Studyin' Exodus 16

3 “If only the LORD had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.”
4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they will gather food, and when they prepare it, there will be twice as much as usual.”
6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “By evening you will realize it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 7 In the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your complaints, which are against him, not against us. What have we done that you should complain about us?” 8 Then Moses added, “The LORD will give you meat to eat in the evening and bread to satisfy you in the morning, for he has heard all your complaints against him. What have we done? Yes, your complaints are against the LORD, not against us.”
9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Announce this to the entire community of Israel: ‘Present yourselves before the LORD, for he has heard your complaining.’” 10 And as Aaron spoke to the whole community of Israel, they looked out toward the wilderness. There they could see the awesome glory of the LORD in the cloud.
11 Then the LORD said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the Israelites’ complaints. Now tell them, ‘In the evening you will have meat to eat, and in the morning you will have all the bread you want. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.’”
13 That evening vast numbers of quail flew in and covered the camp. And the next morning the area around the camp was wet with dew. 14 When the dew evaporated, a flaky substance as fine as frost blanketed the ground. 15 The Israelites were puzzled when they saw it. “What is it?” they asked each other. They had no idea what it was.
And Moses told them, “It is the food the LORD has given you to eat. 16 These are the LORD’s instructions: Each household should gather as much as it needs. Pick up two quarts for each person in your tent.”
17 So the people of Israel did as they were told. Some gathered a lot, some only a little. 18 But when they measured it out, everyone had just enough. Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough. Each family had just what it needed.
19 Then Moses told them, “Do not keep any of it until morning.” 20 But some of them didn’t listen and kept some of it until morning. But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell. Moses was very angry with them.
21 After this the people gathered the food morning by morning, each family according to its need. And as the sun became hot, the flakes they had not picked up melted and disappeared. 22 On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much as usual—four quarts for each person instead of two. Then all the leaders of the community came and asked Moses for an explanation. 23 He told them, “This is what the LORD commanded: Tomorrow will be a day of complete rest, a holy Sabbath day set apart for the LORD. So bake or boil as much as you want today, and set aside what is left for tomorrow.”
24 So they put some aside until morning, just as Moses had commanded. And in the morning the leftover food was wholesome and good, without maggots or odor. 25 Moses said, “Eat this food today, for today is a Sabbath day dedicated to the LORD. There will be no food on the ground today. 26 You may gather the food for six days, but the seventh day is the Sabbath. There will be no food on the ground that day.”
27 Some of the people went out anyway on the seventh day, but they found no food. 28 The LORD asked Moses, “How long will these people refuse to obey my commands and instructions? 29 They must realize that the Sabbath is the LORD’s gift to you. That is why he gives you a two-day supply on the sixth day, so there will be enough for two days. On the Sabbath day you must each stay in your place. Do not go out to pick up food on the seventh day.” 30 So the people did not gather any food on the seventh day.
31 The Israelites called the food manna. It was white like coriander seed, and it tasted like honey wafers.
32 Then Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded: Fill a two-quart container with manna to preserve it for your descendants. Then later generations will be able to see the food I gave you in the wilderness when I set you free from Egypt.”
33 Moses said to Aaron, “Get a jar and fill it with two quarts of manna. Then put it in a sacred place before the LORD to preserve it for all future generations.” 34 Aaron did just as the LORD had commanded Moses. He eventually placed it in the Ark of the Covenant—in front of the stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant. 35 So the people of Israel ate manna for forty years until they arrived at the land where they would settle. They ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.
36 The container used to measure the manna was an omer, which was one tenth of an ephah; it held about two quarts.
#1 tool of enemy powers that come against the will of God and God’s holy Kingdom being ever practically established on earth – is to divide and conquer, knock any leader out, especially using criticisms! Find, fault, feel justified, speak evil of someone who is leading you or the group you are in.
So, in knowing this, if this were to happen to us, whatever shall we do?
DO NOT listen, Do NOT criticize, DO NOT murmur or complain!
This whirlwind in your life is a part of the circumstances and consequence that is now upon your life, this is why you are not able to work through some things that seem to face you over and over again. You have made a runway for all sorts of evil to land in your life, because you’ve followed the lead of sheep, or you’ve been a sheep who murmurs, or is opinionated and lead other sheep outside of the plan of God, which is to only share with one another words of edification, exhortation and comfort. You’ve not believed you were to verbally support and uphold imperfect human leaders, no matter who they are or how they lead. It takes a tremendous amount of trust in God on your part to follow any man let alone support him. Ya know, he is just a man, right?
God set it up that way. He says to us, “Do You wholeheartedly trust Me in all things, under the leading of any a people?” Then He requires us to prove we do trust Him as we follow and do not criticize human leaders.
Well, Lord you know how they are, if it was so and so, I’d surely trust You!
Aha, that is not trust, and if you pick and choose who you’ll honor or not, you do not trust God. When we trust in God, have actively alive faith in Him, we are blessed. When we do not trust God and have to have life dealt to us our way, we are actually involved in idolatry, that is not blessed by God, it is rather cursed by coming outside of His laws, that are already in force.
It’s just like jumping off a cliff with no apparatus and expecting to fly. It does not work, the law of gravity is already established and you cannot supersede it without enacting another order with the right apparatus which will enact the law of lift off of that cliff.
Many a time, people are angry at God because He did not cause them to fly alone with no apparatus off of that cliff they choose to jump off of. Did you do it His way, with the available law of lift, or did you desire God to defy His own laws set up by His word, which by the way, He does not relent on?
How many people in authority over your life did you choose to be your leaders?
Most of the people in our lives God choose for us. The Bible says no one, yes no one, is in a place or position of authority, if God did not place Him there. The question again is – do you trust God?
God is amazing how unconditional His love to us is, even when we complain! He’ll provide for us anyway. I believe He is so full of grace, while there is still a living chance we’ll trust and rely on Him, He is waiting in anticipation to save us and use us for His eternal purposes to be established through us as long as we are still alive on the earth.
I’ve seen people sit in church for years being rained on, being flooded with His spirit, opportunities for righteous change, and where they get to see life all around, but for some reason they are not getting it yet. Then one day they do. All the years it took were worth that one day. That’s how God feels. It’d be better to get it sooner than later, but oh the joy when one does get it. The rain keeps failing for that day. I’ve watched many a people struggle in the house of God, struggle with words they are commissioned to do, words that are offering life to their situations and I pray for them that they will remain under the word till they get it. Our enemies know how powerful the word is to move and nudge and prod and change us. He knows if he can take us out from under its covering it won’t be as effective in us, so he tries everyday someway, to steal us away from the hearing of the word. He wants us in a desert place, where there is no rain, and no eternal bread from heaven.
Having bread at church on Sunday’s is awesome, but standing in the rain that causes growth daily is the absolute best. If he can’t even get us to stay away from church on Sunday, but can go ahead and distract us all week and make us dry, he has one up on God. At least he feels he does.
Manna comes from heaven to us everyday. We have opportunity to gather with believers in our flock/sheepfold, and we have opportunities to join in prayer and in studies and in serving in the house, we could be at the house or bring our families to the hou