The circumstances that affect our daily lives have a distinct bearing on our attitude and demeanor. When things are good, so are we, and when they’re not, the likewise is true as well. Though God’s Word is full of promises that He will provide for us, it is our human nature to let our circumstances affect our attitudes in a negative way. We can all revel in the good times, but are also quick to commiserate in the bad.

In the Book of Exodus, chapter 15, the Israel nation, having lived under Egyptian oppression and slavery for four centuries, had just been miraculously delivered from Pharaoh’s hand through a series of plagues engineered by the hand of God, and then witnessed His mighty hand at work as He drove back the water of the Red Sea to let them cross to freedom on the other side on dry ground. They then watched as the sea was released to swallow up the entire Egyptian army which was in hot pursuit. This is what could be easily called a major turn of fortunate events. We cannot fully imagine the impact of a series of events occurring of this scope and magnitude.

Yet, times changed quickly when they realized the “party is over” and found themselves only two months out of captivity in the wilderness, hungry and in a foul mood, ready to blame Moses for their sorry lot in life. My oh my! How times do change! I think if we only look at ourselves and the events of our own lives, we might just find a bit of the grumbling Israelites in ourselves. Perhaps, if we are honest, we can find quite a lot. When we look at God’s provision for their hunger, we can discover an amazing correlation between manna and our physical and spiritual nourishment.

Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no (Exodus 16:4).

I have heard the story of Exodus since my childhood, and when I first heard the description of manna, as bread raining down from heaven, I naturally pictured in my mind as being like the bread I was familiar with — a loaf of bread from the grocery store. However, if we read of its description, it was not in loaves at all, but was small and round, similar to hoar frost, a crystalline ice that form on objects it covers. God always refers to manna in the scripture as bread. The Israelites called it man’-na, which basically means “what is it?” or “what is this?” Good question.

If we dig deeper, we can find that manna, or bread, not only supplies physical sustenance, but spiritual nourishment as well. Bread is called the staple of life. The Word of God is synonymously called the Bread of Life. Jesus Christ is “the Word” (John 1:1). We can find correlations between manna as given to the children of Israel and God’s Word as the Bread of Life.

When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, He told Satan, “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

Jeremiah writes, “Your words were found and I ate them, and your word was to me the joy rejoicing of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16).

Manna was a supernatural gift of God. He literally rained nourishment upon them every day and twice as much on the day before the Sabbath, without fail, for forty years. It is estimated that two million people were in the Israelite camp. Each man was to take an omer for himself, which is about six pints. For two million people, that translates to one million pounds, or 4,500 tons per day, or one million tons annually. Forty million tons for the forty year period in the wilderness!

The Bible is a supernatural gift of God as well. It was written by forty authors, guided by one divine source, in sixty-six books over several thousand years. It has been written, designed, protected and delivered intact until this time, and will endure forever. Both are free gifts. Neither had to be paid for or purchased by an individual to obtain it.

Manna was delivered to the people. It fell there in their midst and they did not have to go search for it. Because of its abundance and proximity, one either had to gather it or trample it underfoot. If we do not gather God’s Word to ourselves, we may be guilty by default of trampling it underfoot.

Manna was small in size. It is incredible that the Bible, God’s entire written record, can be put in a book that will fit in our pocket, or on a plastic disc, or on an electronic computer table; yet for it’s size contains all the wisdom, truth, and guidance for all people of the ages. In it, the way is revealed to eternal life in heaven.

Manna was white in color, an obvious correlation to God’s righteousness and purity. “Every word of God is pure” (Proverbs 30:5).

Manna did not provide any benefit for one unless it was eaten. It was for food, of course. God’s Word is of no benefit to us unless we “eat it” — partake of it, digest it, and let it nourish us spiritually. As manna was nourishment to the Israelites in the wilderness, so God’s Word is nourishment for us in the spiritual wilderness we may find ourselves in.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night (Psalm 1:1).

Give us this day our daily bread (Matthew 6:11, The Lord’s Prayer).

Manna had to be gathered daily. It melted as the sun grew hot. It could not be stored overnight or it would stink and have worms present in it the next morning. It took diligence to gather, because of its small size. Because it lay on the ground and was difficult to pick up, one had to work at it to gather enough for one’s daily need. It reminds me of watching birds and squirrels as they ceaselessly and diligently hunt and peck at the ground in their relentless search for their daily meal. God’s call is for us to be diligent as well in the study and gathering of His Word. We are to seek Him daily through scripture reading, meditation and prayer. We are to use His Word, just as we use food, which does us no good if we just look at it or hear about it. God’s Word is for our use and edification — not to be stored or put away — so that His truths and teachings may be applied to our daily lives and not forgotten or lost through disuse or neglect. We are to be doers of the Word and not just hearers only. Knowledge of God’s Word is not enough. We are instructed in its use and are to use it for our spiritual guidance and nourishment.

Each person had to gather their own manna. One could not do it for another. As so, the seeking of God’s Word and the message therein is a singular experience. We may have contact with it through others, but the actual spiritual partaking of God’s Word, one must do on their own. The Holy Spirit may call us, convict us, but we must heed the call on our own. We are responsible to God for our choices, and as such, we will be judged. Though our heart may be heavy for others who are lost or need God’s instruction and mercy, we cannot do it for them. Only their response to the Holy Spirit can accomplish that.

The miracle of manna is incomprehensible to the natural man, as is God’s Word in the Bible. To the person who views the Bible as a preposterous collection of made up stories and fables, and endless words that mean absolutely nothing, reading God’s Word seems to them like a complete waste of time. To those whose lives have been touched and renewed by Jesus’s death and resurrection, and whose daily lives are nurtured by the Holy Spirit, the exact opposite is true. God’s Word is truth.

But the natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Manna, as is God’s word, has been memorialized in high places.

And Moses said, this is the thing which the Lord commands, Fill and omer of it (manna) to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread with which I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt. And Moses said to Aaron, Take a pot and put an omer full of manna in it, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept for your generations. (Exodus 16:32-33)

This pot was eventually put into the Ark of the Covenant which held the Ten Commandments.

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

Who is the “hidden manna”? Jesus Christ: In heaven, hidden in body from the church on earth, yet revealed by the Holy Spirit through God’s Word.

In John chapter 6 we find Jesus’s discourse on the Bread of Life, which ties up and summarizes definitively the link between manna, the earthly bread delivered by God, and the Word of God, Jesus Christ, the heavenly bread. 

So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'”

Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.“

“Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

“Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (John 6:30-51)

God used manna not only to supply nourishment to the children of Israel in Exodus, but as a demonstration of His power and His love and concern for them. As believers, we can see how God’s acts in the Old Testament enlighten us to His grand plan of love and grace for us through His Son, Jesus Christ, the Word of God. Thanks be to our Father for His precious Holy Word.

Holding fast,

Mark

Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” (John 6:29)

^{Photography by Brooke Cagle}