Momma’s Recipes for Manna

How many ways can you fix manna?

After forty years of eating it, the Israelites must have developed quite a few recipes. Still, it must have gotten old. There is no indication that the people ate meat from their flocks and herds, so the manna must have provided a well-rounded nutritious source of food. You can almost hear a young boy ask his mother, “Hey, mom, what’s for breakfast?” “Manna porridge.” “What’s for lunch?” “Manna soup.” “How about dinner?” “Manna cakes.”

Can you imagine? My memory may not be totally accurate, but it seemed that, as a boy, breakfast was usually eggs or oatmeal, neither of which I especially liked. Many a time I would stuff the food into my mouth and nonchalantly walk into the bathroom and spit it out in the toilet. I don’t know what I would have done being served manna porridge every morning.

The thin flakes of manna appeared on the ground every morning. They gathered about four quarts before the day got too warm, melting the manna. Excess could not be kept overnight, except on Fridays. That day they were to collect twice the usual amount because there would be no manna on Saturday, the Sabbath. This miraculous provision of God stopped after forty years, stopping on the day after the Israelites entered the Promised Land. “The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate of the produce of Canaan.” (Joshua 5:12)

Moses told the people, “God humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” (Deuteronomy 8:3)

Jesus said that the manna was pointing to Him as the true Bread from Heaven. “Then Jesus declared, ‘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 6:35). Here are a few lessons for us from this account about manna.

1. God graciously provides for our needs. Even though the Israelites were in the desert because of disobedience, God still took care of them.
2. God’s Word must be consumed daily. Missing spiritual meals is like missing physical meals, not a healthy practice.
3. Manna only nourished the body; Jesus nourishes the soul.

If you haven’t yet, I urge you to come to Jesus. He invites you: “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30)

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