AS intimated last Sabbath, the sermon this afternoon is intended chiefly for the young, and I am glad to see so many of them present. The subject of discourse is the manna—the bread by which the Lord fed the people of Israel in the wilderness for the space of forty years. The manna was a type of Christ. In Revelation ii. 17 we read of the “hidden manna.” “To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the hidden manna.” In the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel Christ says, “I am the bread of life.” “I am the true bread that came down from heaven.” And in 1 Cor. iv. 3 the Apostle Paul calls the manna “spiritual meat.” It is as a type of Christ I shall speak of the manna, and in doing so I shall make some remarks on three things:—
I. The Provision
The first remark I shall make on this head is this: that the manna was sent to the people in time of need. When they came out of Egypt they took with them provision that lasted for a month. At the end of that period all that provision was consumed; and as they were now in a barren wilderness, where nothing grew to feed men, they would die for want of food had not the Lord made some provision for them to keep them alive. In like manner, Christ, the bread of life, was given by the Father in time of great need. The provision of the covenant of works was exhausted, and had not God revealed the provision of the covenant of grace, all the human race would have perished.
Secondly, the people were far from deserving that the Lord should send them the manna. On the contrary, they deserved to be punished. For they were murmuring against the Lord, and blaming Moses for bringing them out of Egypt to die in the wilderness. They much regretted that they left Egypt, where they had plenty of flesh and bread to eat. They were thus ungrateful to the Lord for delivering them from the land of Egypt and from the house of bondage. Besides, they were guilty of the sin of unbelief, which is dishonouring to God. Notwithstanding all the mighty works of God which He did for them in Egypt, and in opening a dry path across the Red Sea for them, they will not trust Him now for their daily bread. Were we more deserving than they that God should send us the true bread from heaven? By no means. We were deserving of death—eternal death—and that because we had sinned. We deserved to be punished. Those who think that they merit eternal life are ignorant of themselves and of God’s gracious way of salvation. “When we were yet without strength, Christ died for the ungodly.” The ungodly do not deserve that God should give them His Son to deliver them from perishing.
Thirdly, the provision was abundant. There was enough for each—enough for all. The provision would require to be large, because it was not a few people that were depending upon it, but many. It is supposed that there were upwards of a million of people in the wilderness that needed the manna to keep them alive. Now, think of the quantity of food that such a multitude of people would require in one day. How much more they would need during the space of forty years! But the provision was made not by man but by God, and He made it according to need. Is not this true of the spiritual provision? It is. It pleased the Father that in Christ all fulness should dwell. If you die under the Gospel, it is not because there is not an all-sufficiency in Christ to save you, but because, as He said to the Jews, you will not come unto Him that you might have life.
Fourthly, the manna was not a product of the earth; it came down from heaven. So did Christ. He says, “I am the true bread that came down from heaven.” Christ existed from all eternity with the Father; and in the fulness of time He came to this earth in human nature. As the manna came down from heaven—the visible heaven—so Christ came down from the invisible heaven, to humble Himself and die, that sinners through Him might live.
Fifthly, the manna came down in the dew. Christ was anointed by the Spirit; the Word of God, in which He is revealed, is given by the inspiration of God; and when He comes to dwell in a soul it is by the Holy Spirit.
Sixthly, the colour of the manna was white. Christ is white—fairer than the sons of men, chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely. He is holy, perfectly holy; the spotless Lamb of God, holy, harmless, and undefiled; separate from sinners. He is “the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of his person.” He is white also in His justice. He is the Just One. He is white in every aspect of His character. I read of a little girl to whom Christ was precious, and she would be speaking to other children, telling them what a glorious Person He was, and said, “Christ is white.” Some bad children said, to torment her, “Christ is not white, but He is black.” This caused the good little girl to weep. Is Christ so precious to you, my young friends, that you would weep if you heard anyone speaking disparagingly of Him? If not you are not like that good girl.
