Intro

Part 1The Exodus

Part 2The Manna

Part 3The Mountain

Part 4Forty Years Later

Introduction

Within “Three Months in a Row: The Manna — Part 2,” our loving Eternal Father, Yahuah, continues the restoration of His preordained TIME-MEASURING calendar system. After generations of slavery under their pagan Egyptian masters, the Hebrew people had much to learn about their Creator, and much to unlearn. Through the manna sent from the shamayim (heaven), Yahuah began another remarkable lesson in TIME, revealing not only how He would feed His people, but how they were to recognize His appointed days.

As established in The Exodus — Part 1, one of the first foundational truths restored to Israel (Yasharal) was Yahuah’s lunar calendar, beginning with the full New Moon as the Start of Years and the beginning of the lunar month. This truth was essential, because the correct beginning determines every date that follows. Without first identifying Yahuah’s authentic New Moon, Israel could not have counted correctly to Passover on the 14th day, nor could they have observed His appointed times according to His command.

This reveals an element of the Exodus and manna accounts that is easily overlooked: TIME itself became Israel’s first test of obedience. Had any of the Israelites refused Yahuah Alahim’s time-centric instructions concerning which lunar phase marked Rosh Hashanah (New Year’s Day), they would not have observed Passover on its appointed 14th day, and as a result they would have lost their firstborn sons along with the Egyptians, and never been freed from bondage or entered the Promised Land.

Then, only one lunar month later, Yahuah was to test them again. This time, the unique manna-feeding schedule would demonstrate the relationship between the New Moon, the six workdays, and the sacred seventh-day Sabbath.

Some well-intentioned folks may view the manna account of the Second Month as separate from the lunar calendar established during the Exodus. Yet the manna did not appear in a calendrical vacuum. Only one lunar month earlier, Yahuah Alahim had restored Rosh Hashanah in the spring as the beginning of the lunar months, establishing the count of lunar days leading directly to Passover. The Second Month did not introduce an unrelated system of time; it continued and confirmed the one already established in the First Month. The full New Moon remained day one and the foundational marker from which the days of each successive lunar month were counted. Thus, the First Month laid a nail in a sure place, while the manna account of the Second Month would drive that calendrical truth even deeper.

And once again, the question becomes personal: How would you respond? Would you resist Yahuah’s appointed order of TIME, or would your greatest heart desires to bring your soul temple into perfect alignment with His?

Exodus 16:1-36
Three Months in a Row – The Manna – Part 2

And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the Second Month after they departed from the land of Egypt. 2 Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of Yahuah in the land of Egypt when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

4 Then Yahuah said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from the shamayim (heavens) for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not. 5 And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.” 6 Then Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, “At evening you shall know that Yahuah has brought you out of the land of Egypt. 7 And in the morning, you shall see the majesty of Yahuah, for He hears your complaints against Yahuah. But what are we that you complain against us?” 8 Also, Moses said, “This shall be seen when Yahuah gives you meat to eat in the evening [night of the 15th after the Sabbath daylight departed], and in the morning [the 16th] bread to the full; for Yahuah hears your complaints which you make against Him. And what are we? Your complaints are not against us but against Yahuah.”

9 Then Moses spoke to Aaron, ‘Say to all the congregation of the children of Israel, ‘Come near before Yahuah, for He has heard your complaints.’ 10 Now it came to pass, as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the majesty of Yahuah appeared in the cloud. 11 And Yahuah spoke to Moses, saying, 12 “I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight [sunset of the 15th], you shall eat meat, and in the morning [of the 16th], you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am Yahuah, your Alahim.'”

13 So it was that quails came up at evening [sunset of the 15th] and covered the camp, and in the morning [the 16th], the dew lay all around the camp. 14 And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground. 15 So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “This is the bread which Yahuah has given you to eat. 16 This is the thing which Yahuah has commanded: ‘Let every man gather it according to each one’s need, one omer for each person, according to the number of persons; let every man take for those who are in his tent.'” 17 And the children of Israel did so and gathered some more, some less. 18 So when they measured it by omers, he who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no lack. Every man had gathered according to each one’s need. 19 And Moses said, “Let no one leave any of it till morning.” 20 Notwithstanding, they did not heed Moses. But some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. 21 So they gathered it every morning, every man according to his need. And when the sun became hot, it melted.

