“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.’ ”
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.” (John 6:30–35, ESV)
Continuing on the people responded to Jesus having told them
that this higher food came by believing the One who the Father had sent. The crowd was not confused
over who Jesus was speaking. Their response shows this. Recognizing that He was
speaking of Himself they asked for proof. They asked Him what He was going to
do to prove Himself to them such that they would then believe. They were
expecting some new work. He had fed them once, but their fathers were fed every
day in the wilderness. It seems as if once was not enough for them. Jesus
having them sit down as then gave thanks and broke the bread to be distributed
to each of them, and then feeding 5,000 men until they were satisfied with
leftovers to boot was not enough. They wanted more. Once was not enough, and
their substantiation in asking for more was the repeated day after day
provision for their ancestors while they were waiting in the wilderness.
For a little bit of background we can go to Exodus chapter
16, where the people found themselves in a barren place far from the pots of
food that they had been granted under the thumb of the Egyptians. Verses 2 and
3 records for us, “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 the meat pots and
ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill
this whole assembly with hunger.”” (Exodus 16:2–3, ESV) In verse 4, the Lord
God (YHWH, Jehovah) tells Moses, “Then the Lord
said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the
people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them,
whether they will walk in My law or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare
what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.”” (Exodus
16:4–5, ESV) Moses through Aaron then instructs the people as to what God had
said even telling them that God would give them meat to eat in the evening.
Following this they call the people to come before the Lord because He had
heard their grumbling, which the people did. Verse 10 continues, “And as soon as
Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked
toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.” (Exodus 16:10, ESV) And in
verse 11 the Lord again speaks to Moses saying, “I have heard the grumbling of
the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the
morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’ ” (Exodus 16:12,
ESV) And sure enough this is exactly what happened. Verse 21 adds, “Morning by
morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew
hot, it melted.” (Exodus 16:21, ESV)
In verse 32 of our passage in John, Jesus continued by
telling them that this food was not from Moses but from God in heaven. The
daily bread that their fathers had received was bread sent directly to them by
God from heaven. All they had to do was to gather just what they needed for
that day (except for the day before the Sabbath when they would gather double and
then rest). This was a gift to them from God that they just had to receive for
themselves. And the bread they were to receive was coming in the same way being
sent by the Father to them. This time it was coming in the person of the Son.
It was not going to be in the form of physical bread that they pick up after
the morning dew, but was going to be such that it gave life. “For the bread of
God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Of course He
needed still to clarify this last part as is evident by their response asking,
“Sir, give us this bread always.”
As amazing as it might seem, they did not get it. Their
desire to have their needs met had them singularly focused, and they totally
missed what He was really saying. But Jesus led them exactly to the right
point. In fishing terms we might say they took the bait and now it was time to
set the hook which is exactly what Jesus did telling them, “I am the Bread of
Life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall
never thirst.” He had been speaking about God’s eternal provision for them, and
when they asked for it to be given to them Jesus told them that He was that
provision. It was Himself that He had been speaking about all along, and by
believing in Him they would never hunger and never thirst. Obviously Jesus was
speaking about more than the physical twinge that they had felt in their
stomachs the day before. He was sent to give them more than mere food and
drink. He was sent to give eternal life.
It is only through believing in Jesus as the One sent by the
Father that any of us are guaranteed eternal life. Matthew recorded for us from
Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are those who hunger and
thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6, ESV)
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