Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
After the feeding of the five thousand the crowd appealed to the wilderness feeding to demand a greater sign from Jesus so they might see and believe. Moses did not give that bread from heaven, but God the Father gives the true bread, and Christ Himself was the one who led Israel and daily fed them. That manna was real food from heaven that sustained bodily life through the wandering, yet those who ate it still died. The true bread is Christ Himself come down from heaven to give life to the world, so that whoever comes to Him and believes on Him never hungers or thirsts but receives eternal life and immortality. To eat His flesh and drink His blood is to receive Him by faith in spiritual union, to take in and live by His words and keep them in daily life.
Crowd's Demand for Sign
After the feeding of the five thousand the crowd quoted that the fathers ate manna in the desert as bread from heaven to eat, pressing for a sign that they might see and believe and for a work like the wilderness miracle. They held up that standing miracle in which Israel ate angels' food and asked whether He would continue to provide His followers with plenty of palatable food as God had provided for Israel. Their appeal to that sign was pressure on Him to work a miracle similar to that worked for the children of Israel in the wilderness, yet it did not lead them to believe that He was the Son of God.
The demand was made in blind, caviling unbelief, without recognizing that He Himself had conducted the Hebrews through the wilderness and had daily fed them manna from heaven. Their eyes were fixed on Moses instead of Christ, sitting in Moses' seat and supposing they were giving the people light and truth. Even after He had fed the multitude with five loaves and two fishes and twelve baskets of fragments remained, which was sufficient evidence, they closed their eyes to the light already given and still cried for a sign.
They sought Him not because they saw the miracle but because they ate of the loaves and were filled, making temporal provision their chief anxiety rather than the living bread that endures to everlasting life. The demand reveals they wanted Him to provide what would sustain physical life and to give greater material blessings than Moses gave, with plenty of palatable food continually supplied. Little anxiety should be given to temporal food while the food from heaven is of the highest consequence, yet they made temporal filling and a temporal kingdom their aim instead of faith and wholehearted spiritual service. When He made clear His work was spiritual and not a political reign, rejecting hopes of a temporal kingdom, many turned away.
Giver of True Bread
Moses did not give that bread from heaven; the Father is its giver, and He now gives the true bread from heaven that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. The crowd appealed to the wilderness manna as a sign to see and believe, but with eyes fixed on Moses they overlooked God as the giver and supposed themselves to sit in Moses' seat giving light and truth. The same One who gave that manna to Israel will give knowledge to His children today, for the life-giving bread is not merely food such as manna, but Christ Himself received through faith.
Christ Himself was the one who conducted the Hebrews through the wilderness and daily fed them, the kind friend who cared for Israel in its wanderings and is the same today. The appeal for bread from heaven overlooked God as the giver and failed to recognize that He who was invoked in unbelief had Himself led and fed their ancestors. As God gave manna to preserve temporal lives, so God has now sent the gift of His Son.
The wilderness manna was angels' food and a standing, daily miracle, a real gift from heaven that provided physical food during Israel's forty years of wandering and sustained bodily strength. It was cited as a reason Christ should continue to provide His followers with plenty of palatable food, yet Christ meets bodily needs while the spiritual bread received through Him is more important than perishable food and endures to eternal life. That manna was a temporal gift that sustained life but did not prevent death or give immortality, a lesser gift than the eternal life Jesus offers as the bread of life.
The bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world, and Jesus declares Himself to be that bread of life, so that he who comes to Him will never hunger and he who believes on Him will never thirst. This is a love beyond knowledge to be spoken of every day, realized in its effects though never fully explained, only begun now and requiring eternity to reveal fully. It must be understood by experience as spiritual nourishment far more essential than concern over temporal food, not meaning temporal eating and drinking but understanding His words and doing them, on which spiritual life depends.
The manna was a type of the true bread from heaven, the life-giving Spirit flowing from God. The chapter sets physical manna against the life received by accepting Christ's words and obeying them, for His flesh gives life to the world.
