Today, the church is sojourning in the wilderness. How do we make our way through this journey? Those who have a life relationship with God see the signposts that lead us station by station toward the good land. Why are some lost in the wilderness? Because they do not have God’s very specific leading as a milestone. Or, they go through the Lord’s stations without having a true interaction with God — a life relationship. They’re still as unsaved as the Egyptians. But the moment we leave the world, if we want to complete this journey without getting lost or perishing along the way, we have to see the Lord’s hand and very specific provision at every stage.
After their exodus out of Egypt, the children of Israel were making their way through the wilderness of Sin toward Sinai. They had run out of food and were murmuring against Moses and Aaron: “And the children of Israel said to them, If only we had died by the hand of Jehovah in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole congregation with hunger” (16:3). The Israelites had barely left Egypt and yet had already forgotten why. They had a taste for Egyptian food and longed for a very physical, fleshly satisfaction. How does God deal with His own people in such a condition?
And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, / I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, At twilight you will eat flesh, and in the morning you will be filled with bread; and you shall know that I am Jehovah your God. (16:11-12)
The evening before the manna appeared, the quails had come to satisfy the Israelites’ desire for flesh (vv. 3, 8, 12). The Lord heard the Israelites’ murmurings, their insatiable desire for the “meat” of the world — of Egyptian life. The Lord allowed them to eat according to their taste, even bringing the quail by the wind (Exo. 16:13; Num. 11:31-32). Seemingly, He satisfied the worldly taste for meat they desired, but He did not stop there; there is a specific way the Lord deals with His people. Against the dark backdrop of the people’s murmuring and fleshly desires, something new comes forth in the freshness of the morning — a secret for our own wilderness journey: manna.
And when the layer of dew lifted, there upon the surface of the wilderness were fine round flakes, fine as the frost on the earth. / And when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, What is it? For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, It is the bread which Jehovah has given you to eat. (Exo. 16:14-15)
The bread the Lord provided did not come like the quail that the children of Israel were longing for. The manna came in the morning — after the night. It came in a mysterious way and in a mysterious form; in the morning, around the camp was a layer of dew. When the Israelites found themselves in such a stubborn, sinful, rebellious, seemingly unchangeable and hopeless condition, a solution came down from heaven. And the children of Israel saw it and said to one another, “What is it?” This is the very scenario of the Lord’s recovery. The flesh of the “night” reflects the true condition of our Egyptian craving and values. But in the morning — in the light — there is something of a different nature descending from heaven that causes us to exclaim, “What is it?” Just as Jehovah’s Spirit hovered over the surface of the water in Genesis 1, here we also see how the layer of dew from heaven settled over the camp, yielding something entirely new and unknown to us to change our taste buds and reconstitute our being with its heavenly nature.
Today we may not be in a physical wilderness, but as believers in the church, we, too, are sojourning in the wilderness to reach the good land. We, too, must change our diets. We, too, must find the true source of sustenance as we traverse this era between the Lord’s first coming and His second coming. What is the manna to us today? It is Jesus Christ in the form of His Word coming to us, descending from heaven in our spirit. Manna in the Old Testament is a picture of Christ Himself who became the true bread from heaven — the bread of life — given to satisfy the hunger of His people in the wilderness (John 6:33, 48-51). By nature, manna was something inconspicuous, “fine,” or rather “low,” that had to be looked for on the ground. According to the original Hebrew, “round” has the sense of having been “peeled.” The manna was “like coriander seed, white; and its taste was like wafers made with honey” (16:31). The Hebrew root word for “coriander” also carries the meaning of “cutting.” This manna is Christ, who was incarnated on earth in a secret, lowly way (Luke 2:7). He was processed, peeled, and cut for us so that we can eat Him and be empowered to follow after Him. He was One who was injured, yet pure; His words were both sweet and cutting to those who would eat them. He comes in the form of fine round flakes, in a processed, perfect, and peeled form.
But this manna is not just something to appreciate or admire. When the children of Israel saw the manna and asked, “What is it?,” Moses’ reply was simple: “It is the bread which Jehovah has given you to eat.” It was not given for us to just collect or examine, but to eat. God gave His people a precise way to collect and eat this manna, and we see in Exodus 16 that through this process, God’s people were exposed so that they could be transformed. Each day the children of Israel were to gather “an omer a head” and were not to leave any of it until the morning. Yet “they did not listen to Moses, and some men left part of it until the morning; and it bred worms and stank.” Additionally, any manna that was not collected early in the morning melted in the sun’s heat (Exo. 16:16-21). Jehovah said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments” which are His words, “and My law?” which is also the Lord’s speaking (16:28): “Then Jehovah said to Moses, I will now 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 or not they will walk in My law.” There was something inside the Israelites and their relationship with their God that had to be dealt with in this process of eating manna. The Lord had arranged such a specific and unexpected way for His people to be transformed from their Egyptian nature. They had to look for this divine food, and not only that, but gather and eat it according to the Lord’s way.
