We are in chapter sixteen of Exodus with our word for today, used for the first time in the Bible. מָן manna, a supernatural food that God gave the Israelites in the wilderness after the Exodus; grain or seed. It is used 13 times in Old Testament, 3 times in our chapter. It is described as a seed or grain. Exodus 16:14, 31 A fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground…It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. Numbers 11:7 The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin (ESV has – its appearance like that of bdellium. Bdellium is a gum resin).
This food was given by God in a miraculous way. Exodus 16:4, 13-14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you…In the morning dew lay around the camp. And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. Numbers 11:9 When the dew settled on the camp at night, הַמָּ֖ן the manna also came down. Exodus 16:35 The people of Israel ate הַמָּן֙ the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land. They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan. Joshua 5:11-12 The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain. הַמָּ֜ן The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any מָ֑ןmanna for the Israelites, but that year they ate the produce of Canaan. Psalm 78:23-25 Yet he gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens; he rained down מָ֣ן manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven. Human beings ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat. Because of its miraculous nature Moses ordered a small amount of it kept along with other items of God’s miracles for future generations. Exodus 16:33 And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, and put an omer of מָ֑ן manna in it, and place it before the Lord to be kept throughout your generations.”
I find the name of this bread from heaven humorously interesting. Exodus 16:31 Now the house of Israel called its name מָ֑ן manna. Why did they name it with this name? Because of their initial reaction to it when they first saw it. Exodus 16:15 When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, מַה־ה֑וּא “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. So מָ֑ן manna sounds like the Hebrew phrase מַה־ה֑וּא “what is it?”
The purpose behind God feeding his people in this miraculous way was to both humble them, test them and ultimately bring them goodness. Deuteronomy 8:3, 16 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with הַמָּן֙manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord…who fed you in the wilderness with מָן֙ manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. Throughout the Bible we find God testing us through challenges so that we might grow our dependence on him. I’ll close with a couple great passages of this very thing. James1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Romans 5:3-5 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
