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Author Topic:   Manna from Heaven. What the Grossness? (Ex. 16)
jaywill
Member (Idle past 1972 days)
Posts: 4519
From: VA USA
Joined: 12-05-2005


Message 17 of 79 (436622)
11-26-2007 8:31 PM
Reply to: Message 16 by jar
11-05-2007 1:45 PM


Re: On manna in the Bible.
In response to the contribution of jar, (an answer which I suspect he will not like ):
The actual identity of manna is unknown, it could be the sap of trees, the secretions of bugs like aphids or something totally unknown today. The important point is how it is used in the various tales in the Bible.
Manna in the Bible, is a type of Christ as the incarnated God Who came down for man's sustenance, nourishment, life supply, and to change man's constitution from Egyptian food to heavenly food.
The leeks and garlic of Egypt for which the Israelites longed for represented the "food" for their souls which they derived from the fallen world under Satan.
The manna was the mysterious "What Is It" that came from heaven. After eating Egyptian food the Israelites were constituted in the fibers of their body with Egyptian food. After the Exodus God changed their diet to heavenly "What Is It?" - the Manna.
By eating this manna for forty years the very tissues of their body were constituted with this heavenly food. This is a type of God imparting Christ into those whom He has redeemed from the fallen Satanic world. Christ fills them up and saturates their beings through their repeated ingestion of Him as the incarnated "food" from heaven.
In Exodus, it is a bread substitute and the purpose of the story is to reinforce the tale about resting on the Sabbath. That is the significance of Exodus 16.
I think it is more a stress on daily and faithfully eating God incarnate. Taking in the incarnate God-Man Jesus Who said that He was the bread of life that came down to give life to the world.
It is not a matter of once for all being saved. It is a matter of contacting Christ everyday to "eat" Him in His word. And then to be constituted and saturated with the living Christ that we take into our souls daily.
To wait and not be up to date in contacting Christ is to be religious. This is trying to live by yesterday's experience of Christ. He is new and fresh every morning. To only try to live on yesterday's experience is like breeding worms in God's site.
It is ugly to be religious but without the fresh experience of Christ. This is the typology suggested in saving the manna and trying to eat it the next day. It breed worms and stank.
Rather each day was a fresh new day to experience the Bread of Life Jesus.
In Joshua manna disappears. Once the folk arrived back into settled areas where crops were grown, it was no longer necessary to use substitutes, the grains themselves were available, and so the substitute disappears from the story.
In the wilderness it is the manna that typifies Christ. After they enter into the good land it is the fruit of the land which they labor on that represents Christ again. The manna is replaced by the riches of the good land which they Israelites labor on.
But in none of the tales is manna the important thing. It is simply a less than satisfactory substitute for bread, a plot device used to make more important points.
Christ spent much of chapter 6 of John to emphasize the significance of the manna.
"Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. as it is written, He gave them bread out of 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... 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 have comes down from heaven not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me ... Truly, truly, I say to you, He who believes has eternal 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, and the bread which I will give is My flesh, given for the life of the world."
See John chapter 6.
The problem of the world is that it does not have the divine life of God. Fallen man, Paul writes, is "alienated from the life of God" (Eph. 4:18)
This alienation from the life of God produces a kind of spiritual hunger deep within people. Christ is God incarnated who "came down". He did not come down by parachute or elevator. He did not come down by way of airplane or helocopter. He "came down" so to speak, by being God incarnated in a human man from Nazareth. He "came down" by way of incarnation - "The Word became flesh and taberbnacled among us" (John 1:14)
To eat His flesh and to drink His blood is to fully believe and receive that God has become a man in Jesus Christ. In John Six it is really God Himself speaking that He has come down to us and we must receive Him as a God-man. We must eat His flesh and drink His blood. This is God Himself speaking to the world of His incarnation.
Towards the end of the chapter we learn that the practical way to eat Him as the manna, and to eat His flesh and drink His blood is to receive His words which are spirit and life:
"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life." (JOhn 6:63)
It therefore practically comes down to man's need to daily take into himself by acceptance and belief the words of Jesus. The words are spirit and life and impart the life of God into our being when we receive them in faith.
That God does provide.
God wanted to changed the people's taste. He wanted to re-constitute them with the heavenly diet. He wanted this heavenly bread to so fill them every day that they would be constituted in the fibers of their being with the heavenly diet.
The typology is of God transforming fallen sinners from being Satanified to being Christified. That is from being of this fallen age of Satan dwelling in man to the eternal age of God dwelling in man.
That we should take time to rest and reflect.
That we should give thanks for what we do have because we really could have less.
That's a good meditation also.
And finally, that better things may become available than what we have now.
The topmost blessing in all the universe throughout all eternity - is that God gives to man Himself as eternal life. For God to dispense Himself into man is the topmost blessing.
" ... the word of Jehovah came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not be afraid Abram, I am your shield and your exceeding great reward." (Genesis 15:1)
God tells Abraham that He Himself is the exceeding great reward to him. To give life; to give eternal life means to give God Himself to us to live within us. This is the thing that we must understand.
"The last Adam became a life giving Spirit" (1 Cor. 15:45) This means Jesus Chrirt is in a form in which He can convey God into man; dispenst God into man, impart God Himself into man. There is no higher gift. There is no greater reward.
This is so against the human natural concept that it is hard to grasp. All the speaking of Chirst about giving eternal life or giving life means to give God Himself INTO man's being that man and God might be united in an "organic" union.
To put it another way - for Christ to give life to man is for Christ to cause man to enter into the process in which God DUPLICATES many sons of God to be brothers of Christ - divinity and humanity united together to be a mingled reality.
When all the attention is on the substance manna, we tend to lose sight of the important underlying purposes of the stories. It is not about what manna is, or even if it existed or even if the stories are true, but rather "What can we learn about ourselves from the stories?"
Christ, is what man hungers for. Christ is what sustains and nourishes this dying man. Christ is what man must take into himself and Christ is Who he must be filled with and re-constituted with.
Think of the process of petrified wood. The wood remains in the flow of water until it is completely replaced by minierals. Where there was a piece of wood there is now a stone. The wood has become petrified through the long process of being in the flow of mineral rich water.
This is similar to the process of Christification. God became a man to die for our redemption. Then this man became the life giving Spirit. "...the last Adam became a life giving Spirit" (1 Cor .15:45)
As this life giving Spirit regenerates man and daily flows through man it gradually contitutes the person to be filled with the divine element of God Himself. He is Christified. God is dispensed into his or her being replacing the old damaged and fallen corrupted man. The Adamic nature is transformed through the dispensing of the Triune God into man.
The final outcome of all of God's causing man to "eat" Christ as the Manna and to receive Christ as the life giving Spirit, is the New Jerusalem the city of God.
The manna is again mentioned as the hidden manna in the book of Revelation. But I will not expound on that now. But it hails back to the same principle - that of the incarnated God imparting Himself to man for his "food", his nourishment in the divine life, and his reconstituting with the element of God to produce New Jerusalem the city of God in the end of the Bible.
Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.
Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 16 by jar, posted 11-05-2007 1:45 PM jar has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 18 by jar, posted 11-26-2007 8:33 PM jaywill has not replied
 Message 19 by IrishRockhound, posted 11-27-2007 8:43 AM jaywill has replied

