Gathering Our Manna

“The people of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey. Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the wilderness when I brought you out of Egypt.’” So Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar and put an omer of manna in it. Then place it before the Lord to be kept for the generations to come.” As the Lord commanded Moses, Aaron put the manna with the tablets of the covenant law, so that it might be preserved. The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.” (Exodus 16:31-35, NIV)

“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.” (John 6:32-33, NIV)

The Israelites ate manna for all forty years they wandered in the wilderness. For a younger generation of Israelites, that was for all their lives. Think about that: Every day, for forty years, everyone would go out at the break of dawn and sweep up manna. And even though manna is known as “bread from heaven,” it didn’t drop down from the sky in loaves. Angels didn’t deliver it to the entrances of each tent wrapped in a tea towel and warm from God’s heavenly oven. 

No, every morning, Israel would wake up, head outside, and sweep up the manna– it materialized in the morning dew and as the sun rose, the water would evaporate off and leave behind a small seed the size of coriander or a mustard seed. Because it was so small and fine, most people swept it up rather than gathering it piece by piece; which they had to do early in the morning, because as the sun rose later in the day, that manna would also melt away. 

This almost sand-like substance would be gathered up individual by individual or family by family and brought in to be ground up and either boiled or baked. The actual gathering of the manna took work. There was no gathering and distributing system put in place by the people of Israel. God’s instructions were that the people had to go and gather only the amount they would need for the day, except for the sixth day when they gathered enough to cover that day and the Sabbath. It wasn’t a process that allowed more affluent Jews to hire someone else to gather for them. It wasn’t a method that allowed them to stock and store manna. 

Instead, the Jews had to rely on God daily to provide. Imagine growing up your whole life with such a constant and present testimony to God’s mercy! For the youth of Israel, it was all they knew. They didn’t remember a time where their community was reduced to slavery. They didn’t remember the fear, anxiety, or grief of that captivity. They didn’t know about food insecurity. Instead, what they knew was this wilderness that God always took care of them in. They knew to rely on God– wake up, gather, eat.

What a beautiful testimony of living your life in reliance on the Lord. 

What does that mean for us? If we read closer into the story of God giving manna to Israel, we can see a foreshadowing of Jesus. 

Like Israel, we hunger. We have a need that can only be filled by a God who knows our struggle and can satisfy us. For us, that hunger isn’t our next meal. It’s a hunger for a savior; a spiritual hunger within us that is ravenous and starving for a love and salvation that can only be sated by our redeeming God. He sees our needs. He sees our hunger and He provides His Son, Jesus. 

In the Gospel of John, chapter 6, Jesus feeds the five thousand out of supernatural provision. Afterwards, the people want Jesus to keep on supernaturally proving Himself, as if that was the point of His living among men. Jesus redirects their attention from the miracle to the Father. Was it Moses that provided the manna to Israel in the wilderness? Was it Aaron that fed Israel? No, it was God by a means and method that was impossible for man to manufacture. And that miracle wasn’t just providing a need, just like feeding the five thousand wasn’t just about a free meal.

It was about God’s glory! It was about His Word! Manna may have been the physical bread from heaven that satisfied a carnal hunger. But the Bread that God wants to give His people is spiritual; it’s His Words, His Truth, and His Son. That “bread” is one that will satisfy in an eternal means.

So when I say that the manna in the wilderness is a foreshadowing of Christ, I mean that Jesus Himself is the manna that satisfies our spiritual hunger. We must consume Him every day on an individual level. No one can do it for you, no one can cultivate your faith and relationship with God for you. He pours Himself out and we have to wake up and gather His Words in our hearts. We have to interact with it and consume it humbly. We have to internalize it and ruminate on it. 

Jesus is the manna that never spoils. He never rots or decays. He gives life to all those who seek His Word and honor His commands. 

Will we mess up at times? Of course, but how blessed are we that we have such a testimony of endless grace poured out for us? How amazing is it that we get to see His provision and His love for us daily, so long as we are willing to go out and meet with Him, gathering His Truth in our hearts and living in His ways?

The Israelites lived like this for forty years, and they ate that manna until they reached the border of the Promised Land– until they didn’t need it anymore. God gave them that provision until they reached the land He told them was flowing with milk and honey. That manna wasn’t just for a chapter of their journey through the wilderness and it wasn’t location-specific as they traveled. It was a sustained, continuous, tangible example of how God provided. There wasn’t a day they went out to gather and God forgot to give it. There wasn’t a morning of that forty years where Israel unexpectedly went hungry, so long as they followed God’s instructions on how much to gather and when.

It’s the same for us. God will not leave or forget His people. He won’t stop pouring Himself out and giving His life-changing Truth to us until we reach the boundary line of this life. He will not stop providing His grace to us until we are ready to cross over into eternal life, where we won’t need the provisions given in this life, because we will be in the never-ending presence of the Lord, safely at home and in a land full to the brim with spiritual milk and honey like we have never known.

Our need will be permanently supplied in perpetuity by the very Bread of Life Himself.