The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 2 — Section 45

IX. ITS EVERY·DAYNE88, No man can live upon a past experience of the sufficiency of Christ. X. lTs ORDER. Full and free a.s the supply of manna. was, its appropriation and usa wero under Divine direction, were according to a certain order. So are there now cho.nnels, means, ordinances of grace, which no man can safely neglect. XI. THE AIM IN MAN'8 APPROPRIATION. Not self-indulgence j not merely his own growth. No man an end unto himself. The final end of food is strength, work, good for others. 'l'he danger of middle-class evangelicalism is that of making personal salvo.tion the ultimate aim of God's grace. We are saved, that we may save. The end of bread is labour. XII. 'l'he subject carries our thoughts on to THE HIDDEN MA:-NA. Rev. ii. 17.- Christ will be the soul's nutriment in heaven. "Hidden," for there will be in heaven as yet undiscovered glories of Christ the Lord. For the final lesson see John vi. 27.-R. Yers. 1-15.-The provision of the manna. This chapter contains an account of the first provision of miraculous bread for Israel in the wilderness. We are told very fully the circumstances in which it was given and the regulations for obtaining aud using it. This provision of bread comes very appropriately after the visits to Marah and Elim. 'l'he waters had been ma.de sure, and wert: soon to be made sure ag,\in (eh. xvii.); and now the breo.d is given (Is. xxx.iii. 16). Before God takes the people tu Sinai, be dues everything to show that they may confidently depend on him for necessities, however vainly they look for superfluities. Consider- !. THE STATE OF MIND A.MONG THE lsRAEl.lTES WHICH PRECEUED THIS GIFT. It is important to notice that such an ample, gracious and miraculous gift as Jehovah here bestowed wa.s bestowed on the unthankful and the evil. ·with many reasons for faith, they were unbelieving; instead of being patient and submissive, considerate towards their leader, and thank.fol for liberty, they broke out into selfish o.nd unjust complaints. Things were going far otherwise than as they wanted them to go. They have now been a month or more out of Egypt and it is wilderness, wilderness, wilderness still! 'l'hey ho.ve got water, but what is water without bread; and what is bread, unless it be the bread along with the flesh of Egypt? And, letting their minds dwell on these lost delicacies, their discontent breaks out in the most ea-pressive way. Discontent is assuredly at a high pitch in a man's mind, when he begins to talk of death o.s a thing to be desired. It shows that he has got so reckle~s and peevish o.s not to care what he says, who.t others mo.y thiuk, or who may be hurt hy his random talk. The low ideal of life on the po.rt of Ismcl is here reveo.led. God h!\s delivered a whole nation, auti this is their idea of why he ho.s delivered them. They think a. life, from which thu flesh pots o.nd the fulness of bread are absent, is not worth living; and such is indeed a very ex'cuso.ble concepti on of life, if hunger o.nd thirst o.fter righteousness have nut become vigorous desire~ within us. If one is to becurutl a freem,m simply to die, then it seems as if one might just as well live a little longer as o. sl,we. Nute further how tho people try to throw the responsibility of their prese11t positio11 011 1\loses. lt was a consequence of their camal-miudeduess that they could not think of the Jehomh who wo.s behind and o.buve the visible lender. They are whero they a.re because Moses has brought them. Thus they utter an unconscious but weighty o.nd significant testimony to the fact, that they had not come there of their own accord or wandered there in an aimless fashion. But for the mighty power that held them fast together, they might have straggled be.ck to Egypt with its comforts and delights. Strange tho.t with such a rebellious spirit, there should yet be such a measure of outward obedience. Evidently they had invisible constraints all around them, so that they could not help but follow the cloud. II. THE MANNER IN WHICH Gon TREATS THIS STATE OF MIND. As he dealt in supplying the water so he deals in supplying the bread. There wo.s a real and pressing want, and though the people me.de it the occasion for foolish talk, it was also to be tl11~ occo.sion for immediate Divine supply. God does not let the existence of the un- thankful and evil fail, for presently, at Sinai, they will have the chance of lcarniug such things as may lead them into a thankful, trustful and noble spirit ; o.nd so ho hasten~ to meet Moses with the chccriug prom.isc-d1ccring iu the substa11ce of it, aud  4fi TIIE BOOK OF EXODUS. [cu. XVI. 1-16.