The Bread of Life

Hunger

There are a lot of Bible stories that we come to and we may wonder why the people did the things that they did in rebellion to God. It just seems like many times the people in the stories we know so well are rather daft and seem to miss how great and awesome God is. In some stories though we really connect with what the people are doing. In the case of the two passages we read this morning we can understand where the people are coming from. We understand hunger. I don’t think most of us have ever been to the point where our lives were threatened by starvation but we all understand what a big deal it is. You have probably seen the commercials for Snickers candy bars where the person is hungry and they act like a completely different person. In the wilderness there were no Snickers bars and so I think we can relate to what the people were going through. In our New Testament lesson the people were looking to get what they wanted from Jesus. Again, I think this is something we can relate to. We have all probably prayed for something with selfish motives. In other words as we heard these passages today we can easily grasp what the people are going through. They are natural human things we are used to. But today, in God’s word we see that we are to look beyond what is in front of us and what we want and trust that God has something greater than anything else for us. He shows us that he is the one who rescues his people from their great problem.

As we start to look at our scripture passages today it is pretty easy to see why these two portions of scripture have ended up together today. In fact, the New Testament lesson mentions what we read in the Old Testament. This is important for us to understand as we settle into Exodus. Think back on your story or the story of your family. If someone asks you about your family history or your personal past you don’t tell them all of the details of your life right. Maybe you would share a foundational story about your first day of elementary school and how you cried when you had to leave your mother. What you don’t tell them is that three weeks later you colored for 25 minutes before you had nap time. Not only is that incredibly boring but we don’t even know the details of our lives from moment to moment. What we remember and what we focus on are the stories that shape us as individuals or as families.

The Bible is much the same way as the stories we tell about ourselves. These are the most important and foundational things that define who the people of God are. Your family has stories that are told across generations and are repeated at many gatherings. Despite the repetition the stories are still significant for you. This story in the wilderness is one that was told repeatedly. It is foundational to the people’s understanding of not only who they are but also, who God is.

As we land here in Exodus 16 it is a story that we are quite familiar with but I want to make sure we understand where it fits in the grand story being repeated back to us.

Slavery

Plagues

Red Sea

Manna

Water from the Rock

10 Commandments

The people of God end up in Egypt and they are spared from a famine. But soon they end up in slavery in Egypt. Through Moses God leads them out by great and mighty plagues. After the Passover they are let go but God leads them into a place where they are trapped in. Water in front of them. Mountains on each side of them. Egyptians with hardened hearts behind them. As you know the story God delivered them through the waters of the Red Sea. It was his mighty hand that delivered them. Like I said we know the story. We know where it is going. Soon the Ten Commandments will be given and we have the Golden Calf incident and everything that follows. Between the Red Sea and the giving of the Ten Commandments we have two very big stories. The giving of Manna and the water from the rock.

Right away in verses 2 and 3 we see why this becomes such a big issue.

Exodus 16:2–3 NIV - Anglicised

In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat round pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

The people are hungry. Notice that it says the whole community grumbled. This isn’t a handful of people. Everyone is hungry and wondering what in the world they are doing out here in the wilderness. We may have been in slavery in Israel Moses but at least our bellies were full. At least we didn’t have to worry about whether our children were going to die out here in the wilderness. If the choice is slavery in Egypt or being so hungry that I’m worried I’ll die.....I’ll choose slavery every single time. We all would probably all make that decision. It is understandable. They didn’t leave Egypt thinking it was going to be this way. Imagine that you are an ancient Israelite in slavery in Egypt. You are thinking. Slavery today and in a week or two we’ll be in the Promised Land and living the good life. Look at all that God has done in the plagues on Egypt. Surely a God with that much power will have us set up with the good life before we know it. But things didn’t play out that way at all.

Take a look at this map of the Exodus. God is leading them on the longest path on the way to the Promised Land. A journey that shouldn’t take very long is going to take much longer. This is a mass of humanity moving through the wilderness and they are going to run out of food. What in the world is going on here? This is a God who just decimated the greatest empire in the world with the 10 plagues. He has brought the people safely through the waters of the Red Sea but he seems to have failed geography of the Middle East 101.

From our point of view it all seems out of whack but God knows what he is doing. At every turn he is teaching the Israelites and us something very important about our relationship to him. They cannot be saved from slavery in Egypt on their own. It takes divine intervention. The Pharaoh was not going to let them just walk out of Egypt. God intervened and did everything that was needed to bring them out. They were stuck at the Red Sea but God shows his power and saving mercy by rescuing them from the Egyptians. Now they are in the wilderness with no food and they are desperate. They are going to die. Once again they are going to need a divine rescue from God in order to get to the Promised Land.

God reveals to Moses his plan.

Exodus 16:4–5 NIV - Anglicised

Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”

He is going to test whether or not they will follow his instructions and laws. He is going to rain down bread from heaven and they are to gather it each day. There is one exception. On the sixth day they are to gather double and they will not gather on the seventh day. Now, remember what I said earlier. They have not been given the Ten Commandments yet. There is no fourth commandment to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. This tells us something important about the nature of God’s law. This period of rest is not rooted in a random command but is from the created order. God created for six days and rested on the seventh. They are now to reflect the nature of God in this command. The law of God is built on who God is and what he has done. It isn’t as though the 10 commandments pop up and, huh, this is an interesting set of rules God came up with here on a mountain top. They are a reflection of who God is and what he has done. And he shows here that it is alright to rest on the 7th day because God will provide. It is who he is and we are going to see that his provision is sufficient.

So Moses and Aaron spread the word. They are going to see the glory of the Lord because he is going to provide for them and he is going to do it in a way that only he can.

Exodus 16:6–7 NIV - Anglicised

So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In the evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?”

