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GOD IS KEEPING HIS PROMISES THOUGH MEN DOUBT HIMExodus 15:22—16:36INTRODUCTION I want to ask you a couple of questions. Have ever gotten in a fight with a family member in the car, on your way home from Sunday morning worship or shortly after you’ve gotten home? Have any of you yelled at a loved one shortly after spending time reading the Bible and praying either by yourself or with your family? I’ve even gotten angry with my children while we’re reading the Bible together. Isn’t that odd and embarrassing to admit? We come to church and sing songs about how much we love God; we spend time praying and asking God’s help to live like a Christian and then minutes later we’re furious with someone for what they did to us or didn’t do for us. We daily complain about the disappointments of our lives, how our plans didn’t go as we wanted or someone let us down or the weather didn’t cooperate. We regularly fluctuate between anger and sadness and worry and fear as we are faced with the disappointments and uncertainties of our lives. That is the exact situation in which we find the entire nation of Israel in this passage in Exodus. They’ve just left a worship service where they have praised God for delivering them from the Egyptian army and confessed their faith that the Lord is leading them. Yet, they are full of anger and of fear due to their circumstances and they are complaining and demanding that somebody fix it, now. These people are in very familiar conditions. They are faced with very difficult circumstances and they are worried about the future. They don’t see God at all, in spite of the fact that there is a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire with them each day. Nevertheless, God, contrary to what they think, is very involved in what is going on. He has a very definite work that he is doing, but they don’t see that. However, we get to see it. His goal for Israel is to convince them that he alone is their savior; that he is all they need. He is out to persuade this nation of fretting people that he is in charge and they can trust him. There is nothing to fear and no need to get upset. He is out to convince them that he is the God who heals them. He is the God who alone is their savior. He is glorious and can be trusted. This is what God aims to convince them and us of. This morning we will see how it is that he does this. There are two stories in our passage. The first one deals with how God provided water to the people and the second one shows how he provided food. I will be examining them together as they follow the same basic outline. MAIN POINT God aims to convince us that he alone is what we need by…I. Revealing our hearts (15:22-24 & 16:1-3) In vv. 22-23 we are told that Moses leads the people of Israel away from the Red Sea and into the desert of Shur. They just witnessed the Lord destroy the entire Egyptian army and have just worshipped the Lord in song. They travel for three days following their worship service and find no water. When you are in the desert with about 2 million people, this is a problem. Children are beginning to complain that they are thirsty. Dehydration is beginning to affect the oldest and youngest members of Israel. On that third day they come to an oasis that has water. The trouble is that the water is bitter. It cannot be drunk. But the water isn’t the only thing that is bitter. The people grumble against Moses and bitterly demand, “What are we going to drink?” You can just feel the accusation dripping off their lips. “What kind of a mess have you gotten us into? We deserve better treatment than this.” Chapter 16 begins in a similar way. The difference is now it’s 30 days after they watched the Lord destroy Egypt. They are in the desert of Sin, on their way to Mt. Sinai when their food supplies begin to run low. Threatened with dwindling food and starvation the entire community of Israel grumbles against Moses and Aaron. They again, bitterly declare that it would have been better if the Lord killed them in Egypt rather than bringing them out into the desert to die of starvation. Look at how they describe Egypt. In Egypt they sat around pots full of meat and ate all the bread they wanted! Is that true? They were slaves in Egypt. They didn’t sit around anything. They worked all day and ate the food of slaves. Then look at how they describe leaving Egypt and their life as God’s people. Moses and Aaron simply led them out of Egypt. What happened to all the miracles? What about God? What about their loud songs of praise that God was going to lead them safely to his holy dwelling? Thirty days before this they sang that God was going to bring them safely to the land of Canaan. Now they accuse Moses and Aaron, the men who were the means of their deliverance of being their murderers. They say the purpose behind their deliverance from slavery is to be murdered in the desert. They act like they are in a horror movie. Where the people think they are safe from one monster only to discover that there is a bigger monster out to get them. I don’t know about you but their complaint sure sounds familiar to me. A number of years ago I was balancing our checkbook in January. We save money each month throughout the year for Christmas gifts. As I went through the checkbook it became clear that we had spent more than what we had saved. I immediately began to panic and went to my wife and demanded to know why she had spent so much. I basically communicated to her, “what are we going to live on?” “How come you brought us into this desert to die and didn’t leave any money in the account?” I was bitter and angry and blamed her. This was in spite of the fact that we had money in the checking account and all the bills were paid. We were in no actual danger but only the danger of my fear filled and unbelieving mind. What I want you to notice is this: God is the one who put them in these conditions. We know from back in 13:20-22 that the Lord is the one who is guiding them through the desert. He leads them by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. He knew they were running out of water and out of food. He knew that the water at Marah was bitter. God led them to bitter water to reveal to them their bitter hearts. He caused them to run out of food to show them they loved bread more than him. Three times in this passage God says he is testing Israel. When Moses comments on this part of their journey in Deuteronomy 8 he says the same thing. God made them hungry and then fed them in order to test them, to see what was in their hearts. It’s a scary thing to not have water and to not have food. It is especially frightening when you have children to take care of. However, God is the one who puts them in this situation first of all to show them what is in their hearts. It is obvious to us as readers that they ought to trust him. It was only three days before Marah that God had saved them from Egypt in such a spectacular way. In the wilderness of Sin, it was only 30 days after the deliverance at the Red Sea and maybe three weeks after the provision of water at Marah. God has proven his trustworthiness time and again and yet they have no faith and grumble against him, as Moses makes plain in vv. 7-8. God put them in these circumstances in order to reveal what was in their hearts. He took them from their worship service at the Red Sea, three days into the desert in order that they might know that in spite of their singing, they still didn’t trust God. Their biggest problems weren’t lack of water and food. Their biggest problem was they didn’t trust God. They believed being a slave in Egypt was better than belonging to God in the desert. It was the lack of water and food that revealed what was really going on in their hearts. God does the same thing to us. He leads us into difficult circumstances to reveal to us what is in our hearts. When I go home from church and lunch is made and the house is picked up and the children aren’t fighting, it’s easy to be a Christian. However, I find out what I’m really trusting in when I get home and the dishes litter the countertop and kids clothes are strewn around the house and two children are fighting. God intentionally, on purpose leads us into situations where our security and contentment and happiness are threatened in order to expose our hearts. God aims to convince us that he alone is what we need by
II. Revealing his glorious grace (15:25a-b & 16:4-18) At Marah when the people bitterly accuse Moses, Moses immediately cries out to the Lord. The people sin and Moses prays on their behalf. This is a perfect picture of the work of Jesus Christ on behalf of everyone who trusts in him. We sin and he intercedes on our behalf, asking God not to punish us for our sins but to treat us as if we had never sinned but always obeyed. That’s how God treats Israel in 15:25. The people grumble. Moses asks God to provide water and so God shows Moses a tree, which Moses throws into the water and it becomes sweet. God does not provide Israel with water because they are such faith filled people. He makes the water sweet because he has chosen them and Moses prays on their behalf. At this point, neither God nor Moses mentions Israel’s unbelief. We know that God is not pleased because of how Moses records the story for us. The grumbling they do is clearly unbelief. However, God does not at this point reprimand Israel for their grumbling. This is what is shocking about this little story. God doesn’t mention their sin. He graciously meets their need, without requiring anything from them. We see the same thing in a more spectacular way in the second story. Immediately after the entire community of the Israelites declares that being slaves in Egypt is way better than belonging to God in the desert, the Lord speaks to Moses. Again, he doesn’t even mention the rebellion. He tells Moses what he is going to do to meet the need of the Israelites. He will rain down bread from heaven, every day so they will have a continual supply of food. He is going to provide twice as much on the sixth day so that Israel can have a day off every week from the “hard” task of gathering up the bread he rains down on them. God responds to Israel’s complaint by providing daily food and giving them a day to kick back and relax. After God reveals his plan to Moses, he and Aaron tell the people of Israel about God’s plan. It is in their description of what the Lord is going to do that we find out two things. First, why is God going to rain down food upon them? He is going to do it so that they will know that the Lord is the one who brought them out of Egypt. They said in their complaint that Moses and Aaron were responsible for bringing them out. Moses says that very evening they will discover it was the Lord who did it. Then, the next morning they will see the glory of God when he spreads his bread before them. God is going to provide for them to display the glory of his grace. God’s ultimate purpose in providing isn’t their need but his delight in being kind to sinners. Second, Moses tells them that their complaining is not against Moses and Aaron but against the Lord. They are accusing God of bringing them into the desert to murder them. They are grumbling against God, not against mere humans. All of the grumbling and complaining that we do is against God. Every time you complain about how another human being has treated you, they can say to you, “Who am I? You are not grumbling against me but against the Lord.” Yet God is going to give them meat to eat in the evening and all the bread they can eat in the morning in spite of the fact that they are grumbling against him. Once again God is showing them and us that he is not kind to people because we deserve to have him be kind to us. He doesn’t give you food and clothing and shelter and air to breath and eternal life through Christ because of anything you have ever done. What is shocking about our lives is not that we get sick or have accidents happen to us or have people treat us bad. What is shocking is that each day we wake up and breath and have food to eat and get to enjoy a day like today. The Israelites are sinners and deserve to be punished for their sins. However, God, in order to make his glory known is kind to them and is going to give them food. He delights to be gracious to sinners and so reveal his glory. That is why he is kind to us, not because we have earned or deserve his kindness. He isn’t kind to