Bread From Heaven

Manna! What is it?

Pastor Jamie Wright * Maranatha Fellowship Church * 09-12-04

Exodus- The mass exit of the children of Israel from Egypt. They had been slaves to the Egyptians for years.

Chapter 14 God splits the Red Sea and the walk across on Dry Land.

Chapter 15 they rejoice and sing praises for the victory God has brought them.

Exodus 16:1-4, 14-15, 31, 35

And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt.

Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.

And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.”

..and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp.

And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground.

So when the children of Israel saw it they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the Lord is given you to eat.”

And the house of Israel called its name Manna. They ate Manna for 40 years

We see here that God is moving in response to their need and he is going to give them exactly what they need. HE sent them bread from heaven, they were hungry and he sent them Manna! This bread that lay upon the ground in the morning for 40 years sustained them as they traveled toward the promise land. Evidently, the Manna was EVERYTHING they needed for good health and satisfaction. Just what they needed was just what God sent to them. Yet, their response was, what is this?

Vs. 4 God said, I will rain bread from heaven.

Rain does not fall in the form of bread. Rain falls in the form of water

Stop looking for God to answer in the way you want him to answer. He will always provide your need. But it may not be in the way you want it. Bread falling like rain. We have been praying Lord send the rain. Lord we need your rain. Lord we have got to have the rain. We need it. We need it. Got have it. Isn’t that what we sing?

Yet, when it shows up are we not like the children of Israel, when we look at God and say, “WHAT IS IT?” What is this! Bread raining down from heaven.

That’s not normal. The normal way it rains is water. God wanted to supply their need. They wanted God to supply their want. They wanted to go back to Egypt where there was meat and their bellies were full of bread! They wanted bread. They said what is it? Water rains down from heaven not bread. But God said I am going to rain bread. I am going somewhere, stay with me.

Ruth 1:1 Now it came to pass in the days when judges ruled that a certain man of Bethlehem Judah (House of Bread) went to dwell in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons.

She had heard that the Lord had visited His people by giving them bread.

There is a famine in the Land. And the famine is that in the House of Bread there is no Bread.

What do you mean preacher? I mean that in the House of God, where is God? When you can go to a church service in the House of Bread and you never hear the mention of bread, you never smell the aroma of bread and you never taste the sweetness of the bread—there must not be any bread.

What is this? What are you talking about? I am talking about the true Bread from heaven.

John 6:31-33, 38, 48, 49-51, 53-58

Compare the Manna that rained down from heaven in the OT to Jesus in the NT

1. It Was Small - Exodus 16:14 - This speaks of Christ’s humility.

2. It Was Round - Exodus 16:14 - This speaks of Christ’s eternal nature, John 1:1.