MANNA Was a Shadow of the BREAD FROM HEAVEN, Jesus Christ

After the Hebrews escaped from slavery in Egypt circa 1446 BC, they wandered in the desert wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula for 40 years before making it to their earthly “promised land,” Canaan, which became Israel. Since there were 603,550 fighting men over the the age of 20 (Numbers 1:46), this places the total number of Hebrews at well over 2 million and possibly as many as 2.5-3 million. Modern scholars naturally consider this number fanciful since the Sinai Desert could never have supported so many people, let alone for 40 years.

However, this supposed conundrum is plainly explained in Exodus 16 and Numbers 11. The LORD miraculously rained down “bread from heaven” (Exodus 16:4), which the Hebrews called manna, derived from their understandable response to it, “What is it?” (16:14 & 16:31). This honey-tasting, vitamin-chocked flake-like food from God is what the Hebrews existed on for those four decades, along with dairy products from their herds and plentiful quail on two separate occasions (Exodus 16:13 & Numbers 11:31).

Some 1472 years later, Jesus Christ had a discussion with a crowd of Israelites who were following him around because he had just provided food for thousands of people,* which was incredible (John 6:1-15).

* The 5000 cited in 6:10 only referred to men, which means there were thousands more women & children.

Here’s the discussion:

²⁵When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

²⁶Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. ²⁷Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

²⁸Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

²⁹Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

³⁰So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? ³¹Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”

³²Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴“Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

³⁵Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. ³⁷All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. ³⁸For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. ³⁹And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁰For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

⁴¹At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴²They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

⁴³“Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. ⁴⁴“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁵It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. ⁴⁶No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. ⁵⁰But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. ⁵¹I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

⁵²Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

⁵³Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. ⁵⁵For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ⁵⁶Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. ⁵⁷Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” ⁵⁹He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

John 6:25-59

Several truths can be extracted from this discourse:

The crowds that followed Christ were motivated by superficial desire for free food and did not grasp his true nature and purpose.
The Messiah links the manna that the Hebrews existed on in the arid Sinai wilderness to a greater “bread from heaven” that enables those who believe to exist forever in a paradisal New Heaven & New Earth (2 Peter 3:13) as opposed to 40 years wandering around the desert in a fallen world.
The manna that God provided for the Hebrews after they escaped slavery in Egypt was temporary and perished, a mere shadow of the true Bread from Heaven, Jesus Christ, who provides eternal life for all those who believe (John 3:16 & 3:36).
The Hebrews wanted to know what works were required to earn everlasting life, which they felt they were able to do. The Messiah said the only ‘work’ required was faith in the One the Father sent (verse 29), which corresponds to John 3:16, 3:36 and Ephesians 2:8-9.
The Lord referred to himself as both the “bread from heaven” (verse 32) and the “bread of life” (verses 35 & 48).
In the two “bread of life” statements — “I AM the bread of life” — Christ acknowledged that he was I AM, aka God (Exodus 3:14), which explains why the religious Jews, including the Pharisees, attempted to stone him to death after his “I AM” statement in John 8:58.
There are seven times total where Christ said “I AM” linked to specific things in a figurative sense, like “I AM the bread of life” (verses 35 & 48). The six others are: “I AM light of this world” (8:12), “I AM the gate” (10:7 & 10:9), “I AM the good shepherd” (10:11 & 10:14), “I AM the resurrection and the life” (11:25), “I AM the way, the truth and the life” (14:6) and “I AM the vine” (15:1 & 15:5).
Jesus’ references to “eating the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking his blood” are obviously figurative and not literal (verses 53-58); after all, would God seriously want us to become cannibals to attain eternal life? Moreover, once Christ’s body was entombed, resurrected in a glorified state and ascended to the right hand of the Father in Heaven, how exactly could believers throughout the Church Age literally feed on his body and drink his blood? Obviously we couldn’t, so “eating the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking his blood” metaphorically refers to accepting Christ’s sacrificial death. The Lord used this peculiar analogy because eating & drinking are necessary for physical life in this fallen world; just so, “eating” & “drinking” the Bread from Heaven — the Bread of Life — are necessary for eternal life in the New Heaven & New Earth (2 Peter 3:13).
These references to “eating the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking his blood” do not refer to the The Lord’s Supper / Communion / Eucharist for two reasons: (1) that particular ceremony had not yet been instituted and (2) if Christ was referring to the Lord’s Supper that would mean anyone who simply partook of this ritual would have eternal life, regardless of belief, which obviously isn’t true (John 3:16, 3:36 and Ephesians 2:8-9).

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