And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of Heaven.
The manna in the wilderness
That this miraculous provision was designed to be an emblem of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of those precious blessings of which He is the Author, is evident from His own declaration “I am the living Bread,” etc.
1. The manna in the wilderness was the bread which the Lord gave the Israelites to save them from perishing. Even so Christ crucified is the heavenly bread which God hath given to “save our souls alive”; to preserve them from that eternal decay, which, through sin, would otherwise have been their portion, and to nourish them to eternal life.
2. The manna descended freely, as the gift of God; and so the blessings of salvation through Christ are offered freely in the Gospel. Desert is no more required in the one case than in the other. “By grace ye are saved,” etc. The Gospel salvation is no less freely offered than it has been provided. It is a gift for which no price is demanded, and which looks for nothing in its recipient but want and misery. Though unspeakably precious, it is placed within the reach of all; and if we do but ask in faith, it will be made ours. Those, therefore, who refuse to partake of it are entirely without excuse.
3. The manna was suitable alike to all; and so the blessings of Christ’s purchase are precisely such as are suited to the circumstances of His people. In their natural condition they are hungering and thirsting after true happiness; but nothing in the wide range of the universe can ever satisfy the cravings of their immortal spirits. But that satisfaction which all created objects are unable to yield is to be found in Jesus Christ--“He that cometh to Me,” He declared, “shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.” How diversified soever their circumstances, they find in Him that spiritual food which is fitted to satisfy all the wants of their souls. Are they guilty? “In Him they have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Are they estranged from God? They are “made accepted in the Beloved.” Do they need deliverance from the power of sin? He “gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify us unto Himself, a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Are they doomed to die, and moulder away into dust? He “is the resurrection and the life,” and has promised to “redeem them from death, and ransom them from the power of the grave.”
4. It was necessary for the Israelites to gather the manna, though freely given of God; and it is required of us that we believe to the saving of our souls. Nor is the faith by which we obtain a personal interest in Christ’s salvation a mere transient act. As the Israelites gathered the manna daily, so we must be daily feeding upon the heavenly Bread offered to us in the Gospel. Our whole life must be a life of faith upon the Son of God. And blessed be God! we may always have the grace that we need.
5. As the manna sustained the Israelites from day to day, so are they supported and strengthened who live by faith upon the Son of God. By believing on Him who is the living Bread that cometh down from heaven, they dwell in Him, and He dwells in them. He that eateth this Bread shall live for ever.
6. The appointed mode of distributing the manna among the Israelites is not without its significance. Some gathered more, and others less, according to their activity, but all received a plentiful supply. So believers receive liberally out of the “exceeding abundant grace” of Christ. “It pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell”; and if we only come to Him, we shall receive “out of His fulness grace for grace,” abundance of every kind of heavenly and spiritual blessings.
7. A portion of the manna was laid up in the golden vessels of the tabernacle, where it remained for ages without suffering corruption. Even so, Jesus Christ liveth for ever in the heavenly sanctuary, as the “hidden manna,” which He promises for the support and nourishment of His conflicting and overcoming people. And as He is represented in Scripture as “dwelling in their hearts by faith, the hope of glory,” should not the purity of the golden vessels, in which the manna was hidden, teach us to cleanse our hearts from all sin and corruption, that they may be fit receptacles for Jesus Christ our heavenly manna? (P. Grant.)
The manna a type of Christ
We observe, first, that the food was supernatural. The Israelites were sustained by nourishment furnished them immediately from heaven. And did not this represent that the food of the soul was to be holy and good, and that the bread of life, whereof all men must eat who would not everlastingly die, must descend from heaven and fall around the camp?--that the person of Christ should not be produced in the ordinary course of nature, and that His birth should not be as the birth of other men? The manna, in the next place, sufficed for the whole multitude; there was enough for all, and it was suited to all, so that the old and young, the rich and the poor, partook of the same food and were equally benefited. Jesus Christ hath given Himself for the ransom of the world, and there is not an individual in the wide family of man for whom provision has not been made in the rich supplies of the Gospel. It may be further observed that the manna, before it was eaten, was ground in a mill, or broken in a mortar; so ere Christ could become the food of the world He was bruised and put to grief, became a curse and was pressed down by the weight of God’s wrath against sin. There is something so remarkable in the direction that the manna should be used on the day it was gathered. In spiritual things God supplies our wants as they occur; He does not give strength till He gives the trial, “As is thy day, so shall thy strength be.” If I may use such an expression, we have no stock in hand, but when the necessity arises we must apply afresh to the Saviour; yet practically we often endeavour to set aside that law. We distress ourselves with thinking that if such and such troubles overtake us we can never endure them, thus calculating on to-day’s strength for to-morrow’s trials; or because we have been diligent in prayer, and feel we have obtained a communication of grace, we are apt to suppose with the psalmist, “that our mountain stands strong and can never be moved.” All this is but laying by till to-morrow the manna of to-day: and white experience teaches us that we cannot carry with us the provision, but must have recourse in every want to the Saviour, we learn the lesson which is typically taught in the inability of the Israelites to secure out of what God gave them on one day sustenance for the following. There is, however, another striking particular in which the manna was typical. It fell only when the Israelites were in the wilderness, ceasing as soon as they crossed Jordan and reached the promised land. And is not the type to be also traced in the food being given throughout the journey, but withheld on its completion? We shall have no more need of sacraments when once we are admitted into the kingdom of heaven. It is one of the finest descriptions given us by the evangelist of the new Jerusalem, “I saw no temple therein; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.”(H. Melvill, B. D.)