Manna - What Is It?

Turn with me to Exodus 16. Exodus 16, we're going to look at the Old Testament story of manna, the manna that God provided to feed the children of Israel. In Exodus, here's a little recap. In Exodus 14, the Lord delivered the children of Israel from 430 years of hard bondage captivity in Egypt. 430 years. And in Exodus 14, the Lord delivered them. He delivered them in a miraculous way that only God could perform.

The Lord took the water of the Red Sea and he parted it in a way that it made two walls of water. And you think about that, walls of water. With nothing holding them back and nothing holding them up but the sovereign word and will of God Almighty. The children of Israel made it safely to the other side on dry ground. That water parted, and it was immediately dry ground. And they walked through safely, and then after they made it through, God took the walls down and closed the Red Sea on the entire enemy of Egypt. healing every single one of them. Not one enemy escaped.

And then Moses sang a song of thanksgiving. And then he turned toward the south and he led the people alongside of the Red Sea. They're now on the other side. And he led them alongside of the Red Sea. And it only took three days for the children of Israel to start murmuring and complaining. Three days. Look at chapter 15, verse 22. We're going to backtrack just a little bit. Chapter 15, verse 22. It says, So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur, and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?

And he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them." That tree is Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, who was cast into the bitterness of the cross. By Him being cast in, the bitterness was made sweet. Now that's just a little side note, all right? That's a lesson before the lesson. That tree is Christ. All right, now look at chapter 16, verse 1.

It says, And they took their journey from Elam, And all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elam and Sinai on the 15th day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. They came to a place called Sin. That's an actual place. But the name of that place is very appropriate for the children of Israel. Sin.

Verse two says, and the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. Amazing, isn't it? Murmur, murmur, murmur. Does that sound familiar? Can anybody resonate with that? Just complaining, just murmuring, complaining. Whining and complaining.

Verse 3, And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full? For you have brought us forth into the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. They said, Would to God we were not delivered. That's what they said.

We wish we were still in the captivity of our bondage. We wish God hadn't saved us. Life is hard. It's just too hard. Our flesh would rather have those flesh pots that they just dumped food in for us. We're just hungry. We don't want God, and we don't want salvation, and we don't want deliverance unto liberty. We just want our bellies filled. That's it. Verse four. Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain judgment and fire from heaven and utterly consume them in this moment. No, that's not what he said. Then said the Lord to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day that I may prove them whether they will walk in my law or no. We just had a message last Wednesday night on the kindness and love of God.

Amazing, isn't it? It's amazing that he is who he is. Really, it is amazing that he is who he is. They whined and they murmured and complained, we just want bread. The Lord said, I'll give you bread. Mercy. Five, and it shall come to pass that on the sixth day, they shall prepare that which they bring in. It shall be twice as much as they gather daily. He said in verse four, they're gonna go out and gather what they need every day. And then on the sixth day, they're gonna gather twice as much. Verse six, Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, that even then you shall know that the Lord hath brought you out from the land of Egypt.

And in the morning, then you shall see the glory of the Lord, for that he heareth your murmurings against the Lord. And what are we that you murmur against us? And Moses said, this shall be when the Lord shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full. For that the Lord heareth your murmurings, which you murmur against him. And what are we?

Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord. And Moses spake unto Aaron, saying to all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the Lord, for he hath heard your murmurings. And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, I've heard the murmurings of the children of Israel.

Speak unto them, saying, At even you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God. And 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. 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 hoarfrost on the ground.

And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, it is manna." That translates, what is this? What is this? It goes on to say, for they knew not what it was, they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, this is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.

This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer, that's how much they were allotted, an omer for every man according to the number of your persons, take ye every man for them which are in his tents. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less. And when they did meet it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack."

They went out every morning. God provided this manna, this bread. They went out every morning and gathered manna. Everybody gathered. They were each allotted one omer per day. That's about two quarts per person for the day. Some went out and gathered a lot. Some went out and gathered a little. And when they brought it all back and made their pile, they grabbed an omer and started portioning it out. And there was always just the right amount. Always. Every person always had exactly one omer.

Verse 19, And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning. Notwithstanding, they hearkened not unto Moses, but some of them left it until the morning, and it bred worms. It wouldn't carry over to the next day. It stank. Moses was wroth with them.

And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating. And when the sun waxed hot, it melted. It came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man, and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Bake that which you will bake today, and seethe that you will seethe. And that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning as Moses bade, and it did not stink, neither were there any worms therein. And Moses said, Eat that today, for today is the Sabbath unto the Lord.

Today you shall not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none. And it came to pass that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread for two days, Abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.

So the people rested on the seventh day, and the house of Israel called the name thereof manna, and it was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. And Moses said, This is the thing which the Lord commandeth. Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations, that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt. And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept for your generations. As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the testimony to be kept. And the children of Israel did eat manna 40 years until they came to the land inhabited. They came unto the borders of the land of Canaan. Now, an omer is the 10th part of an ephah.

