“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction’ “ (Exodus 16:4)
“Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever” (John 6:49-51).
In John chapter 6, Jesus makes a direct comparison between the manna in the wilderness and Himself as the bread of life. And the contrast between the two is the difference between life and death.
The manna in the wilderness had no life-giving power. It was only for daily sustenance. The Jews ate the manna, but eventually they died. The manna was a lifeless foreshadowing of a different kind of bread.
Christ, on the other hand, calls Himself “The Bread of Life” several times in John chapter 6. Jesus’ connection with life forever not only contrasts to the manna in the wilderness, but also identified Jesus as born of God, “come down from heaven.”
“Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, ‘I am the bread that came down out of heaven.’ They were saying, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?’ “ (John 6:41-42).
But Jesus answered them, “This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever” (John 6:58). The sustenance that comes from the “Bread of Life” is life everlasting. Jesus is our Bread of Life!
Jesus is the manna and so much more, because Jesus was there from the beginning!