Revelation 2:17 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above the third reward that our Lord Jesus lists for the one who overcomes, is that He will give them some of the hidden manna to eat.
John 6:31-35 “Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" (32) Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father 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." (34) Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always." (35) And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”
So what is the hidden manna that our Lord Jesus has promised to give us? As quoted in the above passage of scripture, when Jesus was on the earth the Jews disputed with Him about the fact that Moses had given them manna from heaven to eat. Jesus then taught them that He indeed was the true manna from heaven in that He was the bread of life. Clearly in this passage the Jews were talking about physical food while the Lord Jesus was talking about spiritual food. In heaven very often that which is spiritual and that which is physical are one and the same. For example although the manna that the children of Israel ate in the wilderness was physical food we know that it was also spiritual food, for the scripture teaches us that the manna that the Jews ate was in fact angels’ food (Psalm 78:24-25). And so because the bible describes angels as being spirits, their food would therefore also be spiritual in nature (Psalm 104:4).
1 Corinthians 10:3-4 “all ate the same spiritual food, (4) and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul confirms the truth to us that the manna that the children of Israel ate was indeed spiritual food. When Paul calls it spiritual food we know that he is referring to the physical manna that they ate, because in the same passage he refers to the water that they drank from the rock as being spiritual drink. We know that natural food nourishes the body of man while spiritual food nourishes the spirit of man. And so as the fruit from the tree of life will be food for the resurrected bodies of the saints, so the hidden manna that our Lord Jesus will give us will be food for our spirits. We know that here on earth we feed our spirits with the word of God, for our Lord has taught us that man’s spirit needs the word of God to live (Luke 4:4). In what form the hidden manna will be given to the saints is not yet revealed to us. Nevertheless we have been shown on two separate occasions in scripture where God has literally fed His servants His word. The first account is when God gave the prophet Ezekiel the scroll of His word to eat (Ezekiel chapters 2 & 3). The second account is when our Lord gave the apostle John a little book to eat (Revelation 10:8-10). Nevertheless whatever forms the hidden manna of God’s word takes we know that it will be nourishment for our spirits.
Michael E.B. Maher
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