The Manna and the Hidden Manna

Extract

The Manna and the Hidden Manna
A. W. Pink

The Manna – Exodus 16

The food which God has provided for His people is His own blessed Word. But “the word” is used both of the Scriptures and of the Lord Jesus Christ. The two are most intimately related. “In the volume of the book,” said Christ, “it is written of me” (Psa. 40:7), and again, “Search the scriptures…they are they which testify of me” (John 5:39). Almost everything that can be postulated of the one can be predicated of the other. But the chief value of the written Word is to set forth the perfections and bring us into communion with the incarnate Word. It is only as we feed upon Christ Himself that we truly feed upon the written Word. Therefore, in this article, we shall confine our attention to the manna typifying the person and perfections of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Beneath many a figure and behind innumerable shadows and symbols, the anointed eye may discern the glories of our blessed Lord. It should be our chief delight, as we read the Old Testament Scriptures prayerfully, to search for that which foreshadows Him of whom, “Moses and the prophets did write” (John 1:45). All doubt is removed as to whether or not the manna pointed to the incarnate Son by His own words in John 6:32-33. There we find the Saviour saying, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven…For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.” May the Spirit of God now condescend to open our sin-blinded eyes as we earnestly desire to behold “wondrous things” (Psa. 119:18) out of His perfect Law.

1. The glory of the Lord was seen with the giving of the manna. “And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the …