1 Samuel 10:1-27; John 6:30-42; Psalms 106:47-48; Proverbs 23:19-21
NT: ““What sign, then, are you going to do so that we may see and believe you?” they asked. “What are you going to perform? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Then they said, “Sir, give us this bread always.” “I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again… For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me… For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”” (John 6:30-35, 38, 40 CSB)
Not only did John highlight 7 signs that Jesus gave to prove Who He was, John also included 7 “I AM” statements that Jesus gave about Himself. Jesus preferred to use the title, “Son of Man,” but He didn’t shy away from claiming His divine eternal nature. The crowds that followed Jesus to Capernaum wanted Jesus to show them a sign to prove that He was the Messiah – as if miraculously feeding 5,000 people with a few loaves and fishes wasn’t enough. Rabbis taught that the Messiah, when he came, would reproduce the miracle of the manna in the wilderness – so they wanted to see Jesus do that. Firstly, Jesus adjusted the crowd’s perspective by reminding them that it was not Moses that produced the manna, but God – and they needed to stop looking to Moses and the law as the source of life, and turn to God instead. Then Jesus said that He didn’t need to produce manna, for He was manna… He was the Bread of Life sent from heaven. God told Moses that His name was I AM. When Jesus said, “I AM the Bread of Life,” He was in essence saying that He was God and that He was the source of sustenance in the midst of a barren and dry world. We don’t find life in the law or in the requirements set forth by the religious leaders. We find life when we come to Jesus. Though we live in a dry and barren world that is ravaged by sin, when we come to Jesus, we will be sustained – just as the Children of Israel were sustained in the desert. If we come to Jesus and believe on Him, He will give us eternal life – and at the end of the age, we will be bodily raised to life to spend eternity with Him and the Father.
Jamie Hicks 