Bread from Heaven

“I will rain down bread from heaven for you.” — Exodus 16:4

The Israelites were free. But now they were walking through a hot, dry desert. There were no shops and no farms, and soon their food began to run out.

And the people began to grumble. “If only we had died in Egypt!” they said to Moses and Aaron. “There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But you have brought us out into this desert to starve us all to death!”

That wasn’t really how it had been in Egypt, was it? They had been slaves! But when people grumble, they often forget the bad things about the past and remember only the good.

God heard their grumbling. And instead of being angry, He was kind.

“I will rain down bread from heaven for you,” God told Moses. “Each day the people are to go out and gather enough for that day. On the sixth day they are to gather twice as much.”

That evening, flocks of birds called quail flew in and covered the camp. There was meat to eat!

And in the morning, when the dew had gone, there were thin white flakes all over the ground, like frost. The Israelites had never seen anything like it. “What is it?” they asked each other. In their language, that is “Man hu?” So they called it manna, which means “What is it?”

Moses said, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat.”

The manna was white, and it tasted like wafers made with honey. Every morning the people went out and gathered as much as they needed, one jar for each person in the family. Those who gathered a lot didn’t have too much, and those who gathered a little didn’t have too little. Everyone had just enough.

“Don’t keep any until the morning,” Moses told them. But some people didn’t listen. They kept some anyway. And by the next morning, it was full of maggots and smelled terrible!

On the sixth day, everyone gathered twice as much. “Tomorrow is a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord,” Moses said. And this time, the manna they kept overnight didn’t go bad at all. On the seventh day some people went out to gather manna anyway. But there wasn’t any. God wanted His people to rest.

God fed the Israelites with manna every single day for forty years, until they reached the land He had promised them. Every morning, there it was, a gift from heaven, just enough for that day.

God wanted His people to learn to trust Him one day at a time. They couldn’t store up food for next week. They had to trust that God would give them what they needed, each new morning.

Looking ahead to Jesus: Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never hunger” (John 6:35). The manna kept people alive for a day. Jesus gives life that lasts for ever.

Read it in your Bible: Exodus 16

Dear God, thank you for giving me my food each day. Please help me not to grumble, but to trust you for what I need, one day at a time. Amen.