When the Israelites saw it, they asked one another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. So Moses told them, "It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat. Sermons I. THE NEED WHICH EXISTED FOR THIS PROVISION. The Israelites were in the desert, where nature, if left to itself, would inevitably perish. Their supplies of food were exhausted. The whole multitude would have died of hunger, had not Divine mercy interposed for their relief. The manna which God gave them literally stood between them and death. In this circumstance we see one feature imaged in which Christ clearly appears as the bread of life. When he uses: this language of himself he means to tell us, that just as these Israelites under Moses absolutely hung for any hope of life they had on that food which was miraculously supplied to them; so does the world hang - hang absolutely - for its life, its salvation, its eternal well-being on him. It needs eternal life. Its heart craves for it. It is perishing for want of it. But if it is ever to get it, Christ says, it must get it through him, through receiving him, through appropriating what he is, and what he has done for it as Saviour. II. THE SUPERNATURAL CHARACTER OF THE PROVISION. There could be no question as to the supernatural character of the supply in the case of the manna. The Israelites needed to be saved, and God saved them by a miracle. There was, as it were, a distinct opening of heaven for their benefit. The hand that fed them came from the unseen. In like manner, Christ lays emphasis on the fact that he - the bread of life for men - is "bread from heaven." The salvation that embodies itself in him is no salvation of man's devising, nor one which, even had the thought of it entered his mind, man could ever from his own resources have achieved. If the world is to be saved at all, if it is to be delivered from its woes, if it is to have eternal life, Saviour and salvation must come from heaven. Our hope, as of old, is in God, and in God only. It is not for us to provide, but only thankfully to receive, and earnestly to appropriate the salvation. God gives us the bread from heaven; gives it freely; gives it as bread which no efforts of our own, however laborious, could have enabled us to procure; gives it, that is, as a Divine, supernatural bread, the boon of sovereign grace. III. THE AMPLE ABUNDANCE OF THE PROVISION. The manna was given in abundance. There was neither lack nor stint. The table that was spread in the wilderness was one of royal bounty; as in the later miracle of the loaves, "they did all eat, and were filled" (Matthew 14:20). There was, as in the father's house in the parable, "Enough and to spare" (Luke 15:17), overflowing provision. How significant a fact when the heart is putting to itself the question, Will Christ's death avail for me? He calls himself "the true bread which cometh down from heaven;" and it cannot be but that this feature in the type will be reflected in the antitype. There is provision in Christ for all. He gives his flesh for the life of the world (ver. 51). He is come that men "might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). No stint, no lack, no scarcity in the salvation of Christ. IV. THE PROVISION NOW, AS THEN, NEEDS TO BE APPROPRIATED. It was nothing to the Israelites that the manna, sparkling like pearls in the morning sunshine, lay all around them; they must gather, they must eat, they must make the "bread from heaven" food for their own life. So with Christ and his salvation. He calls himself "bread," to bring out strongly, not only what he is in himself in relation to human wants, but what men must do with him, if they would partake in the life he comes to give. He must be received, "eaten," inwardly appropriated, fed upon, made part, so to speak, of our very selves; only thus will the new life be begotten in us. This "eating" of Christ is parallel with the "believing" of other verses (vers. 29, 40, 47). Some, remembering this, may be disposed to say, it is only believing. But the use of such a metaphor should rather teach us how real, and inward, and appropriating a principle, this believing on Jesus is. It is clearly no slight, transitory act of mind or heart which is denoted by it, but a most spiritual, most inward, most vital and personal energy of appropriation; a process of reception, digestion, and transformation into spiritual substance, and new powers of spiritual life, of