22 And so it was, on the sixth day [21st day of the lunar month], that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. 23 Then he said to them, “This is what Yahuah has said: ‘Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a sacred Sabbath to Yahuah. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.'” 24 So they laid it up till the morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it. 25 Then Moses said, “Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to Yahuah; today you will not find it in the field. 26 Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, there will be none.” 27 Now, it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none. 28 And Yahuah said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? 29 See! For Yahuah has given you the Sabbath; therefore, He gives you on the sixth day, bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.” 30 So the people rested on the seventh day. 31 And the house of Israel called its name Manna. And it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

32 Then Moses said, “This is the thing which Yahuah has commanded: ‘Fill an omer with it, to be kept for your generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.'” 33 And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a pot and put an omer of manna in it, and lay it up before Yahuah, to be kept for your generations.” 34 As Yahuah commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept. 35 And the children of Israel ate manna forty years until they came to an inhabited land; they ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. 36 Now, an omer is one-tenth of an ephah.

The Manna Was More Than Food

During the Second Month of the Exodus, Yahuah sent manna from heaven, providing the second detailed calendrical witness in a row. The First Month established the beginning of the lunar month and the dates surrounding Passover and the Exodus. Now, in the Second Month, the manna account provides additional chronological markers by which the relationship between the lunar month, the working days, and the seventh-day Sabbaths can be traced.

One detail in Exodus 16:1-2 is especially important. In the New King James Version, the punctuation makes it appear at first glance that Israel arrived at the Wilderness of Sin on the 15th day of the Second Month. Yet this creates a chronological difficulty within the sequence presented here, because the 15th is identified as a seventh-day Sabbath. 

It is important to remember that punctuation was not part of the original Hebrew text but was supplied later by translators and editors. Consequently, punctuation can affect how the relationship between clauses is understood. A familiar example is Luke 23:43 in the account of Yahusha and the thief on the cross, where the placement of a comma affects the apparent meaning of the statement.

During the Second Month of the Exodus, Yahuah sent manna from the shamayim, providing the second detailed calendrical witness in a row. The First Month established the beginning of the lunar month and the dates surrounding Passover and the Exodus. Now, in the Second Month, the manna account provides additional chronological markers by which the relationship between the lunar month, the working days, and the seventh-day Sabbaths can be traced.

One detail in Exodus 16:1-2 is especially important. In the New King James Version, the punctuation makes it appear at first glance that Israel arrived at Raphidim in the Wilderness of Sin on the 15th day of the Second Month. Yet this creates a chronological difficulty within the sequence presented here, because the 15th is identified as a seventh-day Sabbath.

Yahuah would never have required Yasharal to travel on His seventh-day Sabbath, for the placement of this sacred day lay at the heart of the calendrical lessons He was only now about to unfold to their understanding. This principle was recently illustrated in the First Month, when He led them out of Egypt by night on the 15th, only after the sacred Sabbath hours had passed. In like manner, their journey during the first portion of this Second Month would not have disrupted His Sabbath schedule of six workdays followed by the seventh-day Sabbath even though the lessons of the manna had not yet begun. The pattern remained intact: travel and labor occurred on the appointed workdays, while the Sabbath remained sacred and set apart for rest. How can we know?

It is my personal view that, considering the unusual length and construction of the complete sentence, a natural break in thought occurs following the word “Sinai.” A period at that point would clearly separate the statement describing Israel’s arrival in the Wilderness of Sin from the statement that follows concerning the murmuring that occurred on the fifteenth day of the Second Month. Read in this manner, the 15th identifies the day on which the congregation murmured against Moses and Aaron, rather than necessarily the day on which Israel arrived at the Wilderness of Sin.

The Septuagint provides an important alternative rendering of Exodus 16:1-2:

“And they departed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai.** And on the fifteenth day, in the second month,** after their departure from the land of Egypt, all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron.” Exodus 16:1-2, Septuagint

Notice what changes when the sentence is punctuated in this manner. The 15th day is connected with Yasharal’s complaint of hunger, rather than necessarily identifying the day upon which they arrived at the Wilderness of Sin. This distinction is important because the significance of the 15th in the Second Month is primarily calendrical and food-related, not geographical. It marks the Sabbath immediately preceding the beginning of the manna cycle, when Yahuah would begin providing bread from heaven, a provision that would continue throughout their forty years in the wilderness. Their precise location on the map is therefore secondary to the sacred TIME marker preserved specifically within the manna narrative.

The point is not to claim that the Septuagint is necessarily the most accurate version of Scripture. Rather, this rendering demonstrates how punctuation can alter the apparent chronology of the passage. Because the punctuation was supplied by translators rather than being part of the original Hebrew text, the grammatical relationship between Israel’s arrival and the date of the 15th deserves careful consideration.

