The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan. The forty years of manna provision is one of the most sustained miracles in Scripture. Every morning for fourteen thousand days, bread fell from heaven for two to three million people in a desert. The provision ends exactly when it is no longer needed — when the land of Canaan, which produces its own food, is reached. Joshua 5:12 records the manna stopping the day after the Israelites ate produce of the land. The provision is precisely calibrated to the need: it begins with the exhaustion of Egyptian provisions and ends with the availability of Canaan's produce. The God who provides does not waste miracles, but He also does not withhold them when they are needed. For forty years, Israel ate bread they did not grow.

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