God-given Food

Modern society is the age of ‘well-being’. More and more people are taking an interest in health. Among them, there are many people who are trying to be healthy through food. If an article says that a certain food can increase your life span that food soon becomes scarce. The ‘Super food’ craze is a representative example. ‘Super food’, fulfills the dreams of life extension. People consider super foods as precious, even calling them ‘God-given food’. However, there is the real God-given food.

About 3,500 years ago, the people of Israel will live their life in the desert for 40 years. God freed them from their life of slavery and led them to the land of Canaan. When the Israelites left Egypt, they brought with them about a month’s worth of food. They anticipated that it would not take a full month to go from Egypt to Canaan. However, as the journey took longer than expected and their food started to run out, they began to pour out complaints.

God had mercy on them. He rained down manna from heaven. It is said that the mysterious food manna looked like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey. Although the Bible simply describes that manna came down like snow, it can be concluded that God fed more than 3 million people every day, when we assume that the population of Israel was 600,000 strong young men over the age of 20 with at least 5 people in each of their family. Manna is truly God-given food since for 40 years no one starved to death in the uninhabited region where there was no way to find any food.

The miracle of manna does not stop here. The Old Testament and the New Testament have a relationship of shadow and reality. If manna appeared in the Old Testament, then the reality of manna will also appear in the New Testament. What does manna indicate?

I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. … the one who feeds on me will love because of me (John 6:42-58).

The manna (bread) that the ancestors ate in the desert represents Jesus. If there is a difference, those who ate the manna in the past came to die, but those who ate Jesus, the living bread, will have eternal life.

So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover … Jesus took bread, gave thanks … “This is my body.” Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:19-28).

The way to eat and drink Jesus, the living bread, the food that allows us eternal life is contained in the new covenant Passover. The real ‘God-given food’ is the Passover.