Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] I am super excited, having followed baptisms and just heard what God's doing, and it's really, really exciting. I met a guest last week and he said, I think every time I've come, y' all have been doing a baptism, which praise the Lord, right? Like, that's incredible that, that God is at work and just getting to walk in steps of obedience and proclaim, if he can do it in my life, he can do it in yours. And so that is the message that we want to continue to share that you that God would use us to continue to advance his kingdom and his glory. And so we're excited about that. If you got a Bible, we're in Exodus, chapter 16.
[00:00:38] We're going to cover the whole chapter. And then let me just give you a little heads up. We're going to do the Lord's Supper at the end of our service. And so if you're a visitor, then when we take the Lord's Supper, we would invite you to partake of that if you have trusted in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. So if you have put your hope and your faith in him as the only way that you can stand before a holy and just God is because of the blood of Jesus, which is applied to our life. And so by faith we are passed over in judgment. And so we would invite you to partake in that. If you haven't, then that's not a problem. But today would be a great day to do that. If you haven't trusted in Jesus, we'd invite you to do that. We'd love to talk with you about that. There's no magical words or prayer. It's just putting your faith in Him. But just allow this to pass by. If you haven't trusted in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and so just when it's passed, then you can just allow that to pass by you.
[00:01:39] And then I would encourage you to think through what would it look like, how would my life be transformed to put my faith and my hope in Jesus in what he offers for.
[00:01:49] And so that will come at the end of the service. We're in Exodus 16, and we're just walking through the Book of Exodus. And so as we're walking through this, let me just catch us up to where we're at. God made promises in Genesis. He promised a people that would have a land and who would be a blessing. And so then we get into the Book of Exodus and we find this people that he promised this to number about 70 people. They're in a land which is not their promised land. It's actually a land of slavery. And so they're in slavery. There are about 70 people. And they're definitely a blessing to Egypt because they're slaves, but that's not the blessing God was talking about. Right? And so then we begin in the book of Exodus where God begins to hear the cries of his people that when the Israelites were in slavery, they began to grumble and cry out to God because of the weightiness of the slavery they were in, because of the way that they were treated. And they cried out to God, God, do you hear us? God, do you see us? God, can you do anything? And God was moved to act on their behalf because of his promises. And so we've seen in the Book of Exodus that God rescues them not because of anything that they did, but because of God's promise and his mighty hand. He rescues them as he displays his power and control over all things that he parts the Red Sea for Israel to walk through. He provides salvation for them not because of anything that they did, but simply because of his love and his promise towards them.
[00:03:22] They then move out into the wilderness where God has led them. And they're on their journey, and they're three days into this journey, and they begin to grumble and complain and say, we don't have any water.
[00:03:34] Why did you bring us out here? Just for us to die of thirst?
[00:03:38] They show up to this little place with some water. They drink of it, it's bitter. And God provides for them. He says, put this log in the water. Miraculously, this water, which was bitter, then becomes sweet as they obey God's commands.
[00:03:53] This is where we pick up. Then God moved them to this place called Elim. It was a place where there were 70 palm trees and there were 12 springs. And so we get this picture of just this, this blessing. It's almost like resort. They've gone to Cancun or the Florida Keys or something like that. And it's like, ah, we could get used to this.
[00:04:13] But that's not the promised land that God had for him. And so he moves them from there. Verse 6, chapter 16, verse 1.
[00:04:21] It says, they set out from Elam, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of sin, which is in eliminate, in between Elam and Sinai on the 15th day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. Listen to this.
[00:04:39] And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.
[00:04:46] And the people of Israel Said to them, would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by meat pots and we ate bread to the full.
[00:04:57] For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger doesn't take long. And they delve right back into where they were. Would you pray with me? And then we'll continue.
[00:05:14] God, we recognize that apart from your grace, apart from your mercy, apart from you at work in our life, Lord, that we.
[00:05:23] We'll continue to go back to that which is familiar. We will continue to go back to the things in our heart which do not please you, Lord. And so we need you, Lord, this morning as we look at this text and as we're reminded of the truth, Lord, would you convict our hearts that we might repent of our chasing after that which is not pleasing to you, Lord? Would you convict us and.
[00:05:49] And turn our hearts back to trusting and running to you as our source of provision?
[00:05:55] We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:06:00] Let me give you the main point of this whole chapter. I think right here at the beginning. The main point is this, that God provides daily bread, so his people will develop daily trust.