Within the chronology presented here, Israel had already arrived and was encamped before the daylight hours of the 15th day of the Second Month. On the 15th, the congregation murmured and complained of hunger. That day was the seventh-day Sabbath. Yahuah therefore waited until after sunset on the 15th, when the Sabbath daylight hours had ended, to send the quail to eat. Then, on the following morning, the 16th day of the lunar month, the first manna appeared.

The date of the 15th, which is recorded in Scripture, along with the following morning of the 16th, which is not specifically dated in Scripture, together become the crucial chronological markers. Beginning with the morning of the 16th and following Yahuah’s six-day gathering schedule identifies the succeeding seventh-day Sabbath as the 22nd. Continuing the same pattern identifies the 29th as another seventh-day Sabbath. Counting backward according to that same weekly pattern identifies the 8th and the 15th of this second month as seventh-day Sabbaths as well.

Thus, the manna account provides an interconnected sequence:

• 15th — Was the Sabbath, and Israel ran out of food and complained.
• 15th — Night following the Sabbath hours, Yahuah provided quail.
• 16th — The next morning, manna was provided for this first workday.
• 21st — On the sixth workday, a double portion was provided for the Sabbath.
• 22nd — On the Seventh-day Sabbath, no manna was provided.
• 29th — The recurring pattern places the next Seventh-day Sabbath

The Second Month therefore does not stand alone. Its dates and events provide another witness to the calendrical pattern already established in the First Month, preparing us to examine the manna account step by step.

The Double Portion: A Miracle Within the Miracle

Among all the details surrounding the manna, the sixth-day double portion deserves special attention. Yahuah did not merely announce that the following day would be the Sabbath; He caused the manna itself to testify beforehand that a sacred day was approaching. On the sixth working day, the people discovered that they had gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each person. The rulers of the congregation recognized that something unusual had occurred and came to Moses concerning it. Exodus 16:22

Moses then explained the significance of the double portion:

“This is what Yahuah has said: ‘Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a sacred Sabbath to Yahuah. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.’” Exodus 16:23

The importance of this instruction becomes even clearer when compared with what had happened on the preceding working days. Earlier, Moses had commanded the people not to leave any manna until morning. Some disregarded that instruction, and the manna they attempted to preserve bred worms and became offensive. Yet on the sixth day, Yahuah commanded them to do precisely what had previously resulted in spoilage: they were to keep the remaining manna overnight for the Sabbath. This time, “it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it.” Exodus 16:19-24

The difference was not the manna. The difference was Yahuah’s appointed TIME and His command concerning it.

The same bread that could not ordinarily be preserved overnight was supernaturally preserved when Yahuah designated it for His Sabbath. Thus, the double portion contained a miracle within the miracle. Yahuah not only provided twice the ordinary amount before the Sabbath; He also preserved that portion in a manner contrary to what Israel had already experienced during the ordinary working days.

This provided a remarkable sequence of witnesses surrounding the seventh day. Before the Sabbath, the double portion announced that the sacred day was approaching. During the night leading into the Sabbath daylight hours, the preserved manna testified that Yahuah had set this provision apart for a special purpose. Upon the Sabbath itself, the empty wilderness testified again, because no fresh manna could be gathered from the desert landscape.

The Sabbath was therefore surrounded by divine testimony.

• The sixth day testified through abundance and preparation.
• The preserved portion testified through incorruption.
• The seventh day testified through absence.

Together these signs made the weekly pattern unmistakable. Yasharal did not have to depend upon human tradition to determine when the Sabbath arrived. Yahuah Himself identified the sequence through a recurring miracle that could be seen, gathered, prepared, preserved, eaten, and experienced by every household.

There was also a profound lesson in the preparation. Yahuah did not wait until the Sabbath arrived to begin distinguishing it. The sixth day itself pointed forward to the coming sacred day. Israel was instructed to gather and prepare beforehand so that ordinary gathering would cease when the Sabbath came. In this sense, preparation for Yahuah’s sacred Sabbath Day became a first step in honoring His entire restored lunar-appointed time.

The double portion also required trust. During the ordinary working days, keeping manna overnight demonstrated disobedience and resulted in corruption. Yet on the sixth day, refusing to preserve the additional portion would have demonstrated a different kind of unbelief, because Yahuah had specifically commanded that it be kept. Faithfulness therefore could not be reduced to a human rule such as, “Never keep manna overnight.” Faithfulness required listening carefully to what Yahuah commanded for that particular TIME.

