Exodus, Chapter 16, verses 2-4, 12-15
2 They murmur for want of bread, 4 God promiseth them bread from heaven, 11 Quails are sent, 14 and MannaEphesians, Chapter 4, verses 17, 20-24
16 grown up in Christ, 18 He calleth them from the impurity of the Gentiles, 24 to put on the new manJohn, Chapter 6, verses 24-35
16 But, withdrawing himself, he walketh on the sea to his disciples, 26 reproveth the people flocking after him, and all the fleshly hearers of his word, 32 declareth himself to be the Bread of life to believers6
6:26 Our Lord does not satisfy their curiosity, but corrects the wrong motive they had in seeking him: because ye did eat - Merely for temporal advantage. Hitherto Christ had been gathering hearers: he now begins to try their sincerity, by a figurative discourse concerning his passion, and the fruit of it, to be received by faith.
6:27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth - For bodily food: not for that only not chiefly: not at all, but in subordination to grace, faith, love, the meat which endureth to everlasting life.Labour, work for this; for everlasting life. So our Lord expressly commands, work for life, as well as from life: from a principle of faith and love. Him hath the Father sealed - By this very miracle, as well as by his whole testimony concerning him.See Joh 3:33.Sealing is a mark of the authenticity of a writing.
6:28 The works of God - Works pleasing to God.
6:29 This is the work of God - The work most pleasing to God, and the foundation of all others: that ye believe - He expresses it first properly, afterward figuratively.
6:30 What sign dost thou? - Amazing, after what they had just seen!
6:31 Our fathers ate manna - This sign Moses gave them. He gave them bread from heaven - From the lower sublunary heaven; to which Jesus opposes the highest heaven: in which sense he says seven times, Joh 6:32-33, Joh 6:38, Joh 6:50, Joh 6:58, Joh 6:62, that he himself came down from heaven.
6:32 Moses gave you not bread from heaven - It was not Moses who gave the manna to your fathers; but my Father who now giveth the true bread from heaven. Psa 78:24.
6:33 He that - giveth life to the world - Not (like the manna) to one people only: and that from generation to generation. Our Lord does not yet say, I am that bread; else the Jews would not have given him so respectful an answer, Joh 6:34.
6:34 Give us this bread - Meaning it still, in a literal sense: yet they seem now to be not far from believing.
6:35 I am the bread of life - Having and giving life: he that cometh - he that believeth - Equivalent expressions: shall never hunger,thirst - Shall be satisfied, happy, for ever.
16 This chapter gives us an account of the victualling of the camp of Israel.
16:2 Then the whole congregation murmured against Moses and Aaron - God's viceregents among them.
16:3 They so undervalue their deliverance, that they wish, they had died in Egypt, nay, and died by the hand of the Lord too. That is, by some of the plagues which cut off the Egyptians; as if it were not the hand of the Lord, but of Moses only, that brought them into this wilderness. 'Tis common for people to say of that pain, or sickness, which they see not second causes of, It is what pleaseth God, as if that were not so likewise which comes by the hand of man, or some visible accident.We cannot suppose they had any great plenty in Egypt, how largely soever they now talk of the flesh - pots, nor could they fear dying for want in the wilderness while they had their flocks and herds with them; but discontent magnifies what is past, and vilifies what is present, without regard to truth or reason. None talk more absurdly than murmurers.
16:4 Man being made out of the earth, his Maker has wisely ordered him food out of the earth, Psa 104:14. But the people of Israel typifying the church of the first - born that are written in heaven, receiving their charters, laws and commissions from heaven, from heaven also they received their food. See what God designed in making this provision for them, that I may prove them whether they will walk in my law or no - Whether they will trust me, and whether they would serve him, and be ever faithful to so good a master.