Commentary - Exodus 16:31-36

Bird's-eye view

This passage concludes the initial account of God's provision of manna, transitioning from the daily miracle to the establishment of a permanent memorial. Having taught Israel the foundational lesson of daily dependence, God now institutes a means for that lesson to be remembered throughout their history. The description of the manna, the command to preserve a sample, its placement before the Testimony, and the summary of its forty-year duration all serve to embed this act of supernatural provision into the covenant identity of Israel. This is not just about food; it is about the character of the God who provides. He is a God who sustains His people in the barrenness of the wilderness, and He is a God who insists on being remembered for it. The pot of manna becomes a tangible piece of evidence, a perpetual sermon testifying to God's faithfulness in the face of Israel's faithlessness. This entire event is a profound type, pointing forward to the true Bread from Heaven, Jesus Christ, who is both our daily sustenance and our eternal memorial before the Father.

The core of this section is the institution of a sacrament, a visible sign of an invisible grace. Just as the daily manna was a test of obedience and a lesson in dependence, the preserved manna is a test of memory and a lesson in gratitude. By placing this memorial at the very heart of their worship, inside the Ark of the Covenant, God integrates His provision into the fabric of His law and presence. Grace and government are not separated. The God who gives the commands is the God who gives the bread. This passage therefore solidifies a central theme of Exodus: God redeems His people, gives them His law, and personally provides for their every need as He dwells among them.

Outline

Context In Exodus

This passage comes at the end of the first major test in the wilderness following the crossing of the Red Sea. Israel has been delivered from Egypt (Exodus 1-14) and has celebrated that deliverance in song (Exodus 15). But celebration quickly turned to grumbling, first over bitter water at Marah (Exodus 15) and now over a lack of food (Exodus 16). God's response to their faithless complaint is not wrath, but grace: He provides quail in the evening and manna in the morning. The preceding verses (Ex 16:1-30) detail the instructions for gathering the manna, including the prohibition against gathering on the Sabbath and the fact that it would spoil if hoarded. Our text (16:31-36) serves as the capstone to this entire episode. It looks backward by describing the manna and summarizing its role over forty years, and it looks forward by establishing a permanent memorial to be passed down through the generations. This sets the stage for the subsequent events at Rephidim (Exodus 17), where Israel will again grumble, this time for water, demonstrating their persistent failure to learn the very lesson of dependence the manna was meant to teach.

Key Issues

A Sermon in a Pot

God is in the business of teaching His people, and He uses all sorts of visual aids. The entire sacrificial system was a bloody picture book of the gospel. The tabernacle was a scale model of heavenly realities. And here, a simple clay jar filled with bread-flakes becomes a central part of the curriculum. God commands Israel to take a pot of this stuff and put it away for safekeeping. Why? So that future generations, fat and happy in the land of milk and honey, could see what their fathers ate in the desert. It was a perpetual reminder of their absolute helplessness and God's absolute sufficiency.

This wasn't just for a museum exhibit. The author of Hebrews tells us this pot of manna was eventually placed inside the Ark of the Covenant itself (Heb. 9:4), right alongside the tablets of the Law and Aaron's rod that budded. This is highly significant. It means that at the very center of Israel's life, before the very presence of God, was a memorial to His grace. Right next to the unchanging standard of His righteousness (the Law) was a reminder of His covenant provision (the manna). The lesson is plain: the God who demands perfect obedience is the same God who graciously provides all that we need for life and godliness. The two are never to be separated. The law drives us to our knees, and the manna shows us the God who meets us there.

Verse by Verse Commentary

31 And the house of Israel named it manna, and it was like coriander seed, white, and its taste was like wafers with honey.

The people give it the name they had already assigned it out of their bewilderment: Manna, meaning "What is it?" The name itself is a confession of ignorance. This was not a natural phenomenon they could explain; it was a supernatural gift they could only receive. The description is given in simple, earthy terms. It was like coriander seed, small and round. It was white, speaking of the purity of God's provision. And its taste was sweet, like wafers made with honey. God's grace is not grim duty; it is sweet to the soul. The Word of God, which this manna prefigures, is "sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb" (Ps. 19:10). This was a foretaste of the gospel, a small, pure, sweet gift from heaven that sustained the life of God's people.

