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When God sweetened the bitter
waters of Marah, He spoke kindly to the Israelites, and said, "If you
will obey me, and do what is right, then I will be with you, and keep, and
bless, and strengthen you; and I will not send any of those diseases and
plagues upon you, which I sent upon the Egyptians." Then they
were comforted, and went on to Elim, and there they found twelve wells of
water, and many date-palm trees; and they pitched their tents there.
They were very glad to see these trees. The fruit is very pleasant
and refreshing to poor tired wanderers in the wilderness; the trees on
which it grows can live in these hot places, and water is always found
near the date trees. When
the Israelites went away from Elim, they came into another wilderness, the
Desert of Sin. Then they began to be discontented; and they murmured
again, and said, "We shall die of hunger, for there is no food
here. When we were in Egypt, we had plenty; but now, we have
nothing; why did you bring us here?" How unthankful these
people were! God had delivered them from their cruel masters, and
brought them safely through the sea; and He had given them sweet water to
drink, and promised always to take care of them; and yet they would not
trust Him. Moses went again
to God, and told Him all his sorrows, and all that the people said.
Then God answered, "I have heard their murmurings; go, and tell them,
I will give them flesh to-night to eat; and in the morning I will give
them bread." Where could they find flesh? Must they kill
all their flocks and herds? No; God sent them some birds called
quails, which came in great numbers, and covered the tents; and the
Israelites caught and killed, and ate them in the evening. And was
this all God gave them? No; in the morning, when the dew was gone,
the Israelites saw the ground covered with a little round thing, white
like frost. It was new to all the people, and they came out and
looked, and wondered, and asked, "What is it?" Nobody
knew; but Moses said, "This is the bread God has given you to
eat." How wonderful this was! God sent this sweet bread
to feed His people in the wilderness, when there was no corn for them to
eat. The Israelites called
the new food which God sent, Manna; it was sweet and nice, like
honey. Moses said, "You must gather the manna fresh every
morning. God promises to send it every day; but you must not keep it
till the next morning. Every one of you must gather an omer full;
but the day before the Sabbath, you must gather two omers full, and keep
one of them for the Sabbath; for God will send no manna on the Sabbath
day." Some of the people would not believe Moses; they
determined to try, and keep the manna till the morrow, and see if it would
be good. But, in the morning, when the people looked at the manna
they had kept, they found that it was full of worms, and smelt badly; they
could not eat it, but threw it away. And did not the manna saved for
the Sabbath become bad? No; because God kept it good; He did not
wish His Holy Sabbath to be broken, and He had power to keep the manna
fresh and sweet if He pleased. But there were some more disobedient
people who would not believe Moses, nor attend to God's command.
They went out on the Sabbath day to gather manna. Did they find
it? No; God did not send any, and they went home again empty; and
God was angry with them for their disobedience. The
Sabbath is not a day on which we ought to do any work. It is God's
day; He kindly gave it to us, that we might have more time to attend to
our souls, and to think of God, and death, and judgment, and heaven, and
hell. We should not think much of our food on this holy day; we
should prepare it the day before, as God told the Israelites to do.
We have our food from God, as they had. It is not rained down from
heaven, because God does not now work miracles; and we live in a country
where there is plenty of corn to make bread. But God sends down rain
and He makes the sun shine to ripen it. He alone can cause the grass
to spring up, and give food to the beasts of the field. We must
pray, "Give us day by day our daily bread." Luke
11:3. And when we eat it, we must thank God who gave it, and not
wish for more nor better food than He sends.
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