Last summer the Lord taught me so much about eating what is good through the story of the Israelites’ journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. Both Exodus 16 and Numbers 11 tell of this people longing for the bread of Egypt – the food of their slavery. In Exodus the people cried out against God because they were in the dessert and they lacked food. They believed it would have been better to stay in Egypt, near the food that they could see, and die by the hand of the Lord there than to have trusted Him for rescue only to die of hunger. God’s response was to rain down manna from heaven to feed and nourish these people. This manna was from His hand and displayed His love and provision and power.
Later in Numbers this same group of people cried out against the Lord again… this time because they craved the food of their slavery with its many different flavors. The Word says that they wept again and said of their condition, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”
Egypt represented slavery for this people, as it does for me…. Slavery to sin and to the flesh and to the dead things I’ve been rescued from. This rescue is good… and painful. Egypt’s food is often pleasant and for the moment it satisfies. The people of Israel had been rescued from suffering and slavery and death… only to long for the food that nourished them as they lived in these things. I was so much like this group of people. I still am in many ways. I remember the Lord asking me last summer as He led me to these passages of Scripture, “What will you eat?”
When I stand between Egypt and the Promised Land, between slavery to sin and final freedom in heaven, the food of former days that I’ve eaten and been satisfied by for so long is not to be eaten again. Will I eat and be satisfied by the One who calls Himself the Bread of Life or live as a rescued man starved of nourishment because Christ and His work that first saves and then sustains is daily ignored and uncollected?
When I remain in the dessert longer than expected, will I tire of this bread? Will my heart long for the things that formerly fed me… whether they are the things of slavery to Egypt… or even good things taken away for a time so that only the Bread of Heaven satisfies?
I love that it is always Christ that satisfies. Isaiah 55:1-3 entreats us to come, saying:
Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast sure love for David.
Even typing this verse, I am reminded about how often I spend all that I have to gain everything but the one thing that matters. I think again about how often I labor for “manna” that I believe will satisfy what I hunger for instead of coming to Christ and finding all that He is enough.
Jesus feeds His children. He gives manna when there is no food. He continues to give this food because it is best even when we are tired of eating it. I love that Joshua 5:11-12 records that when this people group finally made it to the Promised Land that was and is a picture of heaven, He fed them with the produce of the land. Who is the fruit of heaven? Do you see it is Jesus in the dessert, and Jesus through the journey and Jesus in heaven? He is the manna here and He remains the same forever. He is the only food that satisfies.
I am praying this for a dear friend. You know who you are….