what we have in the Saviour. How great Christ must be, who thus declares himself to be the bread of life for the whole world - the support and food (consciously or unconsciously) of all the spiritual life there is in it! No wonder that the work of works which God requires of us is that we believe on him whom he has sent (John 6:29). V. WHAT THERE IS IN CHRIST WHICH CONSTITUTES HIM THE WORLD'S BREAD OF LIFE. We set aside as unsupported the analogies which some have sought between the roundness, sweetness, whiteness, etc., of the manna, and qualities in the person and work of the Redeemer. It is, however, clear that if Christ is the antitype of the manna, and the true bread which cometh down from heaven, it must be in virtue of certain qualities in him which admit of being specified. And what these are, it is not difficult to show. He is the bread of life to men - 1. As incarnate God. In the humanity of Jesus Christ, the Divine is brought near to us, and made apprehensible, and provision is also made for the communication of the Divine life in its fullest, richest form to our souls. In him dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9). He is the medium of the communication of that Divine fulness to us (1 John 1:16). In him, the Divine life is embodied in a holy, perfect humanity; and in that form - a form which brings it within our reach, which makes apprehension and assimilation possible - it is presented to us to be partaken of. 2. As an atoning Saviour. Did Christ not bear this character of Atoner, he would not be truly bread of life to the guilty. Our guilt, our sin, our whole moral condition, stands between us and God, an insuperable barrier to the peace and fellowship for which we crave. But Christ has taken away that barrier. He has made a sacrifice of himself for sin (John 6:51). To appropriate what I have in Christ, is, accordingly, to appropriate to myself the certainty of forgiveness through his death, the assurance of peace with God, the knowledge of reconciliation. And to have done this is already to have begun to live. It is to feel the awakening within me of new-born powers of love, and trust, and service; to feel the dread and despair that before possessed me vanishing like a dark nightmare from my spirit, to be replaced by the joy of pardon, and the sense of the Divine favour. It is to realise the accomplishment of that spiritual change which the Scriptures describe as a "passing from death unto life" (John 5:24). "Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). 3. As a life-giving Spirit. Jesus is what he is to man, in virtue of his possession of the holy, life-giving Spirit - the personal Holy Ghost - by whom he dwells in the hearts of his people, and through whom he communicates to them all the fulness of his own life. This operation of the Spirit is already implied in what we have said of the results of faith in him. He is the effectual agent in converting, quickening, enlightening, sanctifying, comforting, strengthening, beautifying, and spiritually edifying the souls of such as attain to salvation. The influences of this Spirit in the soul are but another name for eternal life. And Christ is the giver of this Spirit. It is from him the Spirit comes. His work on earth has opened the way for the free communication of the Spirit's influences. He dwells by this Spirit in each of his members, nourishing, strengthening, and purifying them, To nourish ourselves upon Christ is to take more of this Spirit into our hearts and lives. Thus is Christ the bread of life. - J.O.
Manna. I. ITS MYSTIC CHARACTER. "What is this?" Christ was a mystery to His contemporaries. So is the Christian to his. "The world knoweth you not."II. ITS USES. To save from starvation, famine, and death. Christ is "the Bread that cometh down from heaven." 1. The manna was for all. 2. The manna was for all, according to their wants — appetites. The Saviour is to us' just what we make Him to be. All fulness dwells in Him, infinite satisfaction; but we are straitened in ourselves, by our limited cravings, etc. III. THE PRESCRIPTIONS ATTENDING IT. 1. To be gathered early. 2. To be gathered every morning. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." 3. To be used. 4. To be gathered within six days. Life has its appointed time for salvation. If we allow the end of life's week to come without a store of God's manna, we shall find none in the future. 