Manna Contrasted with Christ
As God gave manna to preserve temporal, physical life, so God has sent the gift of His Son. That manna was a real gift from heaven that sustained bodily strength and physical life during the wandering, yet those who ate it died. It did not prevent death or give immortality, and it was a lesser gift than eternal life. The temporary food that sustained life is thus set against the life received through the Son.
Through the Son men may eat of the bread of life and become immortal. Receiving that bread brings eternal life now, and in the end immortal life to the body. The true bread from heaven gives life, in contrast to the manna that only preserved physical life.
The Bread of life comes to satisfy the highest spiritual demands and the hunger of the soul, while little anxiety should be given to temporal food to satisfy temporal hunger. That Bread is God's truth confronting the devil's lie, and it requires true wholehearted spiritual service and not looking for a temporal kingdom. When men accept Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, all their hungering of soul is satisfied. The whole chapter presents Christ as the Bread of Life who gives life to the world, and receiving Him and His words brings enduring spiritual satisfaction and life, for His words are spirit and life.
Eating Means Believing Word
To eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son is not temporal eating and drinking, nor is it mere outward connection with any church, but receiving Christ Himself through faith, coming to Him and believing in Him as a personal Saviour into spiritual union with Him, crucifying self, making continual growth in grace, praying for it as for every blessing, bringing truth into daily experience, being taught daily in the school of Christ, and understanding His words and doing them, on which spiritual life depends, unto eternal life and resurrection at the last day. The life-giving bread is not merely food such as manna, but Christ received through faith, and this must be understood by experience as spiritual nourishment far more essential than concern over temporal food.
This eating and drinking is keeping His Word and truth continually before the mind, receiving and assimilating His words so they become part of the self, studying and practicing its teachings, keeping its precepts, bringing its principles and truths into daily life, being doers of the Word, and living by faith and by every word God has revealed. The bread from heaven is the Word of God to be eaten by study, not departing from its precepts, grasping the mysteries of godliness, praying and communing with God to prove His mind and will, for God has revealed all that is necessary for salvation and His word is not to be left for the suppositions of men. Believing comes first and working follows, so those who believe will work the works of God.
The lesson is explained by the saying that the Spirit gives life while the flesh profits nothing, for His words are spirit and life and must be brought into the life. His directions in the Old Testament were Israel's spiritual nourishment and His work as substitute for sin was ancient Israel's hope, and receiving Him and His words brings enduring spiritual satisfaction and life. The chapter centers life on receiving His words to advantage.
The heavenly manna, the bread from heaven, is Christ Himself, His instruction in the gospel, His life-giving words, His grace and promises, the Scriptures and God's Word as living bread and food for the soul, to be fed upon for spiritual strength and comfort. It must be taken into one's own life and not merely read, understood and received so its nourishment benefits the hearer, gathering every fragment so none is lost. Feeding on it nourishes hunger for God, gives spiritual strength, power and influence through Jesus Christ, comfort, peace, light, joy and abundant satisfaction, guides believers, guards against trial and temptation, and supplies lasting treasures for present and future need, while feeding the mind on worldly entertainments and neglecting it leaves hunger unsatisfied, the mind weak, without relish for heavenly bread and less able to study the truths of Christ's mission and work.
The chapter is the great lesson answering what to do to work the works of God in John 6:28-71, which must be understood by experience or heaven will be missed. The work God requires is to believe on Him whom He sent, with the price of heaven the only begotten Son and the way to heaven by faith in Jesus, defining the righteousness of Christ that puts on the wedding garment to meet God's standard of character for a fit guest, joining humanity with divinity, requiring firm stand for Christ, surrender to God what is already His, ceasing continuance in sin, and refusing to measure character by human ideas, since presumption where eternal interests are involved brings loss of soul while God will fulfill every specification of His promise. It affirms the sufficiency of the Old Testament Scriptures leading to belief in the New, teaches dependence on God rather than on human beings or human guides for wisdom, strength, guidance or salvation, and shows Christ as the source of sufficiency and strength, the divine Teacher come down from heaven clothed in humanity as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, with the Bible as the great educating Book above all others in schools and with feeding upon His words as His very flesh and blood joined to instruction in the law and its penalty and to God's acceptance of the Saviour's ransom for the obedient.
