From manna to Messiah: Why we still grumble about God’s goodness (Exodus 15–16; John 6; Revelation 2)

A pattern appears early and repeats throughout Scripture: God delivers His people with unmistakable power, yet within days the same people question His goodness when physical need returns. God’s people repeatedly face the same temptation to grumble against His visible goodness when physical hunger, delayed promises, or present oppression make the future hope feel unreal.

The generation redeemed from Mitzraim (Egypt) sings Miriam’s triumphant song at the Red Sea (Ex 15:1–18), then three days later grumbles at Marah (Ex 15:24) and again in the Wilderness of Sin (not about bad behavior) over lack of food (Ex 16:2–3). The Book of Exodus records at least ten occasions when the people complained about what they perceived as failures in God’s hospitality before He rebuked them decisively by forbidding that first generation from entering the Promised Land. The crowd that witnesses the feeding of the five thousand and proclaims Yeshua a prophet (Jn 6:14) soon murmurs against Him when He speaks of giving His flesh (Jn 6:41, 52, 61). Just as the wilderness generation stood at a crossroads—and just as the crowds Yeshua addressed and the seven congregations in Revelation did—so do we today. 

The same linguistic thread — לון lun; γογγύζω gongyzo in the Septuagint (LXX); “to grumble” — reveals a persistent temptation: to interpret delayed or unseen promises (especially the eternal Land promise to Abraham, Moses, and the Prophets) as evidence that “God did not really say” what He swore.

The double provision and Its Sequence (Exodus 16)

“Moses said, ‘This will happen when the LORD gives you meat to eat in the evening, and bread to the full in the morning… At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread… So it came about at twilight that the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.”

Exodus 16:8, 12–13 NASB 1995

• Evening: quail (בָּשָׂר basar, “flesh”) arrives first, answering the nostalgic craving for Egypt’s “fleshpots” (Ex 16:3).
• Morning: μάννα manna (מָן man), described as “fine as the hoarfrost on the ground” (Ex 16:14), appears after the dew evaporates. Later reflection on this event treats the quail as judgment when craved in lust and in scorn of Heaven’s “daily bread” (Nu 11:4–6, 31–34; Psa 106:14–15: “He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul”). Manna is preserved in the Ark of the Testimony as an everlasting memorial (Ex 16:32–34; Heb 9:4).

Only three days after the great redemption miracle of the Red Sea and a month after the miracle-wrapped departure from Mitzraim (Egypt), the people question the goodness of God and the leadership He appointed. Their hunger causes them to romanticize slavery and to accuse God of malicious intent (“You brought us out here to kill us”). They slandered God and said He brought them out of Egypt to torment and torture them. The very gift that proves God’s perpetual care (daily manna) is met with the question מָן הוּא man hoo — “What is it?” — revealing unbelief disguised as curiosity.

The people’s grumbling is triggered by a nostalgic craving for Egypt’s “flesh” (בָּשָׂר) and “bread to the full” (Ex 16:3). God answers in reverse order of eternal value: flesh (quail) comes in the evening, bread (manna) in the morning. The flesh is temporary, tied to twilight (the end of the day); the bread is tied to morning and the dawning light. The quail provision actually becomes an occasion for judgment later when lust for flesh overrides gratitude (Nu 11:4–6, 31–34; Psalm 106:14–15 — “He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul”). They were hungering but not satisfied. The manna, by contrast, is meant to teach daily dependence and ultimate satisfaction in God’s word (Deut 8:3).

The Tabernacle/Temple pattern: Flesh eaten only with bread

The Torah repeatedly requires that sacrificial flesh be consumed together with bread in a holy place:

• Peace offerings (Leviticus 7:11–15): the offerer, family, and priest eat the roasted flesh with accompanying unleavened cakes.
• Passover (Exodus 12:8): lamb flesh eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
• Wave and heave offerings (Leviticus 10:14; Deuteronomy 18:3): portions return to the worshiper for sacred meal.

Flesh detached from the bread of God’s presence profanes the gift; flesh sanctified by the bread sustains covenant fellowship.

