Sermon series: FROM BONDAGE TO FREEDOM
Subject: JESUS—THE TRUE BREAD FROM HEAVEN

Exodus 16:1—4
"And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt.
Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.
And the children of Israel said to them, "Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
Then the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not."
Verses 11-15
And the Lord spake to Moses, saying, "I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, "At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God." So it was that quails came up at evening and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp.
And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground.
So 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, "This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat."
John 6:26-40
Jesus answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.
Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him."
Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"
Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."

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Therefore they said to Him, "What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do?
Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'
Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."
Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always."
And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.
All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."

LESSON

In the fifteenth chapter of Exodus, we have the record of the first few days of Israel's journey from Egypt after leaving the Red Sea. "So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the Wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.
Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was Marah. And the people complained against Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?"
So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There he made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there he tested them, and said, "If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you."
Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees, so they camped there by the waters."

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The complaints at Marah were excusable. Where water is essential to life, to be faced by a virtually undrinkable source is a disappointment, exceeded only by that created by a mirage.
We should be careful how we criticize the Israelites. Remember, they have left their homes, they are traveling with all their herds, flock and families. The need for water for this vast multitude was urgent and overwhelming! Then to find that what water was available was undrinkable, surely was a tremendous disappointment.
During the rest at Elim, however, hopes of an easier existence will have grown up, only to be dashed by the realities of the wilderness of Sin. (The name has of course, no connection with evil in Hebrew.)
Though it is not stated that they were in danger of starvation, a month after they left Egypt, they must have been reduced to limited rations. "It was quite natural that they should look back to Egypt, where, if inscriptions are to be trusted, forced labourers were reasonably fed, though in all probability they had complained there too. They were not likely to have been given meat often in Egypt, but the parallel passage in Numbers 11:4-5, makes special mention of fish, which was readily available.
The term "murmured" is a very common one in Exodus and Numbers. This is the third murmuring of Israel. The first was at Pi-Hahiroh on the appearance of Pharaoh's host.
The second was at Marah because of the acid like water they found; this third murmuring was in the wilderness of Sin because of the lack of food.
Their complaint seems twofold: there is not enough food and, in particular, there is no meat. Like all pastoralists, they were very loath to slaughter their own beasts, which; was the only alternative to a diet of milk and cheese in the desert.
God's response to the complaint is a miraculous provision of heavenly bread which He delivered to the front door of their tents each morning! And...God added an abundant supply of meat also for their diet.
"At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God. So it was that quails came up at evening and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp. And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance as fine as frost on the ground." (16:12-14).
This divine supply for daily needs lasted for forty years and ceased the day after the people ate the produce of Canaan—the

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land of milk and honey (Joshua 5:10-12). Once the need of it was over, it suddenly ceased to fall.
The manna was also the first food to be rationed by measure. Note God's instructions: "This is the thing which the Lord has commanded: 'Let every man gather it according to each one's need, one omer for each person, according to the number of persons; let every man take for those who are in his tent. Then the children of Israel did so and gathered, some more, some less.
So when they measured it by omers, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. Every man had gathered according to each one's need. And Moses said, "Let no one leave any of it till morning."
Notwithstanding they did not heed Moses. But some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them.
So they gathered it every morning, every man according to his need. And when the sun became hot, it melted." (16:16-21)
On the sixth day a double amount was gathered, the Sabbath portion being miraculously preserved. The substance, when ground, could be stewed or baked (Numbers 11:8).
Rabbinical literature says that it could be adapted to the taste of each individual who could, by wishing, taste in the manna anything he desired! (An omer is approximately two quarts.)
Although efforts have been made to identify the manna with existing Arabian lichens, or honey-like gums or spices, no substance can be found anywhere in the world to satisfy the requirements of Scripture references to it—all of which speak of it as being miraculously supplied. One commentary seeks to explain away the miraculous nature of manna by suggesting that it was sweet, sticky honey-like juice which exudes in heavy drops in May or June from a shrub found in the desert near the area where the children of Israel were located. Such an explanation is unsatisfactory. Remember, they needed food twelve months of the year, not just in May!
It was not a natural product miraculously augmented to feed well-nigh two million people. The inescapable conclusion is that the manna was a hitherto unknown food supplied in a miraculous way!
The manna was not only used to help in sustaining the Israelites during the long forty year period of wandering, but it served as a very vivid lesson to the children of Israel. According to verse 33, it says: "And Moses said to Aaron, "Take a pot and put an omer of manna in it, and lay it up before the Lord,