Life, Response, and Sharing
Partaking of His flesh and drinking His blood brings eternal life and resurrection at the last day, for unlike the fathers who ate manna and are dead, he who eats this bread which came down from heaven will live forever. A believer may die as Christ died, yet the Saviour's life is in him and his life is hid with Christ in God, made one with Him in this present life to be one with Him throughout eternity, with life more abundantly. This eating is not temporal eating and drinking but receiving Christ Himself through faith, receiving and assimilating His words which are spirit and life, understanding them and doing them, on which spiritual life depends, and it must be understood by experience as spiritual nourishment far more essential than temporal food. So gained, eternal life comes by receiving Christ and His life, and the truth works by love and purifies the soul.
The plain testimony tested those claiming to be disciples, exposed the real sentiments of hearers, and set them to decide for or against Him. When He made clear His work was spiritual and not a political reign or temporal kingdom, the truth offended many who turned away rather than accept its reproof and reform their lives. Many, including religious leaders and disciples, did not understand His teaching, and those not wholly with Him would oppose Him at His trial. After the feeding with loaves and fishes, walking on the water, and telling hearers He was the bread of life, some of His disciples turned from Him.
By His sermon on the bread from heaven He opened to the disciples their work as His representatives to give the bread of life to the people. Those possessing knowledge of the truth as heavenly manna and light, the Bread of Life, must give it to souls perishing without Christ so they may be saved and carry the gospel to all, rather than hiding it or burying resources and withholding them from the work. It must be brought from under bed and bushel and put on a candlestick to shine to all in the house. God gives fresh manna to the hungry sheep through human agents who let the Lord lead and guide them and are molded by the Holy Spirit to represent Christ's character, and then the truth keeps its divine power rather than man placing himself in God's place in self-sufficiency, and each person receives fresh spiritual nourishment to share with others. The heavenly manna starving souls need now is spiritual food — living experience, Bible studies, plain simple earnest appeals, preaching the Word, and present truth — and those in responsibility as householders must fill every printed page with spiritual food in due season, for common things, war news and daily news, selections from worldly papers and books, and words elevating, praising and exalting men are cheap stale food, chaff to the wheat, with no bearing on the times or spiritual interests.
Learning these lessons, which older persons as well as younger all need, means reading and studying the chapter, meditating upon its truths, committing it to memory, and eating the bread of life. It means reading the sixth chapter asking God for clearness of understanding to comprehend its important statements, praying and communing with God to prove His mind and will, bringing truth into the inner sanctuary until digested into living reality and spiritual muscle, and receiving it inwardly and not merely speaking about it. It means loving and practicing its principles, opening the mind to the entrance of God's word with determination to practice it, and making it part of life. The bread from heaven is the Bible given to feed the mind, and men and women are built up spiritually by the food they give the mind, found by searching the Scriptures. This requires putting aside unprofitable reading matter and using means for God's cause instead, avoiding books and magazines that lead the mind astray and hinder growth, putting aside frivolous and exciting tales and love stories that enfeeble the mind, leave an unreal life, unfit for duty, weaken study of Christ's mission and the plan of salvation, and take away hunger for heavenly manna, and avoiding worldly entertainments, business cares, cheap stale food of common news and words exalting men, and teachings of no value dressed as new light that cannot nourish and leave souls starving.
When this feeding is obtained it is a real personal experience of tasting that the Lord is gracious through conversion and the new birth. The frivolous life is changed, character is transformed, feet are placed upon Christ as the first round of the ladder heavenward, and step by step heavenward Christ is revealed in spirit, words and actions, building believers as living stones into a spiritual house to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. Drinking of Him and feeding on Him every day changes the experience, giving true religion with sympathy and tenderness and love, and belongs to being converted anew, with spiritual strength sought through prayer and the means of grace to grow in grace and knowledge. Those fed from Scripture here, searching its pages and knowing what it says, grow beyond babes into mature relation to God, with right to the tree of life and preparation to be translated. The account of feeding the multitude shows He cared for physical hunger as well as need for spiritual life, meeting bodily needs, yet the spiritual bread received through Him, enduring to eternal life, is more important than perishable food.
