Bread From Heaven

Exodus 16

Immanuel – 12/24/23

Being Christmas Eve, I know it would be more traditional to talk about shepherds and wisemen and mangers – all very good and appropriate Christmas elements to consider. And as good as those ancient considerations are, we are going back to a time far more ancient, more than 1500 years before the birth of Jesus.

Just after God rescued Israel from their slavery in Egypt, He gave a series of gifts of grace – miraculous provisions – to His chosen people.

Read Exodus 16 – Daryl Scibior

Wilderness of Sin

The very first Passover was exactly one month before the events of Exodus 16. On that first Passover, as Israel was preparing to flee Egypt, God had readied the people to travel fast and far. In other words, they were going to be on the run and would not be traveling with weeks and weeks’ worth of provisions.

A month had passed. The people of Israel had followed God into the middle of a desolate nowhere, their food had run out, and there was no possible way for them to feed themselves. Some 1.2 million people looking down the barrel of death by starvation. I imagine if we were in their ranks, we’d be grumbling, too.

Did they really come all this way only to die in the desert? Their grumblings are understandable considering their situation.

Read vs 2-3

As understandable as the Israelite’s grumblings might be, their words betray some major issues of the heart.

First, they do not believe. God brought them into the wilderness, had given them victory, freedom, and clean water. They had seen the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea – all within the span of that same month.

But now that they are hungry, they do not turn to God for help. They do not seek God. Instead, anxiety fills their hearts and complaints their mouths. Cannot the God who splits the ocean provide food in the desert? But they failed to believe. They couldn’t truly believe that God was for them.

Second, the people are unrepentant. They want to go back to Egypt, back to their pagan overlords of oppression. Israel is ready to go back to their chains if it only means they can fill their bellies. It’s the choice of temporary relief over relationship with the Almighty One. And since repentance is forsaking your former slave masters and committing all your loyalty unto God, Israel’s grumbling betrays their unrepentance.

But how good it is that God is abundantly patient and exceedingly gracious with His people! I love that immediately following Israel’s faithless grumblings, we read these words in verse 4: “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you.’”

Even while Israel was faithless, God was faithful, promising His gracious provisions: bread that comes down from heaven. God was going to give what Israel could not have imagined. In fact, it was one of the reasons he took them into the desert.

As we see in verse 4, God speaks these promises to Moses. In verses 6 and 7, Moses and Aaron communicate it to the people. They say, “At evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord.”

Notice that God’s provision had a two-fold purpose. Yes, it was to feed and sustain the people. But even more importantly, it was so all Israel would see the glory of the Lord.

Here we see so clearly that the most important thing a human being can do is see the glory of God and worship Him. As the Westminster Confession of Faith states, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” We glorify God, because as He provides for every joy of life, we worship Him.

That is precisely what we are seeing happen in Exodus 16:4, when God promises Israel that they shall see His glory. And that glory shall be seen when bread comes from heaven.

Then, in verse 8 we read Moses and Aaron declaring, “When the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumbled against Him – what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.”

If you didn’t catch it earlier, the people were grumbling against their leaders, Moses and Aaron; but since God was leading Moses and Aaron, Israel’s grumblings were ultimately against God. Again, Israel was mired in unbelief and unrepentance.

I find it a little humorous that God promised bread from heaven in the morning (verse 4), but when Moses and Aaron speak to the people, they also include meat in the evening. (verse 8) Not sure if they just had a craving, or what it was that prompted them to promise meat, but God honors their promise and adds meat to the menu.

Graciously, in verse 12, God speaks, “At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.”

That sentence – “Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God” – it means Israel would glorify Yahweh as their God. I know I might sound repetitive, but it is so profound. When Yahweh is your God, it means you acknowledge that you are entirely, completely, dependent upon Him. He holds your life in His hands. Thus, your life is His. You submit to His will, and you follow His ways. And because His will and ways are perfect and loving, you love Him with all of your heart.

That’s precisely what we are meant to see when God gives His gifts of provision. And then come those gifts of provision.

Read vs 13-15

I love that we see God’s provision is both natural and supernatural. It’s natural because God used the regular migration of quail to feed Israel. From March through April – perfectly fitting our timeline in Exodus 16 – quail fly north from Africa into Europe and Asia, passing right over the Sinai Peninsula. God used the natural timing of quail migration to provide meat for His starving people.

God also provided supernaturally through something that no Israelite had ever seen before. In fact, in verse 15, when they saw it, they said, “What is it?” The word manna essentially means, “What is it?” What it was, was the promised bread from heaven.

Manna was so strange that the narrative is very careful to explain what it was. It was fine and flakey, like frost – more precisely, like hoarfrost. Hoarfrost is a particular type of frost that forms like little spears. We also read that it was white and sweet.

Read vs 31

Bread from heaven, manna, the supernatural provision of God that the people did not expect.

Do you also see the repeated emphasis on the Sabbath? On days 1-5 God would give the normal amount of manna. On day six they would receive twice the amount, so that the people would have enough during the seventh day when no manna would come. The seventh day was the Sabbath, a day of rest.

I believe the Sabbath is so strongly emphasized in this passage because chapter 16 comes before Mount Sinai and the giving of the 10 commandments. Remember the 4th commandment?