All right, I know that was a lot of information. I realize you got some of it. Not much, probably. I read it fast. I get all that. This manna is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we do not see Christ in everything in the scripture, we have missed the whole reason it was written. And I wanted to read all that because we're gonna end this by comparing this manna to the Lord Jesus Christ. But first, let me show you something, all right? Turn with me over to John 6. You can hold your place there. Turn over to John 6. John 6, verse 31.

Some Pharisees said to the Lord, our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. 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.

For 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. I am the bread of life. Look at verse 41. The Jews then murmured at him. Things have not changed. Things have not changed.

The Jews then murmured at him because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. Verse 48, he said, I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, So he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

This is that bread which came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever. And then they murmured at him again. And he said in verse 63, it is the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing. If the Lord would ever teach us that, we would learn something. We'd learn something about the gospel. We'd learn something about Christ. It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit. And they are life. So he said that manna that came down, that was a spiritual picture of me.

And we can see that by what the Lord said about it in Exodus 16. I just read the whole chapter of Exodus 16 and I'm going to make some comparisons now and we're going to see how this manna is a picture of Christ. Go with me back there. Exodus 16. All right, here's some comparisons. They're gonna be random. I'm gonna just kind of bounce around a little bit. I'll take the last few minutes, maybe 10 minutes of this study, and I'll show this comparison.

Number one, this manna came to the children of Israel in the wilderness of sin. All right, this is the first place that it came to them. That's what it says in verse one. They took their journey from Elam and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of sin. That's such a fitting name because that's what this world is. It is a wilderness of sin. But more importantly and more specifically, that's what this flesh is. It is a wilderness of sin. That's what I am and that's what you are. A wilderness.

What's in a wilderness? Nothing. Nothing but sin. Nothing but sin. That's what this flesh is. It is a wilderness of sin. That is the very place that the Lord of glory came to. God was made flesh and dwelt among us. He came to save sinners. Who did Christ come to? Did he come to the righteous? No, he came to the wilderness of sin. He came to save sinners. He said, I did not come to call the righteous.

People love to go around. It's amazing to me. People love to go around. I don't have time to do this. I'm doing this more and more. I got to stop. But people love to go around proudly showing everybody how righteous they are. I'm righteous. Have you seen me? Have you seen what I do? Have you seen where I go to church? I'm righteous.

I'm so righteous because I'm a righteous person. That is the very person Christ said I did not come to call. That's the very person. But that man who's dragging low in the dust. Saying, oh my goodness, what is wrong with me? That's who the manna comes to. Right, that's who the manna comes to. Christ came to save sinners. All right, I'm going to stay on track.

Number two, this manna was freely given to them. The end of verse 15 says, this is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. There was no cost. There was no requirement. There was no work. It was pure grace given of the Lord. We read how they were talking to God, talking to Moses, talking to God. We saw their attitude. We saw what there were. This was pure grace. That's Christ. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.

We don't earn Christ. We don't work for Christ. We don't become worthy of Christ. Christ is freely given. John 1 verse 17 says, The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift. What was it? Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace for sinners. That's what this manna was. For sinners. Grace is to sinners. If you get one thing from this, get this. Manna is for sinners. Who's the manna to? Sinners. Who's grace for? Sinners. Who's Christ for? Sinners. Sinners. Sinners. Sinners. Alright, number three.

This bread came directly from heaven itself. Verse four says, then said the Lord unto Moses, I will rain bread from heaven for you. You know how bread is made? Wheat grows and you got all these grains and you know how, and then man takes it and man does his thing with it. You don't have a bread tree where you just go pluck a loaf of bread off of it. Bread is man-made. Bread is man-made. Well, this bread here had nothing to do with man. Nothing at all. Nothing about this bread came from earth. Nothing about it grew out of the earth. No human effort went into this bread.

That's Christ. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. He is not of this earth. Earthy. He's not like man at all. Men and women believe that Jesus is like us. He's not. He's the Lord of glory. He is the incorruptible seed of the Holy Ghost. The one that ascended up is the same one that first ascended down. Same one. So this bread came directly from heaven itself. Number four. This manna was sent directly, specifically, particularly to the children of Israel. This manna was not sent to feed the entire world.

Dew was on the ground. Okay, dew is on the ground all over the world. I would imagine maybe there's, I'm sure there, I don't know if the desert has dew. This one did, but I don't know. But dew can be anywhere and everywhere. This manna right here was specifically for a particular people. It was not to the entire world. Verse four, then said the Lord unto Moses, behold, I will reign bread from heaven for you. For you. That's Christ. He is God's provision to his elect people. God has a specific people. Scripture says as many as were ordained to eternal life. Number five, this manna came to them.

