In Exodus 16, when manna first fell from the sky, the people called it manna for, as it says, they did not know what it was (Ex. 16:15).
This is the way of the fleshly heart. God feeds us; He surrounds us with food, but we do not know what He is doing. We do not know what His food actually is. The Scriptures tell us elsewhere that the people in the wilderness drank from the rock that accompanied them, and that the Rock was Christ (1 Cor. 10:4). The fact that they drank from Christ does not mean that they knew or understood this in true faith. In the next verse, immediately after we are told that they drank from Christ, we are told that “with many of them God was not well pleased” (v. 5).
One of the central themes in these exhortations from the Table is that we Christians must put away all morbid introspection. But how can we do that when the Bible tells us that these things were written as examples for us (v. 6)? Don’t these scary stories drive us into introspection?
They shouldn’t. If the bad example of the Israelites is that they did not look to Christ, then how are we learning the right lesson from that bad example if we, in morbid introspection, refuse to look to Christ? The power of the bad example should cause us to see Christ in the manna, Christ in the water, Christ in the camp, Christ in our brothers and sisters. This is what we are called to, this is what God summons us to.
Do not look inside your own heart with morbid fascination—that is the way to deep spiritual trouble. Look to Christ. He has been preached and declared in the Word this morning. We have worshipped the Father through Him throughout this entire service. We are gathered at His Table. His body was broken for you; His blood was shed for you. The Bible does say to examine yourself, but looking away to Christ is the only real way to accomplish this. All other paths are not really self-examination at all.