[00:06:15] That God provides daily bread, so his people will develop daily trust. We see in this, we heard actually in Luke's testimony a little bit too, that. That God saves us. But redemption or salvation does not always equal or really ever equal immediate maturity, right? We wish that that were the case, that you got saved and all of a sudden you. You are just Jesus, right?
[00:06:43] That'd be phenomenal. But I don't know that any of us have that testimony in here.
[00:06:49] God looks at us as if we're Jesus because of what Jesus has done. But in our life, in the way that we live it out, we don't really look like Jesus. It takes time.
[00:06:59] We understand this from all of creation. Maybe you've planted a garden this year and you put the seeds down in the soil and you watered it and.
[00:07:09] And the seed's there, but then you're like, I don't know, it's probably dead, right? Like, I know it's in there, but there's nothing happening.
[00:07:18] I came to Christ and it feels like nothing's happening. Well, then there's this little leaf, this little sprout.
[00:07:25] It's like, oh, yeah, it's growing, right? But it takes a long time to actually produce fruit. That we see that in.
[00:07:34] In nature.
[00:07:36] Maybe some of you planted an oak tree around your house in order that you would have shade. Your grandchildren will have shade.
[00:07:44] Right. Like, it just takes a long time to grow and mature things which are robust.
[00:07:51] You can't short circuit maturity.
[00:07:56] That it takes time to grow.
[00:07:59] And the reality is that.
[00:08:01] That those things happen just day by day.
[00:08:05] I heard a quote that momentum is built by consistency.
[00:08:12] That if you want to build momentum in your Christian life, it's just built by consistently day by day by day, moment by moment by moment, decision by decision by decision, choosing to obey God.
[00:08:29] Then you look back over years and you go, wow, it's incredible.
[00:08:34] But here's what's happening in our story.
[00:08:39] This first scene, which unfolds in verses one to three, which we read, is that the wilderness actually is a little window into the heart.
[00:08:48] That the wilderness is a mirror for our soul where we look into it and we get to see that their complaining that we see in this text actually reveals some of the lies that they were believing.
[00:09:01] The complaining and the grumbling is actually a questioning of God's goodness and his love for them.
[00:09:09] God, do you. Did you just bring us out here to die?
[00:09:13] God, do you even care about us?
[00:09:17] But look at what's underneath that. If we look below the surface, there's fear there, there's grumbling. But underneath that, what was it? Well, we see this in the lie. They wanted security apart from having to trust God.
[00:09:35] They wanted security apart from having to trust God. Where do I get that from? Well, they look back at Egypt in the rearview mirror and they begin to go, oh, man, remember that?
[00:09:49] That was great.
[00:09:51] We had pots of meat.
[00:09:54] We had bread to the full.
[00:09:58] We had structure and security.
[00:10:00] We didn't have to walk by faith.
[00:10:04] Isn't it interesting how sin often edits our memory?
[00:10:10] Isn't it often that our hearts rationalize our past and rewrite it?
[00:10:18] Sure, in Egypt they had pots of meat.
[00:10:22] They knew where their next meals were coming from. And you know another place that we might be familiar with, where they will feed you? 3 meals a day is prison.
[00:10:34] You don't have to worry about when it's coming. It's showing up.
[00:10:38] You will have structure. You won't have to worry about where your next meal is coming from. You won't have to walk by faith.
[00:10:47] But Israel had forgotten the slavery that they were in.
[00:10:51] They had forgotten that it was the oppression which caused them to cry out, God save us. God, do you see us?
[00:11:00] They had forgotten that it was Egypt who had murdered their children and cast them into the Nile.
[00:11:10] They had forgotten the whelps on their backs as they came home under the oppression of the Egyptian taskmasters.
[00:11:21] See, they had rewritten their history.
[00:11:25] Maybe you and I can relate to that.
[00:11:28] Oh, if I just had some free time, man. Remember when I was single and had that free time, I could do what I wanted when I wanted.
[00:11:39] And remember when you questioned God, do you have a spouse for me?
[00:11:45] God, will I ever have a family?
[00:11:49] Oh, I can't stand this job.
[00:11:54] I hate having to get up and go to work.
[00:11:57] Remember the time when you said, God, I don't know how I'm going to pay my bills.
[00:12:02] God, I don't know how I'm going to be able to provide God, if I could just have some money and some security, then I'd be happy.
[00:12:11] Oh, how we rewrite the past.
[00:12:14] We rewrite it to look like pots of meat and bread to the full.
