What was manna?

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

When God led the Israelites out of Egypt and into the wilderness towards the Promised Land, there was not enough food to sustain them (Exodus 16:1–3). God miraculously provided manna, a wafer-thin, semi-sweet, bread-like substance (Exodus 16:31). He covered the ground with it like dew every morning (Exodus 16:13–14) except on the Sabbaths (Exodus 16:25–26) for forty years until they entered the Promised Land (Joshua 5:12). They were commanded only to gather what they needed for that day. To teach them to trust His daily provision, if they kept manna overnight, it would spoil (Exodus 16:20). The exception was Fridays. Those days they gathered two days’ worth of manna (Exodus 16:22) because there would be none on the Sabbath. That manna would last for both days without spoiling (Exodus 16:24). Manna was God’s gift to preserve the Israelites through their wilderness journeys. Jesus later referred to Himself as the Bread that the Father sent (John 6:32–33). Unlike manna, which provided life for only a day, Jesus brings eternal life (John 6:51). God’s use of manna to teach the Israelites to trust Him for their daily needs reminds us that everything we have comes from God and that we must also trust God with our daily needs.

FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT

• After God led the Israelites from Egypt into the wilderness, the people began complaining because there was no food, saying, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (Exodus 16:1–3). The wilderness was a largely deserted area with little food, not nearly enough for the vast number of Israelites.
• Through Moses, the LORD told the people, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily” (Exodus 16:4–5). Manna is that “bread from heaven.” It is later described as, “like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey” (Exodus 16:31). It blanketed the ground with the dew, being “a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground” (Exodus 16:13–14).
• God provided it to sustain the Israelites. However, He also gave it to “test them, whether they will walk in my law or not” (Exodus 16:4). He did so by setting out rules for when and how much manna could be collected.
• He said that they should only gather “a day’s portion” (Exodus 16:4). They were not to hoard the manna, as that would show they trusted in the food supply, not God. Some disobeyed. When they tried keeping it overnight, “it bred worms and stank” (Exodus 16:20).
• However, the command regarding gathering it for the Sabbaths (the seventh day) was the exception. As God commanded, “On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each” (Exodus 16:22). That manna lasted two days, not spoiling in one night like the other manna (Exodus 16:24).  Moses said of the manna they had held over night to the Sabbath, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none” (Exodus 16:25–26).
• Just like some disobeyed and tried to keep the manna overnight during the week, others didn’t store manna on Friday, and “On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none” (Exodus 16:27). The LORD responded, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? See! The LORD has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day” (Exodus 16:28–29).
• God continued faithfully providing this miraculous food supply for the entire forty years they were in the wilderness. Shortly after arriving in the Promised Land, we read, “While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho. And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year” (Joshua 5:10–12). Once they were in a land where they could produce food, God ceased providing the manna.

FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT

• Jesus used the manna as an illustration to explain Himself. He corrected the first-century Jews who attributed the manna to Moses (John 6:31), saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven” (John 6:32).
• He then transitioned from the temporary, daily manna to Himself, saying, “For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:33). They asked for the bread, to which Jesus clarified, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:34–35).
• The difference between the manna and Jesus was that manna only temporarily sustained life, whereas Jesus provides eternal life: “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:49–51).
• Note: Manna is also used and alluded to elsewhere in the New Testament. For example, it is used to metaphorically refer to preservation that comes from God (Revelation 2:17), and the need to rely on God for daily sustenance is a hallmark of the Lord’s Prayer and likely an allusion to how manna was the Israelites' “daily bread” in the wilderness (Matthew 6:11).

IMPLICATIONS FOR TODAY

Manna was a special provision for the Israelites at a specific period in their history. Though we will likely never receive food miraculously like that, we still receive everything we have from God (James 1:17).

God has given us our jobs so we can earn the money we need to buy our food. He works in the hearts of those with much to help those with little, so that they might meet their daily needs. He gives us families so that we can be stronger together and support one another. He gives rain so that crops grow (Acts 14:17), and meat for sustenance (Genesis 9:3). In these and many other ways, God provides for needs. God also created us to need these things. He created us to need to rely on Him so that we would turn to Him.

When Jesus taught the disciples to pray, He told them to ask God for their daily needs (Matthew 6:11). He did not mean that if we fail to do so, God will withhold His good gifts. Neither did He teach this as a promise that everyone who prays will never go hungry. Rather, He taught this so that we would remind ourselves that we need Him to exist (Acts 17:28).

Right now, why don’t you thank God for what you have? As you do, also show your dependence on Him by asking Him to give what you need to get through today. Unlike the Israelites who tried to store up more manna than they needed, don’t worry about tomorrow’s needs (Matthew 6:31–34). Trust in God’s care, one day at a time.

UNDERSTAND

• Manna was a miraculous, bread-like substance that tasted like honey wafers, which God provided to the Israelites while they were in the wilderness.
• Manna was designed to teach daily dependence on God.
• Jesus identified Himself as the true bread from heaven, who gives eternal life to all who come to Him.

REFLECT

• How does the daily nature of manna help inform your own understanding of what trusting God for "daily bread" means?
• What area of your life are you tempted to worry about tomorrow instead of trusting God to provide what you need today?
• How can you be grateful for and be a good steward of God's provision in your life without hoarding it?

ENGAGE

• What does the Israelites’ temptation to hoard manna reveal about the human struggle to trust God’s provision?
• How does Jesus’ connection between manna and Himself deepen your understanding of what it means for Him to be the “Bread of Life”?
• What does it look like to live out the Lord’s Prayer’s request for “daily bread”?