Midweek Lenten Worship March 18, 2026
“Bread From Heaven” Exodus 16
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
In the first third of the book of Exodus the battle between God and Egypt’s pharaoh’s drives the storyline. Pharaoh #1 tries to exterminate the Hebrews by killing all the Jewish boys. The midwives were instructed to kill them at the moment of birth or drown them in the Nile. Pharaoh # 2 also wants to kill the Jews, but his plan was to let the boys live but then work them to death. He had them make lots of bricks and they even had to gather their own straw for those bricks. Every day. Sun up to sun down.
The remainder of the book, however, describes Israel in the wilderness and at Mt. Sinai. Who is their enemy now? It is Israel. They are their own enemy. All they can do is complain. “And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, ‘Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill the whole assembly with hunger.’” (Exodus 16:2-3)
Do you know someone who complains all the time? I’m sorry. They whine and moan about everything. Boy, that saps you of joy. You avoid them. These people, God’s people, Israel, lived like that – in constant complaint.
What did God do? He listened. He acted. Moses told the people, “Come near before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling…In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp.” (Exodus 16:9,13) They had bread – manna – in the morning. In the evening, they had meat. And God did this for the 40 years that they were there.
What did He do for them? He gave them daily bread. Each day they were to get up and go into the desert and only take enough bread for that day for their family. The manna would not last till the next day. It’s shelf life was really short. But a lack of belief in God’s word got the better of them. Some worried and they took more than they needed. This was the result of that – “But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank.” (Exodus 16:20)
I think we learned much about ourselves, and about others, during the pandemic in 2020. People were greedy. There was hoarding of everything in March of 2020, 6 years ago. People feared they would be without, and so they went to the store and took everything from the shelves. Daily bread? No. I need more than that. We Costco-sized everything. Israel also had to have more. But God made them to simply trust in Him. Every day for 40 years.
Exodus 16 tells us that grumbling should not be the heart of a believer. Exodus 16 tells us that greed and taking care of self alone is not the heart of a believer. Exodus 16 tells us that God is a strong deliverer and he comes to deliver us from fear. God knows that we need daily bread and He provides it. In the Lord’s Prayer we ask for that, “Give us this day our daily bread”. Do you remember your Catechism days? Martin Luther in 1529 wrote in The Small Catechism:
Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.” (Small Catechism, Fourth Petition)
Never take for granted God’s generosity in your life. Our daily bread is a divine gift. We need to pray every day for such things – and not just for ourselves but for others – especially for those who are poor and sick and face great challenges in their life.
But God’s gifts are not simply material gifts. The bread from heaven takes care of our soul and spirit, our mind and emotions. Our deepest needs are met by this God who came to the people of Israel in their deepest needs. Daily bread captures with it a yearning for God’s Word and His grace and the Holy Spirit in our life.
40 years after that initial gift, Moses reflects on what God was doing among His people, “He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” (Deuteronomy 8:3)
Jesus knew a great deal about bread from heaven. John 6 is one of those great chapters in the Bible. It begins with the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 with the two fish and the five loaves of bread. And do you know what you get when you give people free food? You get folks who follow you, looking for more. And Jesus wanted to give them more. In John 6 this conversation is had: Jesus is asked, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world…I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:30-33, 35)
Jesus Christ is our daily bread. We feast on His word and the gift He gives us in the Holy Meal. Faith in Him brings us eternal life. Jesus would say later in John 6, “Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.” (John 6:49-51)
We take our daily bread for granted too often. Don’t. God gives you your daily bread. We take the bread from heaven, Jesus, for granted too often. Don’t. His gift has eternal satisfaction. Receive Him and His gifts and His promises every day. And what happens? “Our cup runneth over!!” Amen!!