[00:12:20] But in reality, we just want security apart from having to trust God.
[00:12:28] One commentator said it this way, that God rescued the people of Israel out of Egypt, but he's going to take the people of Israel into the wilderness to get the Egypt out of the people.
[00:12:45] See, this wilderness is revealing that there's still areas of their heart which are not in line with the Lord.
[00:12:56] The second thing that we see in response to this is we actually get to see the character of God, that in response to the people grumbling, they haven't even gone hardly any amount of time and they've delved back into the grumbling. And we could just imagine, maybe some of us as parents, it's like, can you not just stop complaining for five seconds? Right? Like you can just imagine God would be right in saying something like that to the people.
[00:13:21] And yet that's not what we see here. Look at verse 4 through 12 in this section says this. Then the Lord said to Moses, behold, I'm about to rain bread from heaven for you.
[00:13:33] And the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day that I may test them. That in response to the people grumbling and saying, we're going to die of hunger, God says, I'm about to rain bread from heaven. It's incredible. We see his character that he. He's the one in control of all things.
[00:13:51] He doesn't say, hey, you need to plant some seeds. And hey, you need to stop being lazy. You need to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
[00:14:04] No, he says, I rescued you not of any of your doing, and I'm going to sustain you not by any of your own doing.
[00:14:14] He's about to rain bread from heaven. But then there's this little thing, this purpose clause that we see at the end of verse four. And he says that I may test them.
[00:14:24] This test is not a test of will they survive.
[00:14:29] The test is, will they trust me?
[00:14:32] Will they depend on me? I'm going to provide these circumstances so that they will trust me and know. That's what testing does.
[00:14:41] Testing proves something.
[00:14:44] He wants them to know that God is trustworthy, that they can depend on him, that they can daily trust in him to provide and sustain them.
[00:14:56] The test is whether they will walk in my laws or not.
[00:15:00] Will they trust me or will they believe that they're the exception to the rule? Will they trust me or will they think, well, those consequences don't apply to me. Will they trust me and obey my law?
[00:15:13] So what's he tell them to do? He says, on the sixth day, here's what's going to happen. When you prepare what they are to bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily. So Moses and Aaron says to all the people of Israel, at evening you shall know that it was the Lord. Catch that. That they shall know it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt. And in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord.
[00:15:42] Moses then talks to the people, listen to this. For what are we that you grumble against us? Moses is like, it's not us. We're just following after the Lord. It's not us that you're grumbling against.
[00:15:55] Moses said, when the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat, and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling, that you grumbled against him. What are we? Your grumbling is not against us, but it's against the Lord that their grumbling was in questioning God, not a man.
[00:16:14] Verse 9. Then Moses says to Aaron, say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, come near before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.
[00:16:23] And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked towards the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in a cloud.
[00:16:34] 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. That God meets them in their grumbling, to show himself that he's gracious and kind, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.
[00:17:01] That he meets them right there.
[00:17:04] They grumbled, God provided bread.
[00:17:07] They grumbled, God provides meat. They grumbled, God provides grace.
[00:17:14] It's not what they deserved, but it's what they got, because it's who God is.
[00:17:21] So then we look at how he provided this. We know that it's going to come from heaven. We know that God's the one who's going to provide it, not because of anything that they do. But look at verse 13 through 30. This is a picture of the daily bread for daily dependence, verse 13. In the evening, the quail come up. They cover the camp.
[00:17:42] In the morning, the dew lays on the camp. And when the dew had gone up, there was a face on the face of the wilderness, a fine flake like thing, fine as frost on the ground. And when the people saw it, they said to one another, what is it? That word right there actually is manna.
[00:18:01] Let me teach you all a few phrases. Country boy.
[00:18:05] They said manna, which means, what is it? There's some other phrases like mayonnaise.
[00:18:09] Mayonnaise. A lot of people in here.
[00:18:13] Cinches, cinches up. Get me something to drink too, right? Like, they literally are saying, like, what is it? Like, they're looking at this on the ground and they're like, what is that?
[00:18:27] That's the word manna.
[00:18:30] What is this?
[00:18:32] And so they've already been told that God's going to provide for them. And so Moses says to them, it is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.
[00:18:42] And so then he gives them some instruction. He says, go out and gather it.
[00:18:46] Each one of you to gather it all that you can eat. So only what's needed for you or for your family, you could gather enough for your family. Each person could take an omer according to the number of persons in their tent.
[00:18:59] And so Israel did that. They gathered some more and some less. Look at this, verse 16 or verse 18.