5. To be gathered for others — for those who could not go out themselves. (F. R. Young.) I. THE LORD DID DAILY AND AMPLY PROVIDE FOR HIS PEOPLE. The fact of abundant food is clear and indisputable. There is no hint, however, as to its immediate source or methods of distribution. A similar mystery veils the agencies through which we find our present necessities met. Here the natural and the supernatural seem to work together. The political economist makes them his study, and extremists undertake to tell exactly how the nations of the earth are kept alive. The farmer, manufacturer, artisan, carrier, trader, accountant, teacher, labouring with hand or head, or both — each furnishing just that without which the rest must languish — constitute a most complex problem. Laplace set himself at no such intricate task when attempting the solution of the solar system. We fall back on the conviction that while none can see the vast organism, or all the forces which are operative in it, yet it does move by an instinctive impulse under s beneficent direction whose secrets none can wrest, whose failure no one can imagine. The suspension of one class of labourers affects, more or less, every other. But to trace, or tell, the infinite processes through which every person in the land finds daily that which will maintain the body and restore its energies, as they are constantly spent, is beyond the ability of any mortal. Over all is He upon whom all eyes, though so blind, wait. Men call Him God, or Nature, or Chance, or Law, each term being somewhat of a cloak for their ignorance. II. THE LORD REQUIRED EACH MAN TO PROVIDE FOR HIMSELF. The combined wisdom and efforts of men could not create a grain of corn. Yet each and all must gather for themselves. The increase will vary as occasions and necessities do. But how often has the world seen that they who would for their own selfish ends heap up their stores find to their surprise and horror that it breeds only loathsome and hateful forms of death! Capital, unscrupulously held and wielded, is becoming the terror even of its possessors. Vast fortunes have generally proved vast vexations, while Agur's prayer, "Give me neither poverty nor riches," etc., seems to have its happiest answer in the state of those who are most observant of these very precepts given to Israel. To idle, or hoard, or squander, or fret, is sin now as then. III. THE LORD PUT SPECIAL HONOUR ON THE SEVENTH. Good doctrine still, neither abrogated nor superseded, ye buoy men in these days of railroads, and steamships, and telegraphs, and fast mails, and Sunday papers, and apoplectic fits! Feel you not the Almighty hand on these flying wheels, bringing them to pause? Will you say, we must work a few of these forbidden hours to gain reprieve for the rest? Will you make hay, or post accounts, or write your commercial letters, or draw out your plans for greater barns, or repair your machine, or set foot on the train, to be first at the market on the morrow? Thus you do but repeat their folly, who hoped to gather the needful food, but failed. Emptiness will fill all your omers when the results of such disobedience are weighed. (De W. S. Clarke.) II. THE FIRST STAGE OF THEIR JOURNEY BROUGHT THEM OUT INTO A VAST SANDY PLAIN, WHERE THERE WAS REAL DANGER, TO THE EYE OF SENSE, OF THEIR DYING OF HUNGER. Elim had re-heartened them after Marah. But the wilderness of Sin renewed their pains and terrors, and "the whole congregation of the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron." Their cry after the flesh-pots was the fruit of Elim. They had renewed there the blunt edge of their lust. The old appetites resumed their sway, as they sat by the waters and ate of their flocks; when they went forth their murmurs broke out with new fierceness, as of lust rekindled, and in spirit, at any rate, they gave themselves again to be slaves. Beware of rekindling the flame of a dying lust or appetite. Starve it — it is the only policy. Let it taste again, let it look again, it flushes up into full fever glow, and you are once more enslaved. III. REPHIDIM WAS THE SCENE OF THEIR FIRST BATTLE AND THEIR FIRST VICTORY. In the first great act of the drama of deliverance, their duty had been simply to "Stand still and see the salvation of God." The hour was now come when they must "quit them like men and fight." Not otherwise is it in the Christian life. To rest on Christ, to "stand still and see His salvation," is the true deliverance of a spirit: this is redemption, But we must fight hard, as if the victory depended on ourselves — not for redemption, but as redeemed, if we would reap all its glorious fruits. The first foes of Israel were their kinsmen. "And a man's foes shall be those of his own house." But come whence they may, foes soon beset the young pilgrim: before he has gone far, a long day's battle will test his courage and strain his strength. Lusts and passions, which he thought he had slain for ever, stand forth alive, and renew the conflict. The Egyptians slain, new enemies throng around us. Our pilgrimage must be a war-march, with battlemusic and banners: "Jehovah nissi," ("the Lord my banner") we cry, and renew the fight. (J. B. Brown, B. A.) Homilist. I. THAT GOD'S PHYSICAL PROVIDENCE RECOGNIZES THE PERSONAL WANTS OF EACH INDIVIDUAL. Manna fell for each, babe and man; not one overlooked. Poverty is not the institution of heaven. The causes of poverty being with us, let us seek to remove them.II. THAT THE ENJOYMENT OF GOD'S PHYSICAL PROVIDENCE DEPENDS ON TRUSTFUL LABOUR. Each was to gather for himself, and to gather no more than his portion for the day. Labour is necessary to give a relish and felt value to our blessings; and trust in God is necessary to exclude all anxious thought about the future. III. THAT AN AVARICIOUS ACCUMULATION OF THE BLESSINGS OF PHYSICAL PROVIDENCE WILL DISAPPOINT THE POSSESSOR. Hoarded wealth never satisfies. It is noisome; it generates reptiles. IV. THAT THE SEEKING OF THE BLESSINGS OF PHYSICAL PROVIDENCE SHOULD NEVER INTERFERE WITH RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS. 1. Religion does not require us to neglect the body. 2. Religion has special claims. It has to do with man's spiritual nature, relations, and interests. (Homilist.) Homilist. I. THE MANNA WAS A PROVISION FOR A GREAT EMERGENCY. "When we were yet without strength" — to do the true work of life, to prepare for death, to gain acceptance with God — "in due time Christ died for the ungodly."II. THE MANNA COMES AS A MIRACULOUS INTERPOSITION. 1. Undeserved. 2. Unsought. III. THE MANNA CAME AS A UNIVERSAL SUPPLY. 1. In quantities commensurate with the wants of all. 2. Within reach of all. IV. THE MANNA CAME WITH DIVINE DIRECTIONS. Gather for yourselves, and distribute to those who need help. 1. Proportionately. 2. Betimes. 3. Regularly. Constancy is the condition of religious life and growth. V. THE MANNA DEMANDED THE REMEMBRANCE OF POSTERITY (ver. 32). All God's interpositions on behalf of the fallen world are facts that shall be had in everlasting remembrance. For this purpose they are recorded in His Word. His interposition in Christ specially calls for our commemoration in the ordinance instituted for that purpose. (Homilist.) I. THE OCCASION FOR THE MANNA. The supplies brought from Egypt exhausted.II. THE MORAL PURPOSES OF THE MANNA. 1. To test the people. 2. To give an indisputable proof of the reality of their deliverance from Egypt by God's own hand. 3. To show the unreasonableness of their murmurings. III. THE TYPICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MANNA. Lessons: 1. This standing miracle of forty years' duration is an irrefragable proof of all the Bible assumes concerning the personality, love, and power of God. 2. It teaches the faithfulness and deep interest of our heavenly Father, in all His children. 3. The murmurings and loss of appetite for the manna on the part of the Israelites are fraught with lessons of deepest practical moment to us. 4. The constant dependence on Christ as the true Manna is clear and emphatic. 5. The memorial pot of manna in the ark is a type of the "hidden manna" laid up in heaven for the believer (Revelation 2:17). (D. C. Hughes, M. A.) I. THE TEMPORAL ASPECT OF PROVIDENCE.1. Providence is always timely in its assistance. Never too soon, never too late; never before the time, never after the time. Forgetting this, we bring upon ourselves no end of trouble by being over-anxious for the morrow. 