Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Exodus, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
God’s Identity and Power
Redemption and Deliverance
The Covenant
Mediators and the Priesthood
Summary
Analysis
In the second month after the departure from Egypt, the Israelites set out from Elim and enter the wilderness of Sin. They start complaining to Moses and Aaron that it would have been better to die in Egypt; at least they weren’t hungry there. So the LORD tells Moses that he will rain bread from heaven each day; the people must gather enough for each day. On the sixth day, God will provide enough bread for two days. This will also be a test of the Israelites’ obedience.
As the journey into the wilderness continues, the people find further occasion for grumbling—they’re hungry. Their immediate desire for food even distorts their memories of Egyptian oppression. Nevertheless, God graciously provides for their survival through miraculous bread. The daily shower of bread establishes a pattern of relying on God day by day and also resting on appointed days (the seventh).
Themes
Moses directs Aaron to address the Israelites, telling them that the LORD has heard the people’s complaints. When Aaron speaks to them, the people see the glory of the LORD appearing in a cloud. God addresses the people directly, telling them they will have their fill of meat and bread, and they will know that he is the LORD.
When God unleashed plagues on Egypt, his purpose was to make the Egyptians know his identity as the Lord. God’s provision of food in the wilderness serves a similar purpose for the Israelites (albeit in the context of blessing instead of punishment). The people’s continued grumbling shows that they still need this divine instruction.
Themes
That evening, the Israelites’ camp is covered with quails. The next morning, a layer of dew covers the camp. When the dew lifts, a fine substance coats the ground, like frost. The people ask each other, “What is it?” Moses explains that this is the bread that the LORD has sent. The people must gather it daily, enough for each person in their tents and only enough for one day at a time—they must not set aside any bread for the following day. But the people don’t listen, and the next day, they find that their leftover bread is rotten and filled with worms.
The name of the miraculous bread, “manna,” sounds like the Hebrew words for “What is it?” The gathering of manna provides a daily lesson in trusting God—the people aren’t supposed to hoard manna because this would suggest that they don’t trust God to provide for them the following day. If they do it anyway, it will backfire spectacularly. Again, trusting God’s deliverance is a process that requires patient divine training.
Themes
On the sixth day—the eve of the Sabbath—they gather twice as much bread and prepare enough for the following day. The next day, the leftover bread is not spoiled. Though Moses tells the people that the LORD will not send bread on the Sabbath, some people still search for bread that day, and the LORD rebukes their disobedience.
The only exception to the hoarding rule is the Sabbath. To avoid doing work on that day, the people are permitted to gather manna in advance. Note that the official law of Sabbath-keeping isn’t given until later in Exodus; still, it’s built into the pattern of Israelite life at an early stage in their journey.
Themes
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The Israelites call the bread “manna.” It is “like coriander seed […] and the taste of it [is] like wafers made with honey.” Moses tells Aaron to preserve some manna in a jar, so that future generations will see how God sustained the people in the wilderness. The people eat manna for 40 years, until they reach the border of Canaan.
Later, Aaron will place the preserved manna in the ark of the covenant, or tabernacle—the place of sacrifice and worship that hasn’t yet been built. Like the Passover, the jar of manna helps pass down the story of God’s deliverance and provision to the Israelites’ offspring, incorporating them into the same story.
Themes
