It was necessary not only to remove Moses from the divine authority which the Jews ascribed to him, and to present him as a minister in that wonder, not as the giver of the manna. The miracle itself, though wrought supernaturally, also had to be diminished. By comparison with the greater gift, its utter smallness had to be shown.
Therefore picture Christ again crying out something like this. You regard what is small and insignificant as great. You have confined the bounty of the Master of all within very narrow limits. You show no small ignorance if you call manna "bread from heaven." It nourished only the Jewish people in the wilderness, while countless other nations exist throughout the whole world.
Thus, in your judgment, God wishes to display so limited a benefit that He gives nourishment to one people only. But these things were types of more universal realities. They were a partial manifestation of a universal benefit, as a kind of preliminary pledge.
When the time of the coming of the truth stood before us, then "My Father gives you bread from heaven." This bread had been sketched beforehand for the ancients, as in shadows, through the gift of manna. Therefore let no one think, He says, that this was the true bread from heaven. Rather, let him acknowledge as such Him to Whom belongs the power to nourish the whole universe and to give perfect "life" to the "world."
Thus He reproves the Jew for clinging to what existed in type, and for refusing to seek the beauty of the truth itself. The manna was not itself that beauty of truth. Rather, it was the Only-begotten Word of God Himself, proceeding from the essence of the Father. For He is life by nature, giving life to all things.
Since He is begotten of the living Father, He Himself is also life by nature. Since giving life belongs properly to life by nature, Christ gives life to all things. What earthly bread is for us, preventing the weak nature of the flesh from being dissolved, He is also. Through the operation of the Holy Spirit He gives life to our spirit. Nor this only, but He also preserves the body itself for incorruption.
Since our discourse has already reached the subject of manna, it will do no harm, I think, to say something briefly about it. We shall take from the books of Moses themselves what is written concerning it, for closer examination. After setting forth the matter with care, we shall rightly consider all that must be understood about it.
Through all this we shall show that the true manna is Christ Himself. In figure, He was understood in the manna as being given to the ancients by God the Father.
The revelation concerning it begins thus: "On the fifteenth day, in the second month after they had gone out from the land of Egypt, the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron. The children of Israel said to them, Would that we had died, struck by the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and ate bread to the full. For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole congregation with hunger" (Ex 16:1-3).
The historical meaning is clear and quite evident. I think no inquiry is needed for so plain a matter. Let us speak again with only the spiritual meaning in view.
While the Israelites were still in the land of Egypt, by divine command they celebrated in type the feast of Christ. Having eaten the lamb, they scarcely escaped the harsh tyranny of Pharaoh and shook off the heavy yoke of slavery. Then, after wondrously crossing the Red Sea, they found themselves in the wilderness.
There, when they were afflicted by hunger, they desired to eat meat and were drawn to the accustomed desire for bread. Thus they murmured against Moses and repented of the gift of God, though they ought in every way to have given thanks for it.
Therefore Egypt signifies "darkening." By it we must understand what we suffer when, as though enrolled as inhabitants of a certain land, we dwell in the condition of the present age and in the state of this world. In that condition we endure harsh slavery. We do not serve God at all, but do what is pleasing only to the devil.
We cast ourselves into the pleasures of unclean flesh, as into mud or a foul swamp. We bear unpaid and useless labor. We serve, so to speak, a pleasure-loving life that is not without misery.
But when the law of God speaks in our mind, and we begin to discern the harsh slavery in this, then we desire removal from every evil. We come to Christ Himself, as to the beginning and door of freedom. Then, being provisioned with security and grace through the Precious Blood, we leave behind the fleshly temptations of this life, as a stormy and surging sea.
Having come out beyond every worldly disturbance, we arrive at a spiritual and most pure condition. We dwell, as it were, in a desert land. Yet the one being trained toward virtue through the law must not remain without struggles for virtue.
When we have reached this condition, we undergo the trial of temptations. At times we are bitten by remembrance of fleshly desires. Then, when desire kindles us more fiercely, through carelessness we often accuse the divine law, though it summons us to freedom.
As though feeling hunger for our former and customary pleasures, and growing negligent about the labors of self-control, we no longer look upon slavery in the world as evil. Indeed, the desire of the flesh truly can drag the spirit into every faintheartedness in good.
"And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will rain down bread for you from heaven" (Ex 16:4). You may see a very clear indication of these words also in the saying of the Psalm: "He gave them bread from heaven. Man ate the bread of angels" (Ps 77:24-25).
It is evident to all, I think, that by the bread and food of the heavenly rational powers no one else must be understood except the Only-begotten from God the Father. Therefore He is the true manna, the heavenly bread, given by God the Father to every rational creature.
