A wonder before the Gospels
Manna from Heaven
In a wilderness with no fields and no harvest, God rained down bread from heaven every morning. Jesus later stood in a synagogue and said the true bread from heaven was Himself.
“And 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 16:15
“Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.”John 6:32
What happened
What happened. Six weeks out of Egypt the people were hungry and began to murmur, wishing they had died in Egypt by the flesh pots where they ate bread to the full. In Exodus 16 the LORD answered, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day. In the evening quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay round about. When the dew was gone, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. The people said one to another, It is manna, for they wist not what it was, and Moses said, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat. It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it like wafers made with honey. Each was to gather according to his eating, and no more; what some kept overnight bred worms and stank. But on the sixth day they gathered a double portion, for the seventh was a sabbath of rest, and on that day the manna kept. So the LORD fed His people day by day, and the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to the borders of the land of Canaan.
What it revealed
What it revealed. The manna revealed a God who provides daily and personally, teaching a nation of former slaves to trust Him one day at a time. That none could hoard it, that it spoiled when stored against the morrow, forced Israel to live by dependence rather than by anxious stockpiling. It revealed the rhythm of the sabbath, God giving enough on the sixth day so His people could rest on the seventh. Moses said this bread was meant to teach that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD (Deuteronomy 8:3). The manna was thus more than food; it was a daily lesson that life comes from God's hand and God's word. Even Israel's complaining could not exhaust His patience. Morning by morning, for forty years, the ground was white with mercy.
How it points to Christ
How it points to Christ. This is one of the connections the New Testament draws most explicitly. In John 6 the crowd, having been fed with loaves, asks Jesus for a sign like the manna. Jesus answers, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. Then He says plainly, I am the bread of life, and, I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever. He even contrasts the two directly: Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. The manna sustained mortal life for a day; Christ gives eternal life. As the manna had to be gathered and eaten, not merely admired, so Christ must be received. He is the daily bread the wilderness manna could only foreshadow, and He says the bread that He gives is His flesh, which He would give for the life of the world.
Questions people ask
What was manna?
Exodus 16 says it was a small round thing like coriander seed, white, tasting like wafers made with honey, which appeared with the morning dew. The Israelites named it manna because they did not know what it was; the Hebrew suggests the question, what is it. Scripture presents it as bread the LORD gave, not a known natural food.
Is the manna to Christ connection explicit?
Yes. In John 6 Jesus Himself makes it, calling the manna a shadow of the true bread from heaven and declaring, I am the bread of life. This is one of the clearest examples of the New Testament interpreting an Old Testament miracle as pointing to Him.
Why could the people not store manna?
Except on the sixth day, stored manna bred worms and stank (Exodus 16:20). God taught daily dependence, that His people would look to Him each morning rather than trust their own hoard. Jesus echoes this in teaching us to pray for daily bread.