Manna and Meat

[Tavita]

This is something that came to my attention today and I would like to hear if others have any teaching on this subject they could share..

In Exodus 16:35 we are told that the Israelites ate manna for the entire forty years sojourn in the desert until they came to the border of the promised land...


"And the sons of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate the manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan."


When the Israelites left Egypt they had livestock..


Exodus 10:26 "Therefore, our livestock, too, will go with us; not a hoof will be left behind, for we shall take some of them to serve the Lord our God....."

Exodus 12:38 "And a mixed multitude also went up with them, along with flocks and herds, a very large number of livestock."


Then, six weeks later, the Israelites are complaining of having no meat and bread...


Exodus 16:3 "And the sons of Israel said to them, "Would that we had died by the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger".


So of course God provides them with manna and with meat at evening.

Yet, right on through the rest of Exodus we have Moses giving instructions for the blood sacrifices of bulls and goats etc. He also instructed that some of the tabernacle was to be made of animal skins.

For example, after God gave Moses instructions and ordinances at Sinai:


Exodus 24:5 "And he sent the young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the Lord."


Why did they complain that they were hungry when they had livestock, which included flocks of birds? This sounds contradictory and I'm hoping someone can point out what I can't see. I can understand they needed grain... but meat?

 

[J21]

I haven't had any teaching on this but I have given it some thought, which could be right or wrong....
I have always thought that the reason is that the numbers of the Israelites in the Exodus were in the thousands, maybe close to a million, rather than just in the hundreds. The meat/food supply would have needed to be enormous to feed the great number of people for any amount of time. Six weeks isn't too long to run out a meat supply with that great a number of people.
We, knowing that they were going to be wandering around for forty years, would have suggested rationing of the meat suply, butI don't think they would have rationed at all for they had no idea that they were going to be there that long.
There would have been of course, as you stated, animals still for the burnt offerings...I don't believe that these would have been allowed to be taken as food for the people as they were the choice animals set aside specifically for the required sacrifice to God. The skins set aside for the tabernacle could have come from these burnt offerings...?
The people also were brought to the realisation fast that they had to trust that the Lord would provide as He did in a miraculous way.
Sound somewhat feasible? Hopefully someone with other thoughts will put in as well.

 

[Tavita]

I haven't had any teaching on this but I have given it some thought, which could be right or wrong....
I have always thought that the reason is that the numbers of the Israelites in the Exodus were in the thousands, maybe close to a million, rather than just in the hundreds. The meat/food supply would have needed to be enormous to feed the great number of people for any amount of time. Six weeks isn't too long to run out a meat supply with that great a number of people.
We, knowing that they were going to be wandering around for forty years, would have suggested rationing of the meat suply, butI don't think they would have rationed at all for they had no idea that they were going to be there that long.
There would have been of course, as you stated, animals still for the burnt offerings...I don't believe that these would have been allowed to be taken as food for the people as they were the choice animals set aside specifically for the required sacrifice to God. The skins set aside for the tabernacle could have come from these burnt offerings...?
The people also were brought to the realisation fast that they had to trust that the Lord would provide as He did in a miraculous way.
Sound somewhat feasible? Hopefully someone with other thoughts will put in as well.

Thanks for your input, J21. Yes, maybe they did have to ration, but I also wonder that maybe after taking ALL their animals with them that the animals would have kept on reproducing like they did back in Goshen. And new animals would have to have been born to be able to choose the most perfect and unblemished to offer as sacrifices. And I wonder if God supplied them all the forty years with quails at evening or if it was just the manna that was supplied.

Thanks again...