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Living Manna

by Jerry Ousley  
4/15/2011 / Christian Living

This article is about food and praise the Lord, that means I get to talk about one of my favorite subjects once again. While I like eating it has gotten me into a lot of trouble over the years; trouble weight-wise and trouble because I wanted to eat when others around me didn't.

Most of us are truly blessed in the United States of America because we have such abundance. I know that there are some who are needy and our hearts should be bent toward helping those who aren't so fortunate. If you are like me most of the time I eat because it's time to eat or I just want to be munching on something. I do that while I'm working, while I'm watching television, and when we play games. When we travel I like to eat. I very rarely eat because I'm experiencing hunger pains. How can you experience those if you're constantly eating?

However, God invented eating and food to nourish our bodies. I know that I'd be a lot better off to get on an eating schedule and stick to it. I know that I'd be healthier if I ate only the right foods, but where's the fun in that? I don't consider myself obese but I could stand to lose twenty or thirty pounds. We can't stop eating altogether or we will set ourselves on a collision course with death. Our bodies require food just like an automobile requires gasoline. Neither will go without it.

My first thought when I hear the word "manna" is the experience of the Israeli people under the leadership of Moses traveling from Egypt to the Promised Land. There came a time when there was no food for them to eat and we are told in Exodus 16 about the first instance of the manna. God had promised it to them and sure enough the next morning it was spread out all over the ground like the morning dew. They were to gather just enough of it to feed their family for that day. If they gathered extra, the next day it was ruined, full of worms, and raising a stench. Just to show how miraculous this really was, on Friday they were to gather enough for that day and the next the Sabbath. Oddly enough, on the Sabbath it was okay. But if they kept any until Sunday then it was ruined once again.

They ate on the manna for the entire forty years they wandered around in the wilderness. We're told in Joshua 5:12 that the very day they ate of the fruit of the Promised Land that the manna stopped. It was the bread from Heaven A spiritual sustenance.

Later on in John 6 Jesus had just fed five thousand men on only a few cakes of bread and a few fish (and they didn't count the women and children so the number could have actually been closer to ten or fifteen thousand). Afterwards He left during the night and crossed over the Sea of Galilee. When they discovered that He was gone they crossed over the sea after Him. Once they had found Him they wanted to make Him king of Israel. What better leader could one have than an individual who could supply food to them like that?

Jesus knew what was in their hearts and He began the discourse on eating His flesh. Of course He meant that spiritually. We eat His flesh by accepting Him as our Savior. His Spirit makes our own spirit come alive and so we are spiritually nourished. But they got into a big argument over the food and the manna that God had supplied to their forefathers in the wilderness. They just couldn't accept His words about eating His flesh even though He had proven to them that He was the Messiah by healing their sick and feeding them miraculously. That day most of the people who had been following Him left.

The point is that they could accept Him as a prophet or a teacher, but they couldn't accept Him as the Son of God. He is the living manna. He is the spiritual food that an otherwise starving world must have to gain eternal life. We can't literally eat His flesh but we must partake of Him spiritually in order to live. Otherwise we will spiritually starve to death.

Today, right now, accept Him as your Savior. Let Him become your living manna. He will feed you for the rest of your life. So go ahead, with all of your spirit, open up wide and take a big bite!

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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