What the Manna Episode Teaches Us About God’s Provision

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Not long after they are delivered from Egypt and pass through the Red Sea, the freed slaves complain to Moses about their lack of food. With empty stomachs they fuss for a meal similar to what they remembered eating back in Egypt. They not only demand the delicacies of yesterday’s slavery for present day survival, they are convinced Moses brought them out to the wilderness to die.

In their grumbling to Moses, they question God’s ability to provide. The same God who brought them through the Red Sea. The God who is more than able to feed them and will not delay in doing so.

Through His provision, God feeds them. But what if God wanted more for them than a momentary meal? What if God was desiring to satisfy not only their belly’s grumbling for dinner but their heart’s desire for deliverance? What if He wanted to give them salvation from discontent and the freedom of lacking nothing?

If that were the case, they couldn’t see it. And because they were unable to trust in God for the kind of bread that never goes bad, they grumble.

In response to their complaining, God gives them what they ask for by sending them bread straight through the doors of heaven.

Before we make the mistake of assuming that God has chosen to “in one ear and out the other” ignore the childish complaining of his people by frustratingly throwing food on the table…or ground, we must consider that there is more going on as He parents the children of Israel.

The God they follow is the God who will not let any sin go unpunished — especially their sin of grumbling — but He is also the kind of Father who wants much more than manna for His children.

And though it might be hard for us to grasp at first glance, we should consider that God’s daily provision of manna is not simply a resigned accommodation to their complaints, but the intentional expression of his just punishment.

As the psalmist reflects on Israel’s redemption story in Psalm 78, Asaph reveals how God responds to the grumbling of His people by punishing them through His provision.

Full of rage and mounting anger, with the fire of his fury kindled against their lack of faith, God sets a table for his children to offer them a taste of his saving power — and experience the aroma of His forgiveness.

In His provision, God opens the doors of heaven and daily sustains them by giving them a perishing food that will nourish them as they themselves perish in the wilderness.

His punishment is simultaneously their provision and forgiveness. And as we read the Exodus story and reflect on the Psalms that recount it, we wonder… Will God’s people turn to His faithfulness and realize that He is able to provide for them much more than manna?

Many generations later and not long after the multitudes were fed with five loaves of bread and two fish, the crowds cross over to the other side of the lake and begin complaining to Jesus about their lack of provisions. With empty stomachs they grumble for a meal similar to the baskets of food that had sustained them the day before. They assume that going back to yesterday’s miracle is their only hope for present day survival.

Not only that, they assumed that if the miracle worker was really from God, then He could provide food for them just like God provided for their parents so many generations before.

Speaking to Jesus they ask, “What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” – John 6:30-31

Though Jesus fed them the day before, He was not there to merely provide another momentary miracle. Jesus stood among them able to satisfy more than just their belly’s grumbling for dinner. He drew them to himself to address their hearts desire for deliverance. Jesus came to give them salvation from discontent and the freedom of lacking nothing. Jesus wanted this for them because He was that for them.

“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.” – John 6:35

And though they heard him, they didn’t listen.

Rather than trust in Jesus as their Eternal Provision, they continued to press Him for the food that perishes. And just like their ancestors before them, they grumble in the face of God.

“‘Stop grumbling among yourselves,’ Jesus answered. ‘No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.’ – John 6:43-44

Jesus is the God who won’t let any sin go unpunished. So, as God does, He corrects their grumbling and assures them of who He is… the sustenance for Eternal Life.

Eternal Life is not about expecting day old miracles. Life is being open to the God who is drawing us to himself as our eternal meal. Anytime we expect more manna from the sky or another multiplication of bread and fish, we are acting as if we’ve got God figured out. We are assuming that perishing provisions and momentary meals are what God has in store for us. In this, we think we’ve come to understand Him. But we won’t understand God in fullness until we are fully satisfied in Christ as the Bread of Life. The Bread of Fullness. The Daily Bread of Eternal Provision that never goes bad… and never fails to be good.

In His response to their grumbling, Jesus fed them with His presence.

In His correction of their sin, he provided for them His body.

In His justice, He forgave them on the cross.

His posture toward us is the same.

Will we turn to His faithfulness and see that He is able to do more for us than manna and miracles? Will we see that He has always been turned toward us in forgiveness and is right now drawing us to Himself as the Bread of Life? The true Bread from Heaven?

Finally, and maybe most practically for us in this moment, will we stop grumbling and be satisfied?

Will we stop grumbling and be satisfied?