Manna – the Bread of Heaven

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“I never knew Christ was all I needed until Christ was all I had.”

I heard this saying from an African Bishop recently.  But Christians the world over can attest to the truth of it.

It’s the very essence of what God was teaching the Israelites in the wilderness.  And it’s exactly what Christians are being taught in our time between salvation (Exodus) and glory (promised land).  This in-between-time (wilderness) is one of testing and hardship.  But we are learning – or at least should be – that when Christ is all we have, actually He’s all we need.

The Israelites had been reminiscing about Egypt (with its fleshpots) and grumbling about their wilderness conditions.

The LORD responds with words familiar from our study of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Exodus 16:4 – Behold, I will rain down…

…what?  “Fire and brimstone”?  “Righteous anger”?  “I will rain down thunderbolts on their camp”?  No.

I will rain down bread from heaven for you.

It’s called Manna (v31).  It’s bread not baked with human hands.  Angels’ food (as Psalm 78 calls it).  And it’s for them – for the grumblers.  The LORD will shower upon them his daily provision for as long as it takes to get them to His holy habitation.

Exodus 16, verse 31 says that manna tastes of honey.  Now that’s interesting because the place they’re headed is a land flowing with milk and honey.  Their future will gush with honey, and in the meantime the LORD will sustain them with little pledges of the life to come.  Every morning the Israelites taste the future and it keeps them going.

Manna becomes a whole discipleship regime to teach the people.

And here is lesson one: Horde ye not!

Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning [i.e. keep some for later].  Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank  (Exodus 16:19-20)

The LORD gives them all they need for today.  But if they horde their stuff for tomorrow, it rots.  What a lesson!

Here’s lesson two:  Learn to rest!

The LORD institutes the Sabbath and tells them He’s going to provide double the manna on Friday, so take Saturday off. But,

it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.  (v27)

The LORD gives them a day off, but they work anyway.

What would you have been like at these lessons in dependence?  Are you a hoarder?  Would you have collected more than a day’s worth?  You’d have seen it rot.

Are you unable to rest?  Would you have gone out on the Sabbath to gather more?  You’d have found none.

Would you have been content for the day, or forever worrying about tomorrow?

This discipleship programme for the Israelites was leading them into deeper dependence.  Daily dependence.  And it’s what we all need.

Jesus considered us all to be in the position of these Israelites when He taught us to pray “Give us this day our daily bread.”  Jesus applies the lessons of manna to all of life.  He assumes that we are a wilderness people and that we ought to depend on the Father’s daily provision.

And notice we’re not to pray “Give us this day our bread for next year, or for next month or even for next week.”  It says “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Do I depend on the LORD for today’s needs?  Do I leave tomorrow in His hands?

Well Jesus has done something extraordinary to reassure us that we can depend on Him.

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