The same is true for us today. Do we recognize the Lord’s provision and walk in His law? Or do we murmur about the limitations given to us by the Lord? Partaking of the manna outwardly is not enough. When will the manna be spoiled, stinking, filled with worms? When we say, “Lord, I kept your words. I did what the church asked me to do,” and yet we are bitter inside. That kind of eating will not bring you into the Sabbath. Those who do outward tasks without getting Christ as their constitution completely miss the point of this food. How long are we going to insist on our own way? The eating of manna can never be bitter. It must be fresh; it must be transformative; it must be Christ incarnated and enjoyed by us.
Those who gathered in God’s way could enter into the meaning of this divine eating so that they were not only those with the open manna but also the hidden manna — the manna that would last eternally in the golden pot in the Ark. The goal of the Lord’s provision to His people is that they may be fed unto a true and powerful transformation to lead them through the wilderness. After such a fleshly night, the Lord is turning us to a higher source and constitution, to rely solely on Him. God’s children are to feast on Christ and become transformed by changing our eating from the Egyptian food of the world to the divine life of Christ. But it also required the Israelites to see, gather, and eat this provision accordingly. The manna is the Lord Himself, bringing His people back to Him on their wilderness journey. Our true solution is turning to heaven — to take in something from heaven into our beings to transform us. In the morning, to our surprise, we find that something was left upon the surface of the wilderness: a fine round flake, perfect in shape, lowly in position, coming to us in processed form. It is Jesus Christ. The Lord comes in this surprising way to us, as His tangible Word, speaking to us to renew and transform our vessels for His purpose.
Eating manna according to God’s way is not a “rule” to follow, but the open way to bring us into the Sabbath. This is why Moses said to the people, “This is what Jehovah has spoken, Tomorrow is a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy Sabbath to Jehovah. Bake what you will bake, and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside for yourselves to be kept until the morning” (v. 23). The point is not whether the Israelites boil or bake, but to be prepared and enter into the Sabbath rest! This experience of Sabbath ultimately brings us into the full experience of the jubilee with Christ’s coming (Luke 4:19). Today in the church era, between two dispensations, Christ as the manna transports us, strengthens us, and brings us into the experience of Christ as the jubilee to renew and constitute our being so that we can fulfill our journey. This food prepares us to enter into rest; in it is a power to bring us into His promise.
This way of eating manna is the only way we can survive through the church era. Today, the world is filled with war, conflict and evil. Everything is dark. Everything is void. Everything is full of negativity. Who has the solution to today’s pandemic? Who has the solution to the conflict in Ukraine? These situations provide a vivid backdrop for us to see the reality humanity is facing. What institution, group, body, government, system, or organization holds the truth of human life — the answer to all these negative situations? Only the church. It is God’s people who take this way of eating manna to survive and travail through the wilderness to arrive at the good land. Today in the church era, if we see the present situation with clarity, we will be reconstituted by our daily gathering and eating of the fresh manna.
Amidst the corrupted scenario of this age, there is hope; there is a dew. This is manna. In His mercy, the Lord has left us something that is edible. We can be refreshed by the dew — we can receive the Lord’s provision and not perish; even more, we can be reconstituted and transformed by our eating. “Lord, this is what we are expecting every day, not a predictable day in the world, but a day with Your dew, Your mercy, Your provision, Your transformation process. Brood upon us, Lord. May You be everything — be the fine, round flakes around the entire camp. You Yourself are the manna — Your Spirit in Your word. Lord, You have come once to bring the Jubilee to us with Your presence, and You are coming again to bring Your kingdom (Matt. 12:8; Luke 6:5; Rev. 11:15). Lord, You are the only way to transport from Your first coming to Your second coming. The Sabbath is near; Your second coming day is near. We will go out to gather that one omerful of Your presence — of Yourself — to fill up our cup on the earth.”
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from gatherings on 2/11/2022, 2/13/2022, & 3/13/2022, not reviewed by the speaker.)