| Back to Home Page | Back to Book Index
|
Exodus Chapter
Sixteen
Exodus 16
Chapter Contents
The Israelites come to the wilderness of Sin. They murmur
for food, God promises bread from heaven. (1-12) God sends quails and manna.
(13-21) Particulars respecting the manna. (22-31) An omer of manna to be
preserved. (32-36)
Commentary on Exodus 16:1-12
(Read Exodus 16:1-12)
The provisions of Israel, brought from Egypt, were spent
by the middle of the second month, and they murmured. It is no new thing for
the greatest kindness to be basely represented as the greatest injuries. They
so far undervalue their deliverance, that they wished they had died in Egypt;
and by the hand of the Lord, that is, by the plagues which cut off the
Egyptians. We cannot suppose they had plenty in Egypt, nor could they fear
dying for want in the wilderness, while they had flocks and herds: none talk
more absurdly than murmurers. When we begin to fret, we ought to consider, that
God hears all our murmurings. God promises a speedy and constant supply. He
tried whether they would trust him, and rest satisfied with the bread of the
day in its day. Thus he tried if they would serve him, and it appeared how
ungrateful they were. When God plagued the Egyptians, it was to make them know
he was their Lord; when he provided for the Israelites, it was to make them
know he was their God.
Commentary on Exodus 16:13-21
(Read Exodus 16:13-21)
At evening the quails came up, and the people caught with
ease as many as they needed. The manna came down in dew. They called it
"Manna, Manhu," which means, "What is this?" "It is a
portion; it is that which our God has allotted us, and we will take it, and be
thankful." It was pleasant food; it was wholesome food. The manna was
rained from heaven; it appeared, when the dew was gone, as a small round thing,
as small as the hoar frost, like coriander seed, in colour like pearls. The
manna fell only six days in the week, and in double quantity on the sixth day;
it bred worms and became offensive if kept more than one day, excepting on the
sabbath. The people had never seen it before. It could be ground in a mill, or
beaten in a mortar, and was then made into cakes and baked. It continued the
forty years the Israelites were in the wilderness, wherever they went, and
ceased when they arrived in Canaan. All this shows how different it was from
any thing found before, or found now. They were to gather the manna every
morning. We are hereby taught, 1. To be prudent and diligent in providing food
for ourselves and our households; with quietness working, and eating our own
bread, not the bread of idleness or deceit. God's bounty leaves room for man's
duty; it did so even when manna was rained; they must not eat till they have
gathered. 2. To be content with enough. Those that have most, have for
themselves but food and raiment; those that have least, generally have these;
so that he who gathers much has nothing over, and he who gathers little has no
lack. There is not such a disproportion between one and another in the
enjoyment of the things of this life, as in the mere possession of them. 3. To
depend upon Providence: let them sleep quietly, though they have no bread in
their tents, nor in all their camp, trusting that God, with the following day,
would bring them in their daily bread. It was surer and safer in God's
storehouse than their own, and would come thence sweeter and fresher. See here
the folly of hoarding. The manna laid up by some, who thought themselves wiser,
and better managers, than their neighbours, and who would provide lest it
should fail next day, bred worms, and became good for nothing. That will prove
to be most wasted, which is covetously and distrustfully spared. Such riches
are corrupted, James 5:2,3. The same wisdom, power, and
goodness that brought food daily from above for the Israelites in the
wilderness, brings food yearly out of the earth in the constant course of
nature, and gives us all things richly to enjoy.
Commentary on Exodus 16:22-31
(Read Exodus 16:22-31)
Here is mention of a seventh-day sabbath. It was known,
not only before the giving of the law upon mount Sinai, but before the bringing
of Israel out of Egypt, even from the beginning, Genesis 2:3. The setting apart one day in seven
for holy work, and, in order to that, for holy rest, was ever since God created
man upon the earth, and is the most ancient of the Divine laws. Appointing them
to rest on the seventh day, he took care that they should be no losers by it;
and none ever will be losers by serving God. On that day they were to fetch in
enough for two days, and to make it ready. This directs us to contrive family affairs,
so that they may hinder us as little as possible in the work of the sabbath.
Works of necessity are to be done on that day; but it is desirable to have as
little as may be to do, that we may apply ourselves the more closely to prepare
for the life that is to come. When they kept manna against a command, it stank;
when they kept it by a command, it was sweet and good; every thing is
sanctified by the word of God and prayer. On the seventh day God did not send
the manna, therefore they must not expect it, nor go out to gather. This showed
that it was produced by miracle.
Commentary on Exodus 16:32-36
(Read Exodus 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, Matthew 4:4. The comforts of the Spirit are
hidden manna, Revelation 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.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Exodus》
Exodus 16
Verse 1
[1] And
they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of
Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the
fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of
Egypt.
A month's provision, it seems, the host of
Israel took with them out of Egypt, when they came thence on the 15th day of
the first month, which, by the 15th day of the second month, was all spent.
Verse 2
[2] And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against
Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:
Then the whole congregation murmured against
Moses and Aaron — God's viceregents among them.
Verse 3
[3] And
the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of
the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did
eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to
kill this whole assembly with hunger.
They so undervalue their deliverance, that
they wish, they had died in Egypt, nay, and died by the hand of the Lord too.
That is, by some of the plagues which cut off the Egyptians; as if it were not
the hand of the Lord, but of Moses only, that brought them into this wilderness.
'Tis common for people to say of that pain, or sickness, which they see not
second causes of, It is what pleaseth God, as if that were not so likewise
which comes by the hand of man, or some visible accident. We cannot suppose
they had any great plenty in Egypt, how largely soever they now talk of the
flesh-pots, nor could they fear dying for want in the wilderness while they had
their flocks and herds with them; but discontent magnifies what is past, and
vilifies what is present, without regard to truth or reason. None talk more
absurdly than murmurers.
Verse 4
[4] Then
said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and
the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove
them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.
Man being made out of the earth, his Maker
has wisely ordered him food out of the earth, Psalms 104:14. But the people of Israel
typifying the church of the first-born that are written in heaven, receiving
their charters, laws and commissions from heaven, from heaven also they
received their food. See what God designed in making this provision for them,
that I may prove them whether they will walk in my law or no - Whether they
will trust me, and whether they would serve him, and be ever faithful to so
good a master.
Verse 5
[5] And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that
which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.
They shall prepare —
Lay up, grind, bake or boil.
Verse 6
[6] And
Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, At even, then ye shall
know that the LORD hath brought you out from the land of Egypt:
The Lord —
And not we, (as you suggest) by our own counsel.
Verse 10
[10] And
it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of
Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the
LORD appeared in the cloud.
The glory of the Lord — An extra-ordinary and sudden brightness.
Verse 12
[12] I
have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying,
At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread;
and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God.
And ye shall know that I am the Lord your God — This gave proof of his power as the Lord, and his particular favour to
them as their God; when God plagued the Egyptians, it was to make them know
that he is the Lord; when he provided for the Israelites, it was to make them
know that he was their God.
Verse 13
[13] And
it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in
the morning the dew lay round about the host.
The quails came up, and covered the camp — So tame that they might take up as many of them as they pleased. Next
morning he rained manna upon them, which was to be continued to them for their
daily bread.
Verse 15
[15] And
when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for
they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which
the LORD hath given you to eat.
What is this? Manna descended from the
clouds. It came down in dew melted, and yet was itself of such a consistency as
to serve for nourishing strengthening food, without any thing else: It was
pleasant food; the Jews say it was palatable to all, according as their tastes
were. It was wholesome food, light of digestion. By this spare and plain diet
we are all taught a lesson of temperance, and forbidden to desire dainties and
varieties.
Verse 16
[16] This
is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to
his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons;
take ye every man for them which are in his tents.
An omer —
The tenth part of an Ephah: Near six pints, wine-measure.
Verse 19
[19] And
Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.
Let no man leave 'till morning — But let them learn to go to bed and sleep quietly, though they had not a
bit of bread in their tent, nor in all their camp, trusting God with the
following day to bring them their daily bread. Never was there such a market of
provisions as this, where so many hundred thousand men were daily furnished
without money, and without price: never was there such an open house kept as
God kept in the wilderness for 40 years together, nor such free and plentiful
entertainment given. And the same wisdom, power and goodness that now brought
food daily out of the clouds, doth in the constant course of nature bring food
yearly out of the earth, and gives us all things richly to enjoy.
Verse 23
[23] And
he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest
of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and
seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be
kept until the morning.
Here is a plain intimation of the observing a
seventh day sabbath, not only before the giving of the law upon mount Sinai,
but before the bringing of Israel out of Egypt and therefore from the
beginning. If the sabbath had now been first instituted, how could Moses have
understood what God said to him, Exodus 16:4, concerning a double portion to be
gathered on the sixth day, without making any express mention of the sabbath?
And how could the people so readily take the hint, Exodus 16:22, even to the surprize of the
rulers, before Moses had declared that it was done with regard to the sabbath,
if they had not had some knowledge of the sabbath before? The setting apart of
one day in seven for holy work, and in order to that for holy rest, was a
divine appointment ever since God created man upon the earth.
Verse 34
[34] As
the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.
