. . . don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness.
Hebrews 3:8
Our List of the Places of Rebellion in Order
- Mt Sinai
- Taberah
- Marah
- Rephidim
- Kibroth-Hattaavah
- Hazeroth
- Kadesh Barnea
Then the whole community of Israel set out from Elim and journeyed into the wilderness of Sin, between Elim and Mount Sinai. They arrived there on the fifteenth day of the second month, one month after leaving the land of Egypt. There, too, the whole community of Israel complained about Moses and Aaron. “If only the LORD had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.”
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they will gather food, and when they prepare it, there will be twice as much as usual.”
So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “By evening you will realize it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt. In the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your complaints, which are against him, not against us. What have we done that you should complain about us?” Then Moses added, “The LORD will give you meat to eat in the evening and bread to satisfy you in the morning, for he has heard all your complaints against him. What have we done? Yes, your complaints are against the LORD, not against us.”
Then Moses said to Aaron, “Announce this to the entire community of Israel: ‘Present yourselves before the LORD, for he has heard your complaining.’” And as Aaron spoke to the whole community of Israel, they looked out toward the wilderness. There they could see the awesome glory of the LORD in the cloud.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “I have heard the Israelites’ complaints. Now tell them, ‘In the evening you will have meat to eat, and in the morning you will have all the bread you want. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.’”
That evening vast numbers of quail flew in and covered the camp. And the next morning the area around the camp was wet with dew. When the dew evaporated, a flaky substance as fine as frost blanketed the ground. The Israelites were puzzled when they saw it. “What is it?” they asked each other. They had no idea what it was. And Moses told them, “It is the food the LORD has given you to eat. These are the LORD’s instructions: Each household should gather as much as it needs. Pick up two quarts for each person in your tent.”
So the people of Israel did as they were told. Some gathered a lot, some only a little. But when they measured it out, everyone had just enough. Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough. Each family had just what it needed. Then Moses told them, “Do not keep any of it until morning.” But some of them didn’t listen and kept some of it until morning. But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell. Moses was very angry with them. After this the people gathered the food morning by morning, each family according to its need. And as the sun became hot, the flakes they had not picked up melted and disappeared.
On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much as usual—four quarts for each person instead of two. Then all the leaders of the community came and asked Moses for an explanation. He told them, “This is what the LORD commanded: Tomorrow will be a day of complete rest, a holy Sabbath day set apart for the LORD. So bake or boil as much as you want today, and set aside what is left for tomorrow.”
So they put some aside until morning, just as Moses had commanded. And in the morning the leftover food was wholesome and good, without maggots or odor. Moses said, “Eat this food today, for today is a Sabbath day dedicated to the LORD. There will be no food on the ground today. You may gather the food for six days, but the seventh day is the Sabbath. There will be no food on the ground that day.” Some of the people went out anyway on the seventh day, but they found no food.
The LORD asked Moses, “How long will these people refuse to obey my commands and instructions? They must realize that the Sabbath is the LORD’s gift to you. That is why he gives you a two-day supply on the sixth day, so there will be enough for two days. On the Sabbath day you must each stay in your place. Do not go out to pick up food on the seventh day.”
So the people did not gather any food on the seventh day. The Israelites called the food manna. It was white like coriander seed, and it tasted like honey wafers. Then Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded: Fill a two-quart container with manna to preserve it for your descendants. Then later generations will be able to see the food I gave you in the wilderness when I set you free from Egypt.”
Moses said to Aaron, “Get a jar and fill it with two quarts of manna. Then put it in a sacred place before the LORD to preserve it for all future generations.” Aaron did just as the LORD had commanded Moses. He eventually placed it in the Ark of the Covenant—in front of the stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant. So the people of Israel ate manna for forty years until they arrived at the land where they would settle. They ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. The container used to measure the manna was an omer, which was one-tenth of an ephah; it held about two quarts.
Exodus 16:1-36
After that, the area was known as Taberah (which means “the place of burning”), because fire from the LORD had burned among them there. Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt. And the people of Israel also began to complain. “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed. “We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted. But now our appetites are gone. All we ever see is this manna!”
The manna looked like small coriander seeds, and it was pale yellow like gum resin. The people would go out and gather it from the ground. They made flour by grinding it with hand mills or pounding it in mortars. Then they boiled it in a pot and made it into flat cakes. These cakes tasted like pastries baked with olive oil. The manna came down on the camp with the dew during the night.
Number 11:3-9
Now the LORD sent a wind that brought quail from the sea and let them fall all around the camp. For miles in every direction there were quail flying about three feet above the ground. So the people went out and caught quail all that day and throughout the night and all the next day, too. No one gathered less than fifty bushels! They spread the quail all around the camp to dry. But while they were gorging themselves on the meat—while it was still in their mouths—the anger of the LORD blazed against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague. So that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah (which means “graves of gluttony”) because there they buried the people who had craved meat from Egypt. From Kibroth-hattaavah the Israelites traveled to Hazeroth, where they stayed for some time.
Numbers 11:31-35
They left the wilderness of Sinai and camped at Kibroth-hattaavah. They left Kibroth-hattaavah and camped at Hazeroth.
Numbers 33:16-17
If you have not yet read the related Nugget I gave you the link for in Gem 2066 then I suggest you do it now.
From Elim onwards the Israelites began grumbling about how life was better for them back in Egypt. They started craving for the meat they ate there. Furthermore as I made clear in Gem 2064 it did not take too long for Israel’s rebellion to begin after leaving Egypt. Just three days and their rebellion started at Taberah. However, as I also pointed out, the people actually rebelled at Mt Sinai by following Aaron into idolatry via the golden calf.
In the initial words of the text from Exodus 16 we see the people beginning to grumble again and complaining about the lack of meat and the likelihood of them starving in the wilderness. This is after the LORD had wrought miracle after miracle in Egypt on their behalf and then of course the astounding miracle of parting the waters and using the same waters to drown the whole Egyptian army. But the miracles were not over even at this point of their grumbling. In verse of the passage above the LORD told Moses that He would rain down food from heaven upon them enough for each day. (Ex 16:4) Notice too the last comment in this verse. “I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions.” The LORD’s loving kindness and mercy was extended to this people for a thousand generations as He had told them.
There are a number of things I want to highlight from the text of Exodus 16 above. In fact there are so many elements in the parallel accounts in the biblical text that beg for explanation but I am only going to select a few of them. You can ask your own questions of the text in order to understand better all that God is telling us. What is fascinating is that He tells Moses He will rain down food from heaven on them. This food from heaven we know as ‘manna’. In Exodus 16:15 the people see the food the LORD has provided and ask “What is it?”. Once again the Israelites themselves are the cause of something or some place being named. Manna means “What is it?” The sense from the text is, “What’s this?” or “What on earth is this? Bread from heaven? What sort of bread from heaven is this?”
This bread from heaven was not only the remedy for their hunger but it was also a point of testing for them. Clearly it was not entirely what they were expecting, nor what they had hoped for. Note the nature of their response. Very soon after Taberah the Israelites were given this manna to eat. However it is clear from the text that this bread from heaven, “manna”, was a light seed or grain-like substance which they could prepare in a number of ways. But it clearly didn’t have much taste. That is why they craved the leeks, onions and garlic of Egypt, the condiments and taste of the food during their captivity. Read again the quote from Numbers 11:3-9 above.
Reading this text reminds me of living in the village of Lena in the Rongkong (Saddang) River valley. We arrived in this village to stay for a month to learn the language and to conduct a survey of the language use across the area. We brought with us a sack of rice and cans of mackerel to supplement the food supplies for the family with whom we would live. However we soon learned that their rice crop had failed and all they had to eat was poggalu, powdered sago. The head of the district in whose house we lived for the month suggested we keep the rice and mackerel for ourselves. So we did and mixed it with boiled pumpkin leaves. We had rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner with mackerel and pumpkin leaves and occasionally bush mushrooms which grew as a fungus on the trees. I can tell you first-hand, as can Tania, my wife and our daughters that having the same food day after day gets old very quickly. I can still recall the conversation I had with my eldest daughter, Marissa, before lunchtime one day in the village.
“Dad, what time is it?”
“Almost lunchtime.”
“Oh no, that means we have to eat [rice and mackerel again] soon.” Accompanied with the look of dread on her face.
Oh yes, I need only to cast my mind back to that time in Lena to ponder what it must have been like for the Israelites to eat manna day after day. As I wrote in the Nugget titled What did the Israelites eat . . .? “. . . the Israelites grumbled about having manna all the time. How many ways can you prepare manna? Boiled manna, poached manna, stir-fried manna, roast manna, manna toasted sandwiches, manna burgers, manna fingers, Uncle Mose’s Manna Meusli and of course raw manna flakes. But after all these servings of the same food they grew bored and demanded meat and condiments, so the Lord answered again with quail up to their eyeballs.”
This text is thick with irony. Not only that, we have the added testing involved in the instruction not to gather the manna on the sabbath. This was another point of trust for the “people of God”. In addition to eating the same thing day after day, they had to trust each week that there would be enough food for everyone when there was ‘no heavenly-uber-delivery‘ on the sabbath.
Then Moses told them, “Do not keep any of it until morning.” But some of them didn’t listen and kept some of it until morning. But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell. Moses was very angry with them. After this the people gathered the food morning by morning, each family according to its need. And as the sun became hot, the flakes they had not picked up melted and disappeared.
Exodus 16:19-21
I am sure you can see now how reading all the parallel accounts together adds to our understanding of the total text God has given us. I am assuming that you have already picked up on the differences between the way Moses treats this account in Exodus and Numbers. In Numbers the account is brief but set in the order of the places in Numbers 33, but in the actual account of the story in Numbers it is considerably shorter than the account in Exodus, where it is combined with what happened in Rephidim. That could lead us to believe that these two places were the same, yet they are distinctly different places not far apart. Not only that but they are the two places which are the easiest to verify. The one marked by the rock of Rephidim and the other verified by various sources. But I will deal with that issue in the next Nugget.
I think that is enough for now. I will continue my investigation in the Gems of this place called Kibroth-Hattaavah. I will continue tracking the tangled trail to Taberah and all points beyond in the coming Nugget.
“I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions.” (Exodus 16:4) It astounds me the lengths that God will go to test the confessions of our mouths to follow Him wholeheartedly.
Ian
The greatest test of faith is when you don’t get what you want, but still you are able to say Thank You Lord.
John Hagee
The ultimate test of faith is not how loudly you praise God in happy times but how deeply you trust him in dark times.
Rick Warren
Great faith is the product of great fights. Great testimonies are the outcome of great tests. Great triumphs can only come out of great trials.
Smith Wigglesworth