Study questions for Exodus 16
What is the context of this chapter with regard to what has gone before?
16:1-3
v. 1—Who left on this leg of the trip? Whole congregation might mean that they left in groups and came together at Sin or it might be emphasizing the fact that the whole nation had become one people.
How long did they stay at Elim?
Where did they go from there?
What kind of place was Sin?
When did they go there in relation to their trip out of
When had they left
v. 2—What did the people think about going away from the palm trees and the springs into the dessert?
Why Aaron?
v. 3—What did the people say when the grumbled against Moses and Aaron?
I guess they were hungry?
What happened to their memories?
What about the fact that they were enslaved under terrible hardships?
They still had slave mentalities. They thought everyone should take care of them and if it didn’t happen they were ready to go back to what they remembered as a great situation.
But this goes a lot further than the fact that they were literally slaves. People who have never been real slaves have a slave mentality. This is why when things don’t go our way we run to things that enslave us instead of running to the Lord of Glory. This is because we are meant to be slaves, or at least submissive in every way. But not to sinful things. We were created to serve the living God and this means that we must trust him in every situation in which he places us. We have slave mentalities because we were created to be servants. 2 Peter 2:19
Vss. 4-8
v. 4—What is God going to do in response to all the complaining?
What does he mean by rain? Rain points to abundance. Psalm 78:24; Neh. 9:15
Won’t it touch the ground?
How will raining bread on the people test them with regard to their following the law of God?
How much were they to gather every day? Why?
What does “walk” in my law mean?
v. 5—How much of this bread will there be on the 6th day?
What were they to do with it? Num. 11:8
Why did God do it this way? Gen 2:2-3
v. 6—What did Moses and Aaron do with this information?
When will they know it was the Lord who brought them out of the
How would they know in the evening when the bread wasn’t going to come until the morning?
v. 7—How would they see the glory of the Lord in this? God would provide for their needs and they could trust him to care for them in the little things as well as in the large. If he can provide for your eternal salvation, he can provide for your daily needs.
What prompted the Lord to give them this bread?
The text up to this point has said that the people were grumbling against Moses and Aaron, why does Moses say they are grumbling against the Lord?
Why does Moses say, “what are we that you grumble against us”?
v. 8—What does verse 8 have to do with what went before? Kaiser, quoting Cassuto, explains that the second “Moses said” means that he is about to explain further what he just said (p. 402)
Moses is pointing out to the people that they aren’t about to be in trouble with him, but with God. It was God almighty they were grumbling against, not Moses and Aaron.
Vss. 9-12
v. 9—What did Moses say to Aaron?
v. 10—What happened as soon as Aaron told the people to gather together?
What was in the cloud?
What had previously been in the cloud?
What does it Glory of the Lord mean? Ex. 24:15-17
v. 11-12—what is the point of God’s appearing to them this way? Ex. 7:4-5; Ezekiel
Why does God tell Moses to say something he’s just told him to say to the people?
It intensifies and makes sure that the people know that Moses is not just snowing them. They were grumbling against Moses, but it was really God they were grumbling against. This way of doing it makes it very clear that Moses is not in charge here, God is and the people need to know that if they are going to be a people they need to realize that the Lord is God, not them. Remember that slave mentality again.
Vss. 13-21
v. 13—What happened that very night?
Quail migrate during that time of year, normally. When they get to the area where
There seems to be some link between the dew and the manna that came after the dew dried up. We aren’t sure what the link is, however.
v. 14—What was left after the dew dried up?
What was it?
v. 15—What did the people think it was?
What did Moses say it was?
Where did it come from?
Do you think the people would have asked these kinds of questions if it was a normally occurring food?
“What” in Hebrew is ‘man’ this is where the name “manna” comes from. They didn’t know what it was so they called it “what:” manna (cf. v. 31).
v. 16—What were the people to do with the stuff? Each person is “per skull” in Hebrew. And it is related to the word used for
How much were they to take per person per day? An Omer is approximately 2quarts/liters. It is a measurement of volume, not weight. The point being that God abundantly provided for every person in the camp.
What does 2 Cor. 8:15 have to do with this passage?
v. 17, 18—How did the people respond to the command/test?
