The Economics of Faith: A Sabbath Test Text: Exodus 16:22-30
Introduction: God's Training Ground
We live in an age of frantic anxiety. Men work themselves into an early grave, driven by the fear that if they stop, even for a moment, the whole machinery of their lives will grind to a halt and fall apart. Our entire economy is built on this principle of perpetual motion, perpetual worry, and perpetual work. We have a five day work week, followed by a two day weekend, which is not a Sabbath but rather a frantic period of consumption and entertainment designed to distract us from the emptiness of the work. It is a hamster wheel, and the world tells us that the only way to succeed is to run faster.
Into this secular mindset, the Word of God speaks a completely alien language. It is the language of Sabbath. Before God ever gave the Ten Commandments on Sinai, He was already training His newly redeemed people in the wilderness on the grammar of His covenant. The wilderness was a school, and the curriculum was total dependence on God. The manna was not just about food; it was about pedagogy. God was teaching Israel how to live by faith, not by sight, and the final exam every single week was the Sabbath.
The Sabbath is not an arbitrary rule. It is woven into the fabric of creation. God worked for six days and rested on the seventh, not because He was tired, but to establish the pattern for the universe. Work is good, but it is not ultimate. Rest is good, and it points to the ultimate reality that God is the one who sustains all things. Our work does not sustain us; He does. The Sabbath is a weekly declaration of independence from the tyranny of self-reliance. It is a confident statement that my world will not fall apart if I stop striving, because my world is not held together by my striving. It is held together by the word of His power.
In this passage, we see Israel's first major test on this subject. They had been delivered from Egypt, where they were slaves who never had a day off. Their lives were defined by the relentless demands of their taskmasters. Now, in the wilderness, God is teaching them a new rhythm, the rhythm of grace. He is teaching them that true freedom is not the ability to work whenever you want, but the ability to rest when God commands, trusting that He will provide. This is a lesson they struggled to learn, and it is a lesson that we, in our frantic and unbelieving age, desperately need to learn as well.
The Text
Now it happened that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. Then all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said to them, “This is what Yahweh has spoken: Tomorrow is a sabbath observance, a holy sabbath to Yahweh. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is in excess put aside to be kept until morning.” So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had commanded, and it did not become foul nor was there any worm in it. And Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to Yahweh; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none.”
Now it happened on the seventh day, that some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. Then Yahweh said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? See, Yahweh has given you the sabbath; therefore He gives you bread for two days on the sixth day. Remain every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.” So the people rested on the seventh day.
(Exodus 16:22-30 LSB)
Supernatural Provision and Puzzled Leaders (v. 22-24)
The lesson begins with a miracle that precedes the explanation.
"Now it happened that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. Then all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses." (Exodus 16:22)
Notice the sequence. The people go out on the sixth day and find that God has provided a double portion. This was not something they engineered. They simply gathered what was there, and it turned out to be twice the normal amount. This is a crucial point. God's provision precedes our obedience and enables it. He does not command us to do something without first giving us the grace and the means to do it. The leaders, however, are perplexed. They come to Moses, likely with some alarm. They had been strictly commanded to gather only one omer per person each day. They see this abundance and, being good rule-followers, they recognize that something is different. They don't know what it means, so they go to the proper authority.
Moses then gives them the theology behind the miracle.
"And he said to them, 'This is what Yahweh has spoken: Tomorrow is a sabbath observance, a holy sabbath to Yahweh. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is in excess put aside to be kept until morning.' So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had commanded, and it did not become foul nor was there any worm in it." (Exodus 16:23-24)
The Sabbath is to be a day of rest from their normal labors, and that includes the labor of gathering and preparing food. God's provision on the sixth day is designed to make this rest possible. They are to do all their cooking for the next two days on Friday. What they don't eat on Friday, they are to set aside. Now, this required faith. Every other day of the week, if they had tried to keep leftovers, they would have woken up to a stinking, worm-infested mess. Their experience taught them that manna doesn't keep. But God's command overrides their experience. They are being taught to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, not by what their senses tell them. They obey, and the word of God is proven true. The bread remains fresh. God supernaturally provides the extra portion on Friday, and He supernaturally preserves it through Saturday. He is teaching them that His command defines reality.
The Economics of Sabbath (v. 25-26)
On the Sabbath day itself, Moses lays out the principle plainly.
"And Moses said, 'Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to Yahweh; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none.'" (Exodus 16:25-26)
Here is the establishment of a divine economy. It is a six-and-one pattern. Six days of work, followed by one day of rest. This is not a suggestion; it is a command grounded in the very structure of reality. Notice the reason they are to eat the preserved manna: "for today is a sabbath to Yahweh." The day belongs to God. It is holy. And because it is God's holy day, He has arranged the world in such a way that their ordinary work will be fruitless. "Today you will not find it in the field." God turns off the heavenly spigot for one day a week. This is a direct challenge to their self-reliance. If they want to eat on the Sabbath, they must trust God's provision from the day before. They cannot work their way into a Sabbath meal. It must be received as a gift.
