Awaiting the Manger: 7 Days of Discovering Jesus in the Old TestamentSample

Israel’s Bread

After the Red Sea’s parting, the Israelites’ hearts had erupted in shouts of worship to the God who pressed the sea into sky-scraping walls of water, allowing their sandals, unmuddied, to stride safely through a sea-test they should not have survived. They sang, “The Lord is my strength and my song!” (Exodus 15:2).

But after this victorious moment, a long journey into a hot wilderness awaited them. For two and a half months, they slogged along, their jubilant choruses drying in their mouths like desert sand.

And their stomachs were the first to revolt. Would God provide food for them in the desolate wasteland? Surely not. How could he? Their weakened animals faltered, their little ones whined for home, and soon the whole congregation, moving as one, confronted Moses and Aaron, frenzied, terrified, accusatory. “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt!” (Exodus 16:3 NIV). Like the Egyptian’s firstborn during Passover? Is that what they were asking for?

They voiced their complaint to the God who had crushed Ra and Isis and Heqet beneath plagues of darkness and hail and frogs. They accused the God who saved them, who claimed them as his own, who led in “steadfast love” (Exodus 15:13). Steadfast love! That miraculous word (hesed in Hebrew), which mystifies translation but reaches deeper than Jacob’s well to the depth of longing. Father love. Covenant love. Knowing love. Forgiving love. Everlasting love.

And yet, the people for whom God had already accomplished the impossible could not see a way of survival. There was no food. No water. “We’re tired. It’s sand and more sand. We can’t live here. We want to go back to Egypt.”

Out of his patient love, God provided for the anxious Israelites during their journey. As they lobbed their doubts upward, fragile flakes fluttered down, bread of heaven, tasting sweet, like the promised land, that land of milk and honey. “He rained down on them manna to eat and gave them the grain of heaven. Man ate of the bread of the angels; he sent them food in abundance” (Psalm 78:24-25).

In a way, God sent manna to Joseph and Mary too. The true Bread of Heaven rested in Mary’s arms. The bread in the desert pointed to him. The more-than bread. The life-giver who provides not just food, but everything!

Jesus is the true manna, the real provision (John 6:31-35). Feeding on God’s heavenly manna satisfies our hearts’ otherwise insatiable hunger. When he says to us, “Take, eat,” we open our mouths and finally, after all our earthly travels, we taste and are satisfied. And having tasted of Christ, we can then join Mary in saying, “My soul magnifies the Lord...He has filled the hungry with good things” (Luke 1:46, 53).

Practice

When God’s provision didn’t appear, the Israelites panicked, but Joseph and Mary acted in trust. The cure for moments of desperate panic is partaking of the Bread of Heaven by reading the Word, journaling, prayer, worship. Go to him and receive your fill—as much as you can “eat”! This bread will never run out.

Reflect

Can you think of a time when God provided for you? Have you ever doubted that he would supply your needs? Describe your experience. (Matthew 6:34; Psalm 23:1)

Pray

Oh Father, too many times I complain, I panic, I fear. Yet, out of your steadfast love, even when my faith faints like a food-deprived Israelite, you still provide. Your provision isn’t always easy to see, so please help me, even when it’s hidden from me, to rest in your care.

Sing

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear