A Sabbath Infraction, Exodus 16:22-36

22 On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, 23 he said to them, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’” 24 So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. 25 Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. 26 Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.” [Gathering of food was the most basic work of ancient people, so the gathering of manna could not continue on the Sabbath. God will more fully flesh out the Sabbath in the future.]

27 On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. 28 And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? 29 See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.” 30 So the people rested on the seventh day. [Moses, like Jesus, teaches that the Sabbath is a gift from God given to us.]

31 Now the house of Israel called its name manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. [Refined sugar did not exist and honey was extremely rare. The Israelites could make bread but not thin, crisp cookies. To describe the mana as “wafers made with honey” is to say it is “the most delicious food imaginable.”] 32 Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” 33 And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the Lord to be kept throughout your generations.” 34 As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept. 35 The people of Israel ate the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land. They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan. 36 (An omer is the tenth part of an ephah.) [That the manna should be kept in the (future) holy of holies in the ark of the testimony that symbolized the very presence of God with his people, gave the manna prominence above all other objects of worship and remembrance except for the Ten Commandments and the staff. Eventually the jar holding the manna was made of gold (Hebrews 9:4).]