After the feeding of the five thousand the crowd appealed to the wilderness feeding to demand a greater sign from Jesus so they might see and believe. Moses did not give that bread from heaven, but God the Father gives the true bread, and Christ Himself was the one who led Israel and daily fed them. That manna was real food from heaven that sustained bodily life through the wandering, yet those who ate it still died. The true bread is Christ Himself come down from heaven to give life to the world, so that whoever comes to Him and believes on Him never hungers or thirsts but receives eternal life and immortality. To eat His flesh and drink His blood is to receive Him by faith in spiritual union, to take in and live by His words and keep them in daily life.
Crowd's Demand for Sign
After the feeding of the five thousand the crowd quoted that the fathers ate manna in the desert as bread from heaven to eat, pressing for a sign that they might see and believe and for a work like the wilderness miracle. They held up that standing miracle in which Israel ate angels' food and asked whether He would continue to provide His followers with plenty of palatable food as God had provided for Israel. Their appeal to that sign was pressure on Him to work a miracle similar to that worked for the children of Israel in the wilderness, yet it did not lead them to believe that He was the Son of God.
The demand was made in blind, caviling unbelief, without recognizing that He Himself had conducted the Hebrews through the wilderness and had daily fed them manna from heaven. Their eyes were fixed on Moses instead of Christ, sitting in Moses' seat and supposing they were giving the people light and truth. Even after He had fed the multitude with five loaves and two fishes and twelve baskets of fragments remained, which was sufficient evidence, they closed their eyes to the light already given and still cried for a sign.
They sought Him not because they saw the miracle but because they ate of the loaves and were filled, making temporal provision their chief anxiety rather than the living bread that endures to everlasting life. The demand reveals they wanted Him to provide what would sustain physical life and to give greater material blessings than Moses gave, with plenty of palatable food continually supplied. Little anxiety should be given to temporal food while the food from heaven is of the highest consequence, yet they made temporal filling and a temporal kingdom their aim instead of faith and wholehearted spiritual service. When He made clear His work was spiritual and not a political reign, rejecting hopes of a temporal kingdom, many turned away.
Giver of True Bread
Moses did not give that bread from heaven; the Father is its giver, and He now gives the true bread from heaven that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. The crowd appealed to the wilderness manna as a sign to see and believe, but with eyes fixed on Moses they overlooked God as the giver and supposed themselves to sit in Moses' seat giving light and truth. The same One who gave that manna to Israel will give knowledge to His children today, for the life-giving bread is not merely food such as manna, but Christ Himself received through faith.
Christ Himself was the one who conducted the Hebrews through the wilderness and daily fed them, the kind friend who cared for Israel in its wanderings and is the same today. The appeal for bread from heaven overlooked God as the giver and failed to recognize that He who was invoked in unbelief had Himself led and fed their ancestors. As God gave manna to preserve temporal lives, so God has now sent the gift of His Son.
The wilderness manna was angels' food and a standing, daily miracle, a real gift from heaven that provided physical food during Israel's forty years of wandering and sustained bodily strength. It was cited as a reason Christ should continue to provide His followers with plenty of palatable food, yet Christ meets bodily needs while the spiritual bread received through Him is more important than perishable food and endures to eternal life. That manna was a temporal gift that sustained life but did not prevent death or give immortality, a lesser gift than the eternal life Jesus offers as the bread of life.
The bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world, and Jesus declares Himself to be that bread of life, so that he who comes to Him will never hunger and he who believes on Him will never thirst. This is a love beyond knowledge to be spoken of every day, realized in its effects though never fully explained, only begun now and requiring eternity to reveal fully. It must be understood by experience as spiritual nourishment far more essential than concern over temporal food, not meaning temporal eating and drinking but understanding His words and doing them, on which spiritual life depends.
The manna was a type of the true bread from heaven, the life-giving Spirit flowing from God. The chapter sets physical manna against the life received by accepting Christ's words and obeying them, for His flesh gives life to the world.