Concerning the matters before us, let us also say this. Consider how divine and heavenly grace draws to itself and saves in various ways the nature of man, which suffers from its ancient disease. The thought of the flesh, falling into the soul like a stone, thrusts it down and violently drags it toward its own desire.
But Christ again directs us, as by a bridle, toward the desire for what is better. He raises the sick into a state of love for God. Thus, to those turning aside toward bodily pleasures, He promises to give food from heaven. This plainly means consolation through the Spirit, the spiritual manna.
Through it we are strengthened in all endurance and courage. We receive power not to fall through weakness into what is unseemly. Thus the spiritual manna, that is, Christ, once strengthened us in piety.
Since necessity has already led us into this digression in our argument, I think it improper to leave it unexplored, since it can bring much benefit. Someone may reasonably ask why God, so loving toward mankind and toward the good, delays with a promise instead of anticipating their request.
Why does He not punish from the beginning those who were so corrupt in disposition, though He punished them later? For when they suffered the same desire, they imagined bread to the full and pots of meat, and they strongly desired the foul-smelling onion.
In Numbers we find that some suffered punishment. The place where they were then encamped was called "Graves of Desire," because, it says, there they buried the people who had desired (Num 11:34).
In answer to the first point, we shall say that it was fitting to wait for desire. This was doubtless so that He might then appear at the proper time as giver of what was desired. A gift is especially pleasant to those benefited when certain pleasures first precede it and make them desire the good not yet possessed.
The human soul would not experience a most pleasant sensation unless it were first strained and stirred by pleasures of prosperity. But perhaps you will say that there was no request from them at all. On the contrary, there was murmuring, repentance, and accusation. This is indeed more accurate.
We answer that request through prayer certainly befits those who are perfect in moral condition. Yet the murmuring of weaker people, whether through negligence or for whatever reason, is in some measure equivalent to it. The Savior of all, being full of love for mankind, certainly is not angered.
Among very young infants, crying sometimes serves as a means of asking for what is useful to them. Through it the mother is often moved to discover what is pleasing to the child. So also, among those still infants and not grown in mind, their crying through negligence, so to speak, has the force of a request to God.
He does not punish at the beginning, though He sees them subject to earthly desires. He does so later, in the middle of the time, as it seems to me, for the following reason. Having recently come out of Egypt, they had not yet received the manna. They did not yet have the heavenly bread, which strengthens the heart of man (Ps 103:15).
They naturally fell into fleshly desires, and therefore they received condescension. But those who have already delighted in the Lord, as it is written (Ps 36:4), are punished with perfect justice if they prefer fleshly things to spiritual goods.
By this punishment they also leave behind a famous memorial of calamity. For the name "Graves" of "Desire" was given to the place of punishment (Num 11:34).
"And the people shall go out and gather a day's portion each day" (Ex 16:4). We must receive the sensible manna as a type of the spiritual manna. The spiritual manna signifies Christ Himself to us. The sensible manna covertly points to the rough training of the law.
Not without reason does the Lawgiver command them to gather it only for the day. He forbids them to store it for the next day. In a riddle, as it were, He indicates to the ancients that when the time of salvation has dawned, and the Only-begotten has appeared in the world in the flesh, the types under the law must be wholly abolished.
It would then be vain to gather food from there, when the truth itself is already set before us as food and tasting.
"And on the sixth day they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather" (Ex 16:5). Notice again and understand that He does not allow the sensible manna to be gathered on the seventh day. Rather, He commands them to use as food what had already been obtained and gathered on the preceding day.
The seventh day signifies the time of the coming of our Savior. In that time we keep Sabbath in holiness, having ceased from sinful works. We take as food the assurance of faith and the knowledge already gathered by us through the law.
Yet we are no longer placed, as it were, under the necessity of gathering it. The more excellent food already lies before us, and we have the heavenly bread.
The manna is gathered in double measure before the seventh day. From this, again, understand that when the law reaches its close at the end of time, and when the holy seventh day begins, that is, with the coming of Christ, the finding of heavenly goods must somehow be in double measure. There must also be a certain double grace, adding evangelical instruction to what is useful from the law.
The Lord Himself teaches this when He says in one place, as in a parable: "Therefore every scribe instructed for the Kingdom of Heaven is like a rich man, who brings out of his treasure things new and old" (Mt 13:52). The old is what comes from the Law. The new is what comes through Christ.
"And Moses and Aaron said to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, At evening you shall know that the Lord brought you out of Egypt. In the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and bread in the morning to the full" (Ex 16:6-8).
THEOSIS