Teachings – I will Rain Bread from Heaven for You

I WILL RAIN BREAD FROM HEAVEN FOR YOU

UNFOLDING THIRTEEN

WHERE WE ARE

Jehovah-Jireh provided the children of Israel manna from heaven. For forty years, He provided a daily portion – a double portion to carry them through the Sabbath. Always enough, just enough for them to be content – having neither lack nor excess. God provided the manna also as a test – to teach the children of Israel gratefulness, the necessity of work (gathering and preparing the manna), and learning contentedness. 

SCRIPTURE

Exodus 16: 4

“Then said the LORD unto 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.”

I WILL RAIN BREAD FROM HEAVEN FOR YOU
UNFOLDING THIRTEEN

Pastor opens this discourse, 

“It seems to us that it must have been a very difficult thing to supply food for the hundreds of thousands. I shall not be incorrect if I say the millions who were in the wilderness, but difficult as that was, the commissariat was not so difficult as the education.”

Keep in mind, the children of Israel were slaves of the Egyptians. We know they were not a vast civilization, as the Egyptian people. They were a small nation. What matters is how God saw them, and to that end, Pastor wrote:

“…their God, who loved the children of Israel, and chose them, and determined to make them a peculiar people unto Himself, undertook to teach them, and He used food as part of the means of their education.”

   What did God aspire to teach the children of Israel?

• His care for them,
• His greatness, power and might (feeding the multitude), and
• His liberality – meaning that He gave freely – combined with His greatness.

Indeed, Jehovah gave –

“liberally and upbraideth not.” 

And,

“God supplied the Manna bountifully, yet exactly according to the capacity of the receiver.”

THOUGHT GOING FORWARD

In John 6:35, we are told –

“And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”

Here, in this second of two discourses about the Manna from heaven, Pastor reiterates the care that God has for us, His greatness in his provision, and by His grace, His greatness in liberality. 

Why two discourses about the manna at this time in his book? Pastor wasn’t merely talking about the bread that rained down from heaven, but the bread of life – Jesus! who was sent down from heaven for us! All of God’s elect – His chosen people – He called and chose as His peculiar people, set us apart for Himself. Do you know that each one of us – His chosen – were once slaves? Slaves to sin, ignorant of the great things of God? We too need instruction – instruction in His Word. As the Holy Spirit first quickens us from death to life, He empowers us and illumines to us God’s Word – the great Gospel! 

IN TRIBUTE TO SPURGEON’S LOVE OF SHORT RHYMES

Oh, woe is the man who mistakes the manna,
as only a bread… a fable… a tale.
T’is a bread of life – O Sinner! Take hold!
Your sins, your folly… bewail!