We are moving into chapter sixteen of Exodus with our word for today. לֶ֫חֶם bread, food, grain. It is used 300 times in Old Testament. We find our word used in a general sense as any food, whether solid or liquid, that is used as a source of nourishment by humans or animals. A good example is when God explains part of the consequences of sin in that food production would be a whole lot more difficult. Genesis 3:18-19 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your לֶ֔חֶם food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return. We also see word used in a specific sense as food made from dough or flour or meal, whether leavened or unleavened. It provides strength to our physical bodies. Judges 19:5 On the fourth day they got up early and he prepared to leave, but the woman’s father said to his son-in-law, “Refresh yourself with some לֶ֖חֶם bread; then you can go.” This is how our word is used in our chapter today. Exodus 16:4, 12, 23, 32 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain לֶ֖חֶם 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 they will walk in my law or not…At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with לָ֑חֶם bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God…bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning…Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, so that they may see הַלֶּ֗חֶם the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.
This true historical event God will use to teach about our spiritual and relational connection with God in the future. One of those happens relatively soon in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 8:3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on הַלֶּ֤חֶם bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Over a thousand years later Jesus quotes this passage when tempted by the devil. Matthew 4:3-4 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Jesus is a great example to all of us on how to practically apply God’s word to our lives. Jesus also used this real historical event to teach this very principal of relying on God’s word for strength and nourishment in our relationship with God like you would physical bread for physical strength and nourishment. John 6:32-35 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.” Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. I’ll close with how this even is identified in Psalms. Think about just how amazing this miracle God provided to his people as I read it. Psalm 78:23-25 Yet he gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens; he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven. Human beings ate the לֶ֣חֶם bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat.