This distinction is significant. The action of preserving manna was wrong when Yahuah said not to preserve it, but the same action became right when Yahuah commanded it in preparation for His Sabbath. Obedience was therefore inseparably connected with both instruction and appointed TIME.

And then came the seventh day. No manna appeared. The absence itself became a witness. For six working mornings Israel gathered manna from the desert floor just waiting for them. But when Yahuah’s Sabbath arrived, the ground that had supplied their daily food remained empty. Anyone who went out searching discovered exactly what Yahuah had said: “On the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, there will be none.” Exodus 16:26

Yahuah had therefore marked His Sabbath from both sides. The double portion before it pointed forward to the sacred day, while the absence of manna upon it confirmed that the day had arrived.

This was no ordinary weekly provision. It was a divinely regulated demonstration of TIME.

The manna did not merely feed Israel according to Yahuah’s provision; its very behavior testified to Yahuah’s appointed Sabbath.

Ten Calendrical Witnesses

1. Israel Murmured on the 15th Day of the Second Month

On the 15th day of the Second Month, the congregation of Israel murmured and complained of hunger. As established above, Israel was already encamped before the daylight hours of the 15th began. This date becomes the first essential calendrical marker for establishing the sequence of events that follows and, ultimately, the placement of the seventh-day Sabbaths.  Exodus 16:1-3

2. The Quail Came After Sunset, but the Manna Came the Following Morning

Yahuah declared, “At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread” (Exodus 16:12). The distinction between evening and morning is significant. Yahuah sent the quail after sunset on the 15th, after the sacred Sabbath daylight hours had passed, while the manna did not appear until the following morning, the 16th. This parallels the First Month, when Yahuah brought Israel out of Egypt by night on the 15th, after the Sabbath daylight hours had ended. This simple fact of protecting the sacred hours of the Sabbath is concrete evidence that there was no traveling and setting up their tents during any part of the 15th. Exodus 16:6-13; Deuteronomy 16:1

3. The First Manna Identifies the 16th as the First Working Day of the Week

The first manna appeared on the morning of the 16th day of the Second Month. Because Yahuah then instructed Israel to gather manna for six working days before resting on the seventh, the 16th becomes the first working day from which the manna sequence can be counted, providing the chronological key for identifying the Sabbath dates throughout the month.  Exodus 16:4-5, 13-26

4. The Full New Moon Day Returns 

With the Sabbaths identified as the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th, the pattern reveals something more. Counting backward through the weekly cycle requires a complete day at the beginning of the month that occupies its own place in time but is not counted as one of the six working days or the seventh-day Sabbath. This leaves only one option within the restored calendar pattern: the full New Moon Day. Although the New Moon is not specifically mentioned again in the manna account, it has come around once more, occupying the same distinct position from which the weekly count begins, just as Yahuah restored the full New Moon to Moses and Aaron in the First Month.

5. What About Manna on New Moon Day?

This naturally raises another question: How did the manna operate on New Moon Day? Scripture does not specifically tell us. The manna account gives detailed instructions for the six working days and the seventh-day Sabbath, but it does not separately describe the manna provision for New Moon Day. What the chronology does reveal is that New Moon Day existed and occupied its own position at the head of the month before the six working days began. 

Interestingly, historical sources preserve traditions in which the New Moon was treated differently from an ordinary working day, including references associating it with fasting. One historical Jewish source states: “Each New Moon was celebrated with a fast.” Jewish Family Celebrations, p. 35.  Likewise, Philo refers to: “. . . The sacred festival of the new moon, which people give notice of with trumpets, and the day of fasting, on which abstinence from all meats and drinks is enjoined . . .” Philo, Book 26, p. 159. These historical references do not provide proof of what occurred with the manna on New Moon Day. However, they are significant because they preserve evidence of New Moon observance as distinct from the ordinary working days. Therefore, the question of precisely how Yahuah provided manna on New Moon Day must remain open where Scripture itself remains silent.

6. Six Days of Gathering Identifies the Sabbath as the 22nd

Beginning with the first manna on the morning of the 16th, Israel gathered its regular daily portion on the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th. On the sixth working day, the 21st, they gathered twice as much, enough for that day and the Sabbath that followed. No manna fell on the 22nd.