2. Providence is always ample in its resources. There were many mouths to be filled and voracious appetites to be satisfied, and yet we have not heard that the supply failed for a single morning. You remember reading in the account of the Franco-Prussian war, that the army of Napoleon III. loitered for days on the banks of the Rhine, when they ought to have advanced into the heart of Germany. What was the cause of this fatal delay? Want of provision; the commissariat was inadequate to supply the demands of three hundred thousand soldiers, and at Sedan the campaign proved disastrous to the empire. "He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly... bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure." Providence is conditional in its method of support. God rained down manna from heaven in small grain, like coriander seed, not in ready-made loaves. "Society," says Emerson, "expects every man to find his own loaf." God expects it too. II. THE SPIRITUAL ASPECTS OF PROVIDENCE. "See that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore He giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days." 1. Its value as a day of rest for the body is very great. 2. Its importance as a day for spiritual contemplation and holy delight is incalculable. III. THE HISTORICAL ASPECT OF PROVIDENCE. "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." 1. The omer full of manna was meant to teach coming generations the greatness of God's power and the faithfulness of His promise. "Power belongeth unto God" as it belongeth to no other being, because it is absolute and independent. This is what makes His promises "exceeding great and precious," that He has abundance of resources to make good His word to man. 2. The omer full of manna was meant to teach coming generations the evil of hoarding up covetously the bounties of Providence. (W. A. Griffiths.) British Weekly. The manna was a type of Christ.I. AS THE MANNA WAS A SPECIAL MERCY TO THE ISRAELITES IN THEIR EXTREMITY, SO THE SAVIOUR IS GOD'S SPECIAL GIFT TO SINFUL MEN. II. AS THE DIVINE GIFT OF THE MANNA APPEARED IN THE GARB OF EXTREME SIMPLICITY, SO THE LIFE OF THE SAVIOUR IS EMBODIED IN THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF LIFE, THROUGH WHICH HE BECOMES OUR LIFE. III. AS THE MANNA WAS PROPORTIONED IN DAILY RATIONS, SO WE MUST HAVE COMMUNION WITH CHRIST EVERY DAY. Religious exercises are framed to recur. Thoughts of Jesus and communion with God cannot be stored; they must be repeated. IV. THE MANNA WAS IN PERPETUAL REMEMBRANCE AFTER THEY ENTERED CANAAN, SO JESUS AND HIS CROSS WILL BE THE THEME OF ETERNITY. The manna was placed in the golden pot, and put, with the ark, in the most holy place, when they began to live on the old corn of the land. The daily gathering was over, and the journey, but the remembrance remained. Faith must make way to sight. Grand sight! We shall not forget Calvary. The scenes with Jesus must remain. (British Weekly.) I. DIVINE CARE.1. Anticipating human need. He was before them in the way'; to turn "the barren wilderness" into "a fruitful field." 2. Providing a suitable supply. (1) (2) (3) 4. Watching over spiritual interests in meeting physical need. The Sabbath guarded. Both body and soul eared for; and at the same time. II. HUMAN DUTY. 1. To expect. Eyes of all wait on Him. The manna to be looked for. We are to expect that God will supply our wants. He has promised to do so. 2. To collect. This work might have been saved them. It had its use. Some collect for others. Young for aged, etc. All secular labour in fields or factories, but a collecting of the good gifts of God. So is prayer, study of the Bible, etc. 3. To economize. None to bewasted. Those who had gathered less were to be supplied out of another's abundance. A wise distribution of our good things is true economy. Sowing for eternity. III. SPIRITUAL INSTRUCTION. The manna a type of Christ. So Jesus Himself regarded it (John 6.). It was so — 1. Because unexpected in its coming. 2. Came in time of great need. 3. Unostentatious in its form. 4. Pleasant to the taste. 5. Spread silently over the ground. 6. Lasted all the journey through. 7. The remembrance of it treasured for ever. 8. Mysterious in nature.What is it? Compare with "Who is He?" "Great is the mystery of godliness," etc. While curious minds are trying to understand a mystery into which angels desire to look, let our exhortation be, "O taste and see that the Lord is good," etc. Learn — I. To trust in the care of Providence. II. To act in harmony with Providence. III. To seek the true Bread of Life. (J. C. Gray.) 2. The manna was peculiarly the gift of God, coming freely and directly from His hand. How striking a representation in this respect of Christ all Scripture may be said to testify, as both in His person and in the purchased blessings of His redemption He is always presented to sinful men as the free gift of the Father's love. 3. The