Reversal and fulfillment

John 6 deliberately inverts the Exodus sequence:

Exodus 16 (shadow)	John 6 (substance)
Evening flesh → morning bread	Living Bread revealed first → “the bread = My flesh which I will give” (Jn 6:51)
Craved flesh → judgment (Num 11)	Offered flesh → eternal life (6:54)
Temporary manna → “they died”	Living Bread → “shall live forever” (Jn 6:51)
Grumbling (γογγύζω) persists	Grumbling (ἐγόγγυζον, Jn 6:41, 43) leads many to abandon Him (Jn 6:66)

Yeshua declares, “I am the bread of life” (Jn 6:35, 48) and “the bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh” (Jn 6:51). The crowd’s quotation of Psa 78:24 (“He gave them bread from heaven to eat,” John 6:31) is turned back upon them: the true bread is not the manna that sustained physical life but the incarnate Word whose crucified and resurrected flesh imparts ζωὴν αἰώνιον—life of the age to come, the very perpetuity language of the Abrahamic covenant (Gn 13:15; 17:7–8).

The Greater Exodus: Yeshua as the True Bread from Heaven 

The Messiah is the One who will bring the Greater Exodus to completion and establish God’s eternal kingdom on earth. The crowd speaking with Yeshua in John 6:31–51 quotes Psalm 78:24 (“He gave them bread from heaven”) in the same spirit as the wilderness generation—using it as a complaint rather than a confession of faith.

The first generation ate the perfect bread from heaven yet still lacked faith. The disaster that followed the report of the twelve spies demonstrates that democracy is not a reliable means of distinguishing truth from error or right from wrong. Majorities can be wrong; even overwhelming majorities can be wrong. The wilderness generation distrusted Moses and Aaron.

The crowd that surrounds Yeshua wants perpetual physical bread while rejecting the Person who is the Bread. Every generation faces the same challenge of trusting God. Their “questioning” (John 6:42) repeats the same verb γογγύζω and displays the same unbelief: “We know where this bread comes from—Nazareth, not heaven.”

Yeshua identifies the manna as a shadow, pointing to Himself as the substance who gives αἰώνιον ζωήν—“forever life”—the very life promised to Abraham concerning the land and the nation (Gen 13:15; 17:8). To receive the manna, the people had to rise before dawn to gather it before it melted, process it to separate it from the dirt, and prepare it into food. It was enough only for the day. Through this, God was teaching them diligence and reinforcing trust in His consistency. He was training them. As the second generation prepared to enter the Promised Land, Moses told them that the provision of manna would cease shortly after their arrival.

In Exodus, the pattern moves from flesh to bread, while in John 6 it moves from bread to flesh. The flesh Israel craved in the wilderness led to judgment and death (Num 11; Ps 78:27–31), but the flesh Yeshua offers is the only flesh that gives life because it is His sacrificial, crucified, and resurrected flesh. Manna sustained physical life only temporarily—“they ate and died”—whereas Yeshua’s flesh, given on the cross, imparts eternal, ʿolam-life (ζωὴν αἰώνιον). The crowd in John 6 still thinks in Exodus 16 categories, asking for perpetual bread (v. 34) and seeking to make Him king to secure more loaves and fish (6:14–15, 26). Yeshua compels them to move from shadow to substance: the true food is not manna but His own flesh given for the world. Thus, the sequence and its meaning are transformed. In the wilderness, the flesh they desired was given first and brought death. In the Tabernacle, sanctified flesh was eaten only with bread and brought temporary fellowship. In Yeshua, the living Bread is given first—“I am the Bread of Life… the Bread is My flesh which I will give”—and it brings eternal life. 

The final promise: ‘Hidden manna’ for overcomers

“To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna…”

Revelation 2:17 NASB 1995

When the original manna was placed in the Ark of the Covenant, that jar of manna served as a silent testimony. Although the High Priest could enter the presence of the Ark once a year, he was never permitted to open it or look inside.