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to be kept for your generations.
As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept."
The manna which Jehovah provided for Israel is a beautiful type of the food which God has provided for our souls. This food is both His written Word and His Incarnate Word. The "Word" is used both of the Scriptures and of the Lord Jesus Christ. The two are most intimately related. In the Volume of the "Book," said Christ, "it is written of Me" (Psalm 40:7); and again, "Search the Scriptures...they are they which testify of Me"(John 5:39).
The chief value of the written Word is to set forth the perfections and bring us into communion with the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ!
Beneath many a figure and behind innumerable shadows and symbols the anointed eye may discern the glories of our blessed Lord. It should be our chief delight as we read the Old Testament Scriptures to prayerfully search for that which foreshadows Him of whom "Moses and the prophets" did write. All doubt is removed as to whether or not the manna pointed to the Incarnate Son by His own words in the passage we have noted in John 6. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from Heaven; but My Father giveth you the true Bread from Heaven. For the Bread of God is He which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life unto the world." (John 6:32,33)
In this sixth chapter of John's Gospel, we have the event recorded wherein Christ feeds the five thousand persons who had come to hear His words. After the meal was over, Jesus had His disciples gather up the fragments, then He departed to the mountain by Himself. His disciples left for the other side of the lake, and the multitude hurried around the lake to try to see Jesus again. Jesus had a sharp rebuke for them: "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled."
In this setting, they bring up the historical event when the children of Israel enjoyed manna for a forty-year period, and they are implying that Jesus should do the same for them if He wanted them to believe in Him!
Jesus immediately corrects their wrong theology! It wasn't Moses who gave the manna. "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven." The force of their objection was this: What proof have we that Thou art greater than Moses? They sought to deprecate the miracle

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they had witnessed on the previous day by comparing Moses and the manna. It was as though they had said, "If you would have us believe on You as the Sent One of God, you must show us greater works. You have fed five thousand but once, whereas in Moses’ day, our fathers ate bread for forty years.
Jesus’ answer was twofold. First, He reminded them that it was not Moses who had given them the manna, it was God. Second, He told them that the manna was not really the bread of God; it was only the symbol of the bread of God. The bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives men, not simply satisfaction from physical hunger, but life. Jesus was claiming that the only real satisfaction was in Him!
The Father’s provision for a dying world was to send from heaven His only begotten Son. The manna had no power to ward off death---the generation of Israel that ate it in the wilderness died! How, then could it be the "true bread?" Christ is the true bread because He bestows life...life abundant here and life eternal forever in the presence of God.
"For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world." Three different expressions are used by our Lord in this passage, each having a slightly varied meaning; the three together, serving to bring out the fullness and blessedness of this title. In verse 32, He speaks of Himself as the "true bread from heaven": "true" speaks of that which is real, genuine, satisfying; "from heaven" tells of its celestial and spiritual character. In verse 33, He speaks of Himself as "the bread of God," which denotes that He is Divine, eternal. Then in verse 35, He says, "I am the bread of life"; the One who imparts, nourishes and sustains life.
The Lord places Himself before us under the figure of bread. Bread is a necessary food for it sustains life. Bread is the staff of life, bread is that without which life cannot go on. But what is life? Clearly this whole argument is moving above and beyond merely physical things. By life there is meant something far more than mere existence. What is this new spiritual meaning of life? Life is the new relationship with God which is made possible by putting our faith and trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord. Without Christ and apart from Him no one can enter into that new relationship with God. Jesus gives life! Without Jesus, life is impossible in the full sense of the term. Without Him life may be existence, but it is not life!

