Bread from heaven, water from the rock

(Reference: Exodus 15&16; Judges 14&15)
I remember being a child and listening to sermons about God providing manna and the speculation about how sweet it was, but there was a pretty important point to me ... it just tasted like honey. It wasn't the real thing.
Considering the marrying of figurative and literal meanings throughout scripture, I don't see how it could have been anything but superficial sustenance ... like SEARATS to a sailor, MREs to a soldier, wood bugs to a Marine, or the Navy chowhall to an airman ... but I digress.
think about it in relation to other times God pulled his people over a hump ... wandering through the desert with an empty canteen? God provides bitter water with a sweetening stick; sensational strongman in need of nourishment? Find honey in the nearest carcass. Now tell me why God would put something as wonderful as honey in a stinky slimy, worm infested pile of roadkill?
And as for the water, from the stone, sounds a little gritty to me.
I think the answer is simple. God was providing sustainability but not satisfaction, because it wasn't the end of the road, neither physically nor spiritually.
Now granted, I am a Marine and I'm from the South, which means I'll eat anything, but I would have had to have already picked up that jawbone and struck down the 1, 030 men to be tired enough to deal with the bee stings to dig out the honey, considering it was surrounded by 300 lbs of rotting flesh. Even then, I think I would have been thankful and moved on. On the other hand if I'd come across that much honey barbecue, tender grilled steak, I would have camped out and eat it down the the last spare rib ... and sucked it clean.
As for the water, I've been in that part of the world, and I don't think I ever saw a spot of ground that looked hospitable enough to drink water from. Of course, if it tasted sweet I would have thought it was an anti-freeze spill, but I again, I digress.
I'm surviving on my own muddy water and roadkill meals these days. My amazing job with the Peace Corps seemed like the Promise Land at the end of the desert, but it's starting to look more like a shrinking oasis. It's a beautiful idea, much like the honey, and similarly surrounded.
The Peace Corps is an amazing organization, don't get me wrong on that note, but it is lead by a staggering juggernaut of a bureaucracy. To bring in one more Biblical motif, I'm starting to feel like David against Goliath before he found the 5 smooth stones. Not that I am not thankful to have the chance to serve the Peace Corps mission, and after grumbling with God, pleading for a job for so long, I am definitely glad to be able to pay the bills, but I think I'll follow the Israelites lead and keep my eyes out for Canaan ... And I'll keep saying grace over my honey and roadkill.
Does anybody have any tobasco?