Moses Challenges the Murmurers

KEY VERSE: “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.” —Exodus 16:2

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Exodus 16:2-12

MOSES is described as being “very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.” (Num. 12:3) The thought is that Moses was self-effacing, willing to endure injustices in the common interest of his people and for the glory of God. In his difficult position as leader of God’s people, he needed this quality, for he was continually being accused by those for whom he was laying down his life.

When Pharaoh increased the burdens of the people because he was asked to give them their freedom, they blamed Moses. When they reached the Red Sea and there seemed no way of escape, they again blamed Moses, and they asked why they had been brought out into the wilderness to die. Soon after the miracle of crossing the Red Sea, when they came to Marah and found the water bitter, the people murmured against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”—Exod. 15:23,24

Leaving Marah, the Israelites journeyed to Elim. There they found water. However, their destination was Canaan; so they moved on into what is described as the wilderness of Sin. There, again, they murmured, saying to Moses and Aaron, “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.” (Exod. 16:3) Then they accused Moses of bringing them into the wilderness “to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

It was then that the Lord provided the manna from heaven to feed the Israelites. This manna came each night and was to be gathered each morning—just enough for the day’s supply—the only exception being that on the sixth day they were to gather a double portion in order to have a supply to last them over the Sabbath. Jesus referred to this heavenly manna. He said, “I am that Bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living Bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”—John 6:48-51

Thus again the experiences of Israel under the leadership of Moses are indicated to be typical of Christ and the Heavenly Father’s provision of life through him. The manna was a type of Christ. As it provided life for all Israel, so Christ will provide life for all mankind. Moses instructed Aaron to take a pot of the manna and lay it up before the “testimony”; later it was put in the Ark of the Testimony in the Most Holy. (Exod. 16:32-34; Heb. 9:4) The manna so laid up did not corrupt and was typical of the immortality which is given to the antitypical “church of the firstborn” of the present Gospel Age.

As the children of Israel journeyed, they “pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.” (Exod. 17:1) Again the people complained, blaming Moses. “Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? Wherefore do ye tempt the Law?” But, yet again, they accused him of bringing them out into the wilderness to die.—vss. 2,3

As always, Moses took the matter to the Lord. This time the situation had become very serious, for, as Moses said, the people were almost ready to stone him. Then the Lord instructed him to go before the people, taking “the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.”—vss. 4-6

In I Corinthians 10:1-4, Paul refers to the experiences of Israel in passing through the Red Sea, partaking of the manna, and drinking from the rock. He speaks of the nation as being baptized into Moses in the sea and in the cloud, as spiritual Israelites are baptized into Christ. He says that they “did all eat of the same spiritual meat,” which, as we have seen, represented Christ; and he then adds that they “drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ”; that is, it represented Christ.

| Home Page | Table of Contents |