[00:19:06] But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. There's a principle here.
[00:19:17] God meets your needs, not your greed.
[00:19:20] That he meets you in your needs, but he's not filling up all the coffers.
[00:19:27] He doesn't meet you in your greed. Because the point is that you would trust him, that tomorrow morning you would have to wake up and go, I trust you again today, Lord, that you would have to walk by faith, that you couldn't stockpile it. Why, people actually did that in the story here that some gathered up and God had said, don't leave any Left over. And some people had gathered it up. And so worms got in it and it began to stink.
[00:19:57] That word stink is a word that should be familiar to us in the book of Exodus, That Israel had become a stink to the Egyptians, and so Pharaoh kicked them out.
[00:20:11] That the Egyptians had become a stink to the Lord and he judged them.
[00:20:18] And now we see here that the lack of obedience to God's laws becomes a stink, that it smelled bad. Moses got angry.
[00:20:32] He's like, why are you doing this? That what would cause someone to go and gather more is because they didn't want to have to go the next day. That they didn't want to have to obey God's laws, that they thought they were the exception. I can do it my way rather than God's way, man. I can relate that the consequences don't apply to me.
[00:20:52] It may be true for everybody else, but I can walk in opposition to God's rules, and it not affect me.
[00:20:59] No, it affected everybody.
[00:21:04] Morning. By morning, they had to get up.
[00:21:07] They had to trust God for their daily dependence. God was teaching them to trust him.
[00:21:14] That's the whole purpose of it.
[00:21:17] If he had wanted to provide that which could stockpile, he could have done that. And you know what the people would have done?
[00:21:24] They would have said, all right, God, we're good now. We'll handle it from here.
[00:21:28] But God wanted them daily to depend on him, to trust him.
[00:21:33] The God who saved them is the God who sustains them. The bread keeps showing up, not because of anything that they've done, but because God is the God who sustains them.
[00:21:44] Every morning, God provided for today.
[00:21:49] Every morning they saw that God was trustworthy.
[00:21:54] God's provisions, they match their needs, not their greedy.
[00:21:58] But life is not supposed to be lived by hoarding. It's supposed to be lived in generosity, walking by faith, trusting the Lord.
[00:22:09] But then he puts something else that's really unique in this story. I spent a little bit of time, I was like, why is that? Just stuck in there.
[00:22:17] There's two more things coming. That the next is the Sabbath. That verse 22 begins to tell us that on the sixth day, they gathered twice as much bread.
[00:22:26] And it didn't smell bad and it didn't spoil.
[00:22:29] Because on the seventh day, just like in Genesis, God rested. And so he wanted the people to rest.
[00:22:36] And so they were to take a Sabbath that tomorrow is to be a solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord.
[00:22:44] What does this teach?
[00:22:46] It teaches that God sustains even when we don't work.
[00:22:51] Wait a minute.
[00:22:54] Work's not bad. It actually is in the garden, before sin ever enters the world, God had given work. Work is to be good.
[00:23:02] Work is to be used. That work is not just about provisions for yourself. Work is a means of glorifying God. Catch this.
[00:23:11] You don't work just to provide for yourself. God provides for you. You work to glorify Him.
[00:23:19] And so resting is actually trusting in his provision.
[00:23:27] I think some people actually, in this, God said, hey, there's not going to be any bread on the seventh day. Some people actually didn't gather enough on the sixth day. So they go out there thinking that there's going to be bread and there's no bread. And God's like, listen, I told you that there was not going to be any bread. You thought that you were the exception. You didn't know that I was true to my word. I always keep my word.
[00:23:47] And so imagine this. God tells us that we should rest.
[00:23:51] Imagine if you didn't get a paycheck on a seventh day of work.
[00:23:59] How many weeks would you do that before you stopped going into work and you just rested?
[00:24:05] My guess is it wouldn't take very long. You're like, I'm not going to work if they're not paying me. You see how that's just revealed a little piece of your heart?
[00:24:13] I work to provide for myself so I can trust in myself rather than resting and trusting the Lord that He is what I need. Daily trust, daily dependence.
[00:24:29] The last thing that we see in this text is that it begins to transition us. If you look down at the end of 30, it says this. The people rested on the seventh day. They began to learn that rhythm.
[00:24:46] Our text then goes down into verse 35, that the people of Israel ate manna for 40 years until they came to the habitable land.
[00:24:55] For 40 years, they had this lesson. Listen, that's 14,600 lessons.
