SUMMARY
The manna that began to “rain” from heaven in the earliest days of the exodus (Exodus 16:4) continues to feed the people.
ANALYSIS
Here we find a fuller and somewhat different description of the manna, God’s provision of food in the desert. It is like coriander seed; it can be boiled, and cakes can be made from it that taste like “cakes baked with oil.” In other words, it is rich food, and the complaints of the people in the stories surrounding this text–especially of “the rabble”–are unjustified.
The “bread of heaven” lives on in Christian piety as a sign of divine graceGrace is the unmerited gift of God's love and acceptance. In Martin Luther's favorite expression from the Apostle Paul, we are saved by grace through faith, which means that God showers grace upon us even though we do not deserve it. More and favor. It sustains a “pilgrimA pilgrim is a person who undertakes a journey to a place of religious or historical significance - often for spiritual purposes. A pilgrimage to Mecca is a religious obligation for a good Muslim. In the early days of Hebrew history pilgrims traveled to Shiloh,... More through this barren land” in William Williams’s hymn, “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah”; a stained glass window in the fourteenth-century St. Jacob’s Church in Rothenburg, Germany, depicts the manna scene as a group of German peasants in medieval garb upon whom it is raining pretzels!
