Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:
Exodus 16:11-16 (NIV)
11 The Lord said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’”13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat.16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.’”
What’s going on here? Bread miraculously appears in the morning and goes bad before the next day?! Then, on the seventh day, the Sabbath, nothing comes, but the bread from day six does not go bad! Huh?! Yet, everyday birds and squirrels scavenge the ground and find sustenance or cows feed off grass and it all seems so “natural”. So why is it unusual for God to do something seemingly “supernatural” that He does “naturally” every day?! The most amazing part of the story is really the Sabbath. On that day, God does something totally different. God preserves the life of the food longer than usual so people can see and be reminded of their need for God’s goodness and grace. The Sabbath is a day when we are fed in a different, unique way that reminds us that everything we have is a blessing from God and that God has actually been at work all week long.