An omer of this manna was laid up in a golden
pot as we are told, Hebrews 9:4, and kept before the testimony, or
the ark, when it was afterwards made, The preservation of this manna from waste
and corruption, was a standing miracle; and therefore the more proper memorial
of this miraculous food. The manna is called spiritual meat, 1 Corinthians 10:3, because it was typical of
spiritual blessings. Christ himself is the true manna, the bread of life, of
which that was a figure, John 6:49-51. The word of God is the manna by
which our souls are nourished, Matthew 4:4. The comforts of the Spirit are
hidden manna, Revelation 2:17. These comforts from heaven as
the manna did, are the support of the divine life in the soul while we are in
the wilderness of this world: it is food for Israelites, for those only that
follow the pillar of cloud and fire: it is to be gathered; Christ in the word
is to be applied to the soul, and the means of grace used: we must every one of
us gather for ourselves. There was manna enough for all, enough for each, and
none had too much; so in Christ there is a compleat sufficiency, and no
superfluity. But they that did eat 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. The Lord evermore give us this bread!
──
John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Exodus》
Exo.16:2~3 Cause of grumbling
Start
with a basic two-door sedan loaded with luggage for a vacation trip. Add a
father, mother, and three children under the age of ten. Aim the car at an
objective that is 500 miles down the road. After 350 miles have passed, examine
the scene. What is the condition of what has become a traveling circus? Pretty
discouraging?
Now,
magnify that situation thousands of times over, move it back some 3,500 years,
eliminate the automobile, and you will begin to understand Moses’ predicament
in Exodus 16. The thrill of freedom and the excitement of the exodus were soon
erased by the discomforts of travel. Gratitude usually gives way to grumbling.
16 Chapter 16
Verses 1-12
The wilderness of Sin.
Moses in the wilderness of Sin
People may be strong and hopeful at the beginning of a project,
and most effusively and devoutly thankful at its close, but the difficulty is
to go manfully through the process.
I. Processes try
men’s temper. See how the temper of Israel was tried in the wilderness! No
bread, no water, no rest! How do processes try men’s temper?
1. They are often tedious.
2. They, are often uncontrollable.
3. They often seem to be made worse by the incompetency of others.
II. The trials of
processes are to be met, not all at once, but a day at a time. Daily hunger was
met by daily bread. This daffy display of Divine care teaches--
1. That physical as well as spiritual gifts are God’s.
2. That one of God’s gifts is the pledge of another. “Not as the
world giveth, give I unto you.” Why am I to be easy about to-morrow? Because
God is good to-day! “He is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.”
III. Processes show
the different dispositions of men. Though the people were told in the
distinctest manner that there would be no manna on the seventh day, yet they
went out to gather it just as if they had never been warned! Such men are the
vexation of the world. They plague every community of which they are a portion.
1. We have the means of life at our disposal: the manna lies at our
tent-door!
2. We are distinctly assured that such means are given under law:
there is a set time for the duration of the opportunity: the night cometh!
IV. All the
processes of life should be hallowed by religious exercises. There was a
Sabbath even in the wilderness.
1. The Sabbath is more than a mere law; it is an expression of mercy.
2. No man ever loses anything by keeping the Sabbath: “The Lord
giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days.”
3. He is the loser who has no day of rest.
V. Processes
should leave some tender and hope-inspiring memories behind them. “Fill an omer
of it to be kept,” etc.
VI. The process
will end. Are you ready? (J. Parker, D. D.)
The pilgrimage of life
In the anecdote books of our boyhood we used to be told the story
of an Indian
faquir who entered an Eastern palace and spread his bed in one of its
antechambers, pretending that he had mistaken the building for a caravanserai
or inn. The prince, amused by the oddity of the circumstance, ordered--so ran
the tale--the man to be brought before him, and asked him how he came to make
such a mistake. “What is an inn?” the faquir asked. “A place,” was the reply,
“where travellers rest a little while before proceeding on their journey.” “Who
dwelt here before you?” again asked the faquir. “My father,” was the prince’s
reply. “And did he remain here?” “No,” was the answer; “He died and went away.”
“And who dwelt here before him?” “His ancestors.” “And did they remain here?”
“No; they also died and went away.” “Then,” rejoined the faquir, “I have made
no mistake, for your palace is but an inn after all.” The faquir was right, Our
houses are but inns, and the whole world a caravanserai. (Clerical Library.)
Bread, the supreme question
During the French Revolution hundreds of market-women, attended by
an armed mob of men, went to Versailles to demand bread of the National
Assembly, there being great destitution in Paris. They entered the hall. There
was a discussion upon the criminal laws going on. A fishwoman cried out, “Stop
that babbler! That is not the question; the question is about bread.” (Little’s
“Historical Lights.”)
Murmuring, the result of forgetfulness
What unbelief and sad forgetfulness of God betrayed itself in
these words! They quite forgot the bitter bondage of Egypt under which they had
sighed and groaned so long. They now thought only of its “flesh-pots” and “its
bread.” They altogether overlooked the mercy and the grace which had spared
them when the firstborn of the Egyptians were slain. The miracles of love at
the Red Sea and at Marah, so great and so recent, had passed away from their
memories. They thought nothing of the promise of the land flowing with milk and
honey. The argument, so evident and so comforting, “Can the faithful God who
has brought us out of bondage mean to let us perish in the wilderness?” did not
withhold them from the impatient conclusion, “Ye have brought us forth into the
wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” And if you watch your own
hearts, you will find that there is always this forgetfulness in a murmuring
and discontented spirit. We forget, first, that we deserve nothing but
punishment at God’s hands; and, secondly, we forget all the mercy and love
which He has shown
us in His acts and promises. (G. Wagner.)
Grumbling, an added burden
If I grumble because life is so arranged that I tear my clothes,
and get many a scratch in the upward journey, my grumble is only an added
burden. The difference between a soul that is soured by unbelief and a soul
that honestly struggles and strives as the gymnast does, who tries to lift the
heavy weight, knowing that, whether he succeeds or fails, the muscular
development, which is the end sought, is still attained, is incalculable. To
trudge along the moor after nightfall, then now knee deep, with the feeling
that you are going nowhere, is indeed discouraging; but to do the same thing
with the feeling that you are going home to the fireside of the loved and
expectant, is to keep both feet and hands warm through our power of
anticipating the heat and the welcome under the roof tree not far off. Rude,
discourteous experience has taught us that an evil which is all an evil is a
double evil, and that an evil with a joy behind it or beyond it is the healthy
and invigorating toil by means of which a man may acquire a lasting good.
Ingratitude of the public
Daniel Webster, after his wonderful career, and in the close of
his life, writes: “If I were to live my life over again, with my present
experiences, I would under no considerations allow myself to enter public life.
The public are ungrateful. The man who serves the public most faithfully
receives no adequate reward. In my own history those acts which have been,
before God, most disinterested and the least stained by selfish considerations,
have been precisely those for which I have been most freely abused. No, no;
have nothing to do with politics. Sell your iron, eat the bread of
independence, support your family with the rewards of honest toil, do your duty
as a private citizen to your country, but let politics alone. It is a hard
life, a thankless life. I have had in the course of my political life, which is
not a short one, my full share of ingratitude, but the ‘unkindest cut of all,’
the shaft that has sunk the deepest in my heart, has been the refusal of this
administration to grant my request for an office of small pecuniary
consideration for my only son.” (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Ingratitude of grumbling
I heard a good man say once, as we passed the home of a
millionaire: “It doesn’t seem right that such a man as he is should be rolling in wealth, while I
have to work hard for my daily bread.” I made no reply. But when we reached the
home of the grumbler, and a troop of rosy children ran out to meet us, I caught
one in my arms, and, holding him up, said: “John, how much will you take for
this boy?” And he answered, while the moisture gathered in his eyes: “That boy,
my namesake! I wouldn’t sell him for his weight in gold.” “Why, John, he weighs
forty pounds at least, and forty pounds of gold would make you many times a
millionaire. And you would probably ask as much for each of the others. So,
according to your own admission, you are immensely rich. Yes, a great deal
richer than that cold, selfish, childless millionaire whom you were envying as
we came along. Nothing would tempt you to change places with him. Then you
ought to be grateful instead of grumbling. You are the favourite of fortune,
or, rather, of Providence, and not he.” (H. W. Beecher.)
Verse 4
That I may prove them.
Life a probation
There can be nothing more sobering than the truth that this life
is a state of trial and preparation for another. There is at the same time
something wonderfully satisfying in the idea. It puts life before us in a point
of view which satisfactorily explains it.
I. This account of
the end of life simplifies matters in our journey through life, The principle
of trial as the end of life shoves aside a multiplicity of irrevelent ends to
make way for the true one; it reduces the purpose of life to the greatest
possible simplicity, reduces it, as we may say, to a unit--to the effect upon
the individual himself, what he does and how he turns out under these
circumstances. The idea of probation thus gives a singular unity to the whole
design and plan of life. It throws the individual upon himself as the rational
of the whole.
II. The principle
of the end of life being probative applies mainly to all the ordinary external
advantages of life and our pursuit of them; but it also affects another and
less ordinary class of human objects--the objects connected with the good of
others, those useful and benevolent works and those public and religious works
which good men propose to themselves. There is one defect to which good men are
liable: they become to much absorbed in the success of their own plans. The
important truth for such men to realize is this very principle, viz., that of
the end of life being trial. If they brought this truth home to themselves,
they would see that the only important thing to them was, not that a useful
undertaking should answer, but that they should have done faithfully their best
for that purpose.