Therefore, the manna schedule itself identifies the 22nd day of the Second Month as the seventh-day Sabbath. Exodus 16:16-30

7. The Manna Appeared Each Morning, Not During the Night

An important detail in the manna account is that the manna appeared in the morning. After the dew lifted, fresh manna was found upon the ground. Morning after morning, this provision marked the beginning of another working day and gave Israel a visible, recurring demonstration of Yahuah’s appointed order of time, in which the twelve hours of daylight preceded the night that followed. Exodus 16:13-15, 21. Fifteen hundred years later this view is supported by the Messiah himself, when He said, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.” John 11:9-10  

8. Yesterday’s Manna Could Not Be Carried Into the Next Morning

Yahuah commanded that manna gathered on an ordinary working day was not to be kept until the following morning. When some disobeyed, “it bred worms and stank” (Exodus 16:19-20). Yet the double portion of manna gathered on the sixth day was miraculously preserved for the Sabbath. Within the chronology presented here, this daily replacement of old manna with fresh manna each morning provides another witness to the beginning of a new day at sunrise. Yahuah used the manna’s precise timing not merely to feed Israel, but continually to teach them His order of TIME. Exodus 16:19-24

9. The Manna Was Yahuah’s Test of Obedience

Yahuah explicitly stated the purpose of the manna test: “that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not” (Exodus 16:4). Israel had to gather when Yahuah commanded, gather twice as much when He commanded, preserve it when He commanded, and cease gathering when He commanded. The miracle therefore became a daily and weekly lesson in TIME and obedience. Israel was learning to order its activities according to Yahuah’s appointed schedule rather than according to its own inherited expectations. Exodus 16:4-5, 22-30

10. The Correct Sabbath Required the Correct Count From the New Moon

Keeping Yahuah’s Sabbath required knowing where the month began. According to the calendrical framework presented in Scripture, the full New Moon establishes the beginning of the lunar month, from which the succeeding days and weekly cycles are counted. Once the manna chronology identifies the 15th and 22nd as seventh-day Sabbaths, the recurring seven-day pattern places the Sabbaths of the lunar month on the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th. Thus, the manna account of the Second Month confirms the same lunar Sabbath pattern established in the First Month.

11. The Same Test of Obedience Remains

The manna was far more than food in the wilderness. It was a divinely ordered lesson in TIME, worship, and obedience. Yahuah taught Israel to recognize His appointed order by observing when the manna fell, when the double portion was given, and when no manna appeared at all.

Within the interpretation presented in this study, that same principle remains true today: recognizing the seventh-day Sabbath requires first identifying Yahuah’s original and authentic New Moon and then following the calendrical order established from it. The manna therefore stands as a remarkable witness that obedience to Yahuah includes not only what He commands, but also when He appoints it.

A Daily Lesson in Trust and Obedience

The manna test reveals another important dimension of Yahuah’s method of teaching. Israel was not given a large storehouse of bread from which they could provide for themselves weeks or months in advance. Instead, Yahuah supplied what they needed according to His appointed order. Each morning called them to look again to Him for provision, while the approach of the Sabbath required them to trust that what He had already provided would be enough.

This dependence was especially significant for a people who had only recently departed Egypt. Behind them was the land in which they had lived for generations; before them stretched a wilderness where ordinary means of sustaining such a multitude with their flocks and herds were uncertain. It was precisely there, where human resources appeared inadequate, that Yahuah taught His people to depend upon Him.

But dependence required more than believing that Yahuah would provide. It required listening carefully to His WORD and responding according to the TIME in which His instruction applied. Israel could not simply establish one rule and follow it mechanically. There was a time to gather, a time to gather twice as much, a time to prepare, and a time to cease gathering altogether. Trust was demonstrated by obeying what Yahuah commanded when He commanded it.

This becomes especially clear in the experience of those who went out to gather on the seventh day. Their failure was not merely that they searched for bread and found none. Yahuah responded, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?” The issue was obedience. They had been told that no manna would fall and that the provision for the Sabbath had already been supplied. Exodus 16:27-29

The empty desert floor therefore presented its own test of faith. For six days Israel saw Yahuah’s provision lying upon the ground. On the Sabbath, they were called to trust Him when nothing appeared. The absence of manna was not an absence of provision, because Yahuah had already supplied everything necessary for that sacred day.

What appeared to be an empty desert floor was actually evidence of a completed provision.

This reveals the beautiful relationship between trust and obedience. Trust meant believing that Yahuah knew what His people needed. Obedience meant arranging their actions according to His instructions. Neither could be separated from His appointed TIME. To gather when He said gather, to prepare when He said prepare, and to cease when He said cease were all expressions of the same faith.

