is actually useful.
Exodus 16:9–15 (ESV)
Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, ‘Come near before the LORD, for he has heard your grumbling.’” And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud. And the LORD said to Moses, “I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.’”
In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.”
Notice that it says, “the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud,” not, “a cloud”. This is the cloud that had been with them all along.
And in the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, – Exodus 14:24 (ESV)
So, when Aaron says to the people of Israel, “Come near before the LORD, for he has heard your grumbling,” they know something’s up. Then they see His glory in the cloud as he speaks.
But it seems that only Moses can hear what the LORD says. He instructs Moses to say to the people of Israel, “At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.” The meat turns out to be quail, while the bread is a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. At first this bread, soon to be named manna, confuses them – but they’ll get used to it.
The daily appearance of manna will be the longest running and most obvious miracle in history. It’s almost unimaginable that any party to this event could have less than rock-solid faith.
But that’s exactly what will happen.
There’s something mysterious about the way our faith seems to be the weakest at the worst possible moment. Why do we forget everything we know just when we need it most? It’s like the “brain block” you can get before a big test.
This only seems to be true. Peter’s faith didn’t always fail him. Weak faith moments do happen, just not all the time.
But therein lies a great lesson; weak faith moments are useful. God uses the pain and guilt to teach us.
The weekly study guides, which include discussion questions, are available for download here:
https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies
