Exodus 16:1-36
Three days after their deliverance from Pharaoh and the land of Egypt, the children of Israel complained because they were thirsty. At Marah the Lord made the bitter waters sweet. After forty five days in the wilderness they thought about the good, old days in Egypt, when they "sat by the pots of meat and...ate bread to the full!" Now there weren't any supermarkets or grocery stores or restaurants anywhere in sight. They grumbled to Moses, "For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."
The Lord heard their complaints. He provided quail in the evening, and bread in the morning. The bread was called Manna. "And it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey." They were like frosted flakes. The people were commanded to take on a daily basis as much as they needed, but they were to eat all that they gathered. On the sixth day of the week they were told to take enough for two days, so that they wouldn't gather food on the Sabbath. Some of the people took more than they could eat, and the leftovers "bred worms and stank."
God sent this bread from heaven for forty years, that is, until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. Manna was their daily diet.
According to John 6, the day after Jesus fed the 5,000 with five barley loaves and two small fish, many of the people sought Jesus, because they had filled their stomachs with the bread. They asked Him for a sign like God's miraculous provision of bread in the wilderness.
Jesus said, "My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." The people answered, "Lord, give us this bread always." But Jesus continued, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. But I say to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out." John 6:35-37.
The Jews who heard these words "complained about Him, because He said, 'I am the bread which came down from heaven.'" They murmured and quarreled among themselves. John 6:41, 43. "From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more." John 6:66. How similar these people were to those who wandered in unbelief in the wilderness! But God is good, and meets our daily needs.
Lord, we say with Simon Peter, "We have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Thank You for life in Jesus Christ. Keep us from murmuring. In Jesus' name. Amen!