III. God makes use
of us as His instruments, but the work that we do as instruments is a far
inferior work to that which we do to fulfil our own personal trial. The general
end of life, as trial, is superior to all special ends; it is the end which
concerns the individual being, his spiritual condition, his ultimate prospects.
(Prof. J. B. Mozley.)
The Divine bestowal of physical good
I. Physical
blessings are given to supply our wants.
1. This provision was providential. God’s hand directs the movements
of the tiniest creatures in the universe. He clothes the grass, and paints the
flower.
2. This provision was abundant. There was enough for each man, woman,
and child.
II. Physical
blessings are given to develop our energies.
1. The blessings of lifo must be secured by diligent application. “Go
out and gather.” No prize is beyond the reach of the earnest worker.
2. The blessings of life must be sought in a patient spirit. “A
certain portion every day.” We want to accumulate the treasures of life
quickly, to provide in youth for age, and retire upon our gains. God does not forbid prudence,
foresight; but He sometimes overturns our plans, and sends day by day our daily
bread. To the anxious, fearful soul, He says, “Gather,” “Trust.”
III. Physical
blessings are given to test our obedience. “That I may prove them, whether they
will walk in My law, or no.” God has many ways of testing the sincerity of His
people. He proves them by poverty, affliction, persecution, and prosperity. He
spreads our tables with dainties, and says, I will test their love, and
liberality, and devotion.
1. The recipients of material possessions often hoard their wealth.
Hoarded wealth never satisfies the possessor. It begets selfishness, fear,
unrest, and disappointment.
2. The recipients of material possessions often squander their
wealth. (J. T. Woodhouse.)
The manna a test of faith
“That I may prove them, whether they will walk in My law, or no.”
How did the manna become a test of this? By means of the law prescribed for
gathering it. There was to be a given quantity daily, and twice as much on the
sixth day. If a man trusted God for to-morrow, he would be content to stop
collecting when he had filled his Greet, tempting as the easily gathered
abundance would be. Greed and unbelief would masquerade then, as now, under the
guise of prudent foresight. The old Egyptian parallels to “make hay while the
sun shines,” and such like wise sayings of the philosophy of distrust, would be
solemnly spoken, and listened to as pearls of wisdom. When experience had
taught that, however much a man gathered, he had no more than his omer full,
after all--and is not that true yet?--then the next temptation would be to
practise economy, and have something over for tomorrow. Only he who absolutely
trusted God to provide for him, world eat up his portion, and lie down at night
with a quiet heart, knowing that He who had fed him would feed. When experience
taught that what was saved rotted, then laziness would come in, and say, “What
is the use of gathering twice as much on the sixth day? Don’t we know that it
will not keep?” So the whole of the gift was a continual training, and
therefore a continual test, for faith. God willed to let His gifts come in this
hand-to-mouth fashion, though He could have provided at once what would have
obviously lasted them all their wilderness life, in order that they might be
habituated to cling to Him, and that their daily bread might be doubly for
their nourishment, feeding their bodies, and strengthening that faith which, to
them as to us, is the condition of all blessedness. God lets our blessings,
too, trickle to us drop by drop, instead of pouring them in a flood all at once
upon us, for the
same reason. He does so, not because of any good to Him, from our faith, except
that the Infinite love loves infinitely to be loved. Bat for our sakes, that we
may taste the peace and strength of continual dependence, and the joy of
continual receiving. He could give us the principal down; but He prefers to pay
us the interest as we need it. Christianity does not absolutely forbid laying
up money or other resources for future wants. But the love of accumulating,
which is so strong in many professing Christians, and the habit of amassing
beyond all reasonable future wants, is surely scarcely permitted to those who
profess to believe that incarnate wisdom forbade taking anxious care for the
morrow, and sent its disciples to lilies and birds to learn the happy
immunities of faith. We, too, get our daily mercies to prove us. The letter of
the law for the manna is not applicable to us who gain our bread by God’s blessing
on our labour. But the spirit is, and the members of great commercial nations
have surely little need to be reminded that still the portion put away is apt
to breed worms. How often it vanishes I Or, if it lasts, tortures its owner,
who has more trouble keeping it than he had in getting it; or fatally corrupts
his own character, or ruins his children. All God’s gifts are tests,
which--thanks be to Him--is the same as to say that they are means of
increasing faith, and so adding joy. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Verses 13-15
Manna.
The manna
I. Its mystic
character. “What is this?” Christ was a mystery to His contemporaries. So is
the Christian to his. “The world knoweth you not.”
II. Its uses. To
save from starvation, famine, and death. Christ is “the Bread that cometh down
from heaven.”
1. The manna was for all.
2. The manna was for all, according to their wants--appetites. The
Saviour is to us’ just what we make Him to be. All fulness dwells in Him,
infinite satisfaction; but we are straitened in ourselves, by our limited
cravings, etc.
III. The
prescriptions attending it.
1. To be gathered early.
2. To be gathered every morning. “They that wait upon the Lord shall
renew their strength.”
3. To be used.
4. To be gathered within six days. Life has its appointed time for
salvation. If we allow the end of life’s week to come without a store of God’s
manna, we shall find none in the future.
5. To be gathered for others--for those who could not go out
themselves. (F. R. Young.)
The manna
An army must have a commissary department well administered. The
ordnance, or recruiting, or medical, divisions are not more essential to its
existence, whether in peace or war. A soldier’s pay is but a trifle compared
with the expense of maintaining him in vigour. Yet a more strange venture and
gross neglect would seem to be recorded in the early history of Israel than has
ever since been seen. Here were some two million souls led out of bondage, of
whom it is said: “They had not prepared for themselves any victual.” Every hour
increased the peril and the need. Desperation was in their threats. Bread-riots
have always been the fiercest outbreaks. The great camp was on the verge of
mutiny.
I. The Lord did
daily and amply provide for his people. The fact of abundant food is clear and
indisputable. There is no hint, however, as to its immediate source or methods
of distribution. A similar mystery veils the agencies through which we find our
present necessities met. Here the natural and the supernatural seem to work
together. The political economist makes them his study, and extremists
undertake to tell exactly how the nations of the earth are kept alive. The
farmer, manufacturer, artisan, carrier, trader, accountant, teacher, labouring
with hand or head, or both--each furnishing just that without which the rest
must languish--constitute a most complex problem. Laplace set himself at no
such intricate task when attempting the solution of the solar system. We fall
back on the conviction that while none can see the vast organism, or all the
forces which are operative in it, yet it does move by an instinctive impulse
under s beneficent direction whose secrets none can wrest, whose failure no one
can imagine. The suspension of one class of labourers affects, more or less,
every other. But to trace, or tell, the infinite processes through which every
person in the land finds daily that which will maintain the body and restore
its energies, as they are constantly spent, is beyond the ability of any
mortal. Over all is He upon whom all eyes, though so blind, wait. Men call Him
God, or Nature, or Chance, or Law, each term being somewhat of a cloak for
their ignorance.
II. The Lord
required each man to provide for himself. The combined wisdom and efforts of
men could not create a grain of corn. Yet each and all must gather for
themselves. The increase will vary as occasions and necessities do. But how
often has the world seen that they who would for their own selfish ends heap up
their stores find to their surprise and horror that it breeds only loathsome
and hateful forms of death! Capital, unscrupulously held and wielded, is
becoming the terror even of its possessors. Vast fortunes have generally proved
vast vexations, while Agur’s prayer, “Give me neither poverty nor riches,”
etc., seems to have its happiest answer in the state of those who are most
observant of these very precepts given to Israel. To idle, or hoard, or
squander, or fret, is sin now as then.
III. The Lord put
special honour on the seventh. Good doctrine still, neither abrogated nor
superseded, ye buoy men in these days of railroads, and steamships, and
telegraphs, and fast mails, and Sunday papers, and apoplectic fits! Feel you
not the Almighty hand on these flying wheels, bringing them to pause? Will you
say, we must work a few of these forbidden hours to gain reprieve for
the rest? Will you make hay, or post accounts, or write your commercial
letters, or draw out your plans for greater barns, or repair your machine, or
set foot on the train, to be first at the market on the morrow? Thus you do but
repeat their folly, who hoped to gather the needful food, but failed. Emptiness
will fill all your omers when the results of such disobedience are weighed. (De
W. S. Clarke.)
The bread of the wilderness
I. They broke up
from their encampment in Elim in an enervated and murmuring mood. They had
eaten of the fat of the wilderness and become wanton, and they began to lust
even for the fat of Egypt, the slave’s portion; the lot of the freeman already
seemed too spare and hard. Wisely, indeed, was the wilderness appointed for our
wanderings. Wisely was Adam sent forth into the land in which “in the sweat of
his brow he must eat bread.” Bread won more cheaply may fatten the body, but it
sends “leanness into the soul.” I never heard that money won by gambling or
thieving brought a blessing with it to its possessor. Did you ever hear of
speculation enriching either mind or heart? Money which comes cheaply goes cheaply,
and leaves no benediction. God’s inscription on His coin is “Labour.” It is of
another mintage when that impression cannot be traced.
