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In today’s lesson in A Woman’s Heart: God’s Dwelling Place by Beth Moore, we learn about manna, the Israelites’ daily provision. I’ve read through the story of the Exodus many times. I’ve always known that God fed the Israelites with manna but there’s a lot more to the story involving this mysterious food.
God's Daily Provision: Manna from Heaven
The Bread of Angels
We learn in Psalm 78:23-25 that God calls manna the “bread of angels.”
I’ve always pictured little pieces of bread falling down from heaven like snowflakes in winter, sort of like the little pieces of unleavened bread we eat when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, but it was much more than that. The Bible tells us that God opened the doors of Heaven and fed the Israelites with food from Heaven, the bread of angels. The Israelites, here on this earth, touched food straight from Heaven and they ate it. I can’t imagine what that must have been like and I wonder if the Israelites realized the significance of that experience, the uniqueness and value of their daily provision.Yet He commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of heaven;
He rained down manna upon them to eat and gave them food from heaven.
Man did eat the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance. – Psalm 78:23-15
We learned that the Israelites were instructed to gather only what they needed for each day, only their daily provision, except the day before the Sabbath when they gathered for two days. They used a measuring instrument called an omer. They discovered that when they measured what they had gathered with the omer, that those who had gathered more had no extra and those who had gathered less did not have too little. They had just what they needed. God provided them with their daily provision, each according to what he needed.
God works the same way in our lives today, providing for us daily, providing our daily provision according to our needs. Beth brought up a good point in today’s lesson. She wondered, if God provides our daily provision of mercy and grace according to our needs, then why do some Christians seem to fall and fail to recover during or after a trial. We go on to realize that God always provides our daily provision, but just as the Israelites were instructed to go out and gather their part, we must gather the provision that God provides.
Jesus is our manna for today. He is our daily provision, but we must receive Him in order to satisfy our spiritual hunger.
In John 6:32-25, Jesus refers back to this ancient story.
Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.”
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. – John 6:32-35If you have already received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then you have received your manna, your bread from Heaven. Continue to trust God for your daily provision.
If you have not received Jesus as your Lord and Savior or maybe you want to know what this means, I explain how to be saved here. I encourage you to read it and if you do decide to trust Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I would love for you to let me know either by commenting below or you can use the “Contact Me” tab above. I would love to rejoice with you but that is totally up to you.
If you would like to go through A Woman’s Heart: God’s Dwelling Place by Beth Moore, you can get your copy here. To protect Beth’s copyrights, I only summarize what we learn. You will dig deeper and learn more if you complete this study on your own or with a group of friends.
Read all posts in this series here.
If you plan to do the study alone or host the study, you'll need the leader kit here. It includes the DVDs to go alone with the study.
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