It would be a very great acquisition historically if we might know what Egypt was doing while the Hebrews were wandering in the wilderness forty years. Various circumstances conspire to favor the opinion that during this period her king made a vast military crusade upon Palestine and the regions farther north, occupying several years and greatly crippling the powerful tribes [kingdoms so called] then in possession of the land of Canaan. Both Josephus and Herodotus give accounts of a great military expedition of this sort—leaving, however, the main chronological problemWhen? to be determined.——As to the great power of the kings of Canaan, the Lord said to Moses, “I will send a hornet before you to drive them out,” i. e. to break down their power and facilitate the subjection of the country before the arms of Joshua. The original word translated “hornet” does not suggest the insect now commonly known by that name; but is equivalent to scourge, yet not precisely defining of what sort. It is supposable that Egypt and her next kin after the Exodus, were more maddened than subdued by the escape of Israel and by the humbling disaster at the Red Sea; that this great expedition was inspired by the expectation of finding the Hebrew people in Canaan and of punishing them there; that God’s providence shielded them with perfect protection in the great Arabian desert where no Egyptian host could follow them or even subsist; and then with that marvelous wisdom which so often turns the wrath of man to his own praise, used their prowess in arms to break down the military strength of Canaan and prepare that land for easy conquest before the arms of Joshua. It seems obvious that in point of military strength a great change had come over the tribes of Canaan between the visit of the spies and the conquest by Israel. Did the Lord use the chariots and horsemen of Egypt to produce this result? To have done so would be quite in keeping with that great law of his operations in this sinning world under which he so often turns the wrath of wicked men to account most signally and even gloriously to promote the ends of his own kingdom.
CHAPTER XV.
THE EVENTS NEAR AND AT SINAI.
The Manna.
THE divine plan of leading Israel to Canaan by the way of the great desert involved the question of subsistence—bread and water for such a host through so long a journey. It was perfectly obvious that the ordinary resources of this desert were entirely inadequate, so that the alternative was simply, miracle, or starvation. In the choice of miracle God had in view not only physical subsistence but moral culture—the perpetual impression upon the millions of Israel that their covenant-keeping God was feeding them every day with bread immediately from his own hand.
This bread took the name “manna” from the question asked by the people when they found it upon the ground in the morning—What is this? Their Hebrew words were—Man-hu; what this? All the ancient versions and most ancient authorities concur in deriving the name “manna” from this original question as put in Ex. 16: 15. [Our English version has the only correct rendering in the margin.]
The manna fell by night as the dew falls, and it would seem, fell with and in the dew so that when the dew evaporated under the morning sun, there remained this very fine deposit—“a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost upon the ground.” “It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey” (Ex. 16: 13–15, 31). A subsequent description (Num. 11: 7–9) adds—“The manna was as coriander seed and the color thereof as the color of bdellium. And the people went about and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it; and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil. And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it.”——The gathering, the preparation of it for cooking, and the cooking itself, cost labor, yet obviously none too much for the health and morals of the million. The physiological facts to be noticed are that it was sufficiently palatable for all practical purposes and had the necessary elements for the real bread—the staff of life—for a whole nation during forty years of wilderness life, with its alternations of marchings and encampments; of labor and of rest.
The points which evinced the miraculous hand of God were—that it came from no known or possible source of supply in the kingdom of nature; that it fell in the full amount needed for the thousands of Israel; fell on each of six mornings but not at all on the seventh, the Sabbath; that the average amount on five of these mornings was a supply for one day, while on the morning next preceding the Sabbath, a double quantity fell, being a supply for two days; that the gathering for the first five days of the week could be kept only one day, but the double supply of the sixth day remained sweet and pure for two days; and moreover, a quantity laid up by God’s command in the sacred arkremained unchanged for many generations.Thus wonderfully did the Almighty impress his hand upon every feature of this bread from heaven![37]
The allusions to manna in the Scriptures take note of the fact that “God suffered them to hunger” before he sent them this supply (Deut. 8: 3, 16). The record (Ex. 16: 1) states that it was already the fifteenth day of the second month since they came out of Egypt when the whole congregation murmured for bread and seemed to themselves about to perish of hunger in the wilderness. One month and a half must have quite exhausted the hasty and scanty supplies which they brought from Egypt. The marvel is how they could have subsisted upon this so long, even though coupled with all the supplies possible in that desert. That “God suffered them to hunger” is however only in harmony with his usual method of dealing with his people—subjecting them to a certain pressure of want for purposes of moral trial—the object being to test their faith in himself; to draw out their soul in prayer for help and in trust under darkness and in straits; and to make the blessing when given doubly precious. What Christian has ever lived long under any circumstances of this earthly life without some discipline under this great law of the Christian life—“He suffered thee to hunger” and then “fed thee with angels’ food”?
Moses (Deut. 8: 16) makes a special point of the fact that this bread was such as neither they nor their fathers had ever known before. The Psalmist (Ps. 78: 24, 25) takes the lofty poetic view of this great gift of God: “He commanded the clouds from above and opened the doors of heaven and rained down manna upon them to eat and gave them of the corn of heaven. Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them meat to the full.”——Josh. 5: 12 shows that the manna ceased as abruptly as it began, precisely when it was needed no longer. The people having arrived in Canaan and supplies being within reach from the old corn of the land, the manna ceased and fell no more.