  
jaywill
Member (Idle past 1972 days)
Posts: 4519
From: VA USA
Joined: 12-05-2005


Message 21 of 79 (436876)
11-27-2007 9:36 PM
Reply to: Message 19 by IrishRockhound
11-27-2007 8:43 AM


Re: On manna in the Bible.
So manna is actually God, and, if we follow this train of thought to its logical conclusion... They ate their deity?? Isn't that worse than cannibalism?
The manna is does not represent the "raw" God. But the "cooked" God. Now I know this sounds funny. But this is the matter - the manna represents the God who has gone through a process by which He can be received by man and into man.
By the processes of incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension, and becomming the life giving Spirit God Himself prepared Himself into a form in which He could be taken into man's being.
Man is a vessel. Man is created to contain God. This is so that God and man might be mingled together in a life union.
From Genesis when God placed the created man Adam before the tree of life, He hints to us that man was created to "eat" God. Or of you will take God into himself.
Man is a vessel. Man is created not merely to be a God worshipper. He was created to be a God LIVER. That is that the uncreated divine Person of God would live in man and be expressed from within man.
Do not scoff. And don't jeer. But consider. The invisible and uncreated Divine Person of God created a universe and a living vessel called human being. God's eternal purpose is that He, as the Invisible Uncreated I AM, would enter into this living vessel Man and live out through him in an organic incorporation. This is for God's expression and man's enjoyment.
In other words - God's eternal desire is to mass produce Jesus Christ the God-Man. He is God / Man by way of incarnation and resurrection. The saved of Christ become God / Man by way of salvation. That is by way of redemption, regeneration, sanctification, transformation, conformation, resurrection, glorification, and deification.
We are VESSELS. We were created to contain the Uncreated Divine Person of the Triune God.
I did write this:
The leeks and garlic of Egypt for which the Israelites longed for represented the "food" for their souls which they derived from the fallen world under Satan.
Where does it say this? Or is this some interpretation again? Satan and his wily ways, eh?
Yes. Before man ate of the tree of life he was deceived and sidetracked and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is in Genesis 3.
In other words, before man took into his being the uncreated divine life of God represented by the tree of life, he was seduced to take into himself "the Other Way". That other way, the tree of tree of the knowledge of good and evil -constituted man with the Satanic nature. Instead of God entering into man as eternal life Satan entered into man as sin, death, corruption, rebellion against God.
The thing which you must understand is that man became Satanified. Man received a foriegn element into his being. Man received Satan's indwelling instead of God's indwelling. Today, the man spontaneously expresses the enemy of God -the Devil.
An evil cosmic parasite has attached himself to man:
"And you, though dead in your offenses and sins, in which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit which is now operating in the sons of disobedience ... by nature children of wrath" (See Eph. 2:1-3)
There is a "ruler of the authority of the air" who is the "spirit" operating in the fallen descendants of Adam. He is operating in man to cause man to spntaneously express the Satanic nature of rebellion against God.
The Apostle Paul tells us that fallen man is alienated from the life of God. He is not only at emnity against God or estranged from knowing God. He is alienated from THE LIFE OF GOD.
"Being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance which is in them, because of the hardness of their heart." (Eph. 4:18)
The fallen man, the scoffing and unbelieving man is "darkened" in mental understanding. He is "alienated from the life of God". That means God, as eternal life, is not in man in his unregenerated state. Man is hardened in the heart. He is stubburnly set against not only God but against receiving the Spirit of God, and especially against receiving the Savior of God - Christ.
These things are profound and were presented to us in types, shadows, and symbols in the Old Testament. The manna from heaven changes the diet of those held in the Iron Furnace of Egypt which in typology signifies the fallen Satanic empire of the world.
Concerning the history of Israel in the wilderness the Apostle Paul writes:
"Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our admonition, unto whom the ends of the ages have ocme." (1 Cor.10:11)
While God does definitely have a plan for the Jews, in this new testament age these histories are for the education of the new covenant community the church - redeemed by the Son of God.
Again Paul writes about the lust of the Isralites in the wilderness:
"But with most of them God was not well pleased, for they were strewn along in the wilderness. Now these things occured as examples to us, that we should not be ones who lust after evil things, even as they also lusted. " (1 Cor. 10:5,6)
So you see that the lusting of the Israelites for meat to eat instead of the manna which they despised and grew weary of, and thier murmoring and whinning about the food they left in Egypt was a type of the new testament saints lusting for "evil things."
By eating this manna for forty years the very tissues of their body were constituted with this heavenly food. This is a type of God imparting Christ into those whom He has redeemed from the fallen Satanic world. Christ fills them up and saturates their beings through their repeated ingestion of Him as the incarnated "food" from heaven.
Again, where does it say this? And why don't you find anything wrong with this eating of a god?
The "eating" of God is the expression used to explain that man is a vessel meant to take God into himself.
You must grasp the deep and profound principle put forth in Genesis at these sentences:
"And out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, as well as the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Gen. 2:9)
The tree of life was central to the garden, being in the middle. Man was created and placed before the tree of life. This represents God's eternal purpose that He dispense His uncreated divine life into man's being. We were made to contain God that He might be expressed from within us in a harmonious and incorporated mingled union of life.
After Eve and Adam had taken into them instead the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were joined to Satan, God's enemy. Man became fallen mankind.
And he was "alienated from the life of God:"
"And Jehovah God said, Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil, and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever -
Therefore Jehovah God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to work the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out, and at the east of the garden of Eden He placed the cherubim and a flaming sword which turned in every direction to guard the way to the tree of life." ( Gen. 4:22-24)
Man was alienated from the eternal life of God. And the story of the Bible is God's salvation to bring man back to receiving His uncreated and divine life as his content and "food".
For any who can receive it, there was a threefold demand placed on man keeping him away from the eternal life of God:
1.) The cherubim represent the glory of God. Man has fallen short of the glory of God. Therefore he cannot partake of the life of God.
2.) The sword which turned every direction represents the righteousness of God. Man has fallen, become Satanified and become a sinner. He is not only not glorious. He is not righteous. The sword of the righteousness of God is there to execute the sinful man. Man has fallen short of the righteousness of God.
3.) The flame of the flaming sword represent the holiness of God. God is holy. God is separate from all other things. The fallen man has become Satanified and fallen short of the holiness of God.
The neutral man has now become the Satanified man under the three-fold demand of God. Man is short of God's glory. Man is short of God's righteousness. Man is short of God's holiness.
And this threefold demand keeps the sinful man away from the eternal purpose of God dispensing His life into man.
Christ, the Son of God, even God incarnate, has come to fulfill the righteous requirement of God's law, express the glory of God, and fulfill the holiness of God on behalf of the fallen mankind.
And then He Himself is the life of God to be dispensed into man who "eats" Jesus. That is who takes into himself the resurrected Christ who became the life giving Spirit: "...the last Adam became a life giving Spirit" (1 Cor. 15:45)
I think you're preaching at us now, but damned if I can understand what you're trying to say.
Maybe that is just my style.
Tonight consider just this much, that we are created vessels to contain God:
Look at this:
"Or does not the potter have authority over the clay to make out of the same lump one VESSEL unto honor and another unto dishonor?
... in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon VESSELS of mercy, which He had before prepared unto glory." (See Romans 9:21-23)
You see? God created man to be a vessel of His glory. That means a container to express the splendour of His divine life from within.
Here again we see the Christians are earthen VESSELS containing the treasure of the resurrection life of Christ:
"But we have this treasure in earthen VESSELS that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us." (2 Cor. 4:7)
God desires to impart Jesus Christ the treasure of eternal life into the earthen vessels of our beings.
Here again we see Christ, God incarnate trying to work Himself into man's heart through faith. This too is God being put into the VESSEL of man's being:
"That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith" (Eph. 3:16,17)
Faith is the means whereby Christ wroughts Himself into man's inner being and into man's heart.
Here finally is a passage showing that the Triune God desires to live in man.
" Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him" (John 14:23)
Christ and His Father as the Holy Spirit; as the life giving Spirit, will come and make an abode within the vessel of the one who keeps His word.
In a coming post I perhaps will show that the same thought is expressed in the Old Testament indeed. That is that God looks to man to live within man.
Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.
Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.
Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 19 by IrishRockhound, posted 11-27-2007 8:43 AM IrishRockhound has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 23 by jar, posted 11-27-2007 10:09 PM jaywill has not replied
 Message 28 by IrishRockhound, posted 11-28-2007 2:25 PM jaywill has replied

  
jaywill
Member (Idle past 1972 days)
Posts: 4519
From: VA USA
Joined: 12-05-2005


Message 22 of 79 (436881)
11-27-2007 9:50 PM
Reply to: Message 19 by IrishRockhound
11-27-2007 8:43 AM


