John 6:30-31
30 So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'"
32 Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."
Observations for Living Today:
This is the third question answered by Jesus during an ongoing (3-4 day) dialogue with a persistent crowd of followers. The immediate discussion centers on Jesus’ counsel to work for food that endures to eternal life, which Jesus will give them and clearly suggests some have serious doubts as to what is God’s “seal of approval” placed on Jesus (Jn 6:27).
This follow-up question is based wholly on Jesus’ response to their preceding question: to do what God requires, they must “believe in the one He (God) has sent” (Jn 6:29).
Their question restated: How can we be sure God sent you? What have you done compared to Moses?
They appear to suggest an answer that they will accept – Moses the greatest (in their opine) leader did many signs/wonders in leading them out of Egypt (slavery), the feeding with manna for 40 years seemed to top the list. How important God’s feeding them in the wilderness is obvious from the items placed in the Ark of the Covenant/Testimony: the stone tablets God Himself wrote His commandments on (Dt 10:3-5) and an “omer of manna” in a jar (Ex 16:32-34; Heb 9:3-4). God did not want them to miss this absolute truth: Man lives not on bread alone, but also on every word proceeding from the mouth of God (Dt 8:3; Mt 4:4; Lk 4:4). As a physical testimony/witness of this truth He gave to man, God had them carry the symbols of His word and food in front of the Israelites everywhere they went.
Jesus’ answer to their doubt exposed their feeble logic—Moses did not feed them in the wilderness—God did. God does not respond well to “prove it”, but He does not ignore His errant child either. He is moving the conversation forward from what is known and understood, to what is barely comprehensible to the child—from worldly to heavenly, temporal to eternal, mortal to immortal, human to spiritual.
Jesus has been saying all along, the works/signs/miracles you see me doing indicate God and I are working together—so what’s your problem. The Timeline of Miracles contains 2 raised from the dead (a son Lk 7:11-17; and a daughter Lk 8:49-56) and many restorations of sight and sanity, which no doctor then or now could do by speaking a word. What else is needed to understand God is with Him? AT least one Rabbi (Jn 3:2) recognized this truth saying ‘no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” Even an uneducated man born blind recognized the truth of his healing saying, “If this man were not from God, he could do nothing” (Jn 9:33).
This illustrates a fundamental tenant of God’s love: recognizing man’s inept ability to understand and communicate God’s truth accurately to the next generation, God Himself will teach those who are searching for the truth and will Himself put His law in their mind and write them on their heart (Heb 8:10-13; Jer 31:31-34). God Himself will do it, not the leadership of Israel, nor the Priests, Pharisees or Sadducees (Eze 34), therefore God said: “no longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.”
Proof of this tenant is observable in the fact Jesus always points those who listen to Him toward the Father—Always! In Jesus’ own words, “by myself I can do nothing” (Jn 5:19, 30; 8:28). Many in this crowd, those from across the sea fed the day before, still believed Jesus was the Messiah and wanted to make Him King of Israel, but doubt was beginning to take its toll.
Reality in Christ:
God gave Adam and Eve an endless supply of food in the garden, along with one spoken warning, which they ignored; they rejected the food given and did not believe God’s warning. Ungrateful for what they had been given and not believing God whom the spoke face to face with, they became victims to the temptation presented by God’s celestial enemy. Israel faced the same kind of temptation when they came face to face with the bread of life. So they would never forget their life depended on God’s word and bread, The Ark of the Covenant/Testimony contained God’s Words (law/commandments) and God’s Bread (an omer of manna)—a continuous reminder God is the source of life. These were shadows or copies of the real things yet to be shown to the world. This is why God told the Israelites the Ark of the Covenant/Testimony would someday be gone and forgotten (Jer 3:14-18).
Jesus is the reality and not a shadow or a copy of the heavenly source of life; He is both our food and the words of God (Col 2:17). No more sacrificial offerings in Judaism or an Ark of the Covenant to be found. The two flocks (Jewish and everyone else) are being made one and they will both be taught and fed by God (Jn 10:16).
Jesus said “the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” The crowd was taught by their leaders, seeing leads to believing, but God said, believing leads to seeing (Bible Knowledge Commentary/New Testament 1983, note on Jn 6:30-31). Evidence of this phenomenon is seen in Jesus’ response to: > The royal official in Cana in Galilee asking Him to heal his son, “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders you will never believe.” (Jn 4:48)
> Nathanael when he first met Jesus, because you believe “you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (Jn 1:50-51)
> Martha at the tomb of Lazarus four days after her brother died and was buried, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” (Jn 11:40)
Man knows his deeds are evil and tries to hide them, suppressing the truth, lying and keeping truth in the dark. God says I know what you are, believe me, accept the truth, come into the light and I will accept you and change you, have faith in my power to love you (Ro 2:13, 28-29).
Do not get weary and stop believing—never give up or you will disappoint God and you will fail (Heb 2 & 3).
Jesus is God giving us “true bread from heaven” – those who ate manna died (were not changed), but this bread from heaven “gives life to the world.” Fact: those who believe the one God sent from heaven, “to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God (Jn 1:10-13).
Believe God; experience the reality in Christ and become a spiritual being who, though the body wear out, will never die; and when the Father decides it is time to make things right, you will appear with a heavenly spiritual body, just like Jesus has now, for we shall see Him as He is and we will know God even as we are now known by God (1 Jn 3:2; 1 Cor 13:12)
Believe God, believe the one He sent and you will see God; you will have life in His name.