Why does it mention that some gathered a lot and some a little?
Calvin thought that everyone put what they’d gathered into a heap and then divided up the heap to apportion it to each person as they had need. 2 Cor. 8:13-14. I guess Paul thought so too. That’s funny.
And at the end of the day, what was the result of their first afternoon’s gathering?
v. 19—What did Moses tell them to do with the leftover manna?
v. 20—So what did the people do?
What happened?
Why did this happen?
Constant reliance, consistent reliance, trust, faith, belief, God is God, we are not. 16:4
How did the people do with the test?
v. 21—What did the people do every day after that?
What happened to the manna that was left on the ground?
How many parts to this particular test? (1) Gather as much as you need (an omer), (2) Prepare and eat what you are allotted every day, (3) Gather it in the morning.
Vss 22-30
v. 22—What happened on the 6th day?
How much did they gather on the 6th day?
What did the leaders do with regard to Moses? Why did they go to him?
v. 23—what did Moses say to the leaders?
Who told them to do what follows?
Why is it important to know that God told them to do this?
What did the Lord say was to happen the next day?
What is a Sabbath? First occurrence of the word in the Bible. Gen 2:2-3
What is the difference between a “holy” Sabbath and regular Sabbath?
What would happen different on the Sabbath than on every other day?
What were the people to do with all the left over manna? Cook it as they liked.
The importance of the Sabbath is being outlined and implemented without giving any hardship for the people. In fact, all they have to do is sit back and watch God work. And rejoice in God’s work on their behalf.
v. 24—What did the people do with all the left over manna?
What was the result? Did the food go bad as it had before? Why not?
v. 25—What did Moses tell the people to do with the bread they had on the Sabbath day?
Would the people find the manna in the fields that day?
v. 26—How many days would they have to gather the food?
What would happen the 7th day?
Why did they call the 7th day a Sabbath?
Rest from what?
What was the point? God gave them their life, their food, their provisions for everything. It was a gracious act on God’s part. Where all the other people are scrounging around trying to impress and please their gods, the Israelites simply let go of their lives and trust God to be God.
v. 27—What did the people do on the 7th day despite all that God had said about their food?
How much food did they find?
Why did they look for food on that day?
What does it tell us about their opinion of what God had told them about preparation, trust, belief, obedience?
v. 28—What did God think about their behavior? The ‘you’ is plural.
Why did God direct his comment to Moses? How had Moses disobeyed God?
v. 29—Who gave the people the Sabbath? Why does the text say that the Sabbath was “given”?
What were the people supposed to do on the Sabbath?
Why was it considered a gift?
What is the difference between a gift and a command? Mark 2:27
Was it a command, law, gospel?
What weren’t they supposed to do on the 7th day?
v. 30—What were the people to do on the 7th day?
Vss. 31-36
v. 31—What did the house of
Why does the text call them the House of Israel?
What did the manna look like?
How did it taste? Num. 11:7-9
v. 32—What did the Lord command?
How do we know?
What were they to do with the omer of manna?
Why?
Why would/should others see what God provided for the people?
Was it important to remember?
How long were they to remember it?
v. 33—What did Moses tell Aaron to do with the jar of manna? Heb. 9:4
What did it mean to place it before the Lord?
Why place it there?
What is the miracle here?
v. 34—What did Aaron do with the jar of manna?
What is a testimony?
Why did he put it before the testimony? Ex. 25:22; 26:33; 30:6
v. 35—How long did the people eat manna? Josh 5:10-12
Who is speaking now?
What caused them to stop eating the manna?
Where were they when the manna stopped showing up?
Why did God stop it then?
v. 36—How much is an omer?
What is an ephah?
Why did the author put it in here?
Being a Christian—a person of God—is not about knowing about God, having a lot of really great information, or of receiving benefits and blessings from the Lord. It is that, but it includes self discipline and obedience so that we, because of a relationship with God, please him and make him happy to say that he knows us. Gal. 6:7-8.
The Grumbling of the Israelites shows that they really haven’t let go of their former lives as slaves. They still trust what they can see instead of crying out to God and trusting him for their provision. They are still not free even though they are out of
But God was happy to supply all their needs according to his good pleasure. Psa 81:10
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