"What Is It?"
THERE WAS once an immense crowd of hungry people, a whole nation, 600,000 men, besides lots of women and children — perhaps 2,000,000 or more all told — and they were in a wilderness. It was a desert land; there was nothing to eat there, no corn or grain to make bread, no fruit, and no shops. But even there God fed them.
When they woke up in the morning "the dew lay round about the host. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna [or, What is it?] for they wist [knew] not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat." Ex. 16:13-1513And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host. 14And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. 15And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. (Exodus 16:13‑15).
The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years, and all that time God gave them manna, angels' food, to eat. Moses told them why God hadlet them be so hungry, and why He had given them that wonderful food: it was to make them know that "Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." Deut. 8:33And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. (Deuteronomy 8:3).
Our souls need food as well as our bodies and that is why the Lord Jesus said, "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst." He said too, "The bread which I give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
The Lord Jesus gave His flesh when He allowed wicked men to nail Him to the cross. He hung there and suffered for us; He died for our sins, and when He was dead a soldier "with a spear pierced His side. and forthwith came there out blood and water." How true then that Jesus gave His flesh for the life of the world. Unless we eat His flesh and drink His blood, we have no life in us; that is, each of us needs to appropriate for himself the death of the Lord Jesus and the value of His precious blood. So it is that through the death of the Lord Jesus we get life. God by His Spirit makes this truth good to our souls when we believe. Furthermore the heart that loves Him feeds upon Him, and every thought of His love in going into death for us nourishes and strengthens our souls.
Messages of the Love of God 11/30/1975