Key Verses: Exodus 16-18

Key Questions


1. What is God teaching the Israelites (and us) through the daily provision of manna and the prohibition on storing it? How does this practice challenge the empire mindset of accumulation and control? How do these wilderness experiences reshape Israel’s understanding of God—not just as deliverer, but as sustainer?
2. How is Sabbath more than a religious observance—how is it a political and social act of resistance? What are modern forms of “Sabbath resistance” in today’s work-driven culture?
3. How does the people’s panic and complaint reflect the difficulty of transitioning from slavery to freedom? How does God’s response show both mercy and formation?
4. Why is it important that this place of crisis is named “Testing” and “Quarreling”? How does remembering places of failure shape communal identity honestly and faithfully?
5. How does Jethro’s advice to Moses reshape the structure of authority and justice? What might this say about listening to non-Israelite voices/wisdom from outside institutional religion?

Theological Insights


“Two rules govern the manna economy: limiting the daily collection to ‘an omer a head’ (Exod 16:16)—as much as a person can eat in a day—and refraining from collection on the Sabbath. On that day, everyone is to stay comfortably seated (!) at home (16:29–30). This is the first time Israel is called to observe the Sabbath… This is a litmus test, and a crucial one, to determine ‘if they will walk in [YHWH]’s teaching [torah] or not’ (16:4)… Although the rules of the manna economy seem straightforward enough, Israel has trouble following them. They try to save a surplus, and Moses gets angry (16:20); they go out to collect on the Sabbath, and YHWH gets angry (16:27–29). This is the first time God’s anger is directed against the people (cf. 4:14)… This wilderness economy is of course temporary; the manna fall will end when the Israelites settle in a land where they can plant grain (Exod 16:35). Therefore, we might ask whether the virtue of restraint has enduring value for people in more ordinary circumstances, such as our own. The answer lies in the odd symbol of the clay jar of manna that Moses instructs Aaron the priest to set in the most holy spot in the sanctuary. The daily ‘omer-ful’ is to stand “before YHWH as a keepsake for your generations” (16:33). Ultra-perishable manna is literally enshrined as a permanent reminder of what it means for Israel to eat within limits, on YHWH’s terms. The alert reader might think back to the first story about eating within a divinely set limit—a limit that the first humans violated, with the result that they were expelled from Eden. Putting together these two stories of beginnings—of humanity as a whole and of the people Israel—we might infer that eating modestly and mindfully is one of our chief obligations to the God who created us and keeps us alive.” Davis, Opening Israel’s Scriptures, 51-53.

“Moses here delivers His very first command to the newly freed slaves. And it deals with how they go about satisfying their appetite… Take what you need and what your household needs, but no more. The principle: to each (only) according to his needs. The implicit premise: there is enough for all.” Kass, Founding God’s Nation, 229.

“The gift of the water of life comes from the same source as the gift of the law, a source of life for the community of faith… They bring to realization God’s original intentions for the creation in the midst of chaos.” Fretheim, Exodus (Interpretation), 190-191.