In the Bible, manna was an amazing provision of God for His people as they wandered in the wilderness.  On their way to the Promised Land, He fulfilled a daily promise to provide for them along the way.  His Promise was not just a future destination.  He also promised His daily presence, guidance, and protection.

You can read about the manna experience in Exodus 16 and Numbers 11.  Each day, God would miraculously provide a day’s worth of manna on the ground.  All anyone had to do was pick it up and use it.  But only enough for that day.  Any leftovers would get worms.  God wanted them to have fresh manna each day.  

After a while, the people grew weary of eating the same thing every day.  So God gave them quail to eat instead. Very soon the birds made them sick (Numbers 11:31-34), and they realized God’s manna was better.  I can’t imagine why they grew weary of the manna.  According to the description in Numbers 11:8, manna tasted like a doughnut!  Imagine that!  Quail is tasty, but doughnuts from God every morning!  Who gets tired of that?

The Real Manna

In John 6, Jesus had an unusual exchange with people the next day after the miraculous feeding of the 5000.  He challenged them to be less concerned with physical bread and more concerned with the eternal bread God was sending from heaven.

So immediately, the crowd turned the discussion to manna. And Jesus told them that HE, in fact, is the Bread of Life.  He was pointing out that God’s provision of daily manna was a foreshadowing of the eternal Bread of Life.  The wilderness wanderers had to get fresh manna each day because they grew hungry again on the next day.  Manna only satisfied them for so long, and after one day it got buggy and wormy.  But Jesus, the Bread of Life, ultimately satisfies once and for all the spiritual hunger we all experience.

The crowd failed to make the connection.  Jesus used the physical (manna) to symbolize the spiritual (Bread of Life).  They couldn’t get past the spiritual imagery to understand His teaching.  God sent to their generation the ultimate Manna in Jesus.  But they preferred to eat the quail of legalism, self-sufficiency, and tradition.

Spiritual Malnutrition

What does all of this have to do with us today? I believe most people today are walking around spiritually malnourished.  And I see three spiritual diet mistakes we make.

First, many people are trying to live off of yesterday’s manna.  Their spiritual diet consists of the Bible stories they heard as a child or a recent sermon they heard.  They “eat” semi-consistently at church by listen to a sermon or a Sunday school lesson.  Then eat nothing spiritually until their next visit.  Yesterday’s manna grows stale, wormy, and buggy.  We get empty really quick.

Second, some people try to exist spiritually on regurgitated manna.  They “feast” on book others have written on the Bible or spiritual topics rather than God’s Word itself.  Just like hatchlings in a nest open wide for momma’s regurgitated worms, they settle for what somebody else heard from God.  Much of what is marketed as “Bible study” today does not help us feed ourselves on the manna in God’s Word.  Filling in blanks and watching videos do not equal hearing God speak personally to us from the pages of Scripture.

Third, a lot of people choose to eat quail instead of manna.  I recently observed several friends share on social media from their daily “devotional.”  The thoughts they shared were nice and not necessarily bad.  But they were little more than encouragements to live better or feel better about ourselves.  Most did not even loosely base their thoughts in a Bible passage.  Sadly, many sermons I see these days come nowhere near Biblical exposition.  They are nothing more than religious themed “TED Talk.” (Click the link if you don’t know what a TED Talk is). They are full of religious soundbites that evoke an emotional response, but lack Bibical authority.  They are less like manna and more like an energy bar.  You may get an initial rush of energy, but there is no substance for the long haul.

Jesus, Manna, and the Bible

If you have stayed with me this far, here is my challenge. Go manna-picking for yourself.  Everyday. Get into your Bible and let the God of the Universe speak to you.

As you read His Word every day, look for the Bread of Life – Jesus.  Ask yourself what the passage teaches you about the work of Jesus.  How does the good news of the life, death, resurrection, and soon return of Jesus affect your life?  What about God’s plan of redemption and restoration do you see in the passage?  Where do you fit into this plan?  How has Jesus redeemed you?  How is He restoring you?

Go ahead.  Try it.  You might even want to have a doughnut to remind you of the manna as you fellowship with THE MANNA.

For more information on how you can effectively study the Bible for yourself, visit jimduggan.org/bible-study