Seventy, the taste of the manna was sweet. Christ is sweet. The Psalmist, speaking of the word that reveals Christ, said that it was sweeter than honey; yea, sweeter than the honeycomb. If the word is so sweet, how much sweeter is Christ Himself!
Eighthly, the word, manna, is a question: “What is this?” When the people saw it, they did not know what it was. They never saw that kind of bread before, and they exclaimed, with wonder, “Manna,” that is, “What is this?” The sinner is ignorant of Christ. He does not know who or what He is. When Christ appeared to Saul of Tarsus he asked, “Who art thou?” And even after the sinner has known Christ in a saving manner, there is room for the question. There is a mystery in Christ that creatures cannot comprehend—a mystery in His Person, in His two natures in one Person; mystery in His threefold office; mystery in His humiliation, death, resurrection, ascension, and exaltation, which no creature can fathom. And even in glory there is room for the question—room to go on to know the Lord. As the manna was a new thing, so Christ is a new and living way to the Father, to holiness, and happiness. This shall be a wonder for ever.
II. The Duty
It was the duty of the people to gather the manna. The Lord sent it to their doors. It was rained down on the field around their tents. It was near them. They had not to travel far for it. In like manner, Christ is near us in His Word. You need not ascend to heaven to bring Him down. The Word is nigh unto you—the Word which we preach. Christ is in His own Word.
1. Gather Early
They were to gather the manna early in the morning. If they neglected to gather it at that time of day, they could not get it afterwards, for when the sun rose the heat of the sun melted it; it would rise up in a vapour to the clouds from which it descended. You are to gather the spiritual manna early in the morning of life. You ought to begin now when you are young. The Psalmist said, “I was young, and I am now old.” You children can say that you are young, but you cannot say that you shall be old. You may die in youth. The most of the human race die young. Comparatively few live to old age. Therefore I beseech you to begin now, in the morning of life, to seek Christ, and if you find Him you shall find life—life eternal—”the true bread that came down from heaven.” If you die without Christ, you shall perish for ever. Put not off the salvation of your soul till it is too late. This is the accepted time.
2. Bring an Empty Vessel
The people that went out to gather the manna took with them a vessel to put it in and carry it home. They gathered it with their hand, and put it in that vessel. Faith is the hand that gathers the spiritual manna, and the soul is the vessel in which it is put. If an Israelite went out with a vessel that was already full of something else, he could not bring home anything of the manna. In like manner, those who come to the means of grace, professing to come to gather the bread of life, while their vessel is full of their own goodness, their own righteousness, cannot bring home anything of the spiritual manna. “The Lord fills the poor with good things, but sends away the rich empty.” If you would find Christ in the means of grace you must come with an empty vessel—emptied of yourselves, having no good thing dwelling in your flesh—so empty that you always need Christ, in all He is and in all He has, to supply your needs. The emptier you are, the more room there is for Christ in His fulness of grace and truth.
3. Gather Daily
They were to gather the manna daily. The Lord did not give them the whole store. He kept that to Himself, and He sent them a daily supply. This taught them their dependence upon Him. You need food for your body daily, and you need food for your soul daily. Therefore seek Christ daily. I hope you are praying every day, and reading the Bible every day. If not, you are not like the people in the wilderness, who gathered the manna every day of the week. The people were forbidden to go out to gather the manna on the Sabbath day. They got bread for two days on Saturday, that they might keep the Sabbath day holy. But some of them disobeyed the Lord’s command, and went out to gather manna, but they found none; and the Lord was angry with them. The Lord is angry with those who work on Sabbath for their daily bread or for worldly gain. As the Israelites who went out on Sabbath against the Lord’s command found no manna, so those who work on the Sabbath for worldly gain shall find out in the end that all they gained by breaking God’s holy day was no real gain but loss. There is a great deal of Sabbath-breaking in our time by the running of trains on the Lord’s day, and that for worldly gain. And it is very remarkable that owing to the strike of the miners, railway companies have already lost about half a million of money. Although we do not approve of the strike, yet we believe that this loss is a divine punishment for Sabbath-breaking.
