EXODUS 16
The quails in chapter 16 are connected with the sacrificial and public side of the death of Christ in an initial and elementary character. These, unlike the manna, are not continued, but the manna presents what Christ was here as coming in from heaven. The measure, according to verse 18, is proportionate to the capacity of the gatherer. We cannot appropriate more of Christ than we have capacity for. This is all leading to the spiritual thought of the Sabbath, illustrating the state of mind and soul of one who is restful before God, the land lying, so to speak, in a fallow state, ready to be acted upon by the sun and rain. These Sabbath conditions would stand connected with the contemplation of the Lord in the gospels, while the exercises in the epistles would pertain more to the side of spiritual diligence in divine things, the other active days of the week illustrating rather the diligence connected with the working out of the truth in the epistles.
The taste of manna was like honey, an earnest of the love that would bless them in the land flowing with milk and honey.
Aaron’s place in this chapter as seen in verse 10 was dwelt on, in relation to the priestly side in ministry, Moses understanding what is necessary at the moment and that authority, as such, will not alone do. So that in verse 9 he tells Aaron to speak. How urgent, in the ministerial service, to discern the character of ministry to meet the need of the moment. The Lord does not tell Moses to speak to Aaron. Moses moves in spiritual intuition, as every spiritual minister should do. How blest is the service [p. 234] which would win the brethren for the ministry of the glory!
The princes of the assembly appear here for the first time. So in Romans 16 Paul salutes the princes before the assembly is formally functioning, as seen in the later chapters in this book and in 1 Corinthians, Paul discerning in those princes the nucleus of the assembly at Rome.