Re: On manna in the Bible.
I can't see a reason to interpret these passages or take them as meaning other than exactly what they state. Moses took a bunch of Israelites off into the desert, and when they were hungry they found this manna stuff to eat and attributed it to their god providing for them. Seems straightforward enough. Your post looks like a rationalisation after the fact due to you believing that your god came to earth and fed his flesh and blood to his followers (yuck), and you want to project the same theme onto a passage that was apparently written before said god came to earth etc. etc.
The things written in the Bible are in layers of wisdom which revelation and experience will explore and uncover.
God is moving on. He is moving on. The Old Testament is the picture. The New Testament is the caption undernearth the picture of the Old Testament.
"Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our admonition, unto whom the ends of the ages have come." (1 Cor. 10:11)

This message is a reply to:
 Message 19 by IrishRockhound, posted 11-27-2007 8:43 AM IrishRockhound has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 24 by AnswersInGenitals, posted 11-27-2007 10:14 PM jaywill has not replied

  
jaywill
Member (Idle past 1972 days)
Posts: 4519
From: VA USA
Joined: 12-05-2005


Message 26 of 79 (436896)
11-27-2007 11:17 PM


Manna typifying God dispensing Christ into the saved
Footnote from the Recovery Version on Exodus 16:4
This was manna (vv.15,31), a type of Christ as the unique, heavenly food for God's people (John 6:31-35). By giving them manna to eat, God indicated that His intention was to change the nature of His people, to change their very constitution for the accomplishing of His purpose.
Because the children of Israel were still constituted with the Egyptian element and were thus the same as the Egyptians, they were not qualified to build up the tabernacle as God's habitation on earth. For forty years God gave the chidren of Israel nothing to eat but manna (v.35; Num. 11:6).
This shows that God's intention in His salvation is to work Himself into the believers in Christ and to change their constitution by feeding them with Christ as their unique heavenly food, thereby rreconstituting them with Christ in order to qualify them to build up the church as God's dwelling place. In fact, after being reconstituted with Christ, the believers themselves become the dwelling place of God (cf. 1 Cor.3:16-17; 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16; 1 tim. 3:15; Heb. 3:6; Rev. 21:2-3).
The feeding of the manna is a type of God dispensing Christ into His redeemed people to qualify them to enter into the all-inclusive Christ (typified by the good land) to build the habitation of God (typified by the temple in the good land in the city Jerusalem). Here again is a picture of God imparting Himself into man so that man may become a corpotate dwelling place on the earth in which God may live and be expressed from within the man into whom He has dispensed Himself as divine life.
Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.
Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.
Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