II. The first stage
of their journey brought them out into a vast sandy plain, where there was real
danger, to the eye of sense, of their dying of hunger. Elim had re-heartened
them after Marah. But the wilderness of Sin renewed their pains and terrors,
and “the whole congregation of the Children of Israel murmured against Moses
and Aaron.” Their cry after the flesh-pots was the fruit of Elim. They had
renewed there the blunt edge of their lust. The old appetites resumed their
sway, as they sat by the waters and ate of their flocks; when they went forth
their murmurs broke out with new fierceness, as of lust rekindled, and in
spirit, at any rate, they gave themselves again to be slaves. Beware of
rekindling the flame of a dying lust or appetite. Starve it--it is the only
policy. Let it taste again, let it look again, it flushes up into full fever
glow, and you are once more enslaved.
III. Rephidim was
the scene of their first battle and their first victory. In the first great act
of the drama of deliverance, their duty had been simply to “Stand still and see
the salvation of God.” The hour was now come when they must “quit them like men
and fight.” Not otherwise is it in the Christian life. To rest on Christ, to
“stand still and see His salvation,” is the true deliverance of a spirit: this
is redemption, But we must fight hard, as if the victory depended on
ourselves--not for redemption, but as redeemed, if we would reap all its
glorious fruits. The first foes of Israel were their kinsmen. “And a man’s foes
shall be those of his own house.” But come whence they may, foes soon beset the
young pilgrim: before he has gone far, a long day’s battle will test his
courage and strain his strength. Lusts and passions, which he thought he had
slain for ever, stand forth alive, and renew the conflict. The Egyptians slain,
new enemies throng around us. Our pilgrimage must be a war-march, with
battlemusic and banners: “Jehovah nissi,” (“the Lord my banner”) we cry, and
renew the fight. (J. B. Brown, B. A.)
Physical providence
I. That God’s
physical providence recognizes the personal wants of each individual. Manna
fell for each, babe and man; not one overlooked. Poverty is not the institution
of heaven. The causes of poverty being with us, let us seek to remove them.
II. That the
enjoyment of God’s physical providence depends on trustful labour. Each was to
gather for himself, and to gather no more than his portion for the day. Labour
is necessary to give a relish and felt value to our blessings; and trust in God
is necessary to exclude all anxious thought about the future.
III. That an
avaricious accumulation of the blessings of physical providence will disappoint
the possessor. Hoarded wealth never satisfies. It is noisome; it generates
reptiles.
IV. That the
seeking of the blessings of physical providence should never interfere with
religious institutions.
1. Religion does not require us to neglect the body.
2. Religion has special claims. It has to do with man’s spiritual
nature, relations, and interests. (Homilist.)
Spiritual providence
I. The manna was a
provision for a great emergency. “When we were yet without strength”--to do the
true work of life, to prepare for death, to gain acceptance with God--“in due
time Christ died for the ungodly.”
II. The manna comes
as a miraculous interposition.
1. Undeserved.
2. Unsought.
III. The manna came
as a universal supply.
1. In quantities commensurate with the wants of all.
2. Within reach of all.
IV. The manna came
with Divine directions. Gather for yourselves, and distribute to those who need
help.
1. Proportionately.
2. Betimes.
3. Regularly. Constancy is the condition of religious life and growth.
V. The manna
demanded the remembrance of posterity (Exodus 16:32). All God’s interpositions
on behalf of the fallen world are facts that shall be had in everlasting
remembrance. For this purpose they are recorded in His Word. His interposition
in Christ specially calls for our commemoration in the ordinance instituted for
that purpose. (Homilist.)
The manna
I. The occasion
for the manna. The supplies brought from Egypt exhausted.
II. The moral
purposes of the manna.
1. To test the people.
2. To give an indisputable proof of the reality of their deliverance
from Egypt by God’s own hand.
3. To show the unreasonableness of their murmurings.
III. The typical
significance of the manna. Lessons:
1. This standing miracle of forty years’ duration is an irrefragable
proof of all the Bible assumes concerning the personality, love, and power of
God.
2. It teaches the faithfulness and deep interest of our heavenly
Father, in all His children.
3. The murmurings and loss of appetite for the manna on the part of
the Israelites are fraught with lessons of deepest practical moment to us.
4. The constant dependence on Christ as the true Manna is clear and
emphatic.
5. The memorial pot of manna in the ark is a type of the “hidden
manna” laid up in heaven for the believer (Revelation 2:17). (D. C. Hughes, M.
A.)
Threefold aspects of Providence
I. The temporal
aspect of providence.
1. Providence is always timely in its assistance. Never too soon,
never too late; never before the time, never after the time. Forgetting this,
we bring upon ourselves no end of trouble by being over-anxious for the morrow.
2. Providence is always ample in its resources. There were many
mouths to be filled and voracious appetites to be satisfied, and yet we have
not heard that the supply failed for a single morning. You remember reading in
the account of the Franco-Prussian war, that the army of Napoleon
III. loitered for
days on the banks of the Rhine, when they ought to have advanced into the heart
of Germany. What was the cause of this fatal delay? Want of provision; the
commissariat was inadequate to supply the demands of three hundred thousand
soldiers, and at Sedan the campaign proved disastrous to the empire. “He that
walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly . . . bread shall be given him; his
waters shall be sure.” Providence is conditional in its method of support. God
rained down manna from heaven in small grain, like coriander seed, not in
ready-made loaves. “Society,” says Emerson, “expects every man to find his own
loaf.” God expects it too.
II. The spiritual
aspects of providence. “See that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore
He giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days.”
1. Its value as a day of rest for the body is very great.
2. Its importance as a day for spiritual contemplation and holy
delight is incalculable.
III. The historical
aspect of providence. “This is the thing which the Lord commandeth, fill an
omer of it to be kept for your generations, that they may see the bread
wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness.”
1. The omer full of manna was meant to teach coming generations the
greatness of God’s power and the faithfulness of His promise. “Power belongeth
unto God” as it belongeth to no other being, because it is absolute and
independent. This is what makes His promises “exceeding great and precious,”
that He has abundance of resources to make good His word to man.
2. The omer full of manna was meant to teach coming generations the
evil of hoarding up covetously the bounties of Providence. (W. A. Griffiths.)
Manna
The manna was a type of Christ.
I. As the manna
was a special mercy to the Israelites in their extremity, so the Saviour is
God’s special gift to sinful men.
II. As the Divine
gift of the manna appeared in the garb of extreme simplicity, so the life of
the Saviour is embodied in the circumstances of life, through which He becomes
our life.
III. As the manna
was proportioned in daily rations, so we must have communion with Christ every
day. Religious exercises are framed to recur. Thoughts of Jesus and communion
with God cannot be stored;
they must be repeated.
IV. The manna was
in perpetual remembrance after they entered canaan, so Jesus and His cross will
be the theme of eternity. The manna was placed in the golden pot, and put, with
the ark, in the most holy place, when they began to live on the old corn of the
land. The daily gathering was over, and the journey, but the remembrance
remained. Faith must make way to sight. Grand sight! We shall not forget
Calvary. The scenes with Jesus must remain. (British Weekly.)
Angel’s food
.
I. Divine care.
1. Anticipating human need. He was before them in the way’; to turn
“the barren wilderness” into “a fruitful field.”
2. Providing a suitable supply.
4. Watching over spiritual interests in meeting physical need. The
Sabbath guarded. Both body and soul eared for; and at the same time.
II. Human duty.
1. To expect. Eyes of all wait on Him. The manna to be looked for. We
are to expect that God will supply our wants. He has promised to do so.
2. To collect. This work might have been saved them. It had its use.
Some collect for others. Young for aged, etc. All secular labour in fields or
factories, but a collecting of the good gifts of God. So is prayer, study of
the Bible, etc.
3. To economize. None to bewasted. Those who had gathered less were
to be supplied out of another’s abundance. A wise distribution of our good
things is true economy. Sowing for eternity.
III. Spiritual
instruction. The manna a type of Christ. So Jesus Himself regarded it (John 6:1-71.). It was so--
1. Because unexpected in its coming.
2. Came in time of great need.
3. Unostentatious in its form.
4. Pleasant to the taste.
5. Spread silently over the ground.
6. Lasted all the journey through.
7. The remembrance of it treasured for ever.
8. Mysterious in nature.
“What is it?” Compare with “Who is He?” “Great is the mystery of
godliness,” etc. While curious minds are trying to understand a mystery into
which angels desire to look, let our exhortation be, “O taste and see that the
Lord is good,” etc. Learn--
I. To trust in the
care of Providence.
II. To act in
harmony with Providence.
III. To seek the
true Bread of Life. (J. C. Gray.)
Lessons from the manna
1. It was given in consideration of a great and urgent necessity. A
like necessity lies at the foundation of God’s gift of His Son to the world; it
was not possible in the nature of things for any other resource to be found.
2. The manna was peculiarly the gift of God, coming freely and
directly from His hand. How striking a representation in this respect of Christ
all Scripture may be said to testify, as both in His person and in the
purchased blessings of His redemption He is always presented to sinful men as
the free gift of the Father’s love.
3. The whole fulness of the Godhead is in Jesus, so that all may receive
as their necessities require. So was it also with the manna; there was enough
for all.
4. Then, falling as it did round about the camp, it was near enough
to be within the reach of all; if any should perish for want, it could be from
no outward necessity or hardship, for the means of supply were brought almost
to their very hand. Nor is it otherwise in regard to Christ, who in the gospel
of His grace is laid, in a manner, at the very door of every sinner; the word
is nigh him; and if he should still parish, he must be without excuse--it is in
sight of the Bread of Life.
5. The supply of manna came daily, and faith had to be exercised on
the providence of God, that each day would bring its appointed provision; if
they attempted to hoard for the morrow, their store became a mass of
corruption. In like manner must the child of God pray for his soul every
morning as it dawns, “Give me this day my daily bread.” He can lay up no stock
of grace which is to last him for a continuance without needing to repair to
the treasury of Christ.
6. Finally, as the manna had to be gathered in the morning of each
day, and a double portion provided on the sixth day, that the seventh might be
hallowed as a day of sacred rest, so Christ and the things of His salvation
must be sought with diligence and regularity, but only in the appointed way and
through the divinely-provided channels. (A. Nevin, D. D.)
The rain of bread
I. The backward
look of this bit of history. Culminating point of a fit of murmuring. Shows sin
and folly of persistent distrust.
1. Murmuring is a most unprofitable state of mind. Never did anybody
any good. Source of all Israelites’ troubles. Once a child was reading,
apparently absorbed in the act: her parent asked what was the book; and looking
up, she answered, with a sudden overflow of tears, “Oh father, the people have
begun to murmur again, and now God will have to punish them some more!”
2. Murmuring is a most delusive disposition. It leads to dangerous
self-deception in almost all instances. Christians reply to those who attempt
to rebuke them, “It is my temperament.” Often mere habit. Should be checked.
3. Murmuring is a most unwelcome indulgence. It prejudices piety.
Makes a Christian disagreeable.
4. Murmuring is a growing sin in the heart. Israelites--sullen at
first--now suspicious. They openly find fault.
5. Murmuring is contagious, and propagates itself far and wide.
II. The present
appearance of this bit of history.
1. Man’s perversity. Little vexations make us petulant and
revengeful.
2. God’s patience. Lord Bacon quotes an old Spanish writer as saying:
“To return evil for good is devilish; to return good for good is human; but to
return good for evil is even godlike.” Certainly this is what our God often
does; but it would not do for any of us to presume upon such wonderful
long-suffering. In ancient history we are told that there was once a statue of
Jupiter erected at Crete; but the Cretans were liars, and the maker of the
stone image had fashioned it without ears. The exultant people may have been
pleased to think they had a god who could not hear their falsehoods; but they
soon found that a deity who had no ears to hear prevarications had no ears to
hear prayers either. We must remember that our God knows all our wickedness,
and bears with us for a while; but it is to test our obedience to His law.
3. Heaven’s sufficiency is also illustrated here. For in the story
the promise takes a very significant and beautiful form; God says He will “rain
bread from heaven” for their need (see Psalms 78:22-25; Philippians 4:19).
III. The forward
reach of this bit of history.
1. It was designed to be a type of Christ.
2. It was accepted as a type by our Lord Jesus Christ (see John 6:1-71.). (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)
The food from heaven
Manna was prepared for food by grinding and baking. It tasted like
cakes made of meal and honey in its natural state, and like fresh olive oil
when cooked; its shape resembled coriander seed, and its colour was white; its
supply continued for forty years, and failed with their use of the first new
corn in the land of Canaan. That it was altogether a miraculous gift and not a
product of nature is clear from the following considerations. It fell in
enormous quantity, with unfailing regularity, even in the exceptional failure
of the Sabbath-day; its composition was exactly suited to the tastes of the
people; heat both melted and hardened it; gathered in distrust, it bred worms
and putrefied; in faith, it was preserved for generations. The natural products
of the Arabian desert and other Eastern lands, called manna, fail almost in
every particular noticed in the miraculous food from heaven. All serve rather
medicinal than nutritious purposes. They can be gathered only three months in
the year, and not all the year round, and then only in small quantities, out of
all proportion to the actual consumption of the Israelites, which, calculating
the omer at three English quarts (each man had an omer a day, Exodus 16:16), could not have been less
than 15,000,000 of pounds a week; they may be preserved for a long time, may be
gathered on all days, indiscriminately, without a perceptible increase or
diminution in their supply. The manna now found in the Arabian desert is the
product of the tamarisk (Tamarix gallica), gathered in June.
According to Burckhardt,
“it drops from the thorns on the sticks and leaves with which the ground is
covered, and must be gathered early in the day or it will be melted by the sun.
The Arabs cleanse and boil it, strain it through a cloth, and put it in leather
bottles; and in this way it can be kept uninjured for several years. They use
it like honey or butter with their unleavened bread, but never make it into
cakes or eat it by itself. It abounds only in very wet years, and in dry
seasons it sometimes disappears entirely.” The same traveller found in the
valley of Jordan “manna like gum on the leaves and branches of the tree gharrob,
which is as large as the olive-tree, having a leaf like the poplar, though
somewhat broader. It appears like dew upon the leaves, is of a brown or grey
colour, and drops on the ground. When first gathered it is sweet, but in a day
or two becomes acid. The Arabs use it like honey or butter, and eat it in their
oatmeal gruel. They also use it in cleaning their leather bottles and making
them air-tight. Tim season for gathering this is in May or June. Two other
shrubs which have been supposed to yield the manna of Scripture are the Alhagi
maurorum, or Persian manna, and the Alhagi desertorum, thorny plants
common in Syria.” In addition to what has been said of the miraculous nature of
the manna supply and the character of the natural products just specified, a
brief reference to three explanations of the manna may be in place.
1. It is said to be miraculous food, that is, dew changed into bread. “The dew of heaven”
promotes the fertility of the earth. During the wanderings of Israel through
the wilderness, which is “no place of seed,” the dew, without sowing, brought
bread from heaven (Exodus 16:4; Psalms 78:24; Psalms 105:40). So that the manna answers
to the wine at the marriage of Cana.
2. The manna is the same food of the desert still found in the
peninsula of Sinai. This, of course, lands us in the region of mythical
embellishment, and requires a degree of credulity which the writer does not
possess.
3. The manna is a miracle of accretion, answering to the miraculous
feeding of the multitude in the New Testament, and to the increase of meal and
oil by Elijah in the Old. (J. I. Mombert, D. D.)
Manna
Bonar gives the following twelve reasons why manna cannot be identified
with the exudation of the tarfa-tree.
1. The tarfa exudes only small quantities. The Arabs could not live
on it for a week.
2. The tarfa only exudes at certain seasons--March and April.
3. The tarfa does not yield its exudation regularly, even once a
year.
4. The exudations of the tarfa come out from the branches of the
tree, they do not come down from the air or sky.
5. The tarfa exudations are in composition and consistency somewhat
like honey. They are quite unfit for grinding, or pounding, or baking, or
boiling.
6. The taste of manna is said to have been as fresh oil (Numbers 11:8). No one who has tasted the
tarfa-manna would compare it to oil.
7. The tarfa-manna does not stink, or breed worms, in a single night.
8. The tarfa-produce does not evaporate as soon as the sun arises (Exodus 16:21).
9. Tarfa-manna does not give particular quantities on particular
days.
10. The tarfamanna is purgative medicine, not food.
11. The Israelites knew well the tarfatree, but they did not recognize
the manna.
12. Israel could not have subsisted so long on this one food.
Dew and manna
Dew corresponds to that inward truth which descends into the soul
from the Lord when all is peaceful and happy within. When, in a spiritual
morning, this dew has descended upon him, fear is unfelt, solicitude no longer
disturbs him; he relies with a child’s confiding trust on the Giver of all good,
and feels a freshness and vigour like those of heaven’s own morning over the
soul. This cheering, inward, blessed sensation is often in the Word described
by dew (Micah 5:7; Isaiah 18:4; Hosea 14:5). When, on a summer’s morning,
we walk forth in a beautiful country, the red light of the early dawn tinging
the whole eastern horizon with golden splendour, a holy quiet reigning round,
not broken, but charmed and enriched with the thrilling songs of the birds,
while every leaf, blade, hedgerow, and flower are gemmed with pearly dew
glittering like diamonds in the sun’s new beams, there is an image of the
soul--calmed, illuminated, and blessed with the truth of peace. But after the
dew we come to the manna--the substantial food which gave so much pleasure and
so much support. When it is seen that solid food in Divine language corresponds
to goodness, which supplies the will of every one who is living for heaven with
energy and delight, and remember that this manna was given to supply food to
the Israelites while they were in the transition period between living in Egypt
and living in Canaan, we shall easily perceive that it is the symbol of that
heavenly goodness which the Lord can impart to the soul of man while it is in
the transition state, labouring to become regenerate, following the truth, fighting
against its evils as they from time to time present themselves, but not yet
entered into that phase of the spiritual life in which he feels at home in
heavenly things. Hence the manna describes the goodness and the delight which
the Divine mercy imparts to man while labouring to become regenerate. It is
small, because, as compared with true angelic joy, it is of little account. It
is round, because roundness expresses the smoothness, and also the
completeness, of goodness, as compared with truth--truth is ever sharp and
piercing. It is white, to denote its purity, and sweet, to express its
deliciousness. It is like a thin cake, or wafer, to mark its inferiority, its
shallowness, so to speak, when compared with true celestial joy. Yet feeble as
it is, so far does it transcend all merely human and external joy, that when it
is first truly awakened in the soul, all other delights in the estimation of
the possessor become as nothing, and he cries out in the spirit, “What is
this?”--for he knows not what it is. It is a state of peace, of richness, of
sweetness that passeth all understanding. It may be felt, but cannot be
described. It is as if every fibre of the soul thrilled with joy. It is
blessedness unspeakable. All other delights seem now unutterably poor. They are
as the lights of earth in the presence of the sun. By receiving each day the
food for the day, and no more, the important lesson is conveyed that we should
ever be guided in our wish to receive heavenly blessings not by the desire of
selfish gratification, but by the love of use. So much as we need for our work,
so much should we desire to receive. Seek food for use and delight will be
given in. Seek it also for the duties of to-day. The only way to make any
advance in heavenly things is to do our duty now. The good not used now will
vanish when the sun of selfishness becomes vigorous within us. If we attempt to
save it for the future, and to deceive ourselves with the good we will some day
do, it will breed the worms of vain conceits, flattering and false, It may
become polluted hypocrisy, most abhorrent in the sight of God and angels, but
can never be saving good. The lesson involved in the corruption of the manna in
the hands of those who gathered to hoard and not to use is of inestimable value.
