What was God teaching in the daily provision of manna?
Exo 16:12-15 I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, 'At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.' (13) That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. (14) When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. (15) When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, "It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat.
God provided the very things that Israel had complained that they lacked, truckloads of meat and bread to the full for the nation. They had meat in the evening as God provided them with quails and bread in the morning from the manna. When the dew had gone up they saw a small substance as fine as frost on the ground. None of their fathers had ever seen anything like it so they did not know what it was. Manna means 'what is it?' If you have ever looked at frost it is incredibly fine. So whatever this thing was there wasn't much to it. Small, as fine as frost on the ground, a substance that didn't have any attraction about it; which reminds me of Isaiah 53 where it talks of Christ that there was nothing about His appearance that we would be attracted to. And you have the same thing here. God is providing something for the Israelites which looked quite plain, but it was going to be enough to meet their needs. The New Testament tells us that man ate angels' food. There was nothing there that was really desirable to the flesh or the natural mind. So they said 'what is it?'
Exo 16:16-20 This is what the LORD has commanded: 'Each one is to gather as much as he needs. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.' " (17) The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. (18) And when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little. Each one gathered as much as he needed. (19) Then Moses said to them, "No one is to keep any of it until morning." (20) However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.
Here we see that whatever their need was they could gather enough to meet it. If you had a big appetite you could gather heaps and if you didn't eat a lot, a small amount would be sufficient. It is exactly the same for us, Christ will meet our needs. There is always enough in Him for us all, but they did have to gather for themselves and for their families.
Someone once asked a rabbi why God did not provide enough Manna for a week or for a month, or why did He not provide enough to be stored up to last for a whole year? The rabbi answered 'There was a king once who had a son and he gave him a yearly allowance, so once a year the son would come before the king to receive this annual allowance. But it was actually only once a year that the king saw his son. So the king changed the way that his son received his allowance to a daily one so that the son came before him daily!' I think God deals with His children in exactly the same way. He provided for the nation daily. They had to get up themselves, go out there early and actually gather the Manna each day, and He wants us to come to him daily also. Lamentations ch.3, vs. 2 & 3 tells us that 'His mercies are new every morning, great is Thy faithfulness!' God wants us to come before Him each day and experience His mercy.
These verses also show us that the Manna didn't actually last. It was only enough for that day. You couldn't store it or hoard it up because it bred worms and decayed, so a fresh supply was needed daily. Maybe the principle here is that what you get from God is good for you today, but maybe not tomorrow. You need something fresh from the Lord to share with others the next day. God arranged it in this way so that the people had to personally apply themselves, and this is what He wants of us.