By Cindy Rueb

In John 6, Jesus compares Himself to manna, ".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." "...This is the bread which came down from heaven-not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever." So we come to understand that manna is a type of Christ, and that understanding a little more about manna will help us to see Jesus more clearly. What can we learn from manna that will encourage us and draw us closer in our friendship with Jesus?

The manna God provided started on a specific day when the people cried out for provision and ceased when the people entered the promise land forty years later. The entire time the people were in the wilderness, they were completely dependant on this provision, just as we are completely dependant upon the provision of Jesus, who gave life to the world through His death on the cross.

The manna of God in the wilderness was to be gathered early in the day, after the dew left. I’ve read where the dew suggests that the Holy Spirit presents Christ and then fades from view. The manna that wasn’t gathered early would then melt away in the sun. We are to "gather our manna" before the cares of the world or its attractions absorb our minds. Jesus is to have the preeminence in our lives. We are to seek first the Kingdom of God. What could be more important than eating the bread that gives us life!

I submit that we can seek Jesus as the Holy Spirit presents Him as we awake, yielding to that voice that speaks directly to our personal need. Eating that sweet bread, always available. Opening our eyes, seeing Jesus and yielding in worship. We worship as we care for our families, serve at our jobs, and we worship as we make wise investments of the talents He gives us; and as Brother Andrew describes, "practicing His presence." This is the manna we gather.

Manna was to be gathered daily, and only enough for the day. Of course some of the people tried to gather more than enough. So, what happened to the manna that was leftover from the day? It bread worms and stank. We cannot live on yesterdays manna. We cannot live on last Sunday’s manna.

Manna was gathered for six days each week. On the sixth day the people were instructed to gather enough for two days. On the seventh day, no manna fell, and the manna that fell on the sixth day was still good on the seventh. Still some of the people went out to gather, but there was none to be found. The people were instructed to rest on the Sabbath. This was a constant reminder that the manna was God’s supernatural intervention. The fact that the manna fell six days and not the seventh demonstrates that manna was God’s miraculous provision. God has terms by which we are to come to Him. His plan is Jesus. And Jesus entreats us, "Come unto me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." Jesus calls us out of the world and into His rest. The lesson of the manna here is that the heart of God calls us to rest, for our benefit and our relationship with Him.

M oses taught the people, as recorded in Deuteronomy 8, that the wilderness was a place of testing- "so He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna... that He might make you know that man shall not live by grace alone; but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" and also, "He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good in the end." Our own labors will not bring us life, and our pride will not bring us life. We must come to the life that God provides through His Son.

God’s people in the wilderness were craving the food that they remembered in Egypt and they were complaining and rejecting God’s provision of manna, Numbers 21, "But now our Whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes...and our soul loathes this worthless bread!" Do you hear the rejection of God’s gift, His provision, His salvation, His Son? Reading on in Number’s "So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people: and many of the people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and says, :we have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord..pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us." Then Moses prayed, and according to God’s instructive answer, made a bronze serpent (bronze is a symbol of judgement) and put it on a pole. And if anyone was bitten and then looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

Philippians teaches that Jesus "who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant,...He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." Jesus satisfied the justice of God and anyone bitten by sin, who in humility looks to Jesus, will live.

Manna in the wilderness teaches us humility so that we recognize our need to look to the saving power of Jesus Christ, both in this life and the life to come.