30 So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'"
32 Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."
Observations for Living Today:
This is the third question answered by Jesus during an ongoing (3-4 day) dialogue with a persistent crowd of followers. The immediate discussion centers on Jesus’ counsel to work for food that endures to eternal life, which Jesus will give them and clearly suggests some have serious doubts as to what is God’s “seal of approval” placed on Jesus (Jn 6:27).
This follow-up question is based wholly on Jesus’ response to their preceding question: to do what God requires, they must “believe in the one He (God) has sent” (Jn 6:29).
Their question restated: How can we be sure God sent you? What have you done compared to Moses?
They appear to suggest an answer that they will accept – Moses the greatest (in their opine) leader did many signs/wonders in leading them out of Egypt (slavery), the feeding with manna for 40 years seemed to top the list. How important God’s feeding them in the wilderness is obvious from the items placed in the Ark of the Covenant/Testimony: the stone tablets God Himself wrote His commandments on (Dt 10:3-5) and an “omer of manna” in a jar (Ex 16:32-34; Heb 9:3-4). God did not want them to miss this absolute truth: Man lives not on bread alone, but also on every word proceeding from the mouth of God (Dt 8:3; Mt 4:4; Lk 4:4). As a physical testimony/witness of this truth He gave to man, God had them carry the symbols of His word and food in front of the Israelites everywhere they went.
Jesus’ answer to their doubt exposed their feeble logic—Moses did not feed them in the wilderness—God did. God does not respond well to “prove it”, but He does not ignore His errant child either. He is moving the conversation forward from what is known and understood, to what is barely comprehensible to the child—from worldly to heavenly, temporal to eternal, mortal to immortal, human to spiritual.
Jesus has been saying all along, the works/signs/miracles you see me doing indicate God and I are working together—so what’s your problem. The Timeline of Miracles contains 2 raised from the dead (a son Lk 7:11-17; and a daughter Lk 8:49-56) and many restorations of sight and sanity, which no doctor then or now could do by speaking a word. What else is needed to understand God is with Him? AT least one Rabbi (Jn 3:2) recognized this truth saying ‘no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” Even an uneducated man born blind recognized the truth of his healing saying, “If this man were not from God, he could do nothing” (Jn 9:33).
This illustrates a fundamental tenant of God’s love: recognizing man’s inept ability to understand and communicate God’s truth accurately to the next generation, God Himself will teach those who are searching for the truth and will Himself put His law in their mind and write them on their heart (Heb 8:10-13; Jer 31:31-34). God Himself will do it, not the leadership of Israel, nor the Priests, Pharisees or Sadducees (Eze 34), therefore God said: “no longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.”
Proof of this tenant is observable in the fact Jesus always points those who listen to Him toward the Father—Always! In Jesus’ own words, “by myself I can do nothing” (Jn 5:19, 30; 8:28). Many in this crowd, those from across the sea fed the day before, still believed Jesus was the Messiah and wanted to make Him King of Israel, but doubt was beginning to take its toll.
Reality in Christ:
God gave Adam and Eve an endless supply of food in the garden, along with one spoken warning, which they ignored; they rejected the food given and did not believe God’s warning. Ungrateful for what they had been given and not believing God whom the spoke face to face with, they became victims to the temptation presented by God’s celestial enemy. Israel faced the same kind of temptation when they came face to face with the bread of life. So they would never forget their life depended on God’s word and bread, The Ark of the Covenant/Testimony contained God’s Words (law/commandments) and God’s Bread (an omer of manna)—a continuous reminder God is the source of life. These were shadows or copies of the real things yet to be shown to the world. This is why God told the Israelites the Ark of the Covenant/Testimony would someday be gone and forgotten (Jer 3:14-18).
Jesus is the reality and not a shadow or a copy of the heavenly source of life; He is both our food and the words of God (Col 2:17). No more sacrificial offerings in Judaism or an Ark of the Covenant to be found. The two flocks (Jewish and everyone else) are being made one and they will both be taught and fed by God (Jn 10:16).
Jesus said “the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” The crowd was taught by their leaders, seeing leads to believing, but God said, believing leads to seeing (Bible Knowledge Commentary/New Testament 1983, note on Jn 6:30-31). Evidence of this phenomenon is seen in Jesus’ response to: > The royal official in Cana in Galilee asking Him to heal his son, “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders you will never believe.” (Jn 4:48)
> Nathanael when he first met Jesus, because you believe “you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (Jn 1:50-51)
> Martha at the tomb of Lazarus four days after her brother died and was buried, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” (Jn 11:40)
Man knows his deeds are evil and tries to hide them, suppressing the truth, lying and keeping truth in the dark. God says I know what you are, believe me, accept the truth, come into the light and I will accept you and change you, have faith in my power to love you (Ro 2:13, 28-29).
Do not get weary and stop believing—never give up or you will disappoint God and you will fail (Heb 2 & 3).
Jesus is God giving us “true bread from heaven” – those who ate manna died (were not changed), but this bread from heaven “gives life to the world.” Fact: those who believe the one God sent from heaven, “to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God (Jn 1:10-13).
Believe God; experience the reality in Christ and become a spiritual being who, though the body wear out, will never die; and when the Father decides it is time to make things right, you will appear with a heavenly spiritual body, just like Jesus has now, for we shall see Him as He is and we will know God even as we are now known by God (1 Jn 3:2; 1 Cor 13:12)
Believe God, believe the one He sent and you will see God; you will have life in His name.
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