Manna
“What Is It?”
After the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt, they found themselves travelling through a vast, dry, unforgiving wilderness — and very quickly, they ran out of food. In Exodus 16, God provides a mysterious food called manna every morning, which sustains them for the next 40 years. The word “manna” literally means “What is it?” — exactly what the people asked when they first saw it.
What food fell from the sky to feed the Israelites in the wilderness?
👉 Manna.
A daily lesson in trust
Every morning, the ground would be covered with a strange, fine, flaky substance. The people would go out and collect it, grind it, and make it into bread. The Bible describes it as looking like frost on the ground and tasting a bit like honey.
They could only collect enough for one day — if they tried to store it up “just in case,” it would spoil overnight. The only exception was before the Sabbath, when they were told to gather two days’ worth, and that supply would last. In other words, manna wasn’t just food; it was a daily lesson in trust.
For 40 years, as the Israelites travelled through the wilderness, this mysterious food appeared every morning and kept an entire nation alive.