Exodus - 16:1-15, 27-35

This is ERC Sundays, the messages at Emmaus Rd.

Church in DeWitt, Iowa. ERC is a Church of people

striving to grow in Jesus and make him known to others through

our faith, words and actions. Find out more about our church

at emmausrdonline.org. Here's this week's message.

We are working through the book of Exodus.

Derek Grady, would one of you just hit the the slides button

on the little stream deck back there so I can see back there?

Oh, OK, cool, cool. All right, I will turn around

and look this way then. That's fine.

We are in Exodus 16. People of Israel wandering

around in the wilderness had some pretty miraculous things,

got delivered from well out of the hands of slavery out of

Egypt. God made a way through the Red

Sea, but they're still kind of just out there.

They're in the middle of nowhere.

They're not sure exactly where they're going.

God's made a path and they've got to kind of step by step, day

by day, follow on after Him. They know there's this promised

land. They know there's this ultimate

future in life and deliverance. But along the way, they are kind

of tested and tasked with walking in obedience with God

and in step with His Spirit. So I asked you, there's only two

answers to this question. You can't be like halfway on one

side one or the other. Are you If you see saw a glass

of water up here and if it's half full, who would say it's

half full or who would say it's half empty?

If you're 1/2 full person, where you at?

If you're a half empty person, where you at right.

Some of you did not admit to one side or the other but didn't

follow the rules. That's fine.

Neither did the Israelites. God still loved them just the

same. The Israelites on this journey

went back and forth so much between seeing God's

faithfulness and provision in 1/2 full.

Sometimes they saw it in 1/2 full way, sometimes they very

much saw it in 1/2 empty way, that it wasn't going to be

enough, that there was no hope of experiencing the fullness of

it. In this passage in Exodus 16, we

see God's provision and plan for them even when they didn't see

the fullness of it. And we have by the truth of His

Word, by the power of His Word, we have the testament to His

faithfulness to His goodness. And that's our blessing this

morning, that we get to look back and learn from the lessons

that the Israelites lived out. We get to see that in His Word.

So we are in Exodus 16 today. We're going to jump around a

little bit because there's a lot in these 35 verses, but there

are a couple themes that I really want us to draw out and

learn and talk about today. So we're going to start at verse

one. I'll have it up here on the

screen. You're welcome to pull out your

own Bible or, or if you have the Bible app or there's Bibles

under the chairs in front of you as well.

We are in Exodus chapter 16 and we're just going to kind of take

Exodus 16 · chapter mention

this little bits at a time. They the Israelites set out from

Elam and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the

wilderness of sin which is between Elam and Sinai on the

15th day of the second month after they had departed from the

land of Egypt. So just a couple contextual

things here in in verse one, they set out from Elam, the

wilderness of sin, probably more than likely pronounced sin or

sign as in Mount Sinai. They're just they're in this

region where Mount Sinai, the mountain of God eventually where

Moses would receive the 10 commandments.

They're they're in that region. It's not the word for sin.

That's just what it's called. Even though, well, the

Israelites did a lot of sin in in this region while they were

in it. Not how it's pronounced.

Not the same idea, but that's where we are. 15th day of the

second month after they had departed from Egypt, the whole

congregation of the people of Israel, verse 2 grumbled against

Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.

These people have done a lot of grumbling.

If you remember, when they were faced with the Red Sea, they

cried out to Moses just the same and said, why did you bring us

out here to be killed? You could have just left us to

be killed in Egypt. Why are we out here?

This is only 45 days since they were delivered out of slavery,

since they were delivered from the Egyptian army in the Red

Sea. Couple instances where they're

only seeing it, they're only seeing it as half full.

They don't remember the fullness of God's provision and

deliverance. They're back here grumbling and

remember, they're not even like out of out of food at this

point. They're getting to the point

where like the provisions that they brought from Egypt are kind

of running out and they're kind of worried about maybe someday

we might be experiencing hunger. They're heightening.

They're they're magnifying their struggle in the moment and they

are minimizing the faithfulness of God in their past.

So often I think we find ourselves in that same place,

exaggerating the difficulty of the current moment, the current

tribulation or strife, when really it pales in comparison to

the magnitude of God's blessing of his goodness for us that he's

already acted out in the past. We get it backwards.

Instead of experiencing the fullness of his blessing, we're

we're seeing it as half full right now.

Remember even just last week as Pastor Chris walked us through

this, this song of Moses, this kind of spontaneous hymn and

praise that they were all unified and engaged in together.

It wasn't maybe just a week ago that they were singing the song

of Moses, but we were talking about it a week ago.

It was still a relatively short period of time that they're

reveling in and responding to and praising God's provision and

goodness in their lives. And their tune has changed.

So this is their cry. Verse 3, the people of Israel

said to them, would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in

Egypt. Again, they're looking back.

Oh man, we had it so good. We had it so great in slavery,

three square meals a day. We got to exercise and do some

physical labor. We were outside and the heat,

Yeah, it wasn't on the beach, but like, it was so pretty good

out in the desert. They even remnants reminisce

about sitting by the meat pots and eating bread to the full.

Meat pots. That's a fun word.

Pot roast. The Egyptian pot roast.

I don't know. Meat pots, I don't know they're

they're they're reflecting on rejoicing in meat pots.

Like I think that's weird. We got to just split the C for

them. Now let's go back and hang out

by the meat pots and a good chunk of bread.

Weirdos indeed. They've they've lost sight of

the fullness of God back to 1/2 full mentality.

So then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I am about to rain bread

from heaven for you, and the people should go out and gather

a day's portion every day that I may test them, whether they will

walk in my law or not. On the 6th day, when they

prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they

gather daily. A lot of the time we point out

what's here. In this instance, I want to

point out what's missing. They go from complaining to God,

providing there's no point of anger or rebuke or correction or

frustration from God anywhere in this passage.

What that tells me, what that reflects on me and my life as I

think about my sin, about my struggle, about my complaint.

Most of it is self-inflicted. Most of it is my own selfish

rebellion we talked about back in Psalm 51 this morning.

Choosing, thinking that my way. I got a better plan than God for

this his, his plan. I only, I only see it as half

full. I got AI got a full plan.

I got it all worked out and my silliness and my stupidity at

times is what brings about this struggle.

So God's not God's not defending himself.

He's not saying no, no, no, no, I didn't bring this upon you.

He just simply says, he tries to refocus.

You guys are missing it. You're seeing the situation as

half empty, but it's, it's half full and it's on its way up.

Watch what I'm going to do. He doesn't rebuke them.

He hasn't brought struggle into your life either.

I hear it all the time and I understand why people think this

way. Why would God let this thing

happen? Why would God bring this into my

life? Well, he let's trials and

adversities come into our life for for the strengthening and

perseverance of our faith. They do not emanate from him

though. He does not create them and drop

little trial bombs into our lives.

Just be like hey gotcha didn't see this coming, try this on.

That's the work of sin and we're all afflicted by it.

We're all affected by it. Even the most faithful of us, we

still have to endure it. Your struggle didn't come from

God. Most of the time it's

self-inflicted and still he meets it with blessing.

He still responds and says if it's not good, I'm not done this

blessing of this bread from heaven.

The Lord said to Moses. Once again, we're jumping ahead

to to verse 11 a little bit here.

I've heard the grumbling of the people of Israel.

Remember a couple weeks ago where God was saving the people

from Egypt? I have seen the struggle and the

affliction of my people. It's the same idea here.

I know, I know what you're struggling through.

You don't have to point it out to me.

You know, I I hear you're complaining, I hear you're

grumbling, but I already know what you're struggling with.

And of course I already have a plan to provide.

At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you should,

you shall be filled with bread. And then you shall know that I

am the Lord your God. You guys have lost sight of this

again despite my repeated provision, but I'm going to

provide again. I'm going to bless you again so

that you remember still here, still working for your good.

So then we get the details of how he's going to do this.

Verse 13 In the evening quail came up and covered the camp.

And in the morning dew lay around the camp.

When the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the

wilderness a fine flake like thing, fine as frost on the

ground. When the people of Israel saw

it, they said to one another, what is it?