[00:25:04] Teachers, y' all think kids don't get it?
[00:25:08] 14,600 times they woke up every morning and they saw that God provides for their needs.
[00:25:16] I just turned 40 this year.
[00:25:19] There's 14,600 days that I've woken up with the reality that God has sustained me.
[00:25:28] You have two.
[00:25:30] You open your eyes, you take a breath, and there's a recognition that God is the one who has sustained you. It hasn't been your own effort, it hasn't been your own doing.
[00:25:39] God has sustained you.
[00:25:41] But even more than that, each evening, Israel got to gather in these quail that God had provided. That's another 14,600 lessons, Daily Trust, daily provisions.
[00:25:57] That comes to a total of 29,200 lessons that God meets my needs.
[00:26:05] God sustains me.
[00:26:07] Daily trust, daily provisions. That's what God wants from us.
[00:26:13] But you know, there's a problem because from the moment that my eyes open to the moment that my feet hit the floor, there's something that happens that I oftentimes forget that God's the one who sustains.
[00:26:24] Oftentimes, it's okay.
[00:26:27] Now, what do I have to do to make today work? What do I have to do to strive to make my future sure? What do I have to do to make sure that my family is taken care of or that the bills are paid, or that the people know my reputation or that people know what do I have to do to work for others or to prove my worth to earn love?
[00:26:53] What do I have to do? You see, it's so quick.
[00:26:57] Oftentimes it only takes the brief moment for me to forget that God is the one who sustains me.
[00:27:05] And so what did God do? Well, he actually told the people, he said, you need to take one of these omers, you need to put the manna in the jar. You need to save this jar. It's to be a testimony. And you're going to put this as a testimony.
[00:27:21] It actually shows up later in the Old Testament that they put it in the ark of the covenant, that this bread which sustained life, which came down from heaven was to be a testimony to them so that they would not miss it when the bread which came down from heaven, which sustains life would show up in the flesh.
[00:27:46] If you flip over to John chapter six, this is where the Bible gets really cool.
[00:27:53] John, chapter six. Jesus is talking to his disciples and he tells them that they should trust in him, that he is the son of man that God has sent.
[00:28:04] And they begin to then ask him, well, show us a sign.
[00:28:08] Give us evidence that we can trust, that we can trust. Trust rather than having to walk by faith of what you said, that we can see it.
[00:28:18] And so Jesus has already shown them many signs.
[00:28:23] And verse 31 says this. This is the disciples saying, our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, and he gave them bread from heaven to eat.
[00:28:35] Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven.
[00:28:45] For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. And they said to him, sir, give us this bread always. They're like, where do we get this bread from?
[00:29:01] Jesus then says to them, verse 35, I am the bread of life.
[00:29:07] Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
[00:29:14] You see, every person hungers.
[00:29:17] Every person hungers for not just physical food, but every person hungers for meaning.
[00:29:23] Every person hungers for purpose.
[00:29:26] Every person hungers for security, for acceptance, for joy, for. For hope, for love.
[00:29:36] But we all go to these lesser breads. We all go to these other pots of meat and go, remember that.
[00:29:45] Remember when that other pot of meat satisfied my need to feel loved and accepted?
[00:29:52] Remember that relationship that I was in, when someone valued me?
[00:29:57] And yet you've rewritten the history because they didn't value you. Because you were created in the image of God.
[00:30:03] They valued you for what you could give, not for who you were. Oh, remember when I had purpose, When I had that 8 to 5 job and it gave me purpose and meaning in life? People needed me, therefore I had meaning and purpose.
[00:30:24] But now that I'm retired, I wake up and don't have meaning and purpose. Oh, if I could just go back to that which satisfied me.
[00:30:33] See, we so easily turn to these lesser breads because in some way they satisfy us for a moment, but we rewrite the history.
[00:30:47] When Jesus stands going, I'm the bread of life.
[00:30:51] He who comes to me will never hunger or thirst. I again, Jesus will fill you with meaning. Jesus fills you with purpose. Jesus gives you security. Jesus accepts you not because of what you've done, but because of who you are. Jesus gives you joy in the midst of trials. Jesus gives you hope which cannot be dashed. He gives you love because it's who he is.
[00:31:18] And we settle for something else when he offers us this.
[00:31:25] The question is this, Will you trust your own resources? Will you trust your own plans? Will you trust your own fears?
[00:31:33] Or will you trust God who daily provides for you in order that you would daily trust in Him?