whole fulness of the Godhead is in Jesus, so that all may receive as their necessities require. So was it also with the manna; there was enough for all. 4. Then, falling as it did round about the camp, it was near enough to be within the reach of all; if any should perish for want, it could be from no outward necessity or hardship, for the means of supply were brought almost to their very hand. Nor is it otherwise in regard to Christ, who in the gospel of His grace is laid, in a manner, at the very door of every sinner; the word is nigh him; and if he should still parish, he must be without excuse — it is in sight of the Bread of Life. 5. The supply of manna came daily, and faith had to be exercised on the providence of God, that each day would bring its appointed provision; if they attempted to hoard for the morrow, their store became a mass of corruption. In like manner must the child of God pray for his soul every morning as it dawns, "Give me this day my daily bread." He can lay up no stock of grace which is to last him for a continuance without needing to repair to the treasury of Christ. 6. Finally, as the manna had to be gathered in the morning of each day, and a double portion provided on the sixth day, that the seventh might be hallowed as a day of sacred rest, so Christ and the things of His salvation must be sought with diligence and regularity, but only in the appointed way and through the divinely-provided channels. (A. Nevin, D. D.) 1. Murmuring is a most unprofitable state of mind. Never did anybody any good. Source of all Israelites' troubles. Once a child was reading, apparently absorbed in the act: her parent asked what was the book; and looking up, she answered, with a sudden overflow of tears, "Oh father, the people have begun to murmur again, and now God will have to punish them some more!" 2. Murmuring is a most delusive disposition. It leads to dangerous self-deception in almost all instances. Christians reply to those who attempt to rebuke them, "It is my temperament." Often mere habit. Should be checked. 3. Murmuring is a most unwelcome indulgence. It prejudices piety. Makes a Christian disagreeable. 4. Murmuring is a growing sin in the heart. Israelites — sullen at first — now suspicious. They openly find fault. 5. Murmuring is contagious, and propagates itself far and wide. II. THE PRESENT APPEARANCE OF THIS BIT OF HISTORY. 1. Man's perversity. Little vexations make us petulant and revengeful. 2. God's patience. Lord Bacon quotes an old Spanish writer as saying: "To return evil for good is devilish; to return good for good is human; but to return good for evil is even godlike." Certainly this is what our God often does; but it would not do for any of us to presume upon such wonderful long-suffering. In ancient history we are told that there was once a statue of Jupiter erected at Crete; but the Cretans were liars, and the maker of the stone image had fashioned it without ears. The exultant people may have been pleased to think they had a god who could not hear their falsehoods; but they soon found that a deity who had no ears to hear prevarications had no ears to hear prayers either. We must remember that our God knows all our wickedness, and bears with us for a while; but it is to test our obedience to His law. 3. Heaven's sufficiency is also illustrated here. For in the story the promise takes a very significant and beautiful form; God says He will "rain bread from heaven" for their need (see Psalm 78:22-25; Philippians 4:19). III. THE FORWARD REACH OF THIS BIT OF HISTORY. 1. It was designed to be a type of Christ.(1) It came down to earth from heaven, as He did.(2) Every man must take of it for himself as he would need to take his own food.(3) It would work an individual experience of the new life; the book of Wisdom says that in the day of it the manna tasted to every one as he pleased.(4) It was free and sufficient for all: the rich and the poor, the sick and the well, the young and the old.(5) It must be sought not once for all, but daily.(6) It must be eaten; it must become part of one's self.(7) It was exclusive: there was no other food so safe in the desert.(8) It would cease only when no longer needed. 