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” -Exodus 20:8-11

When God gives manna to Israel, they have not yet received the law of Sabbath. But in His grace, and through His gifts of provision, God is also giving the gift of rest; teaching Israel the goodness of Sabbath. How significant to know that rest is a gift before it is a law!

See that theme in Exodus 16. God gives gifts of grace before He expects obedience. He rescued Israel from Egypt, gave them gifts of provision, the gift of rest, all these graces while Israel still struggled to believe. It is only after Israel had truly tasted the goodness and grace of God that He then expected Israel to worship Him.

Let me put it into other words: God gave bread from heaven before He commanded people to believe in Him.

The Soul’s Satisfaction

Something transformative reverberates from the pages of Exodus, something that rushes electric into this very room. You see, Israel may have been wandering through the desolate landscape of the Sinai Peninsula, but we all wander in our own spiritual wilderness of sin, starving for something that would bring us joy, purpose, hope, peace. Our souls are starving!

And how eager we are to throw ourselves at the feet of our former slave masters, if only their fleeting pleasures can quiet our starving souls. But once we taste their pleasures again, then we remember the terrible chains – lusts, addictions, fears, anxieties, sorrow. And whatever pleasure we, for a moment, enjoy; it is quickly taken, forcing us again to work for just another morsel.

And there is no rest. There is only the life of a slave; bound by sin, driven by the Devil. And he drives every one of his slaves right into the everlasting dark. We are destroyed by our appetites gone wrong.

So God has given a gift that will satisfy the hunger of our souls, a gift that causes the soul to rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory! Long after manna appeared in the Wilderness of Sin, God has sent our starving souls bread from heaven.

I’m sure you’re familiar with Jesus’ words:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.”

-John 3:16-17

God has sent our starving souls bread from heaven. God the Father sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world so that we would not perish. By faith in Jesus, God forgives us for all those forbidden fruits that we ate, and purges us of their poisons.

Then, just a few chapters later, Jesus says something that strikes at every hungry heart. This happens the day after He had taken five loaves of bread and two fish and fed 5,000 people with them.

Read John 6:30-40

The manna that fell in the Wilderness of Sin was foreshadowing the Bread of Heaven that came down one starry night in Bethlehem. Jesus, God’s own Son, He is the preeminent gift from heaven, and the only satisfaction for the soul.

As Christ says in verse 35, if you come to Him, you will not hunger. If you thirst, He is the satisfaction. Of course, Jesus is not talking about literal hunger and thirst; He is speaking metaphorically. He is talking about hunger and thirst of the soul; the longings of your heart.

In a very similar way, Jesus says in John 10,

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” -John 10:10

There you were, chained by your sins and bound to be killed. Yours was a hopeless estate. But stepping down from glory, and becoming a man, Jesus breaks the chains and has defeated Satan. He comes that you may have life, and have it abundantly. Abundant life means joyful life; life overflowing with peace and hope and righteousness and faith. It is yours, if only you come to Him and believe it.

Again, from John 6:40,

For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

No matter where you have come from, the baggage you carry, or the lack you have, Jesus will not cast you out. Your slave masters will, but Jesus will not. There is nothing in all creation that will separate you from His love (Romans 8:39), not even death.

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” -John 11:25-26

Bread, the kind you bake in the oven, (if everything goes well) is delicious. It brings a certain level of pleasure. It fills your stomach and satisfies your hunger and sustains your life; for without food you will starve and die.

Bread from Heaven, Jesus Christ, fills the heart with joy. For is there anything greater than knowing that your every wrong is forgiven, and the unrestrained love of the Father is now lavished upon you? And if you feast your heart upon these joys, then you shall live forever. Christ, the bread that sustains everlasting life. Jesus, the Bread of Heaven.

There is no greater treasure on this planet, and there is no greater gift that has ever been given unto men.

Let’s remember again of Exodus 16 and God’s gift of manna. Remember how God used the manna to teach the people about Sabbath. With manna came the gift of rest. So it is with Christ.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” -Matthew 11:28-30

Slaves toil under slave masters they cannot please, and the work of a slave has no end. But those who toil and are heavy laden, they find Sabbath in Jesus: rest for the soul. You might work, but your work is turned to joy. You might have to work to live, but Christ sets free the heart despite the labors of earth.

Even if you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, Christ has green pastures and still waters for you to lay beside.

Are you afraid that you do not measure up, that you’re not good enough, that no one could love you? Jesus loved you and gave Himself for you. He will never cast you out. Believe it, feast your soul upon such a glorious truth, and rest.

Does death terrify you, and you cannot imagine everything you love suddenly and forever stripped from you? Trust Jesus’ promise of everlasting life, let it fill your soul, and be at peace.

Whatever it is, come to Jesus with your hungry soul, and be satisfied. His promises are your food and His everlasting life is your everlasting life.

There is no greater treasure on this planet, and there is no greater gift that has ever been given unto men. Christ, the bread that sustains everlasting life. Jesus, the Bread of Heaven.

When we come to Jesus, and our souls feast upon His grace and glory, then we let it be our whole heart’s desire to come before God and worship Him for this great gift! Jesus Christ, our provision for everlasting life, must move us to worship Yahweh who was in the desert, the One who has sent us the Son, our Heavenly Father.

What a gift! He has given you His life, so turn and give Him yours. Repent and believe. Come today and worship!

As we give gifts and open presents and feast together, let us all remember God’s greatest gift; the bread that came down from heaven.