Exodus 16:32-36 "And Moses said, This is the thing which the LORD commandeth, Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt. And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the LORD, to be kept for your generations. As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept. And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan. Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah."
You may have heard it said that one of the most dangerous reasons in the world to do something a certain way is “because we have always done it this way.” There are times, when we are dealing with manmade customs and traditions that this might be true. However, we are never on safer ground for doing anything than when we can say “This is the thing the LORD has commanded.” God never needs to do anything differently because He does everything perfectly the first time.
The children of Israel might have wondered exactly how this was going to work out. When they tried to keep a little of the daily collection of manna over from one day to the next, it stank and was full of worms the next day. How was a whole omer going to be any good after a day, much less for generations? Again, then answer lies with God.
Moses did not tell Aaron to just take an omer of manna and stick it in a closet. This omer was to be laid up before the LORD. It was dedicated in and to His holy presence. It would serve as a reminder to the children of Israel of God’s daily grace in feeding them in the wilderness for forty years before they came to the land that flowed with milk and honey.
Some scholars think that this did not happen at the moment God commanded it, because the Testimony was not yet built. God did not give Moses the plans for the ark until he was on Mount Sinai, which was some time after this point. It is a valid point since God was still feeding them on manna for years after. However, it is just as valid to consider that since the ark existed in the mind and purpose of God, His purpose was sufficient to preserve the manna until the ark was built.
Beloved, we serve the God who calls things that are not yet as though they already were (Romans 4:17). We will never fail in those things that we do as the LORD has commanded. We hold His grace as a memorial to His daily, unfailing provision for us. May we always lay it before the LORD so that the generations that come after us may know surely that the LORD, He is God!