To be a miser is bad in earthly things, but far worse in heavenly. And it is to
be feared that spiritual hoarding is even more prevalent than natural. How many
sermons do we hear with delight, but whose influence goes no farther than to
stock our memories! How many good books do we read whose pages unfold to us
exalted lessons and truths of sterling worth! We hear, we read, and we admire,
but our hearts remain as cold, heedless, and unpractical as before. We are no
better, we admit; but we do not suspect what is the real truth--that we are
worse. The manna we are hoping to preserve for future use is becoming corrupted
and defiled. We are gliding into states of self-dependency, self-complacency,
self-flattery. We are supposing we are righteous, or, at least, in no danger,
because we know righteous things, while with every effort we make we are
strengthening our inherent evils, our hereditary tendencies. We are not
searching out our frailties and opposing them, but indulging them and salving
them over with our religious knowledge and pious observances. The richest
substances become, when corrupted, the most loathsome; and nothing is so
abhorrent in the Divine sight as a religion unused for good, pandering only to
self-gratulation and deceit. Our whole progress depends on eating to-day what
God gives to-day. The same lesson would teach us also the duty of doing as it
comes the work of each successive stage of our business of life and the
reception of its proper and present blessing. “Gather of it every man according
to his eating, an omer for every man. Let no man leave it until the morning” (Exodus 16:16; Exodus 16:19). One exception to this
rule, however, there was (Exodus 16:29). Days for the soul are
states. The six days of labour represent the states of the soul in which it is
striving to obey a truth, although as yet it is laborious to do so in
consequence of oppositions within and without. The sixth day is the end of this
struggle, when the soul has succeeded in realizing not only the truth of a duty
or a principle but also the good, the blessedness of it. Two omers are then
received, the bread of two days. One more incident we would notice. The manna
was gathered by an omer full at once, and no otherwise; and we are informed at
the conclusion of the narrative, “Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah” (Exodus 16:36). There were three chief
measures for dry articles, each ten times larger than the other--the omer, the
ephah, and the homer (Ezekiel 45:11). These three measures,
like the three kinds of bread of the tabernacle--the loaf, the cake, and the
wafer--we may readily conceive, have relation to the reception of heavenly good
by the three grand classes of Christians who form afterwards the three heavens
of the Lord (2 Corinthians 12:2). The good which
they receive who have entered fully into love to the Lord as the supreme source
of all their operations is of the largest measure, the homer. The good of those
who glory rather in the light than the love of heaven, though they are true to
the light and sons of the light, is of the second measure, the ephah. The good
of those who are not even intellectual Christians, but still steadily obey what
they see to be enjoined in the Word, is the lowest measure, the omer, which is
the tenth part of the ephah. And this is the measure by which we all receive
heavenly good in our spiritual journey. Our law of duty is to obey the Ten
Commandments. Each commandment obeyed brings its omer of blessing. (J.
Bailey, Ph. D.)
Christ the true Manna
I am told there is a country where men in times of want eat clay
in great lumps, and fill themselves with it so as to deaden their hunger. I
know that many people in England do the same. There is a kind of yellow clay
(gold) which is much cried up for staying spiritual hunger: heavy stuff it is,
but many have a vast appetite for it. They prefer it to the choicest dainties.
Many try to stave off hunger by indifference, like bears in winter, which are
not hungry because they are asleep. They would not like to be aroused, because
if they were they would wake up to an awful hunger. I wish they could be
awakened, for that hunger which they dread would drive them to a
soul-satisfying Saviour. Depend upon it, the only way to meet hunger is to get
bread, and the only way to meet your soul’s want is to get Christ, in whom
there is enough and to spare, but nowhere else. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Satisfied with God’s provision
Another time Billy Bray tells us that his crop of potatoes turned
out poorly; and as he was digging them in the autumn, Satan was at his elbow,
and said, “There, Billy, isn’t that poor pay for serving your Father the way
you have all the year? Just see those small potatoes.” He stopped his hoeing,
and replied, “Ah, Satan, at it again, talking against my Father, bless His
name. Why, when I served you, I didn’t get any potatoes at all. What are you
talking against Father for?” And on he went hoeing and praising the Lord for
small potatoes. A valuable lesson for us all.
Bread from God
Some time ago a good Christian man was living among the hills of
Scotland. He was very poor, but so good that every one who knew him loved and
honoured him. One winter there was a violent snowstorm. The wind was high, and
drifting snow blocked up the roads, and quite covered the humble dwelling of
poor Caleb, as this good man was called. For three days he had been unable to
go out and get food for himself and family. They were in great need, and had prayed earnestly for
relief. A gentleman living in that neighbourhood, who knew Caleb well, awoke
suddenly one night. It seemed as if a voice was calling to him which said,
“Send provisions to Caleb.” He thought little of it, but turned on his pillow
and went to sleep again. Again the voice seemed to sound in his ears, “Send
provisions to Caleb.” Again he slept. A third time the call came. Then he arose
hastily, dressed himself, called up his servant, and told him to harness the
horse, while he filled a basket with provisions of all kinds. “Take this basket
to Caleb,” said he, “and if he asks who sent it, tell him it comes from God.”
The servant did as he was bidden. A path was made through the snow. The basket
of food was left at Caleb’s cottage: and he and his family received it with
hearty rejoicings. They felt sure that it was food from heaven, just as truly
as the manna was in the wilderness on which the Israelites lived. Moses secured
the blessing of bread for the Israelites in the wilderness, and Jesus is “the
Prophet like Moses,” because He secures this blessing both for the bodies and
the souls of His people. (R. Newton.)
Food providentially supplied
At the Turners’ banquet given in his honour a short time since,
Mr. Stanley alluded to the strange sufferings in which he shared fifteen or
sixteen months ago. For six weeks they had not seen a bit of meat; for ten days
they had not seen a banana or a grain, and the faces of the people were getting
leaner, and their bodies were getting thinner, and their strength was fading
day by day. One day the officers asked him if he had seen anything like it in
any African expedition before. He replied “No,” though he remembered on a
former occasion when they were nine days without food, and ended their famine
with a fight. Then, however, they knew where there was grain, and all they had
to do was to hurry on; but in the late expedition they had been ten days
without, and they did not know when their hunger was to terminate. They were
all sitting down at the time, and he expressed his belief that the age of
miracles was not altogether past. Moses struck water out of the Horeb rock, the
Israelites were fed with manna in the wilderness, and he told them that he did
not think they should be surprised to see some miracle for themselves--perhaps
on the morrow or the following day. He had scarcely finished when some guinea
fowl flocked round them and were at once seized.
Soul food necessary
A man was leaving a church at St. Louis where Mr. Moody had been
holding a service. The eminent preacher noticed him, and gives the following
account of their conversation--“I said to him, ‘My friend, why is it that you
don’t accept Christ?’ He shook his head, and said he didn’t know. ‘Well, what
is your soul feeding on?’ He said it was feeding on nothing. ‘Well,’ I said,
‘that is pretty hard for the soul, isn’t it--giving it nothing to feed on?’ He
was a man about my age, forty years old, and he had given his soul nothing for
forty years; he had been starving that soul. And that man is but a type of
thousands and tens of thousands in this city to-day; their poor souls are
starving. This body that we inhabit for a day and then leave, we take good care
of that; we feed it three times a day, and we clothe it and take care of it and
deck it, and by and by it is going into the grave to be eaten up by the worms;
but the inner man, that is to live on and on for ever, is lean and starved.”
Symbolic meaning of the manna
In the sixth chapter of St. John, where our Lord so emphatically
applies to Himself the miracle of the manna, it will be seen He discovers no
wish to take from the high estimate which the Jews entertained of this ancient
miracle, so only that it was considered as a type, not a mere interposition of
Providence to provide by miracles means for their daily support. And casting
aside many minor analogies which have been contended for, but which are too
much of the nature of fanciful refinements, it is not difficult to trace
between the manna and Christ, the True Bread, several broad and instructive
resemblances.
1. Thus both were the free, unsolicited gift of heaven, prompted by
the sight of man’s helplessness and man’s misery. “Moses gave you not that
bread from heaven,” saith our Lord; “but My Father giveth you the true bread
from heaven.” But observe, the gift in either case was the unmerited bestowment
of the Eternal Father; whether to nourish the physical life of those wilderness
wanderers or to support the spiritual life of believers to the end of time.
Jesus Christ is a gift, the eternal life is a gift, enlightening, converting
grace is a gift. Human efforts could no more avail to procure these things than
the sowing of coriander seed could produce a harvest of manna.
