Exodus 16:2-15 - God Provides Manna

It has been almost two months since God delivered the people of Israel from slavery under the rule of Pharaoh and parted the waters of the sea so the Israelites could march through on dry ground to the other side. These events were wonderful and miraculous, but in Exodus 16, the Israelites find themselves in the middle of the wilderness, without food or water, unsure of what comes next, and worried about how they will survive.

And so they begin to complain.

People often poke fun at the complaints of the Israelites, accusing them of being whiny. From the outside looking in, we could say, “Come on! Have these people lost all faith? Look at all the incredible ways God has provided for them just verses before. Do they not trust God to take care of them anymore?”

It is easy to criticize while not in the wilderness with them – on foot - with no food and no place to call home. Perhaps the Israelites are less pathetically whiny and more realistically human.

The Israelites are "hangry" and scared. 

To judge the Israelites for their bad attitudes would suggest complaining has no place in our life with God, which is not true. The book of Psalms gives voice to many different complaints about experiences of abandonment, suffering, grief, and fear. Job freely expresses his complaints against God. And from the cross, Jesus cries out in a voice of complaint: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” When we judge the Israelites, we tend to distance them and their experiences from our own. But we can do the same.

Dr. Elna Solvang, Professor of Religion at Concordia College, says,

“At its core, complaint is a turning to God – not away from God.”

To offer a complaint shows a willingness to be completely open and utterly vulnerable with God about our deepest needs. It also demonstrates courage to name in lament a situation as not fully just. In complaint, we recognize that the world is not how it should be. Complaint then becomes a way of paying attention and being willing to see what is true, rather than ignoring it. If you find yourself needing to offer a word of complaint to God, know there is space for that. There is space for complaint in Scripture and in the history of the people of God.

God hears the Israelites’ complaints in the wilderness – the text reminds us of this four times. God not only hears, but God provides what the Israelites need.

There is enough for all of them to eat and be full, every morning and every night. God sends quail to eat in the evening, and in the morning, a thin, flaky substance called manna, which looks like frost covering the ground.

If you have wondered what manna actually is – you are in good company. The Israelites must have asked themselves the same thing, because the Hebrew word, man-hu, literally means “What is it?”

What is God sending you to eat today? What is sustaining you on your journey? Do we notice the daily bread right in front of us – whatever it may be? In the moment, we often cannot see how God is taking care of us. We are too close to it. More often than not, it is only when we look back that we see how God’s faithfulness has been with us all along.

**This essay is a revised version of pages 75-78 in Hard and Holy Work: A Lenten Journey through the Book of Exodus, which I co-wrote with Mary Alice Birdwhistell.

A Benediction (Or Miscellaneous Thoughts)

Uncle Ishmael will be exploring the biblical book of Exodus in alignment with the Revised Common Lectionary. The lectionary begins on August 23 with Exodus 1 and concludes its journey through the book on October 11 with Exodus 32.

Here's a list of the Sundays and the Exodus scripture lesson:
September 27 2026 Exodus 17:1-7
October 4 2026 Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
October 11 2026 Exodus 32:1-14