Secondly is that the bowl of manna and Aaron’s staff were not usually inside the ark of the covenant, but rather beside it. God’s command in Exodus 16:33 was for Moses to place the manna “before the LORD” to be kept safe (NASB). Similarly, the staff was to be placed “before the testimony” (Numbers 17:10). So, the manna and the staff were kept in the same place as the tablets of stone, but it’s possible they were not, strictly speaking, inside the Ark.
It’s also quite possible that the bowl of manna and Aaron’s staff were carried inside the Ark every time the Ark was moved. When the ark was at rest in the Most Holy Place, the manna and the staff were placed beside or in front of the ark.
What does it mean for us today besides an interesting piece of information? The lesson for us today should be that God can provide miracles anytime He pleases, He will make sure to sustain our physical needs as He did for the Israelites. God tells us not to worry, He will take care of all our essential needs for survival, which also include food and water. He did the same under Moses, as we read in Nehemiah 9:20-21, “You also gave Your good Spirit to instruct them, You did not withhold Your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst. Forty years You sustained them in the wilderness; They lacked nothing; Their clothes did not wear out And their feet did not swell”. God is not limited, and there is no reason why He couldn’t do this again, as Isaiah 33:16 indicates.
But wait there’s more, much more. “Mankind is designed not to define life by the bread harvest of their own labour but by daily feasting on every word that proceeds from God’s mouth, mirrored in its most complete language, “The Incarnation”. The Word that is face to face before God from before time was, is now made flesh, radiating the Invisible Father’s character and image in human form, as in a mirror” (Mirror translation). So when you look into a mirror you will see the Father’s character and image reflected in you. We are called to eat from the bread of Life, Jesus. Revelation 2:17 talks about the hidden manna, Christ in you, a mystery that was hidden for ages and generations. He treated us gently in the wilderness of our unbelief and fed your hunger with Manna, the living word. The wilderness of our forgotten identity, not knowing who we were, we were dwarfed into insignificance and we perceived ourselves as grasshoppers in our own eyes. The hidden manna, Jesus, the Word, the life of your design, will be completely sustaining you by the Word, which proceeds out of the mouth of God. This is your victory, secured in the hearing: Feast on the revelation of the hidden manna. Your life has been rebooted.