Thus, the wilderness became more than a place where Israel received food. It became a classroom in which Yahuah taught His people to recognize His voice, depend upon His provision, and order their lives according to His appointed TIME. The recurring manna pattern continually reminded them that the One who established the calendar was also the One who sustained them within it.

The wilderness taught Israel that the One who appoints the TIME is also the One who provides for His people within it.

A Comparison of the First Two Months in a Row

First Month – Passover and the Exodus

Second Month – Manna from the Shamayim

A Lesson That Would Continue for Forty Years

The manna account of the Second Month records the beginning of a lesson that would extend far beyond these first few days in the Wilderness of Sin. Scripture tells us that the children of Yasharal continued to eat manna for forty years, until they came to the border of the land they were to inhabit. Exodus 16:35

For forty years, Yahuah provided the bread from heaven. What began in the Second Month became part of the continuing wilderness experience of Yasharal, teaching them that their lives depended upon His provision and His WORD.

But the manna carried another lesson as well. From its beginning, Yahuah connected its provision with a recurring pattern of labor, preparation, and Sabbath rest. The manna therefore did more than sustain Israel physically; it taught them to order their lives according to Yahuah’s appointed TIME.

This makes the manna particularly significant within the larger story of Three Months in a Row. The Second Month gives us the beginning of the manna testimony, but Scripture allows us to follow that testimony all the way to the borders of the Promised Land.

And when the manna finally ceased forty years later, the timing of that event would provide one final opportunity to examine the calendar pattern that began here. That evidence will be considered fully in Part 4: Forty Years Later.

For now, the important point is simple: the manna lesson did not end after one week. What began upon the wilderness desert sand became a forty-year testimony to Yahuah’s provision, His instruction, and His appointed TIME.

Second Month Conclusion

Yahuah’s primary purpose in “Three Months in a Row: The Manna – Part 2” was to demonstrate how the six working days and the authentic seventh-day Sabbath are counted within the lunar month. The manna account establishes the 16th as the first working day following the Sabbath of the 15th, allowing the weekly pattern to be traced through the remainder of the month. Six working days culminate in the double portion on the 21st, followed by the seventh-day Sabbath on the 22nd. Repeating that same pattern identifies the 29th as the next Sabbath, while counting backward from the 15th identifies the 8th. Thus, the Second Month confirms the recurring Sabbath dates of the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th.

This is vital because, within the calendrical framework presented in this study, the true seventh-day Sabbaths cannot be located without first identifying the authentic beginning of the lunar month. The New Moon establishes the count, and the manna demonstrates how the working days and Sabbaths proceed from that divinely appointed beginning.

Yet the lesson of the manna reaches far beyond the feeding of Israel in the wilderness. Yahuah explicitly declared that the manna would be a test of obedience, whether Israel would walk according to His instructions. Every morning of manna, every double portion, and every Sabbath on which none fell reinforced the same lesson: Israel was being taught to order its life according to Yahuah’s TIME and not man’s.

This brings us back to the first great lesson of the Exodus. Before Israel could fully walk according to Yahuah’s WAY, they first had to learn to walk according to His TIME. The First Month established the calendrical foundation; the Second Month placed that foundation into a living, weekly pattern of trust and obedience.

The two months now stand side by side:

First Month: Passover and the Exodus
The New Moon established the beginning of the month, Passover occurred on the 14th, and the chronology identified the 15th as the seventh-day Sabbath.

Second Month: Manna from the Shamayim
Israel murmured and complained of hunger on the 15th; quail came after the Sabbath daylight hours had ended, manna began on the morning of the 16th, the double portion fell on the 21st, and no manna fell on the Sabbath of the 22nd.

Different events. Different miracles. Different circumstances. But the same calendar.

The chronology of Exodus 16 provides an important key to this Second Month witness. As examined earlier, the Septuagint preserves a reading in which the 15th is connected with the congregation’s complaint of hunger rather than necessarily with their arrival at the Wilderness of Sin. Within the chronology presented here, Israel could therefore have already been encamped before the Sabbath daylight hours began, followed by the quail after sunset and the first manna on the morning of the 16th.

Once the events are placed in sequence, the manna account reveals a remarkable harmony of dates, days, working periods, and Sabbaths.

Yahuah had now provided two consecutive monthly witnesses to His appointed order of TIME. Yet the testimony was not complete.

The First Month established it.
The Second Month confirmed it.
And the Third Month would provide yet another witness.

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Ruach (Spirit) says to the ecclesia (churches). To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat . . .” Revelation 2:17

Intro

Part 1The Exodus

Part 2The Manna

Part 3The Mountain

Part 4Forty Years Later