When Manna Ceases

The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate the produce of Canaan. Joshua 5:12

When God removes manna from our life, it means He is preparing you for milk and honey.

What is the origin of manna?

God took the people of Israel out of Egypt. They were in the wilderness. they saw God’s mighty power. God send 10 dreadful plagues among the Egyptians, He parted the Red Sea for the people of Israel to walk and the Egyptians drowned in the same Red Sea. The people of Israel saw the mighty acts of God.

And now, it was not even two months since they left, but they started grumbling against God.

Exo 16:1-3

The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. 2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

Despite seeing all the miracles, they had no faith.

They complained that their life was better in Egypt. Was it really better in Egypt? They were beaten and made to do hard labour. They were treated like slaves; worse still, they were slaves. Their male babies were thrown into the Nile River and left to die. They forgot their miserable life in Egypt and began to complain that their life now is harder because they had no proper food to eat.

The Lord heard their grumbling

The Lord said to Moses, “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’” (Exo 16:11-12)

In response to their complaint against Moses and Aaron, God promises to give them manna. That was the origin of manna

Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. (16:4)

God called it bread from heaven. It was the Israelites who named that bread as manna. Exo 16:31 says ‘The people of Israel called the bread manna.’ MAN in Hebrew was an expression, here of surprise, NA means a GIFT. So the word manna meant a GIFT OF SURPRISE from heaven.

Psalmist says manna was the grain of heaven, or the food of angels. (Psalm 78:24,25)

he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven.

Human beings ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat.

How did manna look like? It was white like a coriander seed (vs 31). Manna was similar to coriander but was white like milk

How did it taste? It tasted like wafers made with honey (vs 31).

Looked white like milk tasted like honey. Almost foreshadowing the land flowing with milk and honey.

The manna fell down from heaven every morning.

Exo 16:4 - The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way, I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”

20 However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell.

24 So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it.

See the power of God’s words. Same manna. Same 24 hours. same desert climate. But the other days it was full of maggots and began to smell. On Sabbath day, nothing happened?

God is able to work above the realm of nature. As per natural laws, only this can happen. But God’s supernatural power is able to work beyond that. God is not controlled by nature. Even in your life, there may be situations where you think this can never happen. It is not practically possible, not scientifically possible, not realistically possible.. yes, that’s not possible! But with God everything is possible. God can make supernatural things happen.

• He can stop the sun and moon if he wants

• He can make the iron float

• He can walk on the waters

• He can calm the seas and winds