2. Again, this gift was to preserve life. “Ye have brought us forth
into the wilderness,” said the Israelites to Moses, “to kill this whole
assembly with hunger.” They saw nothing before them but certain death. The
place was desert; a curse of barrenness and drought laid upon it. The whole is a picture
of man in this wilderness-world. His soul perishes with hunger; he has the
sentence of death within him, a prospect of death before him. But God has
rained bread from heaven. Christ, the Wellspring of all spiritual life; Christ,
the Source of every active and passive grace; Christ, the energizing Principle
of all acceptable obedience. “Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and
are dead.” It saved them not from the common lot of all men, this bread ye boast
of, but “I am the living Bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of
this Bread he shall live for ever.”
3. Trace this parallel further, in the universality of the gift.
There were in that wilderness all diversities of character--masters and disciples,
owners of flocks and keepers of flocks; rulers of thousands, and rulers of
hundreds, and rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: yet to all was to be given
the same portion, “an omer to every man, according to the number in their
tents.” And in like manner, as far as concerns the offer of the blessing,
Christ is a universal portion. (D. Moore, M. A.)
Manna and dew
Does not the manner in which this bread descended from above,
along with the gentle, silent dew, apply very beautifully to the True Bread
from heaven? It is not in the bustle of the world or in the excitement of
religion, but in secret and in silence that Jesus descends upon the soul, when
the spirit communes with God--when the eye is turned within in earnest
searching self-examination--when the heart calmly meditates on the Divine Word.
And what is the “dew” on and with which He descends? What but the Spirit of
God, of which the dew is the constant symbol in Scripture? When the Spirit
falls gently upon our hearts, then Jesus descends there. Where the one is, the
other is--yet they are distinct. It is not the Spirit, but Christ in His living
Person who is the Bread of Life. The Spirit is as the dew; Jesus as the manna, the Bread
from heaven. We must, then, cherish every gentle influence of the Spirit of God
if we would have our souls nourished. (G. Wagner.)
Sufficiency of Providence
The following anecdote of Mr. Spurgeon is well authenticated:--On
a certain occasion, when dining at a lady’s house in Regent’s Park, with the
late Dr. Brock, he (Mr. S.) remarked that £2,000 had to be forthcoming for his
builder to-morrow, and though nothing was in hand, the money would be paid at
ten o’clock. “I wish you would not say that,” Dr. Brock replied; but
immediately after, while they were still at the table, a telegram came to say
that A. B. had just left £2,000 for the Orphanage; and then, confessing that he
had never seen anything like that, the doctor called upon all to put down their
knives and forks and return thanks to God. They never knew who A. B. was, nor
whence he came. (Gleanings in Harvest Fields.)
Supply of Providence
Harms of Hermannsburg, the pastor of a poor village on the
Luneberg Heath in Hanover, said in his annual missionary sermon in 1857: “I
have expended much in the past year in sending out the ship with her fifteen
passengers, for the printing house, the press, and the paper, altogether 14,781
dollars, and I have received altogether 14,796 dollars, so I have fifteen
dollars over. Is not that a wonder? So much spent, and yet something over! And
I thank God that He has given us the fifteen dollars overplus. Riches only make
cares. God has heard all my prayers. He has given me no riches, and I have also
no debts. We have neither collected nor begged, but waited patiently on God in
prayer.”
Constancy of Providence
“Never did man die of hunger who served God faithfully,” was a
saying of Cuthbert, the apostle of Northumbria, when he and his companions were
overtaken by night without food or shelter. “Look at the eagle overhead,” he
would add; “God can feed us through him if He will.” And this faith was on one
occasion signally justified by the bird in question letting fall a fish, which
furnished the needed meal. (J. R. Green’s Short History.)
Verses 16-18
Gather of it every man according to his eating.
Spiritual assimilation
Why did each receive but three quarts a day? Might not a
nutritious and delicious food like this be stored, and become an article of
merchandise and a source of wealth? No, the Edenic law was not merely a
penalty, but a method of mercy, of life, and health. It required labour. But
there is a profounder reason for the prayer, “Give us this day
our daily bread.” We are to get out of to-day all we can, and trust God for
to-morrow. We possess only what we can assimilate, so the miracle does no more
than provide for one day. You say that you possess property. No; another may
more truly possess it. I who tarry by your garden, or the beggar who feasts
upon its beauty with appreciating and admiring eyes, gets more out of it than
you. You hurry away to business early in the morning, and are gone till dark,
too burdened, it may be, to give it a glance. So with your library or pictures.
He possesses who assimilates. If your wealth makes you anxious, or leads you to
dissipation, then you possess not wealth, but anxiety and disease. You may give
your child wealth, but it is better to put moral wealth into mind and heart
than to burden down with money, which may sink his soul in ruin. So with books
and associates. We grow by what we eat. What does that child read? Who are his
friends? We really eat both. Christ used this figure, and said we were to eat
His flesh and drink His blood. This means the assimilation of spiritual forces,
the incorporation of His life and character as we grow to be like those we make
our bosom friends. Our character is warped, shrivelled, and weakened, or it is
enriched and ennobled by those with whom we habitually and intimately live, as
they are mean and wicked, or pure and princely. (E. Braislin, D. D.)
Lessons
We are hereby taught--
1. Prudence and diligence in providing food convenient for ourselves
and our households; what God graciously gives we must industriously gather,
with quietness working, and eating our own bread, not the bread either of
idleness or deceit. God’s bounty leaves room for man’s duty.
2. Contentment and satisfaction with a sufficiency; they must gather,
“every man according to his eating”; enough is as good as a feast, and more
than enough is as bad as a surfeit. They that have most have for themselves but
food and raiment and mirth; and they that have least generally have these; so
that “he who gathers much,” etc. There is not so great a disproportion between
one and another, in the comforts and enjoyments of the things of this life, as
there is in the property and possession of the things themselves.
3. Dependence upon Providence. “Let no man leave till morning” (Exodus 16:19), but let them learn to go
to bed and sleep quietly, though they have not a bit of bread in their tent,
nor in all their camp, trusting that God, with the following day, will bring
them their daily bread. It was surer and safer in God’s storehouse than in
their own, and would thence come to them sweeter and fresher. (M. Henry, D.
D.)
Nothing over
It is said that when J. C. Astor was once congratulated by a
certain person for his wealth, he replied by pointing to his pile of bonds and
maps of property, at the same time inquiring, “Would you like to manage these
matters for your board and clothes?” The man demurred. “Sir,” continued the
rich man, “it is all that I get.” (J. Denton.)
Self-help enforced
A young man stood listlessly watching some anglers on a bridge. He
was poor and dejected. At last, approaching a basket filled with fish he
sighed, “If now I had these I would be happy. I could sell them and buy food
and lodgings.” “I will give you just as many, and just as good,” said the
owner, who chanced to overhear his words, “if you will do me a trifling
favour.” “And what is that?” asked the other. “Only to tend this line till I
come back; I wish to go on a short errand.” The proposal was gladly accepted. The
old man was gone so long that the young man began to get impatient. Meanwhile
the fish snapped greedily at the hook, and the young man lost all his
depression in the excitement of pulling them in; and when the owner returned he
had caught a large number. Counting out from them as many as were in the
basket, and presenting them to the young man, the old fisherman said, “I fulfil
my promise from the fish you have caught, to teach you, whenever you see others
earning what you need, to waste no time in foolish wishing, but cast a line for
yourself.” (W. Baxendale.)
No position has a surplus of happiness
When Napoleon returned to his palace, immediately after his defeat
at Waterloo, he continued many hours without taking any refreshment. One of the
grooms of the chamber ventured to serve up some coffee, in his cabinet, by the
hands of a child whom Napoleon had occasionally distinguished by his notice.
The Emperor sat motionless, with his hands spread over his eyes. The page stood
patiently before him, gazing with infantine curiosity on an image which
presented so strong a contrast to his own figure of simplicity and peace; at
last the little attendant presented his tray, exclaiming, in the familiarity of
am age which knows so little distinctions: “Eat, sire; it will do you good.”
The emperor looked at; him, and asked: “Do you not belong to Gonesse?” (a
village near Paris). “No, sire; I come from Pierrefite.” “Where your parents
have a cottage and some acres of land? Yes, sire.” “There is happiness,”
replied the man who was still the Emperor of France and King of Italy. (J.
Arvine.)
No satisfaction in mere accumulation
“I once had occasion to speak of a certain charity to a prosperous
mechanic. He seemed not much inclined to help it, but after listening to my
representations awhile, he suddenly gave way and promised a handsome
subscription. In due time he paid it cheerfully, and said, “Do you know what
carried the point with me that day when you made the application?” “No,” I
replied. “Well, I’ll tell you. I was not so much moved by anything you said
till you came to mention the fact about the Israelites, ‘He that gathered much
had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack.’ Thinks I, that is
just my own history. Once I was a poor, hard-working young man; now I’ve got a
good deal of property, but as for real comfort and use, I get no more out of it
now than I did then. Now, when I gather much, I’ve nothing over, and then, when
I gathered little, I had no lack.” (Family Treasury.)
Verses 23-26
To-day ye shall not find it in the field.
The Sabbath in relation to secular toil
I. That men must
not engage in secular toil on the sabbath. Men must not even earn their daily
bread on the Lord’s day,--they must provide it before.
