The Food Of Heaven

Feature 1 – February 2014 — Grace & Truth Magazine

The FOOD Of Heaven

When Israel left Egypt it was intended that the nation should enter Canaan shortly thereafter. But unbelief reigned among the children of Israel when they saw the strength of the Canaanites. In His fury God forced the people into the wilderness until that generation died; for how could the ark of the covenant find a place of rest in the land of promise (2 Chr. 6:41) among a faithless people? The Lord said, “I sware in My wrath, they shall not enter into My rest” (Heb. 3:11 KJV ).

Much Bread In The Wilderness (Mt. 15:33)
Israel’s prolonged sojourn created an immense problem: How to feed millions of people in the wilderness? After only three days into the wilderness of Shur they were very thirsty under the hot, rainless skies, having found no water. And “when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter” (Ex. 15:23). However, He who would turn water into wine made the waters sweet when, at His command, Moses cast a certain tree into the waters. God then led His people to “Elim, where there were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees; and they encamped there by the waters” (Ex. 15:27). So the people pressed on through the Wilderness of Sin where nothing edible grew.

Having tested His people with thirst, the LORD then proved them with hunger. They failed again! In anger the whole congregation turned against Moses and Aaron saying, “Ye have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly” (Ex. 16:3). Again the LORD spoke to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no” (v.4). Did not He who is the Bread of Life say “he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst” and “if any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink” (Jn. 6:35, 7:37)? But these wilderness events were not fully appreciated by the people.

Spiritual Life
While the Jews struggled with His declarations, the Son of God added to their agony of unbelief, saying, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you” (Jn. 6:53). The Lord Jesus was speaking of a single event of spiritual ingestion: “By one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Heb. 10:14). Under the law of Moses the people had to eat manna every day, but those saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ would never hunger or thirst for salvation again (Jn. 6:35). As Nicodemus would never have to be “born again” more than once (Jn. 3:7), so the woman of Samaria was told “whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (Jn. 4:14).

Once-For-All Death
These examples confirm that when the disciples gathered on the first day of the week to eat bread and drink wine, they were commemorating the once-for-all salvation which they had received when they trusted in the Son of God (Acts 2:42). In the Spirit, Peter had already promised to all who believed that “whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21). To the Gentiles the same apostle testifying to salvation by faith in Christ stated, “To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:43). There is no salvation apart from faith in Christ. The Son of God declared, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn. 6:53-54).

Spiritual Food (1 Cor. 10:4)
Some apply these words to literally eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ (Mt. 26:26-28). But God, the same lawgiver that had forbidden the Jews to drink blood (Lev. 17:12,14), enjoined this prohibition upon the Gentile believers (Acts 15:20,29). We also realize that the Lord Jesus would never have given instruction or practiced something contrary to God’s ordinances. Note this carefully: to the repentant thief having confessed faith in the Savior, the Lord declared, “Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with Me in paradise” (Lk. 23:43). Likewise, there are many other believers in the Bible who received immediate, eternal forgiveness of their sins without ever tasting “transubstantiated” (the communion bread and wine becoming the actual body and blood of Christ) bread and wine (Mt. 9:2; Mk.2:5; Lk. 5:20, 7:47-48). It is not what the sinners had done which saved them. The Lord Himself said, “Thy faith [in Him] hath saved thee” (Lk. 18:42; see also Mt. 9:22, 15:28; Mk. 5:34, 10:52; Lk. 8:48, 17:19). What He has done for us on the cross is the means of our justification. God “made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21, see also Lk. 22:37; Rom. 4:4,9).

Once-For-All Salvation
The law of Moses is characterized by ritualistic repetition as “the law made nothing perfect” (Heb. 7:19), so the priests in their daily duties were found “offering oftentimes the same sacrifices,” which could “never take away sins” (10:11). Likewise, the people had to gather the manna six days a week to satisfy their hunger. However, when “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” then “by one offering He ... perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Jn. 1:17; Heb. 10:14). “This He did once, when He offered up Himself” (Heb. 7:27). Therefore God has promised to all who believe that “their sins and iniquities will I remember no more,” stating that “where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin” (10:17-18). In other words, those who have tasted the Bread of God through faith in Jesus Christ have received eternal life. Also, because they cannot perish they are eternally secure in Christ. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn. 3:16; see also Jn. 6:27, 10:28).

Faithfulness: The Proof Of Faith
James tells us that the proof of eternal life is the obedience of those who claim to be justified by faith. Therefore he writes “I will shew thee my faith by my works” (Jas. 2:18). Also in Hebrews 11, the Spirit of God lists some exemplary acts of faith accomplished by those of old that had been justified by faith. We read of some who suffered an occasional lapse, yet they recovered to continue their service faithfully to the end.

Carcasses In The Wilderness
Unfortunately the majority of Israelites in the wilderness were not children of faith. In consequence, after many days they grew to hate the manna saying, “Our soul loatheth this light bread.” For this sin “the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died” (Num. 21:5-6). Bringing this to mind, the Lord said, “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:14-15). Do you believe?

The Manna in the Wilderness (OT) Christ the Living Bread (NT)

Liable to corruption (Ex. 16:20) Eternally incorruptible (Acts 2:27,31; 13:35)

A six-days-a-week gift from heaven (Ex. 16:21-22) A once-for-all and eternal gift from God (Jn. 6:27)

A gift from the first heaven (Ps. 78:23-24) The Gift of God from the third heaven (Jn. 6:32)

The bread that sustained temporal life (Jn. 6:49) The Bread that imparts eternal life (Jn. 6:27)

Gratified the physical appetite (Jn. 6:31) Satisfies the longing soul (Ps. 107:9)

An unearned gift from God (Ex. 16:4) The free gift of eternal life (Jn. 6:32; Eph. 2:8)

Prevented physical death (Ex. 16:3) Saves us from the second death (Rev. 20:6)

Solution to a food problem (Dt. 32:10) Solution to the sin problem (Acts 4:12)

A solution from the mind of God (Ex. 16:8) Salvation from the presence of God (Jn. 6:33)

Many who tasted the wilderness manna died
in their sins (Num. 27:3; Heb. 3:17). A once-for-all salvation is granted to those
who taste the living Bread of God (Jn. 6:35)

By Tom Summerhill