John Calvin Commentary Exodus 16:32

"And Moses said, This is the thing which Jehovah hath commanded, Let an omerful of it be kept throughout your generations, that they may see the bread wherewith I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt." — Exodus 16:32 (ASV)

And Moses said. Moses does not proceed with the history in order. Instead, by inserting these circumstances in anticipation, he further confirms the fact that this food was then created for the people by God’s special bounty. This is because He desired an omer of it to be preserved as a memorial, which, undergoing no decay, handed down to future generations the glory of the miracle.

First, he generally sets forth God’s command. Then, in the next verse, he describes the manner in which it was done: namely, that Aaron put it in a bottle or pot and laid it up by the Ark of the Covenant. From this, it also appears how much importance God attached to this His bounty, since He wanted its memorial to exist in the sanctuary together with the tablets of His covenant.

The two expressions, “before the Lord” and “before the Testimony,” which convey the same meaning, are used in praise of the worship of the Law, so that the people might know God’s power to be near them in the sanctuary. This was not as if He were confined in that place or wanted their minds to be fixed on the visible sign. Rather, desiring to accommodate their weakness, He, in a manner, condescends to them when He testified to the presence of His power through external images. He condescends to them, therefore, not¹⁸⁵ to occupy their minds with a crude superstition, but to gradually raise them to spiritual worship.

¹⁸⁵ “Non pas pour plonger leurs pensees en terre, qui eust ete une lourde superstition:” not to plunge their thoughts in earth, which would have been a gross superstition. — Fr..