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Think with me for a moment concerning the process through which bread passes before it becomes food. It springs up--the blade, the ear, the full corn in the ear. Then it is cut down, winnowed, and ground into flour, and finally subjected to the fiery process of the oven. Thus, and only thus, did it become fit to sustain life. Such were the experiences of the Bread of Life. He was bruised for our iniquities. He was subjected to the fierce fires of God’s holy wrath, as He took our place in judgment. The Holy One of God, was "made a curse for us." "It pleased the Lord to bruise Him." And this in order that He might be the Bread of Life to us!
When we accept this Bread of Life, all the unsatisfied longings, all the insatiable desires of the heart and the soul are gone. The hunger and the thirst of the human situation are ended when we know Christ, and when through Him we know God. The restless soul is at rest; the hungry heart is satisfied.
"And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life, he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst." (6:35)
"He that cometh to Me...he that believeth Me." There is no doubt a shade of difference between "believing " and "coming to Him." To "believe on" Christ is to receive God’s testimony concerning His Son, and to rest on Him alone for salvation. To "come to" Him--which is really the effect of the former---is for the heart to go out to Him in loving confidence. The two acts are carefully distinguished in Hebrews 11:6: "Without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is: and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."
Jesus made another promise when He said that we would never hunger or thirst. Does the Christian never "hunger" or "thirst?" Surely; then, how are we to harmonize this promise with the experience that we sometimes go through when it seems that God is a million miles away? Ah! He speaks here according to our imperfect apprehension and appreciation of Him. If we are straitened it is in ourselves, not in Him. If we do "hunger" and "thirst" it is not because He is unable, and not because He is unwilling, to satisfy our hunger and quench our thirst, but because we are of "little faith" and fail to draw daily from His fullness.
Jesus said: "I am the bread of life" (6:48). This is the first of the seven "I am" titles of Christ found in this Gospel, and found nowhere else. The others are, "I am the

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light of the world" (8:12); "I am the door" (10:9); "I am the good shepherd" (10:11); "I am the resurrection and the life" (11:25); "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (14:6); "I am the true vine" (15:1). They all look back to that memorable occasion when God appeared to Moses at the burning bush, and bade him go down into Egypt, communicate with His people, interview Pharaoh, and command him to let the children of God go forth into the wilderness to worship Jehovah. And when Moses asked, Who shall I say hath sent me?, the answer was, "Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you" (Exodus 3:14).
I AM is the great Jehovistic name of God. It contains each tense of the verb 'to be', and might be translated, I am, I was, and I shall always continue to be.
There is a depth here which no finite mind can fathom. "I am that I am" announced that the great God is self-existent, beside whom there is none else. Without beginning, without ending, "from everlasting to everlasting" He is God! The I AM of the burning bush now stands fully declared in the blessed Person of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! Christ's employment of these titles at once identifies Him with the Jehovah of the Old Testament, and unequivocally demonstrates His absolute Deity.
But what does it mean to "eat" of Christ? "I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world" (John 6:48-51). Eating is responding to a felt need. Spiritually, that felt need is a hunger for the real meaning of life, something that satisfies the human spirit. Eating of Christ is believing in Who He is, the Savior of the world, placing my trust totally in what He accomplished at Calvary in dying for my sins, repenting and turning from my sins, and totally yielding my life to Him to serve Him and allow His life to be relived in my living. Jesus said: "My words are spirit and life." It is Christ who alone can tell us what life is, can put into us the Spirit in which life must be lived, and who can give us the strength and the power so to live it!
Christ, the Incarnate Word, and the Word of God which is the Holy Scriptures...these, and these only, are the source of real living!