Exodus 16: Manna from Heaven

Synopsis:

They have been wandering about in the desert for 2 1/2 months and get cranky. We should have remained in Egypt rather then die out here in the desert! God gives them manna from heaven. It is small and round and white, a bit like a coriander seed only white and it tasted of wafers made with honey. The big problem was that if you didn't eat it right away, it got wormy. Except on the Sabbath. Then you could get enough for two days and it would stay good. Because God doesn't do manna deliveries on the Sabbath.

In other words:

They get hungry enough to eat little specks of food they find littering the desert floor.

Most interesting bit:

The unit of measure is an omer - which, according to wikipedia, is equivalent to about 3.64 dry liters of the stuff. Which is apparently what every individual ate every day. Which means, these poor folk were literally picking up a huge amount of tiny seeds every day to sustain themselves. That would have been really annoying back breaking work. They lived this way for 40 years.

Favorite bit:

This is a tie between Exodus 16:3 and Exodus 16:28. I like both because they are so whiny.

·         Exodus 16:3 "Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots, and when we did eat bread to the full: for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."

·         Exodus 16:28 "And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?"

Funniest bit:

That this all occurs in the land of Sin. (Exodus 16:1)

Moral Lesson:

Beggars can't be choosers. (Exodus 16)