Bread of heaven

And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat. - Exodus 16.15

After living here for a few years, and being in the middle of the Rugby World Cup, I am kind of embarrassed to say what the first thing I think about when I hear these words. It is a hymn, but the reason is a little strange.

Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,
Pilgrim through this barren land.
I am weak, but Thou art mighty;
Hold me with Thy powerful hand.
Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven,
Feed me till I want no more;
Feed me till I want no more.

It is a beautiful hymn, but all I can hear is 80,000 Welsh rugby fans singing it at the top of their lungs. You nned to hear it - it is powerful even from a rugby crowd.

But we have have the origin of ‘bread of heaven.’ Bread of heaven is so much more that just a rugby song. It is a theme that runs all through God’s word. Here in the wilderness God provided manna, the bread of heaven, for forty years without fail. But this really comes home when we see that Jesus used manna to picture Himself.

Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Just as God provided physical bread from heaven in the desert today Jesus is our spiritual bread of heaven in our spiritual wasteland.

There is a big difference though. God has a few rules for the manna. You couldn’t collect it on Saturday. You could only take what you actually needed. Jesus as the Bread of Life never runs out and He is available in overflowing abundance.

Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more.