  
jaywill
Member (Idle past 1972 days)
Posts: 4519
From: VA USA
Joined: 12-05-2005


Message 27 of 79 (436907)
11-28-2007 12:09 AM


Hidden Manna for the Building of God
Now let us take a close look at the re-mention of the hidden manna in the book of Revelation. The wise ones among us will see the consistency.
The blind will get nothing. But we are praying for them.
I would ask the interested to prepare by reading chapter 2 of Revelation verses 12 - 17. This is the resurrected Christ's letter to the church in Sardis.
"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the hidden MANNA, and to him I will give a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knows except him who receives it." (Rev. 2:17)
Here to overcome is specifically to overcome the Christian churches union with the Satanic world. Pergamos represents the EKKLESSIA which is still trapped in the world "where Satan's throne is" (v.13)
Manna is a type of Christ as the heavenly food that enables God's redeemed people to go His way - out of the fallen empire of Satan and into the good land of the all-inclusive Christ. That is the Christ to be man's everything.
A portion of the manna was preserved in a golden pot concealed in the Ark (Exo. 16:32-24); Heb. 9:4). The open manna was for the Lord's people tp enjoy in a public way; the hidden manna, signifying the hidden Christ, is a special portion reserved for His overcoming seekers, who overcome the degradation of the worldly church.
The Holy Spirit uses the hidden manna to represent the concealed and hidden enjoyment of Christ deep in the inner man of the believers in the midst of the worldly environment which seeks to infiltrate and ruin the Christian church.
While the church goes the way of the world, these overcomers come forward to abide in the presence of God in the Holy of Holies, where they enjoy the hidden Christ as a special portion for their daily supply.
The critics lambast and make accusation against the Christian church because she appears identical to the world in many ways. Yet in every age God reserves some overcomers who secretly enjoy the hidden Christ in the presence of God. This strenthens them in the face of the attacks of Satan, the ruler of the world, who seeks ever to destroy the Lord's church.
As Satan seeks to dilute the church by its contact with the world his deceived flunkies stand without accusing the Lord's church of failure with slanders.
The result of eating the hidden manna is to be given a white stone. Stone is mentioned in relation to building. God is building a habitation where He dwells within man.
" you ... being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone; In whom all the building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord; In whom you also are being built into a dwelling place of God in spirit." (Eph. 2:20-22)
God, by dispensing HImself into His redeemed and regenerated people is building up a habitation of God in spirit. He is building up a dwelling place where God lives in man and man in God.
The white stone represents the believers approved by His salvation.
In the Bible a stone signifies material for God's building (Matt. 16:18; 1 Pet. 2:5; 1 Cor. 3:12). In our natural being we are not stones but clay. Because we need to be born of God to receive the divine life with its divine nature. Regeneration changes our nature and allows God to transform man into building material for His dwelling place; for His habitation of God within man.
By being regenerated and enjoying Christ as the life supply, though the world is against us, we may be transformed into an approved component for God's building. If after being born of God we do not follow after the worldly church but enjoy Christ deeply and inwardly, we will be justified and approved by God, as indicated by the color white, to be built up in love into His habitation.
The new name written in the white stone represents transformation also. We know that Christ changed the name of his leading disciple from Simon to Peter - a stone. This changing of Simon's name to Peter prefigured His action to transform the man Simon into a living stone for the building of God.
The Apostle Peter therefore informs all the believers in Jesus that they also are "living stones", like himself and Christ who is the Cornerstone, intended by God to be built up into a spiritual house and a holy priesthood:
"Coming to Him [Christ], a living stone, rejected by men but with God chosen and precious,
You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 2:4,5)
Peter was transformed and became a living stone in God's building. And likewise those who eat Christ as the hidden manna will be given a white stone with a new name written in it. This signifies that they are rewarded to have the same experience like Peter - transformation and approval to be a constituent in the dwelling place of God.
God is building Himself into His people.
I said, God .. is building Himself into His redeemed and regenerated people to transform them - give them new names. Now only the one who receives the stone knows the new name:
" ... and to him I will give a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knows except him who receives it." (Rev. 2:17)
God directs the experiences of all His believers. And in the end only that person knows what experiences God has brought him or her through in order to transform them into the image of Christ for His building. All the experiences are tailor made to afford God a way to work Himself into the being of the believer.
He is approved. He is transformed. He is built up. And He becomes an intragal living stone in the living temple of God where God dwells in man on this earth for eternity.
We can see now the consistency of the typology of the hidden manna. It is a symbol of Christ as the believers food to constitute
him material for the eternal purpose of God to build Himself into man.
Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.
Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

  
jaywill
Member (Idle past 1972 days)
Posts: 4519
From: VA USA
Joined: 12-05-2005


Message 30 of 79 (437166)
11-29-2007 1:50 AM
Reply to: Message 28 by IrishRockhound
11-28-2007 2:25 PM


Re: On manna in the Bible.
