EXPLORE THE TEXT
Believers demonstrate faith when they trust God to provide anew each day.
16 “This is what the Lord has commanded:
‘Gather as much of it as each person needs to eat.
You may take two quarts per individual,
according to the number of people each of you has in his tent.’”
17 So the Israelites did this.
Some gathered a lot, some a little.
18 When they measured it by quarts,
the person who gathered a lot had no surplus,
and the person who gathered a little had no shortage.
Each gathered as much as he needed to eat.19 Moses said to them,
“No one is to let any of it remain until morning.”
Passover and Manna
Some scholars also see similarities between manna and the Passover sacrifice, which was to be eaten on the night it was killed (12:8).
Anything left over until morning was to be burned (12:10).
Evidently this is because it was a holy sacrifice.
By eating it, the people set themselves apart as God’s holy people.
The manna was not a sacrifice, but it was meant to point to God’s provision of a Messiah
who would give His life as spiritual Bread for all who would believe.
As the Passover sacrifice pointed ahead to its fulfillment in Christ,
so did God’s provision of “the bread from heaven” (John 6:32-33).
God supplied the need, so He had the authority to set the guidelines for collecting manna.
Briefly discuss why God may have put limits on the amount the Israelites could collect each day.
Emphasize the need to trust God daily and discuss how that applies to our lives today.