But they did not know what it was.

And Moses said to them, it is the bread that the Lord has

given you to eat. Couple things here.

This this phrase. What is it?

Hebrew word mano, or more commonly said mana, and it

literally means what is it? That's that's what they called

it. It's like, what's a McCall it

bar? Like what it's what is it?

I don't know, but that's what we're going to call it.

God, again, did not act in anger to their complaint.

He did not send them hell from heaven.

He did not rain down fire and strife upon them for the

rebellion and even for their I mean, they were disrespecting

him. They definitely were, just as we

do. He showed his mercy and

goodness. No matter where you're at this

morning, He hears your complaint and it's OK to complain to him.

You can bring that to him. He can take it.

I promise that he can. But also know He already knows.

The writer of Hebrews tells us we do not have a high priest who

can't sympathize with our weaknesses.

Jesus went through it all. He's faced everything that's in

front of you in this moment or that will come.

You've already made it through your worst day.

He's brought you through it. You're still here.

He hears your complaints and he responds with goodness and

mercy. So now as miraculous as as this

is and as incredible, that's God's provision.

This, this bread from heaven is. I'm going to, I'm going to

mattify this a little bit. I'm a little bit of a wet

blanket sometimes. I know that there's actually

like a wildly practical, realistic explanation for this

manna and it still even occurs today in, in, in the Middle

East. This manna is actually a, a

secretion from a tree. There's these little aphid

insects that when, when they Pierce the bark of this tree,

this SAP comes out. And when it hardens, it's this

fine flake like resin that's edible.

It's it's natural. Now hang with me.

That's it. That sounds crazy, but it also

sounds very familiar that this thing would occur in nature.

And I'm not said they're I'm not saying they were like millions

of insects roaming around just like bringing this SAP

everywhere to leave on the ground for all for all the

Israelites. That's not what I'm saying.

But these quail that he also provided, they weren't just like

magical Angel quail that were just like they're all of a

sudden, these were real birds. These are real flocking,

migrating birds. God just use nature and use

natural things that he had already created that were

already present and around in their lives to bless the people

of Israel. So this manna, as much as we

have like the Hollywood or Veggie Tales version of this

just like falling manna from heaven thing, it really could

have been just just this kind of SAP resin that was sweet and

flaky and they and they baked it into into a little like pie,

like pastry things. It still happens today.

God used something they would have otherwise not noticed and

blessed them with it. He took something that already

existed, was already practical, and he multiplied it for his

purposes and for his provision. Where's Jesus in this passage?

Well, Jesus kind of did the same thing, right?

A little boy brought him 5 loaves and two fish.

This wasn't magical fairy fish. It was fish.

It was real fish. It was real bread and he

multiplied it and used it for his purposes and provision in

the power of Jesus. Of course, it was a miracle that

he that he worked it out and provided for him, but he also

took what was already practically around them, what

was really in existence already, and he powered it for his

purposes and his blessing for this people.

The final thought that I have kind of on on this moment and

his provision of the food, while they weren't at the point of

starvation yet, their physical struggle or even their impending

physical struggle informed and affected a spiritual struggle

for this people as well. And that's real.

I know there's those of you in this room that that is real.

A marital conflict or a relational conflict, a sin

struggle, a physical ailment, any number of things that you

are experiencing in your physical life, in your physical

body that is forcing you to look at God with 1/2 full mentality.

We're affected by our physical struggle, by our physical hunger

and thirst, the way our bodies fail, the way that our lives

maybe didn't exactly pan out the way that we planned.

But God's response is to use these things like the manna,

like the quail, these things that were already around them to

bring abundance and provide blessing where we weren't even

looking. When God's provision comes,

we're so bad at this. When God's provision comes, we

often don't even recognize or acknowledge it.

We give ourselves too much credit.

Hey, that worked out. Hey, I figured this out when God

was already in the wings. Just bring in this thing that

was already in our life to provide.

God meets our knees, often in ways that we do not expect and

certainly in ways that we could not orchestrate for ourselves.

But there's a catch, and it's not really a catch.

But he talked about testing them and seeing if they will keep His

law, follow His plan. Or if they're going to go back

to that, that half full mentality.