Whoah there mister, we're supposed to take the bible literally. Also, your long rambling explanations of your weird interpretation don't really help your case. You should be quoting us the verses that talk about manna, like everyone else is, and not random verses that support your interpretation.
Perhaps you feel that the discourse of Christ on Him being the true bread from heaven is not relevant. If so, I don't think I can help you.
But just in case you missed it, much of my discourse was enfluenced by these words and more from the sixth chapter of John:
"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 from heaven and gives life to the world ... I am the bread of life ..."
Now if you feel that these words of Jesus are irrelevant to the topic of the "what does the Bible really mean" in Exodus concerning manna, then I don't think I can help you.
Look, I get what you're trying to say. I just don't find it especially profound. I still say you're trying to project a theme from the new testament or whatever onto verses that don't indicate they should be taken at anything other than face value.
It sounds to me that you do not realize the the whole Bible has Christ and His salvation as its underlying major theme.
It may not sound profound to you. But your reaction above sounds particularly obtruse and dull to me. That is because you seemed to not have grasped the there was forethought and foreknowledge on the part of God when He performed certain acts.
The entire line of God sending a savior Moses, the Passover lamb, the crossing of the Red Sea, the traveling through the desert to the good land, the miracles and lessons of the wilderness stay have relevance to God's overall plan of salvation.
I am sorry that you seem not to grasp even a glimmer of this. But just in case you missed it, the Apostles apparently did not. Peter, Paul, and John assure us that God had Christ's salvation on His mind in many many historical acts found in the Old Testament.
I admit that I am verbose. I admit that I am thrilled to ramble on and on about types and shadows of the Old Testament pointing to Christ. I write here not only for your sake but for the sake of others who might pick up some helpful explanations related to the discussion.
Some of us choose not to dumb down the Bible for the dull and even less for those who mock.
Oh enough already, jaywill, you are trying to convince me of your personal belief that "God created man to be a vessel of His glory".
It may be my personal belief. But it is also related to the proper interpretation of the manna. Anything you eat enters into you and becomes part of you.
Again you are only revealing you dullness in grasping some major spiritual themes in the Bible. Sorry, the Bible is a spiritual book in case you didn't notice.
I tried to take you back to Genesis to show you that even the tree of life as food has tremendous significance to divine life entering the vessel of man's being.
I tried to relate the basic principles of Adam's creation to the ongoing principles of Israel's being fed by God by strange "manna" from heaven. I'm sorry that you see no relationship with the ongoing theme of God wanting to put something heavenely or divine INTO man's being.
Phrases you use, wording - all indicate that you are, in fact, preaching at me. Just don't bother. I don't know if you've noticed, but other people on this thread are mocking you.
No, I didn't much notice.
I don't care about their mocking. I care for the few who may be reading along who will receive some help in grasping the Bible's meaning. Even if they do not agree with everything I wrote. I trust that some open people will get some help to understand these things.
I at least am trying to debate you, and I'd appreciate if you'd take me seriously.
Let's go back to the manna verses. Let's examine them in detail. Forget quoting these other verses; they're not relevant at the moment.
That is where you are dead wrong. We believers interpret the Bible with the Bible and by the Bible.
You see no overall scheme and no overall plan of salvation. That is your problem. You want me to take you seriously? Why do you not take seriously a man who authored 13 or so books of the Bible, Paul when he helps the Christians to understand by writing:
"And all [the Israelites who came out of Egypt] ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ" (1 Cor. 10:3,4)
Christ has something to do with the interpretation of the stories of the Israelites eating and drinking in the wilderness. Paul calls the manna "spiritual food". He calls the water from the rock "spiritual drink".
He also comes out to say that rock was Christ, meaning that there is a strong significance about that rock pointing to Jesus Christ.
The question I have is do you have a "spritual" interest? I see some talk here about what the manna was which is good to tickle the curious mind. I thought some participants might want to get the "spiritual" significance of these matters. And I bet some do if you the mockers.
Anyway, I am talking about the spiritual significance of the spiritual food and hoping that some spiritually seeking people will be spiritually helped to know what the Bible ( a spiritual book ) Really Means concerning these things.
I don't you have a case of any kind to counter at least that Jesus taught that He was the antitype of the manna. If you do have a counterpoint that Jesus was NOT that reality of the bread from heaven, then I can't see where you stated it as the bases of a debate.
And once again, if not you, many of us do take seriously Paul's word here:
" Not these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our admonition, unto whom the ends of the ages have come." ( 1 Cor. 10: 11)
So a Christian, myself, is trying to assist some readers of the Bible (supposedly) about things written for our admonition.
You received nothing at all. Too bad? But it doesn't change the healthy teaching and interpretatation of the Bible.
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This message is a reply to:
 Message 28 by IrishRockhound, posted 11-28-2007 2:25 PM IrishRockhound has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 31 by IrishRockhound, posted 11-30-2007 4:05 AM jaywill has replied

