The work of God...
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The work of God on behalf of his people is the only manifestation of his grace and faithfulness. In no grocery could we find, on the spice rack, a tin of "pure grace." In no pharmacy could we find a bottle of "essence of faithfulness." The grace and faithfulness of God are known only in his deeds done for his people.
The accounts of these deeds are then preserved, to show the grace of God. Consider how the giving of the manna has been mingled with the meaning of passover bread, communion wafer, and Jesus‚--ô promise of the bread of life. Manna has become a part of our description of God‚--ôs work among us.
Manna may have had some natural explanation --such as the secretion of a plant of the area, as some believe. Josephus (Antiquities, III:1:6) accounts that "as Moses was lifting up his hands in prayer, a dew fell down; and Moses, when he found it stick to his hands, supposed this was also come for food from God to them." He goes on to say that Moses knew it fell always at that time of year, and that "even now, in all that place, this manna comes down in rain, according to what Moses then obtained of God."
The miracle, however, may have been less in the appearance of the manna, than in its timing so that it met the actual need of the people at just that moment. The miracle was in the stopping of their hunger, not in the raining of manna. So, too, must the bread of life be proclaimed to the hungry of today, so that it will be the miracle of spiritual feeding.
--Gasperson
