by Hugh DeLong<\/p>\n
During the wilderness wanderings of Israel, God provided food for them. Sustaining such a large group of people would be impossible for men (even men like Moses), but not <\/b>for God. How many there were we do not know for certain, but it states there were 605,550 men of fighting age. Add to that their wives, their children, their parents, some grandparents, and the mixed multitude, and you come up with a very large number of people! As the disciples responded to Jesus: “Where will anyone be able to find enough bread here in this desolate place to satisfy these people?<\/em>” (Mark 8:4).<\/p>\n Everything about this food indicates the miraculous activity of God. It hadn’t appeared before; hence, they called it ‘what is it’ (the meaning of the word manna). It could not be kept overnight except <\/b>for the Sabbath day. It ended when they entered the promised land and no longer needed it.<\/p>\n Interestingly enough, it kept those that ate it alive – for a while<\/strong>\u00a0– until they died of other things than hunger! But <\/b>they died! Moses makes the correct observation about such food:<\/p>\n “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord<\/em>” (Deuteronomy 8:3).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Hence, to this second generation that was about to enter into the promised land, where there would be food, they must learn to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. They put their eternal interests above all other interests, even life itself.<\/p>\n Then, this ‘second Moses’ appears, Jesus. Being the Son of God, He was able <\/b>to turn rocks into bread to satisfy His own hunger, but did not do so. He understood the very point that Moses had made! He chose to live according to God’s instructions and not Satan’s! (Read the temptations of Jesus in Matthew 4 and Luke 4 again).<\/p>\n He was also able to provide miracle food for the people. Although in context it was a very temporary provision and nothing indicates it would continue for 40 years like before, yet the people wanted it to be more permanent. Hence, they sought after Him not because of His teaching<\/strong>, but because their bellies were filled (John 6: 26).<\/p>\n The real bread is not <\/b>that which fills the stomach, but that which fills the soul with desire for God. It is the food that provides for the ability to fulfill the greatest commandment: Love the LORD your God with all your heart. It is the food that provides for eternal <\/b>life.<\/p>\n This brings us to Jesus. Jesus is <\/b>the Bread of Life<\/strong>. It is only as we ‘partake’ of Him <\/b>that we live! We are made alive <\/b>in Christ by eating his body and drinking his blood. Such <\/b>‘eating His body and drinking his blood’ is to absorb His <\/b>ways, His <\/b>thoughts, His <\/b>way of thinking. It is to have the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:1f). It is accomplished by having His <\/b>words and teachings abiding in us<\/strong>, to have His words dwelling in us (John 15:7; Colossians 3:16). The life we live is to be lived by faith in Him (Galatians 2:20).<\/p>\n With this, we come to look at ourselves! Are we really different than the crowd of Jesus’ day? What is it that we seek? Which is more important to you, the feeding of your body that will die anyway or your spirit?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Hugh DeLong During the wilderness wanderings of Israel, God provided food for them. Sustaining such a large group of people would be impossible for men (even men like Moses), but not for God. How many there were we do not know for certain, but it states there were 605,550 men of fighting age. Add…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[913,77,73],"class_list":["post-96812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-bible-study","tag-doctrine","tag-jesus"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":94634,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/by-bread-alone\/","url_meta":{"origin":96812,"position":0},"title":"By Bread Alone","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 17, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hugh DeLong We all have our favorite scriptures and concepts that we 'religiously' follow. We also all have some aspects of Jesus' teaching that, because of our dispositions and\/or situations, we ignore or set aside. In such situations, most of us 'justify' our actions. Read this first temptation again\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24239,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-ezekiel-1412-23-teach-that-some-are-saved-by-their-own-righteousness\/","url_meta":{"origin":96812,"position":1},"title":"Does Ezekiel 14:12-23 teach that some are saved by their own righteousness?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is Ezekiel 14:12-23 a passage about these men being saved by their own righteousness? Were they perfect so they could save themselves, apart from God's grace, since \"all have sinned\"? And is an inference of eternal salvation valid from this passage? I ask this because I'm convinced that you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91639,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-bread-of-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":96812,"position":2},"title":"The Bread of Life","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 29, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hugh DeLong The temptation to turn rocks into bread brought the response of Jesus that man is to live not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. God's word is the bread of life that sustains the soul. Now in John\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40288,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/give-us-our-daily-bread\/","url_meta":{"origin":96812,"position":3},"title":"Give Us Our Daily Bread","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Matthew 6:9-13 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When God created man, he was placed in a garden that provided his needs - Genesis 2:8-9 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But man sinned and was driven from the Garden - Genesis 3:17-19 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The basics of sustenance was no longer provided. It had to be worked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27871,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/your-site-is-a-gold-mine-of-information\/","url_meta":{"origin":96812,"position":4},"title":"Your site is a gold mine of information","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Sir, I have just stumbled upon your web site while googling for\u00a0some answers regarding Exodus 4:24-26, though I realize that we don't actually \"stumble\" on to anything where our Heavenly Father is concerned. I found the explanations contained on your site to be quite informative and solidly based\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32415,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-does-it-mean-that-a-man-is-reduced-to-a-piece-of-bread\/","url_meta":{"origin":96812,"position":5},"title":"What does it mean that a man is reduced to a piece of bread?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Proverbs 6:26, what does reducing a man to a piece of bread mean? Does this mean the appearance of a relationship, friendship, and love is so shallow that the reality is the man is viewed as nothing more than an object by which to make money? All thoughts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96812"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96815,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96812\/revisions\/96815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}