2. It was accepted as a type by our Lord Jesus Christ (see John 6.). (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) 1. It is said to be miraculous food, that is, dew changed into bread. "The dew of heaven" promotes the fertility of the earth. During the wanderings of Israel through the wilderness, which is "no place of seed," the dew, without sowing, brought bread from heaven (ver. 4; Psalm 78:24; Psalm 105:40). So that the manna answers to the wine at the marriage of Cana. 2. The manna is the same food of the. desert still found in the peninsula of Sinai. This, of course, lands us in the region of mythical embellishment, and requires a degree of credulity which the writer does not possess. 3. The manna is a miracle of accretion, answering to the miraculous feeding of the multitude in the New Testament, and to the increase of meal and oil by Elijah in the Old. (J. I. Mombert, D. D.) 1. The tarfa exudes only small quantities. The Arabs could not live on it for a week. 2. The tarfa only exudes at certain seasons — March and April. 3. The tarfa does not yield its exudation regularly, even once a year. 4. The exudations of the tarfa come out from the branches of the tree, they do not come down from the air or sky. 5. The tarfa exudations are in composition and consistency somewhat like honey. They are quite unfit for grinding, or pounding, or baking, or boiling. 6. The taste of manna is said to have been as fresh oil (Numbers 11:8). No one who has tasted the tarfa-manna would compare it to oil. 7. The tarfa-manna does not stink, or breed worms, in a single night. 8. The tarfa-produce does not evaporate as soon as the sun arises (ver. 21). 9. Tarfa-manna does not give particular quantities on particular days. 10. The tarfamanna is purgative medicine, not food. 11. The Israelites knew well the tarfatree, but they did not recognize the manna. 12. Israel could not have subsisted so long on this one food. (J. Bailey, Ph. D.) ( C. H. Spurgeon.) (R. Newton.) 1. Thus both were the free, unsolicited gift of heaven, prompted by the sight of man's helplessness and man's misery. "Moses gave you not that bread from heaven," saith our Lord; "but My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven." But observe, the gift in either case was the unmerited bestowment of the Eternal Father; whether to nourish the physical life of those wilderness wanderers or to support the spiritual life of believers to the end of time. Jesus Christ is a gift, the eternal life is a gift, enlightening, converting grace is a gift. Human efforts could no more avail to procure these things than the sowing of coriander seed could produce a harvest of manna. 2. Again, this gift was to preserve life. "Ye have brought us forth into the wilderness," said the Israelites to Moses, "to kill this whole assembly with hunger." They saw nothing before them but certain death. The place was desert; a curse of barrenness and drought laid upon it. The whole is a picture of man in this wilderness-world. His soul perishes with hunger; he has the sentence of death within him, a prospect of death before him. But God has rained bread from heaven. Christ, the Wellspring of all spiritual life; Christ, the Source of every active and passive grace; Christ, the energizing Principle of all acceptable obedience. "Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead." It saved them not from the common lot of all men, this bread ye boast of, but "I am the living Bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever." 3. Trace this parallel further, in the universality of the gift. There were in that wilderness all diversities of character — masters and disciples, owners of flocks and keepers of flocks; rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, and rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: yet to all was to be given the same portion, "an omer to every man, according to the number in their tents." And in like manner, as far as concerns the offer of the blessing, Christ is a universal portion. (D. Moore, M. A.) (G. Wagner.) (Gleanings in Harvest Fields.) (J. R. Green's Short History.) September the Twenty-Eighth the Daily Manna Dining with a Pharisee. Sabbath Healing and Three Lessons Suggested by the Event. The Beauty and Glory of the Risen Body. Questions About the Nature and Perpetuity of the Seventh-Day Sabbath. Tithing The Personality of Power. Epistle xvii. To Felix, Bishop of Messana. How Subjects and Prelates are to be Admonished. 1 to Pray is as it were to be on Speaking Terms with Me... Appendix viii. Rabbinic Traditions About Elijah, the Forerunner of the Messiah The Deity of the Holy Spirit. Exodus |
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