It took some faith to gather in two days worth of manna
after the experience they had of it being infested with worms and stinking from
earlier in the week but the people obeyed Moses' command and it worked
out. Some, however, chose to go out and
try and gather on the Sabbath in disobedience to the command not to work and
incurred the Lord's anger. It is
difficult to tell when it would have been that Moses instructed Aaron to take
an omer of the manna and place it before the "testimony" to be kept
as a reminder of this time in the wilderness, because Aaron was not yet priest
and there was neither ark nor tabernacle when they first had manna. There is no real problem with that here
though as the next piece of the passage reflects that they ate manna in the
wilderness for forty years, another detail we certainly don't have at this
juncture.
Like the manna in the wilderness, Jesus will not be with the
disciples permanently, He is soon, in fact, very soon, going away. He is warning them of the persecution to come
after His departure and yet promising something they couldn't have grasped at
the time, the Helper, the Spirit of truth, who will lead them into all truth,
who will glorify Jesus, and who will take what is His and declare it to
them. It would have been nearly
impossible for them to have a right conception of what Jesus was saying at the
time. Their only analog would have been
the prophets. This Helper would also
convict the world concerning three things: sin, righteousness, and judgment. It requires the Holy Spirit's operation to
convict us of those three things, and to witness to the truth that is not
factually testable. Faith that these
things are indeed true is always part of the equation and the Helper is also
active and involved in faith. Faith is a
key to unlocking further truth.
There is much in this passage that needs explanation beyond
what we can do here in a few words concerning those spirits in prison from the time
of Noah and that baptism saves you. Regarding
baptism, Peter says it serves as an appeal to conscience rather than as a bath and
in the success of that appeal it saves. The
entire passage, however, is an appeal to righteousness and obedience, both
those being defined by the word of God and the witness of the Holy Spirit. Suffering in the flesh refers to the
mortification of the flesh, putting to death those passions and desires within
us that are at war with the Spirit of God.
Even in something as simple as not gathering manna on the Sabbath God
was not pleased. Righteousness is to be
the chief aim of our lives.
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