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John 6:30-31

New King James Version

Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

For Meditation

A lesson in God-dependency, one day at a time! That is what it was—the manna, that small round substance, as fine as frost, like white coriander seed, which tasted like wafers made with honey (Exodus 16:14, 31), was a lesson on trusting in His provision and providential care. However, it could not sustain them forever. They all died.

The lesson was not the substance itself. It was the significance of the manna—a type of the Bread of Life who was to come. The Christ of God was to come, who would feed His people on His body for everlasting nourishment. But how could they get it when their stomach had become their master, calling for satisfaction?

Christ came and miraculously fed a multitude with a few loaves of bread after a marathon teaching session (John 6:1-13). He set a picture lesson before them. If any knew the significance of the manna they had bragged about to Jesus, they would have seen its manifestation right before them—the Messiah they had waited to come.

But no! They had set their minds on temporal things—the satisfaction of their fleshly desires, so they did not notice the spiritual reality playing before them. Even when Jesus gave them a lesson on the real meaning of the manna, they still could not get it (21-34).

“I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (35).

Even then, they balked!

How about you? Do you hear God when He speaks? Have your immediate needs so consumed your attention that you cannot grasp the eternal lessons Christ teaches you daily in His word? Do they offend you as they did to the Jewish disciples who walked away from Him (66)?

O, that you will respond to the Master today with Peter:

“Lord, to whom shall [I] go? You have the words of eternal life. Also [I] have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (68-69).