Manna Contrasted with Christ
As God gave manna to preserve temporal, physical life, so God has sent the gift of His Son. That manna was a real gift from heaven that sustained bodily strength and physical life during the wandering, yet those who ate it died. It did not prevent death or give immortality, and it was a lesser gift than eternal life. The temporary food that sustained life is thus set against the life received through the Son.
Through the Son men may eat of the bread of life and become immortal. Receiving that bread brings eternal life now, and in the end immortal life to the body. The true bread from heaven gives life, in contrast to the manna that only preserved physical life.
The Bread of life comes to satisfy the highest spiritual demands and the hunger of the soul, while little anxiety should be given to temporal food to satisfy temporal hunger. That Bread is God's truth confronting the devil's lie, and it requires true wholehearted spiritual service and not looking for a temporal kingdom. When men accept Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, all their hungering of soul is satisfied. The whole chapter presents Christ as the Bread of Life who gives life to the world, and receiving Him and His words brings enduring spiritual satisfaction and life, for His words are spirit and life.
Eating Means Believing Word
To eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son is not temporal eating and drinking, nor is it mere outward connection with any church, but receiving Christ Himself through faith, coming to Him and believing in Him as a personal Saviour into spiritual union with Him, crucifying self, making continual growth in grace, praying for it as for every blessing, bringing truth into daily experience, being taught daily in the school of Christ, and understanding His words and doing them, on which spiritual life depends, unto eternal life and resurrection at the last day. The life-giving bread is not merely food such as manna, but Christ received through faith, and this must be understood by experience as spiritual nourishment far more essential than concern over temporal food.
This eating and drinking is keeping His Word and truth continually before the mind, receiving and assimilating His words so they become part of the self, studying and practicing its teachings, keeping its precepts, bringing its principles and truths into daily life, being doers of the Word, and living by faith and by every word God has revealed. The bread from heaven is the Word of God to be eaten by study, not departing from its precepts, grasping the mysteries of godliness, praying and communing with God to prove His mind and will, for God has revealed all that is necessary for salvation and His word is not to be left for the suppositions of men. Believing comes first and working follows, so those who believe will work the works of God.
The lesson is explained by the saying that the Spirit gives life while the flesh profits nothing, for His words are spirit and life and must be brought into the life. His directions in the Old Testament were Israel's spiritual nourishment and His work as substitute for sin was ancient Israel's hope, and receiving Him and His words brings enduring spiritual satisfaction and life. The chapter centers life on receiving His words to advantage.
The heavenly manna, the bread from heaven, is Christ Himself, His instruction in the gospel, His life-giving words, His grace and promises, the Scriptures and God's Word as living bread and food for the soul, to be fed upon for spiritual strength and comfort. It must be taken into one's own life and not merely read, understood and received so its nourishment benefits the hearer, gathering every fragment so none is lost. Feeding on it nourishes hunger for God, gives spiritual strength, power and influence through Jesus Christ, comfort, peace, light, joy and abundant satisfaction, guides believers, guards against trial and temptation, and supplies lasting treasures for present and future need, while feeding the mind on worldly entertainments and neglecting it leaves hunger unsatisfied, the mind weak, without relish for heavenly bread and less able to study the truths of Christ's mission and work.
The chapter is the great lesson answering what to do to work the works of God in John 6:28-71, which must be understood by experience or heaven will be missed. The work God requires is to believe on Him whom He sent, with the price of heaven the only begotten Son and the way to heaven by faith in Jesus, defining the righteousness of Christ that puts on the wedding garment to meet God's standard of character for a fit guest, joining humanity with divinity, requiring firm stand for Christ, surrender to God what is already His, ceasing continuance in sin, and refusing to measure character by human ideas, since presumption where eternal interests are involved brings loss of soul while God will fulfill every specification of His promise. It affirms the sufficiency of the Old Testament Scriptures leading to belief in the New, teaches dependence on God rather than on human beings or human guides for wisdom, strength, guidance or salvation, and shows Christ as the source of sufficiency and strength, the divine Teacher come down from heaven clothed in humanity as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, with the Bible as the great educating Book above all others in schools and with feeding upon His words as His very flesh and blood joined to instruction in the law and its penalty and to God's acceptance of the Saviour's ransom for the obedient.