II. That men
engaged in secular toil on the sabbath will, as a rule, find their labour vain
and profitless.
III. That men
engaged in secular toil on the sabbath show plainly that they have no regard for
the commands of God. They are selling their souls for gain.
IV. That men
engaged in secular toil on the sabbath have no delight in the culture of their
moral nature. It is especially on the day of rest that men of secular toil have
the leisure and opportunity for soul-culture, by inward meditation, by earnest
devotion, by wise reading, and by the ministry of the sanctuary. (J. S.
Exell, M. A.)
The day of rest
In one of the most densely populated parts of the city a gentleman
lately visited the house of a poor, hard-working, infidel cobbler. The man was
busy at his last, and had scarce time to look up at his unwelcome visitor.
“That is hard work.” “It is, sir. “For how many hours a day have you to labour
here--twelve?” “Yes, and more, sir. I am never off this seat under a fourteen
or fifteen hours’ spell of it.” “That is sore toil for a bit of bread.” “Indeed
it is, sir; and very thankful am I when the week’s end comes. What would become
of me, and the likes of me, without that rest.?” “And who, friend, think you,
gave you that rest? Came it by accident, or arrangement, or how?” There came no
answer to that; the cobbler hung his head; the man was honest; the sceptic was
ashamed.
Queen Victoria and the Sabbath
One Saturday night, in this first year of Queen Victoria’s reign,
a certain noble visitor came at a late hour to Windsor. He informed the Queen
that he had brought down some documents of great importance for her inspection,
but that, as they would require to be examined in detail, he would not encroach
on Her Majesty’s time that night, but would request her attention the next
morning. “Tomorrow is Sunday, my lord,” said the Queen. “True, your Majesty,
but business of the State will not admit of delay.” The Queen then consented to
attend to the papers after Church the next morning. The nobleman was somewhat
surprised that the subject of the sermon next day turned out to be the duties
and obligations of the Christian Sabbath. “How did your lordship like the
sermon?” asked the Queen on their return from Church. “Very much indeed, your
Majesty,” was the reply. “Well then,” said the Queen, “I will not conceal from
you that last night I sent the clergyman the text from which he preached. I
hope we shall all be improved by the sermon.” Sunday passed over without another
word being said about the State papers, until at night, when the party was
breaking up, the Queen said to the nobleman, “To-morrow morning, my lord, at
any hour you please--as early as seven, my lord, if you like--we will look into
the papers.” His lordship said he would not think of intruding upon Her Majesty
so early as that, and he thought nine o’clock would be quite early enough. “No,
no, my lord,” said the Queen, “as the papers are of importance I should like
them to be attended to very early; however, if you wish it to be nine, be it
so.” Accordingly, at nine o’clock next morning the Queen was in readiness to
confer with the nobleman about his papers. (T. E. Ball.)
Training for Sabbath observance
No doubt, in the oppression and darkness of Egypt, the seventh-day
(Sabbath) observance had fallen into partial disuse; though even in Egypt in
that era, as among the more eastern peoples, the traditional seventh-day rest
seems to have lingered, and therefore the usages of Egypt may not have
militated against the rest on the seventh day. However that may be, still there
was need of this training to the Sabbath observance; and this ordinance of the
manna was just the preparation needful for their receiving heartily the statute, “Remember
the Sabbath day,” when it coma to them through Moses from the mount. (S.
Robinson, D. D.)
A lesson on Sabbath keeping
In all the Jewish history there never again occurred as favourable
a time for imposing the Sabbath observance upon the people as at the giving of
the manna. For forty years, comprising more than two thousand weeks, they were
to subsist upon manna as their daily
food. God was to furnish it every day; they were to gather it every day. Thus
was presented the opportunity both for God to mark the day and for man to keep
it. During all these two thousand weeks God gave them a double supply on the
sixth day, and preserved that given on that day fresh for two days instead of
one. Two thousand Sabbaths came, but on them no manna. It was vain for them to
look for it. Soon they ceased to do so altogether. What a lesson for beginners!
The most stupid and the most obdurate alike learned it. Time and the world may
be searched for another series of events by which it would be possible to
impress the idea of a Sabbath upon the minds of the people as effectually as by
this. (A. M. Weston, D. D.)
Sabbath gains a curse
Whatever is earned on the Sabbath is a curse in a man’s property.
(A. Clarke, D. D.)
Faithful to God’s command
A delicate man, once a ringleader in all sorts of mischief, was
recently found by some of the Mildmay Deaconesses in a common London
lodging-house, and as it was discovered that the poor fellow could not work
continuously at his trade, he was started in business in a small shop. Late one
Saturday night, as many, through curiosity, or seeing the contents of the shop
looking fresh and new, filled it up, and were asking one question and another,
one woman said: “Here is 4d.; I’ll come in to-morrow with the other few pence,
and you will give me the parcel then.” “This shop will never be open for
traffic on the Lord’s Day,” was the answer, at which announcement the people
all turned to gaze at the speaker. A quiet look of firm resolve was on his
delicate face, which seemed to make the crowd silent for a minute or two; then
one laughed, and said: “Are you religious?” “Yes,” said the proprietor; “I may
as well declare it from the very first night of opening. You will never, with
God’s help, see either buying or selling here on Sundays.” “Oh!” said a
scoffer; “then you will soon shut shop.” The owner of the shop replied: “Do you
see that little card with the blue ribbon tying it up?” The eyes of all were
turned towards the card, on which were the words, “Kept by the power of God.”
“This,” continued the speaker, “is my motto; He is able to keep me, and maybe
some of you will find out ‘tis better to have Him as a friend than any one in
the world.” (Christian Herald.)
Put an omer full of manna therein.
An instructive memorial
I. By whom the
memorial was enjoined. “The Lord.” We have need to set up memorials in our
lives which shall call upon our souls to remember the benefits of the Lord. It
is the will of heaven that its gifts should be held in constant remembrance.
II. In what the
memorial consisted. “Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations.”
1. This memorial was reasonable.
2. Expressive.
3. Instructive.
4. Valuable. Golden pot (Hebrews 9:2).
And the memorials of the soul should not find expression in
valueless things, but in the richest treasures of man. God is worthy our best
offerings.
III. Where the
memorial was deposited. “And lay it up before the Lord.” “So Aaron laid it up
before the Testimony, to be kept.” And so this memorial was laid up before the
Lord, in the ark of the covenant. Thus we must keep the memorials of the soul
in devout spirit, and with a constant trust in the mediatorial work of Christ.
IV. The design the
memorial contemplated. “That ye may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in
the wilderness.” “To be kept for your generations.” Each generation leaves a
moral deposit behind it, for good or evil. Lessons:
1. The soul must have a memorial of the Divine mercy.
2. The memorial of the soul must consist of the best thing it
possesses.
3. The memorial of the soul will have respect to the redemptive work
of Christ. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
An instructive memorial
One day when George Moore--now a man of wealth--was accompanying
his friend, Colonel Henderson, through the Waver wood on a partridge-shooting
expedition, a curious ramshackle object appeared before them. It seemed to be a
sort of big dhrosky with a long, broad trunk at the back end. “What is that?”
asked the colonel. “Why,” said George Moore, “that is the trap which I have
driven into every market town in Great Britain and Ireland!” It was the
carriage he had used whilst achieving such great success as a commercial traveller.
(H. O. Mackey.)
Former mercies remembered
Mr. Kidd, minister of Queensferry, near Edinburgh, was one day
very much depressed and discouraged. He sent a note to Mr. L--minister of
Culross, a few miles off, informing him of his distress of mind, and desiring a
visit as soon as possible. Mr. L--told the servant he was so busy that he could
not wait upon his master, but desired him to tell Mr. Kidd to remember Torwood.
When the servant returned, he said to his master, “Mr. L--could not come, but
he desired me to tell you to remember Torwood.” This answer immediately struck
Mr. Kidd, and he cried out, “Yes, Lord! I will remember Thee, from the hill
Mizar, and from the Hermonites!” All his troubles and darkness vanished upon
the recollection of a day which he had formerly spent in prayer along with Mr.
L--in Torwood, where he had enjoyed eminent communion with God. (W.
Baxendale.)
An expressive memorial
It was during the wars that raged from 1652 to 1660, between
Frederick III. of Denmark, and Charles Gustavus, of Sweden, that after a battle
in which the victory had remained with the Danes, a stout burgher of Flensburg
was about to refresh himself, ere retiring to have his wounds dressed, with a
draught of beer from a wooden bottle, when an imploring cry from a wounded
Swede lying on the field made him turn, and, with the very words of
Sidney--“Thy need is greater than mine,” he knelt down by the fallen enemy to
pour the liquor into his mouth. His requital was a pistol-shot in the shoulder
from the treacherous Swede. “Rascal!” he cried, “I would have befriended you,
and you would murder me in return! Now will I punish you. I would have given
you the whole bottle, but now you shall only have half.” And drinking off half
himself, he gave the rest to the Swede. The king, hearing the story, sent for
the burgher, and asked him how he came to spare the life of such a rascal.
“Sire,” said the honest burgher, “I could never kill a wounded enemy.” “Thou meritest
to be a noble,” the king said, and created him one immediately, giving him as
armorial bearings a wooden bottle pierced with an arrow. The family only lately
became extinct in the person of an old maiden lady.
──《The Biblical Illustrator》