The meaning of the word manna is - "What is it?'. This is what the Israelites called the bread which God rained down from heaven for them in the wilderness.

There are many significant spiritual lessons to learned in the picture of the manna that fed the children of Israel in the wilderness. It is definitely a picture of Jesus Christ being the bread of life come down by incarnation to feed the seekers of God.

Hard to explain - "What is It?"

Difficult to understand - What is it?"

This is Jesus Christ - the bread which came down out of heaven. Profound yet feeding. Hard to comprehend yet nourishing.

This thread will be about the picture and the caption under the picture - the Manna in the Old Testament and the Son of God in the New Testament.

Originally posted by sonship
Manna - "What Is It?"

There is the picture and there is the caption underneath the picture. The whole book of Exodus is a picture book showing the profound things of God's full salvation.

Jesus explained in John 6 that He was the real referent of the symbol of bread from heaven which fed the Israelites.

Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness, as it is written, "He gave them bread out o heaven to eat."

Jesus therefore said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses has not given you the bread out of heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.

They said therefore to Him, Lord, give us this bread always.

Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall by no means hunger, and he who believes into Me shall by no means ever thirst ... I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, that anyone may eat of it and not die.

I am the living bread which came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever." (See John 6:31-35, 48-51)

"Witch doctors’ inborn connection to the Unformed Land allows them to tap into a deep well of spiritual energy, called Mana. Mana is a vast but slowly-regenerating resource; witch doctors must be choosy with their attack spells and hexes to ensure that they don’t leave themselves depleted of power and exposed to enemy attacks. Since Mana returns ponderously, witch doctors conserve it by relying on semi-permanent additions to their arsenal, such as their summoned mongrels and the horrific gargantuan, which can offer protection and chew through enemies without any further mana cost. Witch doctors have a sizeable reservoir of energy to call upon at once, and, when they need to, they can deploy immense blasts of destructive force and cut a swath across nearly any battleground in a short period of time."

All Christian must confess that when we are pressed by the worldly ones to explain the Triune God, to explain Jesus Christ the Son and the Father we find it difficult. He is the manna of God.

He is WHAT IS IT?. It is something that the world has never seen before. Jesus Christ came down to feed us. But to explain exactly what we are experiencing we are often lost for words.

"What IS it?. It is God coming to man by the Son through the Holy Spirit to impart Himself INTO us.

I will go into the Exodus story of the manna and we will see that God foreknew, predestined and foreordained this matter. He gave us the picture. Then He gave us the caption under the picture.

" For I have come down from heaven not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me. For this is the will of Him who sent Me, that all of which He has given Me I should lose nothing but should raise it up in the last day.

The Jews therefore murmured concerning Him because He said, I am the bread that came down out of heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, I have come down out of heaven? (John 6:38-42)

Originally posted by FMF
What is "manna"? A metaphor for God's help perhaps?

Some backround is needed:

First Exodus 16:1-30
Also Numbers 11:1-10, 18-23, 31-34

Scripture Reading: Exo. 16:1-30; Num. 11:1-10, 18-23, 31-34

Exodus is history. But it is also a picture book related to the new covenant which was written not according to systematic doctrine, but according to experience.

The matter of the bread from heaven, the manna comes in after the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea. This is a picture of the truth of baptism. It needs its own discussion.

After Pharoah's army is crushed in the Red Sea the Lord led the Israelites to Marah. There the people murmured because the waters were bitter. God was not angry with the people then. Instead of being angry with the people for their murmuring, the Lord showed Moses a healing tree that changed the bitterness into sweetness.

This healing tree cast into the bitter waters to make them sweet also could use its own discussion. This symbolizes the crucified Christ being cast into our bitter experiences. This is casting the cross into our bitter circumstances. When we experiencing dying with Christ, our bitterness is healed and our experience of God's supply becomes sweet.

So after the Red Sea and after Marah we move on to Elim where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees.

These stops all portray "stations" of the Christians' experience in salvation.

God’s people had experienced His salvation at the Red Sea. Pharaoh’s army had been destroyed, and the people had been rejoicing with praises to the Lord. Egypt represented the world ruled by Satan. The Redeeming Passover Lamb saved them from God's judggment. And the crossing of the Rea Sea saved them from being further pursued by Pharoah's armies.