32 Then Moses said, “This is what Yahweh has commanded, ‘Let an omerful of it be kept throughout your generations, that they may see the bread that I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’ ”

Here is the central command. The daily provision is now to be turned into a permanent memorial. God knows our frame; He knows we are forgetful dust. The generation that ate the manna would be tempted to forget the desperation of their hunger, and their children, born in the land of plenty, would be tempted to believe they had gotten there by their own strength. So God commands a tangible reminder. An omer, the specific daily portion for one person, was to be set aside. This memorial was not just to be a curiosity, but a teaching tool: "that they may see the bread." Seeing leads to remembering, and remembering should lead to gratitude and faithfulness. Notice the reason given: it is the bread God fed them. The initiative and the action are all God's. This is a monument to His grace, not their survival skills.

33 And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar and put an omerful of manna in it, and place it before Yahweh to be kept throughout your generations.”

Moses relays the command to Aaron, the high priest. This is not a private matter for each family to handle; it is a matter of corporate worship. The priesthood is charged with maintaining this memorial. A jar is to be taken, and the prescribed amount placed inside. And where is it to be put? "Before Yahweh." This means it was to be placed in the most holy place, in the immediate presence of God. This bread from heaven was to be kept before the God of heaven. This is a picture of Christ, our Bread of Life, who has passed into the heavens and now appears in the presence of God for us (Heb. 9:24). He is our perpetual memorial before the Father, the guarantee of our sustenance and salvation.

34 As Yahweh commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the Testimony to be kept.

Obedience follows the command. The text emphasizes the direct chain of command and compliance: Yahweh to Moses, Moses to Aaron, and Aaron acts. The location is now specified more precisely as "before the Testimony." The Testimony refers to the tablets of the Ten Commandments, which were the substance of God's covenant and would be placed inside the Ark of the Covenant. So the pot of manna, this symbol of God's daily grace, is set right before the standard of God's perfect righteousness. God's grace does not abolish His law, nor does His law negate His grace. They dwell together in the Holy of Holies. The manna testifies that God provides what we need to live before the God whose law we must obey.

35 And the sons of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate the manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.

This verse is a summary statement, likely written by Moses near the end of the forty years, or added by a later inspired editor like Joshua. It provides the historical frame for this miracle. This was not a one-time event or a short-term fix. For forty years, an entire generation, God sustained millions of people in a barren wasteland with this daily bread. The miracle was in its initiation and in its relentless continuation. It only stopped when it was no longer needed, when they crossed the Jordan and ate the produce of the Promised Land (Josh. 5:12). God's provision is perfectly suited to our need. In the wilderness, we need wilderness food. When we enter our inheritance, we will feast on the food of the kingdom. Until then, He gives us what we need for the journey.

36 (Now an omer is a tenth of an ephah.)

This is a simple editorial note, a gloss for later readers who might not be familiar with the measurements of Moses' day. But even in this, we can see a truth. God's grace is not vague or haphazard. It is measured and precise. He gave them exactly what they needed for the day, an omer for each person. He knows our needs with perfect specificity, and He meets them with perfect sufficiency. There is no waste in the economy of God. His grace is always enough.

Application

The central lesson of the manna, both the daily portion and the memorial portion, is one of faithful dependence. The Israelites were forbidden to hoard the manna; they had to trust God to provide it fresh every morning. Yesterday's manna would breed worms. This is a profound spiritual lesson for us. We cannot live on the spiritual experiences of yesterday. We cannot coast on the memory of a past blessing or a past conversion. Our spiritual life must be renewed daily. We need fresh grace, fresh forgiveness, fresh bread from heaven every single day. This is why Jesus taught us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread."

At the same time, we are commanded to remember. The pot of manna was a memorial of past faithfulness intended to fuel present trust. How do we do this? We do it by keeping the gospel "before the Testimony." We come to the Word, where we see the testimony of God concerning His Son. And we come to the Lord's Table, which is our Christian pot of manna. At this table, we "see the bread" that God has provided, the broken body of our Lord Jesus. We see, we remember, and we eat. We remember His once-for-all sacrifice, and in that remembrance, we are nourished and sustained for the journey ahead. We must not try to live on yesterday's manna, but we must absolutely remember the God who gave it, for He is the same God who will give it again this morning.