Life, Response, and Sharing
Partaking of His flesh and drinking His blood brings eternal life and resurrection at the last day, for unlike the fathers who ate manna and are dead, he who eats this bread which came down from heaven will live forever. A believer may die as Christ died, yet the Saviour's life is in him and his life is hid with Christ in God, made one with Him in this present life to be one with Him throughout eternity, with life more abundantly. This eating is not temporal eating and drinking but receiving Christ Himself through faith, receiving and assimilating His words which are spirit and life, understanding them and doing them, on which spiritual life depends, and it must be understood by experience as spiritual nourishment far more essential than temporal food. So gained, eternal life comes by receiving Christ and His life, and the truth works by love and purifies the soul.
The plain testimony tested those claiming to be disciples, exposed the real sentiments of hearers, and set them to decide for or against Him. When He made clear His work was spiritual and not a political reign or temporal kingdom, the truth offended many who turned away rather than accept its reproof and reform their lives. Many, including religious leaders and disciples, did not understand His teaching, and those not wholly with Him would oppose Him at His trial. After the feeding with loaves and fishes, walking on the water, and telling hearers He was the bread of life, some of His disciples turned from Him.
By His sermon on the bread from heaven He opened to the disciples their work as His representatives to give the bread of life to the people. Those possessing knowledge of the truth as heavenly manna and light, the Bread of Life, must give it to souls perishing without Christ so they may be saved and carry the gospel to all, rather than hiding it or burying resources and withholding them from the work. It must be brought from under bed and bushel and put on a candlestick to shine to all in the house. God gives fresh manna to the hungry sheep through human agents who let the Lord lead and guide them and are molded by the Holy Spirit to represent Christ's character, and then the truth keeps its divine power rather than man placing himself in God's place in self-sufficiency, and each person receives fresh spiritual nourishment to share with others. The heavenly manna starving souls need now is spiritual food — living experience, Bible studies, plain simple earnest appeals, preaching the Word, and present truth — and those in responsibility as householders must fill every printed page with spiritual food in due season, for common things, war news and daily news, selections from worldly papers and books, and words elevating, praising and exalting men are cheap stale food, chaff to the wheat, with no bearing on the times or spiritual interests.
Learning these lessons, which older persons as well as younger all need, means reading and studying the chapter, meditating upon its truths, committing it to memory, and eating the bread of life. It means reading the sixth chapter asking God for clearness of understanding to comprehend its important statements, praying and communing with God to prove His mind and will, bringing truth into the inner sanctuary until digested into living reality and spiritual muscle, and receiving it inwardly and not merely speaking about it. It means loving and practicing its principles, opening the mind to the entrance of God's word with determination to practice it, and making it part of life. The bread from heaven is the Bible given to feed the mind, and men and women are built up spiritually by the food they give the mind, found by searching the Scriptures. This requires putting aside unprofitable reading matter and using means for God's cause instead, avoiding books and magazines that lead the mind astray and hinder growth, putting aside frivolous and exciting tales and love stories that enfeeble the mind, leave an unreal life, unfit for duty, weaken study of Christ's mission and the plan of salvation, and take away hunger for heavenly manna, and avoiding worldly entertainments, business cares, cheap stale food of common news and words exalting men, and teachings of no value dressed as new light that cannot nourish and leave souls starving.
When this feeding is obtained it is a real personal experience of tasting that the Lord is gracious through conversion and the new birth. The frivolous life is changed, character is transformed, feet are placed upon Christ as the first round of the ladder heavenward, and step by step heavenward Christ is revealed in spirit, words and actions, building believers as living stones into a spiritual house to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. Drinking of Him and feeding on Him every day changes the experience, giving true religion with sympathy and tenderness and love, and belongs to being converted anew, with spiritual strength sought through prayer and the means of grace to grow in grace and knowledge. Those fed from Scripture here, searching its pages and knowing what it says, grow beyond babes into mature relation to God, with right to the tree of life and preparation to be translated. The account of feeding the multitude shows He cared for physical hunger as well as need for spiritual life, meeting bodily needs, yet the spiritual bread received through Him, enduring to eternal life, is more important than perishable food.