They did not have to come to the manna. Verse 13 says, It came to pass that it even the quails came up. And I was envisioning somebody coming up to me after this saying, what about the quails? I don't know. They're not mentioned again. The Lord doesn't speak of them in the new Testament. They're a picture of Christ too. They were sacrificed for the life of the people too.

But that's all I know to say about it. Verse 13, it came to pass that it even the quails came up and covered the camp. And in the morning, the dew lay round about the host. all over the host. It literally came to their tent door. It met them where they were and that's Christ.

The only reason we come to Christ, you hear people say, come to Christ, come to Christ, you'll hear that, come to Christ, you need to come to Christ. You can't, you're dead in trespasses and sins. You won't because you're a sinner against God. If we come to Christ, no man can come to Christ except the Father which sent Christ draw that man or woman. So if we come to Christ, it's only because Christ came to us first. That's the only reason. He came to us, that's how it works. He came to us.

All right, number six. Each individual Israelite partook of this manna. Verse 16, this is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, gather of it every man, every man according to his eating, and Omer for every man according to the number of your person. Take ye every man for them which are in his tents." That's Christ.

He said, except you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood. He said, this is my body broken for you. We can't just be, you know, just because my parents believe Christ and worship Christ, I can't just fall under the canopy, well, our family's Christian. It doesn't work that way.

Every single child of God will say, who loved me and gave himself for me? Number seven. This sustaining gift of God was a daily need. Verse four, then said the Lord unto Moses, behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day. Every day. It provided and filled a daily need. What they gathered yesterday would not suffice them today. And what they gathered today would not carry over till tomorrow. And that's Christ.

We live on him. We live on him. He is our breath. Is yesterday's air good enough for today? He is our breath. He's not a decision that we made about 20 years ago and we have some vague memory of it back there in our mind somewhere. He's our heartbeat. He's our heartbeat. We don't move on from Him.

Okay, well, I got Christ. Now, let's kind of leave that there and let's go on to we don't move on from Him. It was Christ yesterday. It has to be Christ today. It's going to have to be Christ tomorrow. We cannot live without Him. We cannot live without Him. He is the mercy and the compassion of God that is new every morning, brand new every morning. Lord, give us this day our daily bread.

I need thee. Oh, I need thee every hour of every day. I need thee. Okay. Here we go. One minute. A bunch of them. One minute. Manna was white in color. That's his purity. Manna was sweet to the taste. Do you remember reading it said it tasted like wafers dipped in honey? Sounds pretty good to me. That's Christ. That purity is Christ. That's sweet to the taste.

Oh, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Number 10, this manna was to be ground, beaten, and baked in a fire. Numbers 11, we're not going to turn. The people went about and gathered manna and ground it in mills and beat it in the mortar and baked it in pans and made cakes of it.

That's Christ. He was ground in the mill of God's condemnation. He was beaten in the mortar of God's punishment. He was baked in the fire of God's judgment. They didn't just pick it up and eat it. They didn't just pick it up and eat it. Why was that the case for Christ?

The wilderness of sin. He was wounded for our transgression. That's why. All right, number 11. This manna was preserved on the Sabbath. That's the only time. Preserved on the Sabbath. That's Christ. Christ is the bread. Christ is the Sabbath. Christ is the preservation. Christ is the satisfaction. Christ is the rest. Everything on Christ, in Christ, is preserved. It's all preserved.

Number 12, this manna was laid up for the Lord. He told Aaron, you get you a golden pot and you put an omer and lay it up for the Lord for a testimony. That's Christ. He was offered to God for the covenant promise of his people being kept for the testimony. He is the surety. He is the intercession. He is the covenant keeping promise. Here's the last one. I love this. This manna was the exact same portion for every single man, woman, and child. Yeah, but he weighs 200 pounds and that little one weighs 60 pounds. An omer, an omer, an omer. Everybody got an omer. One omer.

That's Christ. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 4, 7 says, unto every one of us is given grace. How much? According to the measure of the gift of Christ. Everybody gets Christ. Same grace, the measure of Christ. Some have received much faith. All right, these are my closing statements. Some have received much faith. Some have received little faith. But every soul gets the same object of that faith, Christ. Some may have much knowledge. Some may have little knowledge. But everybody gets the same sum of knowledge, Christ. Some may have given their whole lives to the treasure of heaven.

I came to know Christ, God taught me the truth when I was, you know, a child in the womb. John the Baptist could say that. Some may have lived a whole life of sin, never knowing the treasure of heaven till the last moment like the thief on the cross. How long did he know Christ? A minute? An hour? But every one of God's children get the exact same inheritance in the end. Christ, God's free gift of life, our sustainment, our nourishment, our heavenly bread, Christ. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.

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Manna - What Is It?

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