Bread of Remembrance: God's Gracious Exhibit A
Introduction: The War on Memory
We live in an age that has declared war on memory. Our entire culture is a conspiracy to make us forget. We are told to live in the now, to chase the next fleeting experience, to define ourselves by our present feelings. The past is presented either as a source of shame to be repudiated or as a dusty irrelevance to be ignored. The result is a generation of spiritual orphans, men and women who believe they are self-created, with no debts to the past and no obligations to the future. They are historical amnesiacs, and this condition is deadly.
This is not a new problem. It is the perennial temptation of fallen man. To forget God's deliverance is the first step toward building a golden calf. To forget His provision is the first step toward complaining about the menu. Ingratitude is the mother of all apostasy. And so, in His wisdom, God does not simply tell His people to "try to remember." He is not a sentimentalist. He is a covenant Lord, and He institutes legal, binding, physical memorials. He commands His people to build monuments, to observe feasts, and to tell stories. He knows that a faith that is not remembered is a faith that will be abandoned.
In our text today, we see God instituting one of the most profound of these memorials. He commands Israel to take the very instrument of their daily survival, this mysterious bread from heaven, and to place it in the holiest place on earth as a perpetual witness. This is not about nostalgia. This is about establishing a permanent, legal exhibit in the courtroom of history. It is Exhibit A of the faithfulness of God. And as we will see, this exhibit, this pot of manna, is a direct and powerful pointer to the Lord Jesus Christ, the true Bread from heaven who sustains His people forever.
The Text
And the house of Israel named it manna, and it was like coriander seed, white, and its taste was like wafers with honey.
Then Moses said, "This is what Yahweh has commanded, 'Let an omerful of it be kept throughout your generations, that they may see the bread that I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.' "
And Moses said to Aaron, "Take a jar and put an omerful of manna in it, and place it before Yahweh to be kept throughout your generations."
As Yahweh commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the Testimony to be kept.
And the sons of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate the manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.
(Now an omer is a tenth of an ephah.)
(Exodus 16:31-36 LSB)
What Is It? (v. 31)
We begin with the naming and description of this heavenly food.
"And the house of Israel named it manna, and it was like coriander seed, white, and its taste was like wafers with honey." (Exodus 16:31)
The name itself is a confession of creaturely limitation. "Manna" simply means "What is it?" This was not a name given in cynical doubt, but in childlike wonder. They did not understand the physics or the chemistry of it. They did not need to. They only needed to know that God provided it. This is a direct rebuke to our modern arrogance, which insists on dissecting every miracle until it is no longer a miracle. Faith does not demand a scientific abstract before it will eat. Faith sees the gift, recognizes the Giver, and says thank you.
And notice the description. God's provision is not merely functional; it is delightful. It was "white," speaking of purity. It was "like coriander seed," small and humble. And its taste was "like wafers with honey." God did not give them tasteless nutrient paste. He gave them something sweet. This is a foretaste of the land He was leading them to, a land flowing with milk and honey. Grace is not grim. God's sustenance is not bare-minimum sustenance. It is good. It is sweet. This is a truth we must recover. The world thinks that serving God is a life of drab duty, but the reality is a feast of honeyed wafers, a daily taste of the goodness of the Lord.
The Commanded Memorial (v. 32-34)
Next, God establishes the purpose and place of the memorial.
"Then Moses said, 'This is what Yahweh has commanded...' " (Exodus 16:32a)
Let that sink in. Remembering is not a human suggestion; it is a divine command. Forgetfulness is not a weakness; it is a sin. God commands them to create a perpetual object lesson. Why? "That they may see the bread that I fed you in the wilderness." God's pedagogy is tangible. He knows we are embodied creatures who learn through our senses. He does not want an abstract concept of His faithfulness; He wants them to be able to point to a jar and say, "There. That is the stuff. That is what kept our fathers alive." Our faith is historical and physical. It deals in real bread, real water, real wine, and a real Savior with real nail scars.
"And Moses said to Aaron, 'Take a jar and put an omerful of manna in it, and place it before Yahweh to be kept throughout your generations.' As Yahweh commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the Testimony to be kept." (Exodus 16:33-34)
The location of this memorial is everything. It is placed "before Yahweh," and more specifically, "before the Testimony." The Testimony refers to the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, which would be placed inside the Ark of the Covenant. So, inside the holiest object, in the most sacred space, you have the standard of God's perfect righteousness (the Law) and the evidence of God's gracious provision (the manna), side by side. This is theology in furniture. The message is inescapable: the God who gives the commands is the God who gives the grace to live. His law and His provision are not at odds. The manna does not abolish the Testimony, and the Testimony does not negate the need for the manna. The pot of manna before the Law is a perpetual witness that God sustains the very people He commands.
The Forty-Year Miracle (v. 35)
The text then gives us the scope of this provision.
"And the sons of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate the manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan." (Genesis 16:35)
This was not a weekend camping trip. This was a forty-year, day-in, day-out, relentless, glorious miracle. For an entire generation, every single day began with an act of divine grace spread out on the ground. It was predictable, it was constant, and it was utterly supernatural. And, as we know from the story, the Israelites eventually grew to despise it. They called it "this light bread" (Num. 21:5). They got bored with the miracle.
And here is a sharp word for us. We do the same thing. We despise the ordinary means of grace. We get bored with the weekly sermon, the simple bread and wine of communion, the daily duty of prayer and Scripture reading. We want something new, something spectacular, something more exciting than the steady, forty-year provision of God. But true spiritual maturity is learning to delight in the daily manna. It is recognizing the profound miracle in the constancy of God's faithfulness. His greatest power is not shown in sporadic firework displays, but in the forty-year provision that never once failed.
The True Bread from Heaven
Now, we must pull all these threads together and see the glorious tapestry they weave. This whole account is a type, a shadow, a giant arrow pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ.
"Jesus then said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven... I am the bread of life.'" (John 6:32, 35)
Jesus Himself makes the connection explicit. The manna was a picture, but He is the reality. Consider the parallels. The manna came down from heaven; Christ came down from the Father. The manna was a mystery they called "What is it?"; Christ is the mystery of God incarnate. The manna was white and pure; Christ is the sinless Lamb of God. The manna tasted of honey; Christ is sweeter than the honeycomb. The manna had to be gathered daily; we must have daily fellowship with Christ. The manna sustained them through the wilderness; Christ sustains us on our pilgrimage to the heavenly Canaan.
And what of that pot of manna placed before the Testimony? The book of Hebrews tells us that the pot of manna was placed inside the Ark of the Covenant (Heb. 9:4). What is this but a picture of Christ Himself? He is our provision (the manna) who perfectly kept the Law (the Testimony) and now stands for us in the presence of God. He is the Bread that never spoils, the eternal memorial of God's covenant faithfulness.
God no longer commands us to keep a pot of literal manna. He has given us a better memorial. He has given us the Lord's Supper. When we come to this Table, we are obeying the same essential command. We are taking a physical sign, bread and wine, to remember a historical deliverance. We are placing our memorial "before the Lord" to testify that our hope is not in our own efforts, but in His gracious provision.
"For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." (1 Corinthians 11:26)
The world wants you to forget. Your flesh wants you to forget. But God commands you to remember. Remember His provision. Remember His faithfulness. And most of all, remember the true Bread from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was broken for you. Come to His table, eat, and remember. For in Him, the sweetness of God's grace is tasted, and in Him, we are sustained for all our forty years, right to the very border of the Promised Land.