The verb δώσω (“I will give”) echoes Exodus 16:4, 8, 15 and John 6:32, 51. The manna once openly rained, then concealed in the Ark, is now stored in heaven and reserved for those who refuse compromise with Babylon and persecution (Rev 2:13–17). It is no longer tested daily in the wilderness nor debated in Galilee; it is possessed by faith and will be openly enjoyed in the age when the Land promise reaches consummation (Ezekiel 37:25–28).

This Bread is something all of us can experience. Even when we are knocked down, we are not knocked out.

When legitimate questions become the Serpent’s question

Scripture distinguishes two kinds of inquiry about unfinished prophecy:

Faith-seeking understanding (good)	Unbelief masquerading as curiosity (dangerous)
“Lord, always give us this bread” (Jn 6:34)	“Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph…?” (Jn 6:42)
Hunger for the Person behind the promise	Nostalgia for Egypt’s security or immediate political relief apart from the crucified Messiah
Leads to eating and overcoming (Rev 2:17)	Leads to withdrawal (Jn 6:66) and leanness of soul (Ps 106:15)

The turning point is the posture of the heart: gratitude receives the Bread as sufficient; grumbling demands signs and flesh on its own terms.

Does the Bread from Heaven satisfy? Or is it an ‘opiate’?

Younger generations increasingly are becoming enamored with socialism (promulgated most widely by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Karl Marx), seeing it as more fair in dealing with inequalities in society than cold-hearted capitalism.

Marx wrote in an introduction to his A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right (published in 1844 in the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher):

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people [Sie ist das Opium des Volkes].

Marx is not primarily mocking religious believers. He is analyzing the social function of religion in a society built on exploitation:

1. Religion as pain-reliever. In the brutal conditions of early industrial capitalism, workers face misery, alienation, and powerlessness. Religion offers comfort, hope of heaven, and meaning in suffering — exactly like opium dulls physical pain without curing the disease.
2. Religion as illusion that preserves the status quo. By promising reward in the next life (“pie in the sky when you die”), religion discourages people from revolting against the very real oppression in this life. It makes suffering bearable instead of intolerable, and therefore functions as an ideological tool of the ruling class.
3. Criticism is aimed at the world that needs the opiate. The most famous follow-up sentence is often left out:“To abolish religion as the illusory happiness of the people is to demand their real happiness. The demand to give up illusions about their condition is a demand to give up a condition that requires illusions.”

Marx’s argument in short: Religion isn’t the root problem. The misery that makes religion necessary is the problem. Get rid of the misery, and the need for the “opiate” disappears.

But the charge that faith in the Bread of Life dulls zeal for justice is reversed by the Bible itself:

• Those who despised the manna and lusted for flesh remained slaves in heart and never entered the Land because they didn’t combine the eating of the physical bread with the spiritual food of “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Heb 3:16–4:2; Dt 8:3).
• Those who eat the true Bread receive resurrection power that historically overturned empires non-violently (Acts 17:6) and continues to fuel justice, mercy and deliverance (Isaiah 58:6–10; Micah 6:8; James 1:27). The hidden manna is given precisely to “overcomers,” not to the passive.

Heaven’s strategy against oppression

Scripture never calls the redeemed to passivity. The same Moses who announced manna led armed deliverance at Rephidim (Ex 17:8–16). The same apostles who ate the Bread of Life were accused of “turning the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). The weapons, however, are not carnal (2Cor 10:4):

• Intimacy with the risen Bread (Rev 2:17)
• Holding fast His name under persecution (Rev 2:13)
• Performing His deeds of justice and mercy until the end (Rev 2:25–26; Isaiah 58) Ultimate overthrow of every oppressive power occurs at the return of the Bread made flesh (Rev 19:11–16).

Conclusion

God’s goodness is repeatedly tested by human hunger — really, restlessness. Yet the true Bread from Heaven — Yeshua (Jesus) Himself — proves perpetually sufficient. When the Land promise lingers and injustice persists, the temptation is to grumble and demand “flesh” — what we think will fill the aching emptiness in our hearts. The invitation instead is to eat the living Bread now, receive strength to overcome, and await the day the hidden manna is unveiled in the age when the meek inherit the earth (Mt 5:5) and the Land is possessed לעלם‎ l’olam — forever.