And the LORD said to Moses, "I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, 'At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.'" In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, "It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.
Exodus 16:11-15
Commentators tell us that it was a frequent occurrence in the springtime for large flights of quails to come eastwards over the Red Sea after their migration to Africa for the winter. Exhausted after a long flight, they would drop to the ground as soon as they reached land, when it would then be easy to capture and kill them. It seems likely that this is what happened on this occasion. But it is the timing of this bountiful provision that is the point here, and this that constitutes the miracle. The manna, however, that came down with the dew, has no possibility of 'natural' explanation. The word 'manna' comes from two Hebrew words, which may be rendered either 'What is this' or 'This is a gift'. The fact is, they did not know what it was, except that it had come from God. There was mystery about it, and there is a sense in which there is always mystery about the gifts of God. This is supremely so in the gift of all gifts, His Son Jesus Christ, for the Incarnation is essentially a mystery. Nor must we think it fanciful to speak of Christ in relation to the manna that was provided in the wilderness, for Paul himself interprets it in 1 Corinthians 10:3 with reference to Christ. He has always been the bread of life to His people (see also John 6:31ff). The Psalmist said of the manna, 'He satisfied them with the bread of heaven' (Psalm 105:40), and this is surely how we must interpret its meaning. It was a kind of sacramental meal, in which not only their bodies, but also their souls, were fed with the bounty of God. It is in the truest sense a type of Christ, the Bread of life, given for the life of the world.