Bible Message – Week 25.  The DAY the MANNA ceased. Pst. Johan Venter

• Week 25
• Scripture Reading: – Joshua 5:¹²
• Topic: – The DAY the MANNA ceased.

Scriptures

Joshua 5:¹² 

Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land, and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.

For 40 years this was what greeted them every morning!  They had God’s provision and protection around them every day!  

Deut 29:⁵  

And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon, you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.  

Supernaturally God had provided for them, from the clothes and shoes on their feet to the food that they ate every day.  But after 40 years God had stopped that. The manna ceased and they had to move into the Land that God had promised them! The manna was preparation for what lay ahead.  God is faithful, God will fight for you!  Some 500yrs before Joshua this promise was made. 

Rev 2:¹⁷  

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden, manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone, a new name is written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

God wanted them to become accountable for their actions, to grow up [spiritually] and to stop looking for signs and miracles every morning. But rather look unto Him and worship Him.  

1 Cor 1:²² 

For Jews demand signs (attesting miracles), and Greeks pursue [worldly] wisdom and philosophy, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified, [a message which is] to Jews a stumbling block [that provokes their opposition], and to Gentiles foolishness [just utter nonsense], ²⁴ but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks (Gentiles), Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Joh 6:³²

Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.  ³³For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. ³⁴ Then said they unto Him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. ³⁵ And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never, thirst.

Jesus is the Bread

As mentioned earlier, the bread mentioned in Exodus was actually a reference to Jesus Christ which is the HIDDEN MANNA from Heaven given to us. Jesus is the Bread that we need to live from every day, the Bread that will save and heal us.

Jesus is our spiritual fuel, the spiritual food and mercy that we need every day and that is New every morning!  

Lam 3:²²  It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. ²³ They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

In John 16:¹², Jesus told them: “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.”

God wants to do something NEW!  But we are sometimes STUCK in the PAST! You have to make it on your own, not living by the supernatural and miracles. 

What do you do when the way things were done, suddenly changes!  

• The manna was seized because God wanted spiritual maturity.  1 Cor 13:¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. ¹² For now [in this time of imperfection] we see in a mirror dimly [a blurred reflection, a riddle, an enigma], but then [when the time of perfection comes we will see reality] face to face. Now I know in part [just in fragments], but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known [by God].
• God wanted to take them [us] to another level of believing and trusting Him
• God speaks to us through His Word, we must believe and receive by Faith
• The manna ceased because God wanted different methods Matt 12:³⁹ But He replied and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation [that is morally unfaithful to God] craves and demands a [miraculous] sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah; ⁴⁰ for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
• The goodness of God overrides all the challenges of our life
• God wants to raise up a new generation that is not looking for a sign or the spectacular to believe that God spoke to us.  Hebr 1:¹ God, having spoken to the fathers long ago in [the voices and writings of] the prophets in many separate revelations [each of which set forth a portion of the truth], and in many ways, ² has in these last days spoken [with finality] to us in [the person of One who is by His character and nature] His Son [namely Jesus], [God speaks through Jesus]!
• Doubting Thomas [“Unless I can see it with my own eyes” . . .] Most of us are like this!  You believe because you have seen, but Jesus said; ”that blessed are those who have not seen yet believe”!
• The manna ceased because God wanted them to utilize available means that He had put at their disposal.
• We are not to be dependant on manna, signs, miracles, -but on Jesus!  Mat 4:⁴  But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

They were wandering around for 40 years, but God brings stability. Jesus became ‘MANNA’ for us!  

Rev 2:¹⁷ 

To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna [Jesus Christ] to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone, a new name is written, which no one knows except him who receives it.

The manna ceased, -but God was still God!

God is busy preparing us, His Bride for His Son Jesus Christ. God wants us to grow up spiritually and ONLY trust in His Written Word on a daily basis, not on what happens AROUND us [Signs, wonders, miracles, prophecies, etc] but rather trust what happens IN us through the Power of His Holy Spirit.