Exodus 16:32

16:32-36 God having provided manna to be his people's food in the wilderness, the remembrance of it was to be preserved. Eaten bread must not be forgotten. God's miracles and mercies are to be had in remembrance. The word of God is the manna by which our souls are nourished, Mt 4:4. The comforts of the Spirit are hidden manna, Re 2:17. These come from heaven, as the manna did, and are the support and comfort of the Divine life in the soul, while we are in the wilderness of this world. Christ in the word is to be applied to the soul, and the means of grace are to be used. We must every one of us gather for ourselves, and gather in the morning of our days, the morning of our opportunities; which if we let slip, it may be too late to gather. The manna must not be hoarded up, but eaten; those who have received Christ, must by faith live upon him, and not receive his grace in vain. There was manna enough for all, enough for each, and none had too much; so in Christ there is enough, but not more than we need. But those who ate manna, hungered again, died at last, and with many of them God was not well pleased; whereas they that feed on Christ by faith, shall never hunger, and shall die no more, and with them God will be for ever well pleased. Let us seek earnestly for the grace of the Holy Spirit, to turn all our knowledge of the doctrine of Christ crucified, into the spiritual nourishment of our souls by faith and love.

And Moses said,.... At another time, though it is here inserted to give the account of the mamma all together: this is the thing which the Lord commandeth; namely, what follows: fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; which was the quantity allowed a man every day; this measure was to be laid up, and reserved for posterity in future generations, not to eat, nor so much as taste of, for then it would soon have been gone, but to look at, as follows: that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt; that they might see what sort of food was provided for them, and what quantity each man had of it every day; and so have an ocular proof of the wisdom, power, and goodness of God, in providing for their support in a wilderness, where no supplies were to be had; and when they were just come out of an enemy's country: thus Christ is the food of his people, while they are in the wilderness of this world; and is never so until they are brought out of the state of nature's darkness and bondage, like that of the Egyptians; and who, being the food of the saints in ages past, is presented to the eye of faith, for its encouragement to look to him and believe in him, receive, embrace, and feed upon him.

(32-35) And Moses said . . . Fill an omer. —This narrative, which must belong to a later date than any other part of Exodus, since it assumes that the Tabernacle is set up ( Exodus 16:34 ), seems to have been placed here on account of its subject-matter. The writer wishes to conclude the history of the manna, and has two further points to note concerning it: (1) the preservation of an omer of it as a perpetual memorial ( Exodus 16:32-34 ); and (2) the fact of its continuance until the Israelites reached the borders of Canaan. The passage is probably an addition to the original “Book,” but contains nothing that may not have been written by Moses.

Verse 32. - And Moses said . Not at the moment, but some time subsequently. See the introductory paragraph. Fill an omer. In the original it is "the omer," and so the LXX.; but the reason for the introduction of the article is obscure. For your generations - i.e. , "for your descendants." Exodus 16:32

manna - It was not indeed the common manna, as they then seem to have believed, but the properties which are noted in this passage are common to it and the natural product: in size, form and color it resembled the seed of the white coriander, a small round grain of a whitish or yellowish grey.

32. The sin of the Golden Calf, vv. 1–6; Jehovah, having told Moses that it is His intention to destroy the people in consequence, is diverted from His purpose by Moses’ intercession, vv. 7–14; Moses, coming down from the mount, and seeing the calf and the dancing, breaks the tables of stone, and then makes the people drink the powder of the calf, vv. 15–20; Aaron’s excuses, vv. 21–24; the insubordination of the people punished by the sons of Levi, who are rewarded for their zeal by the priesthood, vv. 25–29; Moses intercedes with Jehovah, and obtains from Him the promise that he may lead the people on to Canaan, though without His own personal presence, vv. 30–34; the people plagued for their sin, v. 35. The account of some of the events narrated in this ch., given in the retrospect of Deuteronomy 9:8-29 , deserves to be compared: the reader who will be at the pains to underline in his text of Dt. the passages in vv. 12–17, 21, 26–29 taken verbatim from Exodus 32:7-10 ; Exodus 32:15 ; Exodus 32:19-20 ; Exodus 32:11 ; Exodus 32:13 ; Exodus 32:12 ; Exodus 32:11 , will find remarkable resemblances, and also some remarkable differences: in particular ( vv. 26–29), words taken from Exodus 32:11-13 (and also from Numbers 14:16 ), but referred to a different occasion (comp. the writer’s Deut. pp. 10, 112 ff.). Why, it may be asked, was the figure of a bull chosen to represent Jehovah?

32-36. Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations—The mere fact of such a multitude being fed for forty years in the wilderness, where no food of any kind is to be obtained, will show the utter impossibility of their subsisting on a natural production of the kind and quantity as this tarfa-gum [see on [19]Ex 16:13]; and, as if for the purpose of removing all such groundless speculations, Aaron was commanded to put a sample of it in a pot—a golden pot (Heb 9:4)—to be laid before the Testimony, to be kept for future generations, that they might see the bread on which the Lord fed their fathers in the wilderness. But we have the bread of which that was merely typical (1Co 10:3; Joh 6:32).

The fact is, that they required, like children, to have something to strike their senses, and as the Shekinah, "the glory of God," of which they had hitherto enjoyed the sight, was now veiled, they wished for some visible material object as the symbol of the divine presence, which should go before them as the pillar of fire had done.The people commit idolatry by worshipping the molten image which Aaron made, Exodus 32:1-6. God makes it known to Moses, and threatens their destruction, Exo 32 7-10. Moses prays for them, Exo 32 11-13. God repents of the evil, Exo 32 14. Moses comes down from the mount with two tables, Exo 32 15; being God’s own writing, Exo 32 16. Moses hearing and seeing their idolatry, breaks the two tables, Exodus 32:19; and turns the calf into powder, Exodus 32:20. Aaron’s excuse, Exodus 32:21-24. Moses seeing their nakedness, Exodus 32:25, commands them to be slain, Exodus 32:26,27. He bids them consecrate themselves, Exodus 32:29. Moses charging them with sin, Exodus 32:30, prayeth for them, Exodus 32:31,32. God spareth them, Exodus 32:34; but afterward plagueth them, Exodus 32:35. BC 1491 Moses had now been in the mount for near forty days. The people, i.e. most or some of the people, as it is expressed 1 Corinthians 10:7. Unto Aaron, as the chief person in Moses’s absence. Make us gods, i.e. images or representations of God, whom, after the manner of idolaters, they call by God’s name.

As a constant memorial of this bread of God for succeeding generations, Jehovah commanded Moses to keep a bowl full (העמר מלא, the filling of a bowl) of the manna. Accordingly Aaron placed a jar of manna (as it is stated in Exodus 16:34 , Exodus 16:35 , by way of anticipation, for the purpose of summing up everything of importance relating to the manna) "before Jehovah," or speaking still more exactly, "before the testimony," i.e., the tables of the law (see Exodus 25:16 ), or according to Jewish tradition, in the ark of the covenant ( Hebrews 9:4 ). צנצנת, from צנן to guard round, to preserve, signifies a jar or bottle, not a basket. According to the Jerusalem Targum, it was an earthenware jar; in the lxx it is called στάμνος χρυσοῦς, a golden jar, but there is nothing of this kind in the original text.