4. Gather According to Need
They gathered according to need—an omer for each person in the family. If there were two persons in a family they would get two omers and no more; and although there would be twenty in another family they would get twenty omers. So that those who gathered most had nothing over—they needed it all—and those who gathered least had no lack. They had enough, and “enough is as good as a feast.” The Lord gives to His people according to their needs. If their needs are few, He will give them few omers of grace to help in the time of need; and although they would have a hundred needs, He will give them a hundred omers, and yet they have nothing over; they need it all. As they got only a daily supply, when they retired to bed there was not a particle of bread in the house. Let us suppose that a little boy said to his mother before going to bed, “Mother, we shall starve to-morrow.” “Why do you say that, child?” replied the mother. “Because,” said the boy, “there is no bread in the house; we ate the last morsel of it at supper. The house is now empty of food.” “That is true,” said the mother, “but although the house is empty, the store is not empty. He who sent us bread to-day will send us bread to-morrow too. Go you to bed, rise early to-morrow, and you will see that the manna will be sent to-morrow as usual.” This is not an unfounded supposition. How often will the child of God say, “I shall starve to-morrow, because my poor soul is now as empty as if I had never received anything of the bread of life.” But, poor soul, it is good for you that the store is not as empty as your soul is. Do not despair as long as there is an abundance in the Father’s store. The store is as full as ever. It is inexhaustible. Wait with patience; be diligent in the means of grace; go out to the field where the manna falls from the hand of Him “who giveth liberally and upbraideth not.”
5. Without Payment
They were not required to pay anything for the manna. The people had to pay for their food in Egypt, but when they received their daily bread from the Lord there was no payment asked; it was given freely—”without money and without price.” When you go to the baker’s shop for bread, you will try your purse, to see if you have money to pay it; and that is right. But when you go to God’s shop for the bread of life, you need not be afraid that you shall be refused because you have no money; for it is given freely. The reason why it is given freely is that it has been paid for already. Who paid it? Christ paid it, and paid it dearly. And therefore it is written in God’s Book that “eternal life is the gift of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” If one farthing was required of me to pay for salvation, I would lie down in everlasting despair, for I had not that much to give. But blessed for ever be the “God of all grace,” that I may get salvation without the least thing in me, or done by me, to merit it. For it is given freely to sinners—even the chief! What a bargain! But this is the Gospel, and I preach it to you to-day. Is not this “glad tidings of great joy”? Certainly it is. O, young and old, come to God’s market of free grace. Buy of Him, “without money and and without price”—His own terms. Salvation is as free as the manna was.
6. The Use of the Manna
The use that was to be made of the manna. It was given to be eaten. Moses said to the people, “This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.” It was not given to be looked at, or kept as an ornament in their houses, but to be eaten. So is Christ—the bread of life—given. It is not enough for you to know that there is such a person as Christ, or to have Him set before you in the Bible, or in the preaching of the Gospel; you need to partake of Him—to eat Him. You are not, however, to eat Him in a literal or carnal manner, as the Church of Rome teaches, but spiritually, by faith. When Christ spoke of “eating his flesh and drinking his blood,” the Jews did not understand Him. They thought that He taught cannibalism. And, indeed, the dogma of the Church of Rome on the subject is the most horrible form of cannibalism ever heard of in the history of the human race! The literal manna was food for the body, but Christ—the bread of life—is food for the soul, and is not eaten by the mouth of the body, but by faith, the mouth of the soul. If you are true believers, you live on Christ as your spiritual food, as the people in the wilderness lived on the manna to feed their bodies. They did not eat the manna raw, as they brought it home. It was prepared for eating; it was ground into meal and then baked in the fire, and being thus prepared, they ate it. Was it in this respect a type of Christ? Yes, for before He could be the bread of life to feed His people He was, so to speak, ground between the two millstones of the law of God and baked in the fire of God’s wrath, which they deserved! This accounts for His sufferings, of which we read in the Bible. The manna was wholesome food. So is Christ. Those who live on Him are strong and healthy. It is said of the manna that it had a healing efficacy. This is true of the bread of life. If you were sick in bed and got even a morsel of it, it would heal you, and you would rise and walk and work with renewed strength. Sometimes even a sight of Christ would have this effect. Thomas was sick, but when he got a sight of Christ he was healed at once. More than that, if you were to eat this bread you would never die, that is, you would not die the eternal death. So Christ says, “If any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever.”
