Exodus 16:13-21
God provides enough for each day and calls His redeemed people to receive His provision with obedient trust.
13 In the evening, quail came up and covered the camp; and in the morning the dew lay around the camp.
14 When the dew that lay had gone, behold, on the surface of the wilderness was a small round thing, small as the frost on the ground.
15 When the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they didn’t know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread which Yahweh has given you to eat.
16 “This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded: ‘Gather of it everyone according to his eating; an omer a head, according to the number of your persons, you shall take it, every man for those who are in his tent.’ ”
17 The children of Israel did so, and some gathered more, some less.
18 When they measured it with an omer, he who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no lack. They each gathered according to his eating.
19 Moses said to them, “Let no one leave of it until the morning.”
20 Notwithstanding they didn’t listen to Moses, but some of them left of it until the morning, so it bred worms and became foul; and Moses was angry with them.
21 They gathered it morning by morning, everyone according to his eating. When the sun grew hot, it melted.
God provides enough for each day and calls his redeemed people to receive his provision with obedient trust.
To show that the LORD answers Israel's wilderness hunger with concrete daily provision while training the redeemed people to live by his word rather than by anxious accumulation.
Israel has left Egypt and entered the wilderness, where the absence of ordinary food sources quickly exposes the people's weakness and unbelief. The LORD's provision of quail in the evening and manna in the morning demonstrates that the God who defeated Egypt also sustains his people outside Egypt.
Manna, Quail, and the Testing of Daily Dependence
The LORD feeds His grumbling people in the wilderness to teach them daily dependence, obedience to His word, and rest in His provision.