Have you ever eaten angel-food cake? What did it taste like? Was it chocolate flavored? Then it wasn’t real angel’s food. Did it taste like honey-graham wafers? That’s coming a bit closer. Did mother make it out of a boxed mix? Then it wasn’t angel food. Was it as luscious and lovely on the second day as it was on the day it was made? Nope, that wasn’t angel food. Of course, I’m being a bit facetious.
In Psalm 78, Asaph was criticizing Israel for her unbelief and rebellion against the Lord. Listen to what he said in verse 23 – “Though (God) had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them the corn of heaven, Man did eat angel’s food; he sent them meat to the full…” And yet they continue in their sins against God and His gracious blessings. The point is that Israel’s poet said that they had been given “angel’s food.” Betty Crocker was not the first to make angel food, nor was it Pillsbury or Chef Boyardee. The Lord gave Israel a small, round, white colored dollop of food, which the people couldn’t identify. It probably wasn’t actually food eaten by angel, but perhaps they helped make or distribute it.
Please turn to Exodus 16:1-18; 31-35.
Our Saviour uses manna as an illustration of Himself, exactly as I wish to do this evening.
Manna portrays the NATURE of the Saviour.
It describes first, the nature our Lord’s COMING into this world – His incarnation. What was the condition of the people of Israel before the advent of the manna? Would you say that the people were holy and righteous; happy and God-pleasing? Israel was in sin – blood red sin – even ready to lynch the man whom God had sent to pastor them. They were one month out of Egypt; twelve miles out of hell and ready to return. God’s manna was sent to feed them even as they treaded water under waves of iniquity.
And similarly, the Saviour came in a day of sin to combat the effects of sin. I John 3:8 – “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” Christ became incarnate to put an end to your lying, and my pride and our unjust hatred.
Were those Hebrews looking for that manna? Were they expecting it? The scriptures doesn’t say that they were. And when the Saviour appeared on the southern horizon of Jerusalem, who were expecting Him? Anna and Simeon were about the only two people expecting to see the Messiah. Even the little town of Bethlehem, how still it seemed to lie. Have you ever been caught in a hailstorm while driving? It sounds like machine-gun fire. But watching it in your yard, sometimes it seems like it’s popping up out of the grass. You don’t see it so much as it quickly falls, but you can when it more slowly pops back up. There are some similarities between manna and hail; but not in its arrival. The manna came in the midst of the night, without fanfare – no drum roll or trumpets. And isn’t that basically the way that the Saviour arrived – angels not withstanding?
The manna also declares the nature of the PERSON of Christ. How would you express the difference between Graham wafers and T-bone steak? Would you use words like “small,” “cheap,” and “plain” to describe the wafers? “Sweet” would be a proper word, I suppose. And wouldn’t some of those same words apply to the Lord Jesus, especially when compared to Joel Osteen and Rick Warren? If the Saviour was here, would He be living in a $10 million dollar house and flying around in His own personal jet? I don’t believe that He’d have a TV ministry, nor be selling popular books – unpopular perhaps. Israel’s manna was a picture of the person of our Lord in His humility, not His splendor.
Of course that manna was the food of two million people for forty years. It was tasty, nutritious, vitamin packed, solid every day, every meal food. It was good enough for the baby, the growing adolescent, the working man and the old sick man. It was perfect food in every possible way. If anything could depict the Lord that was it – it took a miracle to illustrate our Lord. Christ was, and still is, flawless, sinless, perfect – the infinite God-man.
The manna was like the morning dew. Moist, luscious, watery dew was the way the Lord refreshed the Garden of Eden before the fall. It meant life to the garden, just as the Lord is the Water of Life to the soul. The manna of heaven depicts the person of our Saviour.
And it displays the WOUNDS of the Saviour as well. Exodus 16:31 speaks of manna, comparing it to the coriander seed. When the seed of the coriander is crushed it makes a flavorful spice. But it was really not much good until it was broken. Again, like our Redeemer – perfect in every way – but with no lasting effect on us or for us until He was broken. But the scripture says that manna was only “like” coriander. Yet still, the way that it was usually prepared, it was milled to flour and made into cakes. On the cross our Saviour was, indeed, milled into powder. He was striped of every human dignity; His respect was stolen. He endured genuine pain and real abuse for our sins. God the Father let Him shiver in the unusually cold, clammy darkness. They ran a spear into His naked side, just as mom might have done with the manna. The Lord Jesus was certainly right to use the manna as a picture of Himself.
Manna is also a picture of the NEED it meets in the sinner.
For example, it was totally undeserved – it was given to unthankful, ungrateful people. And salvation has never yet been given to someone deserving to be saved. The man deserving of God’s grace will have to be supernaturally born, and that ain’t gunna happen. When God chooses and saves a sou,l it is for no other reason but to please Himself.
The stupid, rebellious nature of the sinner means that God’s manna is always totally unsought – undesired. Israel didn’t ask God, “Please Lord, send us some never-heard-of new food.” When it came, the people asked one another, “What is this? What is it? – Manna.” Until the Lord first puts the desire for redemption in the heart of a person, he’ll never ask for it. “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.”
But that is in spite of the fact that the need is urgent – we are all dying – spiritually starving to death. Israel was in desperate straits – they were in the midst of a desert. There weren’t trout jumping into their frying pans; there weren’t orange groves and banana trees everywhere. Maybe if there had only been a handful of citizens, they might have survived out there, but not when in the millions. Left to themselves, Israel would have fallen victim to mother nature – the accursed mother nature. “There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.”
And that manna didn’t stop for forty years, meeting every minimum daily nutritional requirement. In that way it portrays the way the Lord Jesus Christ meets the eternal needs of our souls. There isn’t anything to add to His salvation – it is perfect from the beginning.
That manna was universal in the sense that it was offered to everyone. Pity on the person who thought they could live on fried snake meat. Everyone needed this manna, and it was available to all. Furthermore manna was as near as the front door of every Israelite tent. But like the gift of God’s grace, it could be ignored by those who hated God and His grace. Those who would rather have remained in Egypt could have starved to death if they had chosen. “How shall we escape if we neglect to so great salvation.”
Manna pictures the salvation found in our Saviour.
And it displays a couple important parts of OUR CHRISTIAN LIVES as well.
There was the fact that it had to be gathered each and every morning. That reminds us that our relationship to the Lord isn’t just a Sunday only affair. We can’t hoard up spiritual points and expect the Lord to be pleased with us on Thursday for what we think that we did to serve him last Sunday. There is no Christian alive who doesn’t need prayer – morning, noon and night. We will not be a strong as we ought to be without our daily feast upon the Word of God.
And what time was it that Israel was to collect their daily ration of manna? It was to be gathered first thing in the morning, before the heat and cares of the day caused the manna to evaporate. If the Israelite let the sun get hot on the manna, it became useless as food. Don’t the influences of our day very often spoil or destroy our spiritual lives? We can’t afford to let that happen.
Again, it met the needs of everyone – the young to the very old. It didn’t matter how strong or weak the person was, they still needed that daily manna. It was sufficient, suitable, satisfying, sustaining and sure.
If tonight’s tiny meal is all the manna you have had today, no wonder you’re feeling a little weak and faint.