III. A Measure of the Manna Preserved
It was such a marvellous provision worthy of being remembered. The provision of salvation was more marvellous, and shall be remembered by the redeemed in time and eternity. It is said of Christ that “His name shall continue for ever,” and that “His name shall be remembered (in the world) as long as the sun.” At the command of the Lord, “Aaron put on omer in a golden pot, and laid it up before the testimony to be kept.” So is the spiritual manna put, as it were, in a pot that future generations may see and know “the bread of life” by which the Lord fed His people in the past. What is that pot? I shall mention three pots in which it is.
First, The Bible
First, the Bible. Christ is in the Bible. He is in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. He said to the Jews, “Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me.” After his resurrection, He expounded to His disciples, in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. These Scriptures were those of the Old Testament; and they were divided into three great parts—the books of Moses, the writings of the prophets, and the Psalms. “And He said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was with you that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms (Luke xxiv. 44). If you read the Scriptures of the New Testament, you will see that they are full of Christ. They testify of His birth in human nature, His humiliation, death, resurrection, and ascension to the right hand of the Father in heaven. In short, Christ is the all in all in the Bible, the centre around which all Scripture gathers, and in which all Scripture meets. The Bible is the field in which the spiritual manna is to be found. See then that you will be often in that field, reading and searching it that you may find Christ, and gather food for your souls. The Bible, revealing Christ, was written that future generations might see the provision that God made for the salvation of lost sinners.
Secondly, The Westminster Confession of Faith
Secondly.—The Westminster Confession of Faith.—The Reformers framed this document that future generations might have Scriptural views of Christ, and of the doctrines of the Gospel, a knowledge of which is necessary to salvation. It is founded on Scripture, and agreeable thereto.
Thirdly, The Shorter Catechism
Thirdly.—The Shorter Catechism is another pot. It was intended for the instruction of children in the knowledge of the doctrines of God’s Word, and has been blessed to many in Scotland, and the means of keeping the people sound in the faith for several generations. The golden pot containing the manna was brought to the land of Canaan, and laid up before the Ark of testimony in the Most Holy place. Let us now suppose that an Israelite, who thought it a vain thing to preserve such a memorial, asked permission to see the pot, or rather, in the absence of the high priest, who alone had a right to enter that sacred place, entered the place where the pot was, and when he saw it he broke it in pieces with a small hammer he had in his pocket. What would you say about that man? You would say that he was a very bold and wicked man. So he was. But is there a man bearing the Christian name in our day, one might say, who would do such a wicked thing as that man did? Yes, not only one man, but hundreds and thousands. What are the “Higher Critics” doing? Are they not, so far as they can, tearing the Bible in pieces, denying the inspiration of the sacred volume, calling the first three chapters in Genesis a myth, large portions of the prophets spurious, and the Gospel narratives unreliable? They are. It is notorious that the most of the “Higher Critics” are connected with the United Free Church! A similar attack has been made on the Confession of Faith. This attack has been made for the simple reason that the Confession contains the doctrines of the Bible; and as the Confession contains these doctrines, that Church repudiated it. Dr. Rainy said that it would be a “wicked thing to bind the people of this generation to a creed that was 250 years old.” But I am afraid it was not because of its antiquity he wished to get rid of the Confession, but because of its Scripturalness. The Established Church of Scotland has practically got rid of the Confession for the same reason. The Shorter Catechism is thrown away by many for the same reason. The effect of this will be that coming generations shall not know the “bread of life” by which the Lord fed His people in Scotland in the past. But we will preserve the Memorial, according to the Lord’s command. “This the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.”