The Lord has heard the grumbling of the people and he is going to answer gloriously but it turns out Moses and Aaron want to do some grumbling too. Why are the people upset with them? To use a modern idiom “Don’t shoot the messenger”. They are God’s servants. They are not the ones leading the people in the wilderness God is. This miraculous way of feeding them with the bread from heaven is going to show them this. There is no way that Moses and Aaron can bring bread from heaven. This is not just about the satisfaction of their physical need for food but also to show them that their whole lives are to be sustained by the Lord and that they are to be governed by his word.

And God does what he says. Not only is their bread from heaven but there is also quail to provide for them all they need. God is good and he provides them salvation in a way that only he can.

And this is the message that continues into our New Testament passage this morning. Prior to what we read this morning Jesus has fed the masses with bread and fish. Now they are trying to track him down again and Jesus knows what they are really after.

John 6:26 NIV - Anglicised

Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.

Once again we see that humans are controlled by their stomachs. They liked the miraculous sign of receiving the bread but not because they were finally seeing a messenger from God who was doing his work. No, they liked that the miracle was for them and that it was filling them up. They were seeking after what material good they could get from this miracle worker. They were not concerned about the things of God.

Jesus informs them that they should not seek after the things that perish but instead they should be seeking that which endures.

John 6:27 NIV - Anglicised

Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

Jesus is pushing these people to understand what really matters. It doesn’t matter if your belly is full if you don’t know the one on whom the father has placed his seal. Not only will the bread Jesus made for them have an expiration date. The people standing in front of him have an expiration date too. They need to seek out the one who can give them eternal life.

As we sit here today we can’t help but notice that the problem of the people in Exodus and in John is ultimately the same problem we see in our day too. What do we want God to do for us? We want him to meet our needs. We want him to give us what will make our lives more comfortable and more enriching. While all of that would be nice the most important thing we must deal with is that we do in fact have an expiration date. We are going to die. Because of this we must look beyond full bellies and fat wallets. Death is the great equalizer. Rich and poor are both taken by it. It does not matter who you are because the curse will come for you. This is why Jesus is so adamant about the people seeing him as the one sent from God because he is bringing a message of salvation. He is going to share with them a bread that brings eternal life.

And we see here that the people are interested in eternal life but their perspective is that they must work for this. Instead Jesus gets them to understand what it means to do the work of God.

John 6:28–29 NIV - Anglicised

Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

What needs to be done is to believe in the one that God has sent. Believe in him. Trust in him. Cling to him. This is what we need to receive this bread.

But as always, the people are skeptical of this. How do we know Jesus that this is what we need to do? They want a sign. Now you are probably thinking that these folks are just impossible to please. Jesus just fed 5000 folks and they are asking for a sign but look at what they use as an example here. They go right back to our story from Exodus 16.

John 6:30–31 NIV - Anglicised

So they asked him, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

Their thinking process is that you only fed a few people here Jesus but Moses did something greater by feeding an even larger crowd than you. And Moses did it every day for a very long time. They are dismissing the multiplication of the loaves and fish because it wasn’t greater than the miracle of the manna in the desert. But Jesus takes the opportunity of their saying “He gave them bread from heaven” to turn the focus on to God the Father and himself.

John 6:32–33 NIV - Anglicised

Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

Jesus wants them to understand that it wasn’t Moses that gave them bread from heaven. Again, he is just the messenger of God. Now, Jesus is wanting them to understand something extremely important about who he is and how this all works. It is God who saves his people. It is because of divine intervention that people are brought to faith. It is the work of God that brings salvation to the people of God because he is the only one who can possibly save them. From Egypt only God could save. From the Egyptian army through the Red Sea only God could save. From starvation in the wilderness only God could save. From thirst in the wilderness only God could save. From our greatest enemies sin, death, hell, and the devil only God can save.

And Jesus shows them why it is through him that this salvation comes.

John 6:35 NIV - Anglicised

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

In the English here we miss it a little bit because we say the words “I am” all the time but in the original language Jesus is saying so much more. In the book of Exodus when Moses encountered God at the burning bush he asked God what his name was. He replied “I am who I am”. The name of God was I am. A few hundred years before the time of Jesus that phrase was translated in Greek and it was ego emi. This was the divine name of God. I am. Here in John when Jesus says I am the bread of life Jesus is using the divine name, I am. In other words, Jesus is very clearly claiming to be God. He is saying that he is more than a prophet. He is the eternal. He is greater. In fact, he is the one that the manna was pointing forward to. The manna in the desert was type pointing to Jesus and his being the bread that gives us eternal life. He is the one who comes to us and by grace through faith gives us what we need that we will never hunger or thirst because our eternity is secure in him.

This is where we live. This is the struggle that we have to deal with every day. To trust that we are being fed by the Bread of Life. We can spend our lives trying to fill our lives with meaning but instead we find that we have just been consuming junk food. Trying to find salvation in the things that we do and hoping that will bring us ultimate meaning. But it is a fools errand. It is seeking after things that perish.

The struggle that we have is that these things are so consuming. Many of the things we fill our life with are good things but if we are not taking and eating from the bread of life they do not do us any good. Like I said when we started we get these stories. We can understand hunger and we also can understand wanting someone to give us what we want. When we experience hunger we are reminded that there is food. There is bread that will nourish. When we feel as though we are lacking spiritual nourishment we are reminded our need for Jesus because he is truly the only thing that can satisfy. So, we are called to take and eat. We put our trust in him alone and we know that we are nourished by his word through the Spirit. We can trust that he is the bread of life. Just as God was the only one who could save the Israelites in the desert, he is also the only one who can rescue us from sin and death. Jesus has given us this gift and so we rest on him alone and trust that he has strengthened and nourished us to eternal life.