  
jaywill
Member (Idle past 1972 days)
Posts: 4519
From: VA USA
Joined: 12-05-2005


Message 33 of 79 (437937)
12-02-2007 2:58 AM
Reply to: Message 31 by IrishRockhound
11-30-2007 4:05 AM


Chemicals per se?, I don't know.
We're talking about what manna could have been, see the verses quoted from the OP:
If all you are interested in is the chemical composition of the manna I have nothing to say, except that I don't know exactly what that manna was. This is an open forum and my interest is the spiritual and theological aspects of the record.
Ignore me and discuss with some of the other posters whose interests are the same as yours. That's what I'd suggest.
Other participants may be interested in my discussion as others are interested in yours.
These are the Exodus verses, not the New Testament you quoted. In any case your verses there do not mention manna, just bread. I'm still not seeing the manna-bread-Christ connection except as a shoehorning by you.
I realize that those are Exodus verses. Theologically, it is important to me what the Bible (whole Bible) really means about those verses.
Exodus certainly has a historical and theological connection with Genesis, Leviticus and the other books of the Old Testament as well as the New Testament gospels. The desire to make it a "stand alone" and disconnected book is perhaps your need, not mine.
As for "shoehorning" what you could be noticing is actually the degree of closedness of your own mind such that introducing these connections seems to you to be "shoehorning".
From my perspective limiting the discussion to the chemical composition of the manna is kind of shoehorning a cynical disregard for other biblical passages into your interpretation of the book of Exodus. It is like saying "I don't care" about certain important theological themes of the Bible.
And excuse me? You can't 'help' me? We're talking about a couple of bible verses, jaywill, not my particular personal spirituality.
"What the Bible really means" about the manna is related to spiritual aspects of human life. If you find such discussion as meddling in your personal affairs, ignore me.
I learned to let others speak to me about spiritual themes of the Bible's meaning because I dropped a certain attitude I previously held, which was "I'm just so perfect, you see, don't adjust me in any way spiritual. I don't need any help." For awhile this attidude kept me from wanting to hear certain kinds of analyses of the Bible.
No offence, but when I read the bible, i.e. the supposed word of your god, he comes off as being a petty and vindictive child most of the time. He never once seemed like the planning type. So unless you're prepared to start another thread on biblical prophesy (and we all know that horse has been beaten to death and then some) I'd suggest you leave this out of the discussion.
Your contempt for my God is now showing. And I think this is probably more of the obstacle to understanding what I am writing more than anything else.
Let's ignore each other. We're through. Maybe someone out there can help you with the chemical composition of manna. I'll be talking to those interested in spritual themes to a spiritual book, or at least open minded enough to consider them.
Its a public forum.
Goodbye.
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This message is a reply to:
 Message 31 by IrishRockhound, posted 11-30-2007 4:05 AM IrishRockhound has not replied

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 Message 34 by jaywill, posted 12-02-2007 3:15 AM jaywill has not replied

  
jaywill
Member (Idle past 1972 days)
Posts: 4519
From: VA USA
Joined: 12-05-2005


Message 34 of 79 (437939)
12-02-2007 3:15 AM
Reply to: Message 33 by jaywill
12-02-2007 2:58 AM


