Bread from Heaven (Exodus 16:14-21)
	As Israel wandered in the wilderness, God provided for their needs. Among other things, He gave them a special kind of bread to eat, which they came to call Manna. The Hebrew term “manna” (man – hu) is a question: “What is it?” Verse 25 explains that they did not know what this substance was. Each day they gathered enough for that day, but twice as much before the Sabbath day so that they didn’t have to work on that day. This was a test to see if they would trust God to provide for them each day. When some did not trust him, they found that the left-over manna which they thought to keep for the next day became wormy and smelly. But it didn’t do that on the Sabbath day. How about us? Do we trust God to provide for our needs? Are we content with what He sees fit to supply?
	Verse 31 tells us that Manna was white in appearance and tasted like wafers made with honey. Skeptics, as they try to explain away the miracles of the Bible, have claimed that this substance was honeydew, a sweet, sticky material excreted by aphids and other insects onto the leaves of plants. Can anyone seriously entertain the notion that aphids in the wilderness produced a sufficient quantity of honey-dew every day for forty years for over two million people to gather and eat two or three quarts per person? The Lord Himself called the substance “bread from heaven” (16:4); I see no reason to doubt His word.
	When the Jews challenged Jesus to work a miracle equivalent to the manna in the desert, Jesus told them, “My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:32, 33). He went on to clarify if vv. 48-51, “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
	Some have falsely concluded that this was a reference to the bread on the Lord’s Table being miraculously transformed into His actual flesh, and the fruit of the vine into His actual blood. I hope all of us recognize that eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking His blood refers not to cannibalism, but to believing and obeying His word, being totally devoted to following and serving Him.
	Are you totally devoted to following Him. When someone is a sports fanatic, we may say, “He eats, drinks, and sleeps baseball.” We don’t mean he literally consumes wooden bats and leather balls, but that baseball is the dominant concern in his life. Is Jesus the dominant concern in your life? Do you eat and drink Christianity?
	--Joe Slater (Justin, TX)