Exodus 16

Bread from Heaven

Yahweh has just triumphed over the gods of Egypt at the Red Sea.

The greatest act of redemption in the history of the Old Testament has just occurred.

What would you think should come next?

Redemption and revelation are intimately connected.

When God redeems his people, he also reveals himself-

Both in the act of redemption, and in the word that is proclaimed.

And this Word takes form both in preaching and in the sacrament.

The sacraments are rightly called "visible words",

because in the sacraments, as well as in preaching,

God proclaims who he is,

and communicates himself to us.

Israel has seen the works of the Lord in the deliverance from Egypt through the Red Sea.

They have heard the Word of the Lord communicated through the Song of Moses.

Now they are fed by the hand of the Lord through the waters of Marah

and the manna from heaven.

At Marah, God is introducing Israel to a simple principle:

"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,

and all these things shall be added to you."

Do not fret about what you shall eat or what you shall drink.

God is able to supply all your needs.

Notice that v25 says that God was testing Israel.

And v26 provides the warning-and the promise.

"I am Yahweh who heals you."

After the testing at Marah, God brings refreshment at Elim.

Elim means "porch" or "vestibule".

It is an appropriate name for an oasis,

since it is a temporary resting place at the entrance to the main building.

Israel is coming to the holy mountain-Mt Sinai.

So God grants them refreshment at Elim-the vestibule to the Holy Place.

The language of the twelve wells of water and the seventy palm trees is not accidental.

Moses could have simply said, "there was plenty of water and shade,"

but he chose instead to describe the oasis in detail.

There were 12 wells-one for each tribe of Israel.

There were 70 palm trees (judges would sit under trees).

God is demonstrating in the very arrangement of nature,

That he will provide for his people.

He knows their needs-he knows their very number.

Jacob went down to Egypt with 70 persons;

-the elders of Israel will be 70 in number.

-in Luke 10 Jesus will appoint the 70 to preach the gospel

(Jesus sends the 12 and the 70

-demonstrating that he is the prophet like Moses)

The language of the 12 wells and the 70 palm trees is the language of abundance.

Yes, God will test his people-as he did at Marah.

But God will bring his people through testing to the good land.

This is pictured in the historical travel of Israel from Marah to Elim.

These few verses reveal what God has in store for Israel.

He will bring Israel through the wilderness-the time of testing,

so that he might bring them from suffering/testing to glory.

And as God did thus to his Son, Israel,

so also he did to his Son, Jesus Christ.

After Jesus was brought through the waters of baptism in the Jordan,

he was sent out into the wilderness

-literally in the 40 days,

-and then in that most barren wilderness of the cross,

where he cried out, "my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Jesus endured the wilderness of testing for us,

for us and for our salvation.

And we must see, as Paul tells us in 1 Cor 10,

that the wilderness generation is an example and warning for us.

You also must endure testing.

The road to glory is the vale of tears.

The valley of deep darkness is often the only path that leads to life.

The psalmist understood this.

Psalm 23

We need not fear.

We need not grumble and murmur against God!

Therefore,

open your ears and your hearts that you may receive the grace of God

to strengthen you in your hour of need.

No sooner do the Israelites leave Elim then they forget what God has done.

They are only six weeks out from Passover-from the Exodus-

and they have already begun to doubt whether God will provide for them.

But at this point, they at least go to the right place.

We often are so offended by their grumbling

that we forget to whom they grumbled.

They come to Moses and Aaron.

Perhaps we might wish that they had come with a better attitude,

but at least they come to Moses.

And let us be at least somewhat charitable to our fathers,

because how often have we come to Jesus--our covenant mediator--

with grumbling hearts?

But God is merciful and receives the prayer even of grumblers! v4-5

Moses rightly understands that the murmuring of Israel is not really directed at himself,

but is directed against Yahweh (v7-8).

So God himself appears in the glory cloud to all Israel, and he says to Moses (v12).

So God provided quails in the evening, and then manna in the morning.

Every morning throughout the whole wilderness journey the manna appeared.

Every morning-that is-except on the Sabbath day.

Even before the 10 Commandments are given, the Sabbath is expected to be a day of rest.

What is this bread that God provides?

On the one hand it is easy to give a simple explanation:

there are over 1 million Israelites

(including that mixed multitude who joined themselves to Israel)

and if they are to survive the desert journey, they need food.

So God provides the manna.

But there is more to the story.

Moses has Aaron take a pot of manna and place it before Yahweh

(later it is placed inside the ark of the covenant)

Manna is rightly called "bread from heaven." (Ex 16:4)

Later generations reflected upon this bread from heaven

that had been given to their fathers:

Psalm 105:40-"they asked and he brought quail,

and satisfied them with the bread of heaven." (No hint of grumbling)

Nehemiah 9:15-"You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger."

John 6-after Jesus fed the 5,000, many are convinced

that he is the prophet like Moses.

After all, Jesus has given them bread from heaven.

On the other hand, others are not persuaded.

After all, Moses gave bread from heaven on a daily basis.

Jesus hasn't come close to matching this!

John 6:26-58

Jesus warns them against thinking that the bread from heaven can be identified

simply as the manna.

Yes, the manna miraculously appeared on the ground every day.

And yes, the manna can properly be called "bread from heaven."

But Jesus wants them to understand what the manna pointed to-

or better, who the manna pointed to.

Paul says the same thing in 1 Cor 10:

they all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink.

The manna in the wilderness is not just miraculous bread.

It is an anticipation of Christ.

For Israel is was a foretaste of the Messiah.

Think about it.

Why did God provide manna?

Just because Israel was hungry?

If that was the case, why did the manna stop?

Why doesn't God provide manna from heaven to all hungry people?

No, the manna from heaven was a temporary food,

designed to strengthen the people of God until they reached the Promised Land.

It was designed to give the people both physical and spiritual nourishment.

After all, every morning as they went out to gather the manna,

they were to remember why they were in the wilderness in the first place.

They were on the way to the promised land.

The manna was spiritual food which was to be received by faith.

It was a temporary food which was to sustain and strengthen Israel,

until they came to the Promised Land

where they would partake of the bounty

of the land flowing with milk and honey.

Now do you see why Jesus calls himself the true bread of heaven?

Because Jesus recognizes that you are living in the wilderness.

We are weak.

We are spiritually malnourished.

Our famished souls cry out for food,

and our Savior says "come!"

(John 6:35, 48, 53-58)

Every time we partake of the Lord's Supper,

we partake of the bread of heaven.

Every time we pray the Lord's Prayer-"give us this day our daily bread"--

we confess that we need the bread of heaven.

We live in the wilderness.

We live in a day of famine.

The Word of the Lord is often watered down.

The Table of the Lord is frequently neglected.

And sadly, too often we don't even notice that we are starving.

We have made peace with the wilderness.

The wilderness generation is an amazing lesson for us.

They saw-with their own eyes--more of God's redemptive acts than any other.

They lived with the miraculous more than anybody else.

God regularly fed them with bread from heaven

And yet they grumbled.

Be careful.

God has blessed you in the heavenly places with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

He has brought you to this place.

He has provided spiritual sustenance for you

in the Word, the Sacraments, and Prayer.

And the whole point of that sustenance,

Is so that he might bring you to the Promised Land.