Manna or Quail

Reading this morning about Manna, quail and the Spirit rested upon the seventy elders in Numbers 11. Very good reading. Here are some verses I was looking at:

Ex 16:23-31
Num 11
Deut 8:15-16
Neh 9:11-15, 19-20
Ps 78:12-20, 21-35
Ps 105:39-41
Ps 106:13-15
John 6:31-35
John 6:58
1 Cor 10:1-6

The manna in the wilderness was a great provision but the people did not appreciate it. God brought quail to pile up outside the camp and all around the people and He brought preaching at the same time. The people needed to make a choice and many of them made the wrong one. The place this happened is called the 'Graves of Craving' (Num 11:34) because of that.

Jesus says interesting things related to manna in the Gospel of John.

"Then they said to him, 'What must we do, to be doing the works of God?' Jesus answered them, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.' So they said to him, 'Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?' Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.' " John 6:28-31 ESV

The question asked is a good one. What will we as believers do and what will God do to satisfy our longing?

"Jesus then said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.' They said to him, 'Sir, give us this bread always.' Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.' " John 6:32-40 ESV

Jesus is our life. That is the bottom line. Grace teaching inside will keep us from sinking our teeth into all the quail piling up around us this summer. A steady diet of resting in what Christ has done and mixing faith with our spiritual food and drink keeps a person in a spiritual momentum.

We have freedom to put the manna aside and eat quail but leanness will enter our soul and we can have days with grave stones as markers.

On the other hand... we can eat the bread of life and be satisfied and have the best summer of our lives.