Two or three million emancipated Hebrew slaves marched out of Egypt and across the Red Sea into the desert wastelands of the Sinai Peninsula. They must have carried provisions for several days, but after the last of the stale bread was finally gone, what was there to eat? There wasn’t a Wal-Mart in sight… No McDonalds… No Chick-fil-A… only mile after mile of scorched and blowing sand.
The Israelites were without resources and without hope. They had no food and no water. Their pockets and pouches were empty. They were without… and they were hungry.
Jesus fed five thousand hungry men and their families with a little boy’s lunch. In Sinai, there wasn’t even five biscuits and two dried sardines.
God’s people needed God’s provision.
What was God’s answer? Manna. It had never been seen before, and it’s never occurred since. God rained bread from heaven that covered the desert floor. “What is it?” in the Hebrew language is “manna.” What is this bread that falls every morning? What is this nutritious and delicious super-food that can sustain mankind for forty years? Manna. Bread from Heaven.
In the New Testament, after Jesus fed the multitude, people asked Jesus to perform another miracle. They asked for a sign that would demonstrate His power. “What sign, then, are you going to do so that we may see and believe? … What are you going to perform?” (John 6:30). Jesus answered, “I am the bread of life … No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again” (John 6:35).
Jesus is “the bread from heaven … the true bread from heaven” (John 6:32), “the bread of God … who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:33). Jesus declared, “I am the bread that came down from heaven” (John 6:41), “I am the bread of life” (John 6:48).
The giving of manna was an act of God’s grace. The Hebrews didn’t buy it or earn it by their profound merit. Salvation through Jesus is also given freely as a gift of grace.
Manna sustained them. There was nothing else. Without manna, the entire Hebrew nation would have perished. Without Jesus, we too will perish.
Manna was great, but Jesus is better. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever” (John 6:51). Only with Jesus can we have life, eternal life, abundant life!
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