Remember the 1981 movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark”? The story was fiction but the existence
of that box called The Ark is not. Around 3500 years ago God is said to have prescribed its design to Moses. It was wood chest covered in gold with two sculpted gold figures representing angels hovering over the top. Moses was instructed to place three very unusual objects in it, then put the Ark in a special room of the Jewish tabernacle where it would be hidden from common view.
One of the objects in that Ark was a food substance like no other. During the famed Exodus of the Jews out of Egypt, a few million people lived over 40 years in the desert on a white foodstuff that appeared on the ground 6 days a week just for them. The stuff was so mysterious that it became known by what everyone said when they saw it: “what
is that?”, which in their language sounded like “man-hu”. The main point was that this invisible being, called God, wanted these people to learn to consciously depend upon Him for their every-day life-sustaining needs.
Jesus connected His purpose in becoming human with that ancient manna:
“Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.” … [He added] “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, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
When his key disciples were confused by this, He explained “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”(John Chapter 6:63) Around 60 years after His resurrection, Jesus reaffirmed all this when He appeared to the Apostle John to dictate these words: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna…” (Revelation 2:17a)
The fact is that when you look at the world around you, no one physically sees God. That takes perception. Seeing is done with the eyes and the brain, perceiving is done with the heart, soul, and spirit. The manna that sustains spiritual life is not visible like the bread we put in our bodies. In that sense it is hidden. It is seen and taken in the spirit.
Some people refuse to perceive.
In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says,
‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand;
You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive;
For the heart of this people has become dull,
With their ears they scarcely hear,
And they have closed their eyes,
Otherwise they would see with their eyes, Hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart and return, And I would heal them.’ (Matthew 13:14–15, NASB95)
But for those who look beyond the visible, and even beyond the obvious, the comfortable, the usual, there is sustenance that provides Eternal Life.
At The Hidden Manna we hope to help you in some small way to press on to the maturity that God desires for you. Hopefully you will find this a place to come often for Biblical insights resources for growing in Christ.
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