Re: Chemicals per se?, I don't know.
Above someone wrote:
He never once seemed like the planning type.
Well, God told Abraham that He would not allow his discendents to enter into the land of Canaan until another 400 years. That was because the Amorites were not yet bad enough to merit judgment. I believe this is in chapter 15 of Genesis.
Then being merciful as He is He added another 40 years to that, of the Hebrew's wandering in the desert before entry.
No planning? Maybe we're not reading the same book.
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This message is a reply to:
 Message 33 by jaywill, posted 12-02-2007 2:58 AM jaywill has not replied

  
jaywill
Member (Idle past 1972 days)
Posts: 4519
From: VA USA
Joined: 12-05-2005


Message 35 of 79 (438529)
12-05-2007 6:12 AM
Reply to: Message 32 by jar
12-01-2007 1:09 PM


Re: On manna in the Bible.
jar writes:
So manna is used through the Bible stories but only as a plot device to help illustrate some other point.
I think the manna had greater significance than only to remind the Hebrews to keep Sabbath. Manna was placed into the ark with Aaron's rod that budded and the tablets of the testimony of the law. That seems to indicate its importance. God wanted the people to remember this manna in its own right.
There are a lot of things which God could have told Moses to place in the ark of the covenant. Beside the law, which was no doubt the most significant thing, there were only two other items. These were Aaron's budding rod and a golden pot (Comp. Heb.9:3-4) of the manna.
And Moses said, This is what Jehovah has commanded, Let an omerful of it be kept throughout your generations, that they may see the bread which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out from the land of Egypt.
And Moses said to Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omerful of manna in it, and place it before Jehovah, to be kept throughout your generations. As Jehovah commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept. (Exo. 16:32-34)

This message is a reply to:
 Message 32 by jar, posted 12-01-2007 1:09 PM jar has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 37 by jar, posted 12-05-2007 9:50 AM jaywill has replied

  
jaywill
Member (Idle past 1972 days)
Posts: 4519
From: VA USA
Joined: 12-05-2005


Message 36 of 79 (438531)
12-05-2007 6:40 AM


Manna Pointing to Christ
The characteristics of manna portray the characteristics of Christ as the heavenly "food" of God's people.
1.) Manna was fine (v. 14), indicating that the Messiah is even and balanced. Christ is not rough or course but fine.
2.) The manna was small indicating that the Christ is available and approachable. He is easy to take in for spiritual nourishment. Christ is near and as close as the words in one's mouth. He is great in significance but small enough for God's people to take into their hearts.
3.) The manna was round (v.14). Roundness signifies that Christ is eternal. So He is small enough to "eat" yet He is eternal in His divinity.
4.) The roundness of the manna also indicates that the Messiah Christ is perfect and full, without shortage or defect.
5.) The manna was white (v.31), indicating that Christ is clean and pure without mixture.
6.) The manna is like frost (v.31) signifying that Christ refreshes and cools. He is heavenly food that cools the feverish Adamic nature down. His coolness also kills negative things within us as frost kills germs.
7.) The manna was like coriander seed. This signifies that when Christ enters into man He is full of life and grows. He is a seed of divine life which can grow and spread and multiply within man.
8.) The coriander seed needed to be ground between two millstones or beat with mortar, then boiled in a pot (See Num. 11:8)
This represents the need for God's people to take Christ into them in all kinds of difficult situations and circumstances. Trials and troubles we must be excercised to go against our lazy natures and take Christ in with some deliberatness in our daily lives.
9.) The manna was like bdellium in appearance (Num. 11:7), indicating the brightness and transparency of Christ. He makes us bright with light within and real, honest, and transparent before man, like He is.
10.) In taste the manna was cakes of baked oil (Num. 11:8), signifying the fragrance of the Holy Spirit in the taste of Christ the Messiah.
11.) The manna was also discribed in taste as like honey (v.31). signifying the sweetness of Christ.
12.) The manna was good for making cakes (Num. 11:8), indicating that Christ is like a fine cake good for nourishment.
The manna therefore points to the incarnation of God as a man in Jesus Christ the Messiah and Savior of the world.
Christ is perfect and eternal. He is small enough to "eat". Christ cools us down into a inner sense of peace, kills germs within us, multiplies and grows within us, and is sweet to the seeking heart. We must take Him into us daily and in all kinds of daily troublesome situations we take Him with deliberateness and faithfulness.
This manna points to man taking into his being the processed and prepared God as the incarnated Son of God, the Hebrew's Messiah and the Savior of the world.
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jaywill
Member (Idle past 1972 days)
Posts: 4519
From: VA USA
Joined: 12-05-2005


Message 45 of 79 (438944)
12-06-2007 5:30 PM
Reply to: Message 37 by jar
12-05-2007 9:50 AM


