Despite God’s daily provision of manna, Israel grumbled in the wilderness, longing for the food of Egypt over the bread heaven had given them. The manna itself, appearing like bdellium, a resin from a wounded tree, becomes a picture pointing forward to Christ: the bread that came down from heaven so that anyone who eats it may live forever, the one whose own suffering, like the tree’s wound, purchased peace and reconciliation for God’s people.
The same God who fed Israel for forty years in the wilderness, whose clothes did not wear out and whose God-ward dependence was meant to teach them, sustains his people still. Believers today are called to the same joy of the Lord as their strength, walking by the Spirit, their Helper who teaches and reminds them of all Christ has said, so that whatever they do, they do all to the glory of God.