Jumping up ahead to the end of the chapter, verse 27, on the

7th day, some of the people went out to gather, but they found

none. They found no mana on the

ground. On the 7th day, the Lord said to

Moses, how long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my

laws? See, the Lord has given you the

Sabbath. Therefore, on the 6th day He

gives you bread. For two days remain each of you

in His place. Let no one go out of His place

on the 7th day. So the people rested on the 7th

day. Resting is something that I am

particularly bad at. Some of you know that feeling.

God in this passage gives us a picture of His plan and His

reliance. And it was this way from the

beginning. He created Adam and Eve going

back to Genesis, He created Adam and Eve, the final things that

He did. And yes, He tasked Adam, rule

over the earth, subdue it, manage it.

But that was the 6th day. And the next day was the

Sabbath. God rested on the 7th day.

He gave Adam all this stuff to do and was then like, wait,

Adam's sitting there. I, I got to name all these

animals. I, I got to, I got to cultivate

the fields. I got to get busy with my wife

and start populating the earth. We got things to do, man.

And that first day after his assignment, after his tasks, was

a day of rest. Before Adam had even worked at

all, he rested. We are called in God's design of

Sabbath to put Him first so that we can rest for our work, not

from our work. When we rest in Him and set

aside that day, and you know it, it can be Sunday.

It's just supposed to be a habit.

It's supposed to be one day a week.

Whatever day sets you up, best to take away and set it aside

for God to come to church, to gather with His people, to spend

time reading His Word in prayer with yourself, with your family,

with those closest to you. To rest for your work.

So that the rest of your week is informed by and founded on the

time that you spent with Him. The time of teaching and

reflection and strength that He has been infused in you for your

work. So that you can rest for your

work, for your calling, not get to Friday and and have worked

for the weekend to get away from the work.

He designed Sabbath that we could rest for our work because

he already had a plan. He gives you bread for two days.

He's already laid out a day for you to reserve for him.

He's already given you, equipped you with everything that you

need. We choose to be busy.

We choose to fill each and every waking moment with productivity.

When the best thing for us is resting in God is resting in

time with Him. In the rest of this passage, the

Israelites, they tried to circumvent this.

There were some of them who who gathered up, who gathered up

extra mana on some of the days when he told them to only gather

it for one day. They tried to do extra work on

the one day and that extra spoiled by the next day.

God said no, each day has enough trouble of its own.

Let tomorrow worry about tomorrow.

Even the Sabbath is that day. Focus on the things that matter.

Focus on me this day, and let tomorrow worry about tomorrow.

So what can we take from this? We're supposed to rest for our

work, not from it. Out of His provision, He's

already given you everything for life.

He poured out his Son on the cross for your life, for for

your eternal life, for your sake.

Of course he can meet your daily needs.

He's already met your eternal needs.

So of course the day-to-day things he's already got handled.

I also think there's many of us and the Israelites we're we're

looking for this too. I think there's many of us that

are waiting on a miracle. We want a miracle in our lives,

and we prioritize this miracle that we want more than the daily

bread that we need. We think God's going to swoop in

with this miraculous bailout. And yeah, sometimes he does.

He still works in that way in big, powerful moments.

But I think a lot more often He's provided the mana that was

already in our life, and we just didn't notice how to use it.

He's brought the flocks of provision to us and we just

weren't willing to see it. We want a big, bold miracle, but

we don't have the discipline to take in the daily bread when

we're rooted in the daily bread. There's everyday miracles in our

lives, but we got to start here. God even set it up as a test.

Will they follow my law? Will they rely on my daily

provision? They literally had bread.

Jesus is the word. We're going to take the Lord's

Supper here in just a minute. He said this is my body, this

bread is my body. This wine is my blood.

We get to take that in and remember Him.

That's a big, beautiful, miraculous moment.

But He's also this body too. He's also this bread, this daily

bread right here. And we get to be faithful to

this each and every day because it's exactly what we need each

and every day. Don't be focused on waiting for

the big beautiful miracle, taking the daily bread.

Thanks for listening to ERC Sundays.

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