Re: On manna in the Bible.
By the way, trying to use Hebrews to support Exodus is just plain silly. It's also silly because if you actually read Hebrews you will find the author (whoever that really was), is comparing an earthly function to a heavenly one. The things being mentioned are all only normal earthly stuff, socially significant but that's it. It's also a hodgepodge of myth and folk lore. It is not talking about the events themselves but about the layout of a tabernacle from a much later date and tradition. It also, as so often happens in folktales, been changed and exaggerated. When you look at the passage in Exodus it is just a pot, but by Hebrews it is a Golden Pot and kept in the Ark.
That's how folktales develop.
This does not necessarily HAVE to follow that myth is in the making. I agree and knew beforehand, that I have no reference to a "gold" pot, but just a pot, in the Old Testament.
That Hebrews adds a detail that we previously did not know of does not automatically mean myth is involved.
Even in the Old Testament books you could probably find some further details mentioned about events originally told elsewhere. This doesn't mean myth had to be in the making.
You know how deeply the Jews reverenced the ark of the covenant. That they desired that the pot be of gold is not at all surprising. It was of acacia wood overlaid with gold.
Do you think they were more likely to have used a tin pot or a bronze, silver, or wooden pot? Why?
Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.
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This message is a reply to:
 Message 37 by jar, posted 12-05-2007 9:50 AM jar has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 47 by jar, posted 12-06-2007 5:40 PM jaywill has replied

  
jaywill
Member (Idle past 1972 days)
Posts: 4519
From: VA USA
Joined: 12-05-2005


Message 46 of 79 (438945)
12-06-2007 5:38 PM
Reply to: Message 37 by jar
12-05-2007 9:50 AM


Re: On manna in the Bible.
It's not symbolic of Jesus but just a bread substitute to be abandoned as soon as they got where they could buy or steal grain.
I totally disagree with you.
First of all Jesus Himself gave a long discourse telling us that He was the antitype of the manna.
Now you may not like John's gospel and you may want to ignore Jesus. Go ahead. But He's an authority on the matter.
He knew something about the will of God, the plan of God, the salvation of God. I think you ignore His input at your own disadvantage.
Another thing, not only the manna was a type of Christ but even the entire good land of Canaan was a type of Christ.
So the discontinueing of the manna once they got out of the wilderness is not at all a discontinuing of types of Christ. It is only that that symbol comes to a close and others come to the forefront.
The entire good land of Canaan was a type of Christ as the all inclusive supply to God's people. He is our good land. The good land of Canaan is probably the largest type of Christ in the Bible.
So while these things had real historical significances to the Jews they also pointed to Christ.
Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.
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This message is a reply to:
 Message 37 by jar, posted 12-05-2007 9:50 AM jar has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 48 by jar, posted 12-06-2007 5:42 PM jaywill has not replied

  
jaywill
Member (Idle past 1972 days)
Posts: 4519
From: VA USA
Joined: 12-05-2005


Message 49 of 79 (438948)
12-06-2007 5:45 PM
Reply to: Message 47 by jar
12-06-2007 5:40 PM


Re: On manna in the Bible.
However, the Manna mentioned in Exodus and Numbers and Joshua still has NOTHING to do with Jesus and is still just a plot device to talk about other things that were important.
Nope. You're blind. You're blinded and blind. That's all.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 47 by jar, posted 12-06-2007 5:40 PM jar has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 50 by jar, posted 12-06-2007 5:53 PM jaywill has not replied

  
jaywill
Member (Idle past 1972 days)
Posts: 4519
From: VA USA
Joined: 12-05-2005


Message 54 of 79 (439195)
12-07-2007 5:16 PM
Reply to: Message 53 by IamJoseph
12-07-2007 1:22 PM


Divide and Conquer Blindness
It responds to what is the common denominator between the religions, and if manna has anything to do with the NT. It does not, however we have a religious group believing it does - which reason will fall elsewhere.
The problem is not Christians forcing irrelevent New Testament concepts on the Old Testament. That is not the problem here.
The problem has to do with revelation. Some people lack revelation from God. Some of them have instead convinced themselves that there is no overall divine Mind behind the composition of the 66 books of the Bible. That has not been revealed to them. Sometimes they do not want to believe it because there are things which they want to isolate and trivialize.
I count these people as trying to kill a living thing. They want to "divide and conquer" so to speak the plenary and living revelation of the Bible. So they insist that the parts are totally unrelated. By chopping up the beast they hope to kill it. By dismembering the beast the hope to rob it if its life and vitality.
So Genesis has nothing to do with Revelation. Exodus has nothing to do with John, for these people. They count expositons linking the sigificances of the two or more books to be "shoehorning". If they were not so padlocked in their thinking it would not seem as "shoehorning."
I am not saying ANY frivolous connection between a New Testament book and an Old should be given serious attention. But with the manna of Exodus 16 it is quite clear that Christ drew the connection. He said He was the reality of that type of the bread of God from heaven. Moses also called it bread, incidently.
Some of you, you don't WANT Christ. So a rational you depend on is to slice and dice the Bible up so that the Old Testament has nothing to do with Christ in the New Testament. The goal is to avoid having to take Christ seriously.
The same God who breathed out the Hebrew Bible is the same God who came incarnated in Jesus Christ and breathed out the New Testament. In fact in the Old Testament He promised that there would BE a new covenant.
Now, for the others who are a little more opened up in heart and mind, the other item in the ark, the budding rod of Aaron ALSO is a type of Christ in resurrection and authority. And in the next post I will elaborate on it to strengthen the interpetation that the manna is a pointer to Christ.
This post is not for those who cling to chopping up the Bible in order to "divide and conquer" the beast, denying a unifying theme and a Divine unifying mind behind this marvelous book, the Bible.
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