John 6: 31-32
” Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.’”
Reading the stories of the Israelite’s exodus from Egypt, one might understandably get the idea that the people Moses led out in the desert associated the miracles with him rather than with God. Yet the book of Exodus makes it clear that Moses, with one exception, only did what God wanted him to do. He sought God’s guidance for everything.
When the Israelites were hungry, God sent manna from heaven, but it was Moses who told the people about the manna. Manna was a kind of physical bread from heaven, yet we also live in a spiritual realm.
Q: How would you characterize “true bread” from heaven?
Okay, I’ll start… 🙂
Jesus seems to draw a comparison between the physical and the spiritual. The physical life is temporary, the spiritual is eternal. When Jesus talks about ‘true bread’ I think he wants us to focus on feeding our spiritual parts.
Yes, I would even think of Jesus Himself as the true bread. He is the bread of life which gives spiritual nourishment and eternal life through faith in Him. To me, it is similar to when He referred to Himself as the living water that brings eternal life, when speaking with the woman at the well in John chapter 4.