Food from Heaven Exodus 16
WHAT did the people of Israel have for food in the desert after what they brought from Egypt was gone? There was no place to buy food, and very little can grow in a desert; perhaps some spots had a few wild fruits, but much of the country was only sand or bare rocks. And there was such a large crowd to be fed, many thousands of people.
But the Lord gave them food just as wonderfully as He gave them water. One evening He sent birds, called quails, for food. We do not read of those being sent again for a long time. But in the morning when they looked about, they saw on the ground small, round, white particles, like seeds or frost. And they said, “Manna?” a word meaning “What is it?” for they had never seen this before, so afterward they called it Manna. It was their food “rained down from heaven” (Psalm r8:24). When they tasted it, they found it like a wafer with honey.
Moses told them to gather for each family. But they must gather early in the morning, for later when the sun was hot it would melt.
The manna did not come just one morning, but every morning till their journey ended, excepting on the seventh day of each week: that morning no manna came, But the day before, Moses told them to gather a double amount, and it kept perfectly for use on the seventh day. Other days if they kept any over, it spoiled.
God told them to keep one measure of manna to show to their children’s children, so Aaron put an omer full, which was about three quarts, into a golden dish, and that was kept many years.
The Lord Jesus was once teaching the people in the synagogue at Capernaum and they spoke of the manna which God had sent for food to the people in the desert so many years before. Jesus told them that God had sent Him from heaven to give a life which would not end, not life for the bodies on earth as the manna, but a life to be spent in heaven. He told them He would give His life to give them eternal life. They were to believe in Him as sent by God, and we must believe the same.
“The Bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto Him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the Bread of Life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.” John. 6:33-35.
ML 04/04/1937