The first was a salvation from God's judgment. But the world will not easily let go of the man who believes in Jesus. The world will pursue that one. Baptism is God's way to save His seekers from the pursuing world. It is to die with Christ and be raised with Christ. By identifying with Christ in His death and resurrection the world is buried and the old man is buried and the new man is raised to new life.

The people rejoiced at the vanquishing of the Red Sea over Pharoah's armies. However, at Marah it seems that the liberated Israelites forgot their experience at the Red Sea. Though they quickly forgot and began to murmuring God was not displesed, ... yet.

Realizing that His people were children and that this was the first instance of their murmuring, the Lord did not punish them. Instead, He changed the bitter waters into sweet waters.

When we get saved there is a "honeymoon" like period. But it will not last forever. And we realize that life as a Christian is not at all exempt from bitter experiences. God shows us the way to turn the bitterness into sweetness.

It is to cast in the healing tree. The healing tree is the cross of Christ. The cross of Christ means the termination of the self and the enjoyment of Jesus instead. This turns the bitter waters into sweet waters. And God becomes to us Jehovah the God who heals us.

Exodus is a profound picture book as well as history of the nation of Israel.

The raining of the manna was preceded by the murmuring of the Israelites. Exodus 16:2 says, “And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.”

In Exodus 16 Moses was just leading the people according to God's leading. But the people murmured against Moses. God overheard the murmurings of course. And Moses said to the people, “Jehovah heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: and what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against Jehovah” .

But Moses was more displeased than the Lord Himself was. The Lord charged Moses to tell the people that they would see His glory in the morning (v. 7). He also promised to “rain bread from heaven” for them (v. 4).

God knows of man's dissatisfaction and hunger. It was a great day when I realized that my hunger and thirst in life was not unnoticed by God. He knows the inner hunger of man.

Originally posted by Zahlanzi
"Witch doctors’ inborn connection to the Unformed Land allows them to tap into a deep well of spiritual energy, called Mana. Mana is a vast but slowly-regenerating resource; witch doctors must be choosy with their attack spells and hexes to ensure that they don’t leave themselves depleted of power and exposed to enemy attacks. Since Mana returns ponderously ...[text shortened]... of destructive force and cut a swath across nearly any battleground in a short period of time."

Before the manna came the exposure of the murmuring of the people had to come. The fallen humanity has a lack of spiritual nourishment. There is a heavenly dimension to human life. And when man is deprived of this necessary element he murmurs.

The shortage of God's presence in the innermost being gives rise to inner dissatisfaction. Man does not know who to blame and murmuring can result.

The shortage of Christ as the heavenly life supply leaves anyone dissatisfied. That is because, like it or not, there is a spiritual dimension to human existence. Jesus Christ meets that inner vacuum in man.

This is the reason that the mention of manna both in Exodus 16 and in Numbers 11 is in relation to the murmuring of the people. This indicates that the heavenly manna is given to deal with our flesh, meaning the totality of the fallen "God independent" adamic nature.

The people murmured against Moses and Aaron because of their lust in the matter of eating. However, their murmuring actually was against the Lord Himself. The murmuring had to be brought to the surface to make the strong contrast of God supplying them with this "What Is It?" bread from heaven to meet the need of their hunger.

I hope this doesn't throw a spanner in the works:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manna
but it is interesting reading.

Coriander Seed, Hoarfrost, Bdellium, Honey Taste, etc. All these details and their spiritual significance I hope to get to eventually.

The above article says What is it? is doubtful to be the Hebrew meaning of the word, if I understood rightly.

I am not a Hebrew or Aramaic linguist. However it is telling to me that Exodus 16:15 says the following:

"And when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, What is it? For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, It is the bread which Jehovah has given you to eat."

Originally posted by sonship
The above article says What is it? is doubtful to be the Hebrew meaning of the word, if I understood rightly.
I am not a Hebrew or Aramaic linguist. However it is telling to me that Exodus 16:15 says the following:

"And when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, What is it? For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, It is the bread which Jehovah has given you to eat."

Originally posted by Zahlanzi
"Witch doctors’ inborn connection to the Unformed Land allows them to tap into a deep well of spiritual energy, called Mana. Mana is a vast but slowly-regenerating resource; witch doctors must be choosy with their attack spells and hexes to ensure that they don’t leave themselves depleted of power and exposed to enemy attacks. Since Mana returns ponderously ...[text shortened]... of destructive force and cut a swath across nearly any battleground in a short period of time."

Originally posted by Suzianne
Is this a new class in WoW? The Witch Doctor?