Focus: The Wonder Worker (Pt.1)

Text: Ex.15:11

"Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?"

God is the wonder worker; He works wonders. He is known for wonders. He is Himself a wonder - the very embodiment of the wonders He does. Every time God steps into action, men see wonders. As creator, redeemer, supplier and sustainer, God is full of wonder.

In the wilderness, God was with Israel, leading and feeding them. He provided them with the manna - food from heaven. The Scripture says, "And when the children of Israel SAW it, they said one to another, It is MANNA: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat" (Ex.16:15). The manna was visible for them to see - a gift from God to them.

Moses called the divine food, Bread; the people called it, Manna, which means, What is this? They looked at it with wonder. They had not seen a thing like that before. They couldn't grasp it, and so they called it, Manna. It was, for them, a wonder to behold. The Scripture says, "And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna" (Ex.16:31). The manna was God's wonder in their hands and in their mouths. The Scripture says, "And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan" (Ex.16:35). They had this miracle in their mouths for as long as their journey in the wilderness lasted - forty whole years. It was indeed the wonder of a food - the bread from heaven.

The manna was a mystery. Moses tells us that God "fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not… Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not…" (Dt.8:3,16). They couldn't decode what the manna was. It was a mystery and a marvel, and it is always a sense of mystery and wonder that lead to worship.

We are told how the manna came. The Scripture says, "And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it" (Num.11:9). The manna did not fall on+ the ground, but on the dews. Interestingly, the manna and the dew came out of heaven, but one settled or fell on the other. Nehemiah says, "Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst" (Neh.9:20). For the whole forty years God fed them with manna and never withheld it from them for a single moment. The psalmist declares that God "had RAINED DOWN manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven" (Ps.78:24). God abundantly supplied them with the manna, and here the psalmist calls it, "The corn of heaven." It was a superabundant provision, not a scarce or sparing one.

This wonderful provision of God was to be preserved for generations to come. So God tells Moses to tell Aaron, "Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the LORD, to be kept for your generations" (Ex.16:33). The author of Hebrews tells about the Ark of the Covenant "wherein was the golden pot that had manna" (Heb.9:4). The manna was kept for the future generations - an unmistakable evidence of what God did in the past.

Speaking about the manna, the Lord Jesus Christ says, "This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever" (Jh.6:58). He makes a clear distinction between the manna of the desert and Himself - the human manna or bread of God. Jesus Christ is God's real and original manna. You cannot die after eating Christ, and this is indeed the wonder of all wonders. Christ is the living manna provided by God for all mankind, especially saved humanity. The desert manna stopped no Israelite from dying, but Christ is a life-giver and death vanquisher. Christ in the life of the believer is the hope of glory. The Lord Jesus Christ says to the overcomer, "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna…" (Rev.2:17). The manna will in the future become the food of the overcomer. The believer is the overcomer, and the manna is the overcomer's food. What a wonder! God is the wonder worker. In our hands and in our mouths God places a miracle - miracle in the mouth.

This life is journey and this world is a desert, and our God will never fail to supply us with all the manna we need for this life's journey. Trust Him; He is still the wonder worker. From Egypt to Canaan He was with His people, "doing wonders." As God in the flesh and by the power of the Holy Spirit, He "went everywhere doing good." What is even more amazing and exciting is that this Wonder Worker happens to be your God, Savior and Shepherd, who is ever guiding, guarding, and providing.

Joshua tells us that "the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year" (Josh.5:12). By the time your wilderness journey on earth is over, God has another kind of food waiting for you in the heavenly Canaan. Amen!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter