just making stuff up to complain about. But when the Israelites joined in with the rabble in their complaining, the Hebrews forgot the very reason they left Egypt. They were slaves only a year ago! The Egyptians made their lives bitter with hard labor – digging clay, making bricks, all kinds of field work; and in all the toil they were shown no mercy (Exodus 1:14). How did they go from being shown no mercy to cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic (11:4-5)? They were romanticizing the past because “the-good-old-days” were really “the-bad-old-days.” This is where the heart of mankind leads to when God is absent, never being grateful for what they had. Always wanting more. Just as a circle can never fill a triangle, so that heart of greed is never satisfied.
We need the Ruach Ha’Kodesh to lead us.
But then, like petulant children, they said: We have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna (11:6). After all their complaining, they didn’t want to eat anymore. What was the real issue? Verse 4 tells us that the rabble with them had greedy desires. This was beyond food, which they used as an excuse, because they could not have been hungry. Like Eve, who had all the fruits of the Garden except one, the riffraff had convinced themselves that ADONAI was withholding good things from them. So, in the end, their complaining was actually telling God that His provision did not measure up to their desires. A complaining tongue reveals an ungrateful heart. We are to be like Paul when from prison he said: I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances (Phil 4:11). He understood that everything he had was from God.182
Numerous naturalistic explanations have been given to the account for the provision of manna by those who have traveled in the Sinai. Some point to a secretion of the tamarisk tree of small, yellow/white balls that have a sweet taste. Others believe this secretion is not the product of the tree but is the excreta of certain scale insects made on the leaves of these trees during June in some areas of the Sinai. But like the Flood (see Genesis Cj – The Waters Rose and the Ark Floated on the Surface of the Water), there are no naturally occurring events that fit the plain reading of the text.183 The miracle was that the manna was found in such giant quantities. To feed two million people, they would have needed about nine million pounds of manna per day; that equals about forty-five hundred tons per year, or about a million tons annually for forty years. All very remarkably scheduled every morning! So any natural cause would seem to be quite a stretch.184
The Spirit of God then defended the manna by telling us how marvelous it was. Manna was the perfect food. Even without the rabbi’s descriptive embellishments, there was food provided directly from heaven. It was like coriander seed and looked like resin. The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a hand mill or crushed it in a mortar. It was not boring! They could cook it in a pot or make it into loaves. And it tasted like something made with olive oil. In Exodus 16:31 the taste of manna cakes was also compared to honey. When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down (11:7-9). According to the rabbis, the dew coated the manna, the bottom layer protecting it from the sand while the top layer protected it from being eaten by insects and flies. The manna appeared in the early morning, blown in from the heavens during the night so that enough could be gathered for the daily consumption. Yet, the Israelites had begun to long for foods they once knew. In fact, there was nothing wrong with the manna except that it wasn’t meat, fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic! Because manna was not what they desired, they rejected it, even though it was given to them by God.185
Manna as bread from heaven points to the coming of Jesus as the true bread from heaven, the bread of God, and the living bread that came down from heaven (John 6:32-33 and 51), all in a spiritual sense (John 6:63). Yeshua, as both the bread of life (John 6:35 and 48) and the source of the water of life (Revelation 21:6, 22:1 and 17), can therefore say to us: He who comes to Me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty (John 6:35). However, Messiah made a clear distinction between manna and Himself when he said: Our forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever (John 6:58). We will live forever when we believe in Him (John 6:40).186
Therefore, manna is a type of Messiah: The Sh’khinah glory was connected with the giving of the manna (John 1:14); it came down from heaven (Ephesians 4:10), it was a free gift from God (John 3:16), the manna was sent to Isra’el (Matthew 15:24), people had to gather their own manna, it was to be a personal experience (John 1:12), they were to be fed daily from it (Psalm 69:19); the manna was despised by those who were not God’s children (Numbers 11:4-6; Revelation 16:8-11), manna did not decay on the Sabbath day (Psalm 16:8-10), and it is now hidden, something you see but you don’t understand (Revelation 2:17).187
Dear Heavenly Father, praise You for always being such a gracious giver! You gave the gift so that people might have a life full of abundant joy. I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10c)! Just as it was a personal experience to gather the manna, so salvation is a personal experience of being united to Messiah faith For, if you confess with your mouth that Yeshua is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart it is believed for righteousness, and with the mouth it is confessed for salvation (Romans 10:9-10).
You so graciously choose the path of salvation to be made holy by being in Messiah. He chose us in the Messiah before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love (Ephesian 1:4). The blood of Messiah removes trespasses. In Him we have redemption through His blood – the removal of trespasses – in keeping with the richness of His grace (Ephesian 1:7). All who love You, You promise to make holy by their being in Messiah. Your desire is to save people from hell, but it is a personal choice, just as gathering manna was a personal choice. Making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Ephesians 1:9-10).
What an absolutely wonderful gift You gave to deliver me from sin’s awful penalty of death by Messiah’s painful death, and then to transfer all of Messiah’s righteousness to my spiritual bank account so I could come and live with You in heaven. He made the One who knew no sin to become a sin offering on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (Second Corinthians 5:21).
What a costly and loving gift You chose to give, knowing how much pain and shame it would cost You! You are so worthy of all my love! It may cost me a little to live for You in this world, but it is far worth the cost so that we may spend all eternity in heaven with You! For I consider the sufferings of this present time not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed to us (Romans 8:18). I fix my eyes on pleasing You in all we do, say and think. I have an audience of One! Trials and problems will come, but my heart will be fixed on doing Your will. You are my wonderful and loving Father, and the gracious gift-giver of eternal life! In Messiah Yeshua’s holy Name and power of His resurrection. Amen
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