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“Manna,
basically a word that means “what is it?” is a bread-like substance that fell
from heaven (Psalm 78:24), and that tasted like honey. The Israelites would go
and collect a daily portion of manna each day, ensuring to get a double portion
before the Sabbath (so they didn’t work for their food on the Sabbath). If they
grabbed too much or too little, they suffered the consequences (Exodus 16:20).”[1]
Maybe you have this question: Why Did God Send Manna to the Israelites? One of the primary reasons is God meeting their physical need for hunger. Next, God wanted their trust and obedience in collecting them as commanded. Unfortunately, some of them collected more than enough manna on some days, and it rotted in their tents, full of maggots. Others didn’t obey the command of God in collecting double portions before the Sabbath, and they ended up hungry on the Sabbath because manna didn’t fall that day. Finally, it is God foreshadowing the coming of Jesus as the Manna from Heaven. God wanted a foretaste of what heavenly bread tastes like as a temporary relief. How about receiving a more permanent solution with an eternal impact?
Mark Woods in his
article “Three Lessons For Today From The Manna In The Wilderness”
shared the following reasons why God wanted them to collect what’s only needed
for the day:
“The
Israelites at this time were a travelling people, reliant on finding grazing
and supplies where they could. They were unable to store up large reserves of
food. So when God gives them food that can't be stored up for a rainy day, he
is encouraging them to depend on him daily. It was a way of warning them not to
hold on to good things too long. Many of us face this temptation: we like
things as they are, and we are resistant to change. But hold on to things
instead of letting them go, and they can turn very sour.” [2]
Let’s always
remember that the provision of God comes daily and supernaturally with a
specific purpose for the exact benefit of His people. God’s miracles may not
manifest as they did in the past, but instead sent the greatest miracle of them
all, i.e., Jesus Christ. Jesus embodied and contained the miracles of God in
the past, present and future in Him.
“More than
1,000 years later, Jesus Christ repeated the miracle of manna in the Feeding of
the 5,000. The crowd following him was in the "wilderness" and he
multiplied a few loaves of bread until everyone had eaten their fill. Some
scholars believe that Jesus' phrase, "Give us this day our daily
bread" in the Lord's Prayer, is a reference to manna, meaning that we are
to trust God to supply our physical needs one day at a time, as the Jews did in
the desert. Christ frequently referred to himself as bread: "the true
Bread from heaven" (John 6:32), "the Bread of God" (John 6:33),
"the Bread of life" (John 6:35, 48), and John 6:51: "I am the
living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will
live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the
world." (NIV)[3]
God
sent Jesus as the Eternal Bread of life, and those who believed in Him received
the full blessing of eternal satisfaction that God promised. In sending Jesus,
God is a constant and abundant provider of all our needs. The feeding of the
five thousand became an enduring reminder in our daily Christian life that
nothing on earth is too big for God. Therefore, if Jesus can do it, He can do
it again for us today.
Let
me end with this insight: “Jesus points out that the manna the Israelites
ate in the wilderness only sustained their life for a short time, but they
eventually died. The bread that He’s offering will give them eternal life. And
He is that bread. He goes on to tell them “this bread is my flesh, which I will
give for the life of the world.”[4]
If
Jesus can fulfill the hunger of our hearts, why wouldn’t you receive Him as the
Bread of Life now?
Let’s
talk again!
