God Provides For Our Sabbath Needs -- Exodus 16:22-24

Now it came about on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one.  When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, then he said to them, “This is what the Lord meant: Tomorrow is a Sabbath observance, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.”  So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered, and it did not become foul, nor was there any worm in it.
 

A little in the way of background: You will remember back in verse 5 of this same chapter, God had told Moses that when He would give the people bread from heaven, the amount they gathered on the sixth day would be twice as much as their daily allotment.  Then from verse 18 we learn that no matter how much they gathered on a regular day, at the end of each day, it would be as much as they needed.

Now we jump to the first verse of our scripture portion here, verse 22.  The first thing to note is that there is no instruction to the people about the sixth and seventh gatherings.  Moses had told them nothing about what was to happen on the sixth day.  And verse 22 simply says they gathered twice as much on that first sixth day.  How did this happen?  It appears that no matter how they tried to measure their omer (as per verse 18) at the end of the sixth day’s gathering, it came out to two omers’ worth per person.

This became worrisome to them as they may well have felt they were going against God’s command to only gather one omer’s worth per person daily.  So they told their leaders and the leaders went running to Moses to see if he knew what was going on.  He shared with them what God intended as God had explained it to him earlier.  And Moses gave the people instruction as to how to handle the extra amount.  From what they gathered on the sixth day, they were to use what they needed for that day, and then save the rest for the morning of the seventh day.  And guess what, this ‘saving until tomorrow’ unlike the ‘saving’ that took place in verse 20 when it was driven by their insecurity and lack of trust in God’s provision, did not go bad, did not breed worms and did not stink.

What are the lessons here for us in these three short verses?  I find at least four.

First, God is serious about what He asks us to do especially when it comes to things that matter to Him.  In Genesis 2:2 God rested after six days working on the creation of the heavens and the earth.  In Genesis 2:3 He blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.  And thus it was that He wanted His people to rest on their seventh day.  Are we aligned with what is important to God?

Second, God made provision for this ‘rest’ for His people totally on His own without their even asking for it.  In fact, He did not even tell them about how He was going to do that, sharing His intention only with Moses.  I would not be surprised if the majority of Israelites would have forgotten about God’s blessing and sanctification of the Sabbath, and having found out that saving manna until the next day was to no avail, had every intention of ‘not resting’ on the Sabbath and going out to gather their daily supply again on that seventh morning, had God not provided otherwise.  Do we trust God to provide for us (no matter what the need is) in accordance with His will and plan and method?

Third, the people enquired about what was happening, being fearful that they may be doing something contrary to what God had ordered. Right away their conscience, knowing that God had said “gather only for your daily need”, knew something was different and they wanted to make sure that they were still united in purpose and approach with Him.  When something changes in our life, when an opportunity or a windfall presents itself, do we stop to check and see if it is indeed from God?

Fourth, normally extra gathering on a regular day resulted in what was being saved for tomorrow going bad, breeding worms, and stinking, due to the laws of nature.  However, when God is behind the very same action, He can circumvent His own laws of nature as we see the extra manna gathered on the sixth day and saved for the Sabbath did not suffer any of those conditions.  Do we realize that we serve a God Who controls what He has created, including nature?

As we think about our actions and God’s provisions today, let us be aligned with His purpose and His approach.  Let us count fully on Him for direction and provision.

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