February 12--Evening
February 12—Evening "I am the living bread."
One would have expected a far severer rebuke than this, but the Lord was very pitiful towards them, as he is also towards us. These first murmurings were not visited so severely as those further on. The Lord is loath to use his rod.
They had the best of flesh and better than the best of bread. No king's table was better spread than theirs. Rest assured he who fed murmurers will not desert believers.
Exodus 16:16 Heaven's bread must be gathered. We must hear the word, and retain it, or it cannot profit us.
There were misers in the wilderness, and their hoardings stank; there are other misers now upon the earth, whose scrapings are cankered and corrupt. Covetousness is loathsome.
Exodus 16:21 Yet it could be cooked! Strange that it could bear one heat and not another.
Thus the seventh day was honoured by the ceasing of the visible manna, but our first-day Sabbath has a double fall of spiritual manna, and we ought to gather in good store for all the week-days.
Exodus 16:27 This was the surest way of stopping the sin, but it was very grievous that a people so marvellously favoured should be guilty of such a superfluous provocation.
Exodus 16:31 God might have made it bitter, but he delights to see his creatures happy. What a blessed God he is!
Day by day the manna fell;
Oh! to learn this lesson well:
Still by constant mercy fed, Give me, Lord, my daily bread.
"Day by day," the promise reads;
Daily strength for daily needs;
Cast foreboding fears away;
Take the manna of to-day.