This principle is foundational for all Christian economics. We work hard for six days, and we do so diligently. But our work is not the ultimate source of our provision. God is. The Sabbath is the great weekly reset button that reminds us of this truth. By resting, we are declaring our faith that God will bless the work of our six days and that He is the one who ultimately provides for us, not our own frantic efforts.
Unbelief on Display (v. 27-28)
Of course, where there is a clear command from God, there will always be those who think they know better.
"Now it happened on the seventh day, that some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. Then Yahweh said to Moses, 'How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?'" (Genesis 16:27-28)
This is a remarkable display of unbelief. These people had seen the plagues in Egypt. They had walked through the Red Sea on dry ground. They had been eating miracle bread every morning. They had just been told explicitly by Moses what God was doing. And yet, some of them still thought it was a good idea to sneak out on Saturday morning with their baskets, just in case. Perhaps they thought God's provision might run out. Perhaps they were greedy and wanted more than their share. Whatever the motive, the root was a refusal to take God at His word. Their actions were a vote of no confidence in the God who had just miraculously delivered them.
And God's response is sharp. He doesn't just address the few who went out; He addresses the whole nation through Moses. "How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?" This is not just about one rule. This disobedience reveals a deep-seated pattern of rebellion. Their grumbling, their testing of God, and now their Sabbath-breaking are all symptoms of the same disease: a hard heart of unbelief. God is asking a question that will echo throughout the history of Israel. How long will you stiffen your necks? How long will you put Me to the test?
The Sabbath is a Gift (v. 29-30)
God then reframes the entire issue, showing them that the command to rest is not a burden, but a grace.
"See, Yahweh has given you the sabbath; therefore He gives you bread for two days on the sixth day. Remain every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day." (Genesis 16:29)
Look at that first word: "See." It's a command to open their eyes and understand what is really going on. The Sabbath is not something God demands from them; it is something He has "given" to them. It is a gift. Because He has given them this gift of rest, He therefore provides the means for them to enjoy it. The double portion of manna is the evidence of His grace. The command to rest is not a restriction on their freedom, but the very foundation of it. In Egypt, they were slaves who could not rest. In the wilderness, they are sons who are commanded to rest.
The command to "remain every man in his place" is not about house arrest. It is a command to cease from the anxious striving that characterized their lives in Egypt and that still characterized the hearts of the disobedient. It is a call to be still and know that He is God. It is a call to stop trying to secure their own future and to rest in the security that God provides.
And the result is obedience.
"So the people rested on the seventh day." (Genesis 16:30)
The lesson, for now, has been learned. Through provision, command, transgression, rebuke, and explanation, God has taught His people the meaning of His rest. They finally stop their striving and enter into the gift that God has given them.
Jesus, Our Manna and Our Sabbath
This entire episode is a magnificent, living parable that points us directly to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul tells us that these things happened to Israel as types, written down for our instruction (1 Cor. 10:11). So what is the instruction for us?
First, Jesus Christ is our true Manna. He is the bread from heaven. He said so himself: "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world... I am the bread of life" (John 6:32-35). The manna in the wilderness sustained Israel's physical life for a time, but it rotted. Those who ate it eventually died. But whoever feeds on Jesus Christ, the true bread, by faith, will have eternal life. He is the provision of God that never spoils and never fails.
Second, Jesus Christ is our true Sabbath rest. The author of Hebrews makes this explicit. There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, and "we who have believed enter that rest" (Hebrews 4:3, 9). What is that rest? It is ceasing from our own works to try to make ourselves right with God, just as God rested from His works of creation. The disobedient Israelites who went out to gather manna on the Sabbath are a picture of every self-righteous person who thinks they can earn God's favor through their own efforts. They refuse the gift of provision and insist on working for it, and they always come back with an empty basket.
Salvation is entering into the finished work of Jesus Christ. He did all the work. He lived the perfect life of obedience. He died the substitutionary death for our disobedience. On the cross, He said, "It is finished." The work is done. Our part is to cease from our striving, to "remain in our place" of dependence, and to feast on the provision He has made for us. This is why for Christians, our Sabbath is the first day of the week, not the last. The old covenant pattern was work, then rest. The new covenant pattern is rest, then work. We begin our week on the Lord's Day, celebrating the resurrection of Christ, which is the guarantee that His work was completed and accepted. We enter into His rest by faith, and from that position of rest, we go out to work for Him for the next six days. Our work is not a desperate attempt to earn His favor, but a joyful response to the favor we have already received as a gift.
So, do not be like the unbelieving Israelites. Do not go out on the Sabbath of the gospel trying to gather the filthy rags of your own righteousness. The field is empty. There is nothing there. Instead, come to the table that the Lord has prepared for you. Eat the bread that He provides. Enter into the rest that He has won. See that the Sabbath is a gift, and the greatest gift of all is the Lord of the Sabbath Himself, Jesus Christ.