us because we are so valuable but because it makes him happy to be kind and gracious to mean and rebellious people. After Moses tells them what God is going to do, he commands Aaron to gather the people before the Lord. When the whole congregation is gathered together, looking at the pillar of cloud on the edge of the camp, towards the desert, God makes his presence known in an even more spectacular way than merely in the pillar of cloud. Up to this point they have seen men, Moses and Aaron, telling them what God thinks. But now, he confirms the word of men by a more visible manifestation of his presence. God, with his glory blazing in the cloud, tells Moses again what Moses just told the people so he can repeat it again to the people. God adds his manifest presence to confirm the truth of his word. God doesn’t always do this, but he sometimes does it. He sometimes, by the work of his Holy Spirit, manifests his presence in more visible, experiential ways. Sometimes he heals people. Sometimes, by his Spirit he brings a more vigorous sense of spiritual reality to our hearts. He does it to confirm his word to us. God has put them in this state of need so he can shower food upon them, contrary to what they deserve. That evening the camp of Israel was covered with a huge flock of quail and so Israel ate roast quail that night. The next morning, after the dew dried up there were thin flakes of bread covering the ground, which the people gathered up and made bread with. They ate as much bread as they wanted. Again, notice that when they see the manna on the ground, they are confused and ask, “What is it?” (v. 15a) Moses has to tell them again that this is the bread the Lord promised them (v. 15b-16). They show by their ignorance their unbelief. God sent quail the night before as he promised and yet when they saw the manna on the ground, as the Lord promised, they didn’t get it. They should have known this was the bread the Lord promised. God revealed his glorious grace by providing food for them, in spite of their persistent unbelief. Jesus, in the gospel of John, chapter 6 takes this story and tells us what it really means. Please turn to John 6. The chapter begins with thousands of Jewish men, women and children listening to him teach out in wilderness, east of the sea of Galilee. When he finishes teaching them he feeds the crowds of thousands by multiplying the lunch of a small boy who had five small loaves of bread and two fish. He feeds a multitude of Jewish people who have just heard God’s word, meat and bread in the desert. He does this to test them, to see what is in their hearts. That night he and his disciples travel to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, leaving the crowd behind. The people walk back around the northern shore of the lake to Capernaum and when they get there find Jesus. Jesus then tells them that the reason they are looking for him is not because they want to find God but because he filled their bellies with free food. He goes on to tell them to stop seeking their life in plenty of food and the things of this world but to seek their life in him. He tells them that they must believe in him if they are going to have the life that God gives. They are still thinking about food and so they demand another miraculous sign from him, like the one Moses performed when he gave Israel manna in the wilderness (vv. 30-31). Jesus corrects them by telling them that God is the one who sent the manna and now he has sent the true manna from heaven of which the physical manna was a symbol. He is the bread from heaven, which gives eternal life to all who believe. There is a way to never be hungry or thirsty again, it is by believing in Christ. In v. 48 he tells them that their ancestors ate the manna and yet they died. However, he is the true bread from heaven “which a man may eat and not die.” The point that Jesus seeks to draw from God’s provision of physical food in the desert is this: God gave life to Israel in the desert by giving them bread from heaven. He gave them this bread in spite of their sinfulness. They didn’t deserve it, nor did they earn it. He gave it to them contrary to what they deserved. They had no other hope, no other way to live other than by God’s provision. They had to eat what God provided or die. This physical symbol pointed to the much greater reality that only God can give that which will sustain eternal life. If a human being is going to live forever, then it must by means of God’s provision. God has made a gracious provision for our lives by giving Jesus Christ as the bread of heaven. If we will come to him and trust in him, then he will be our life, our eternal life. He is given to us, even though we are a complaining and bitter people. We must simply believe that to have Christ is better than having the world. All of God’s free gifts: food, air, clothing, homes, sunny days, rain, life point to the ultimate free gift that he offers to each of us, eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. God aims to convince us that he alone is what we need by
III. Requiring that we stop working and start trusting (15:25c-26 & 16:19-30) In 15:25 and in 16:4 we are told that the Lord is testing Israel. The test is this. He has chosen them by grace, rescued them from Egypt and Pharaoh’s army by grace and now provided water and food for them by grace. He has done all that he has done because he is “the Lord who heals them”, as he says in 15:26. He has done these things so they will know he is Yahweh, their glorious savior. However, the effect of his saving work is that they are to listen to his voice, do what is right in his eyes and pay attention to his commands. The obedience follows the grace and is proof that they are indeed the children of God. The obedience comes as a result of their faith. So the test is, will they obey in response to grace? There is no reason not to obey. God has proven his faithfulness. But will they pay attention and listen to his voice? We see the answer to these questions in chapter 16 in relation to the manna and the Sabbath. In v. 19 Moses tells them that no one is to keep any of the manna from one day, until the next day. Here is the voice of the Lord giving a command. Will they listen? Here is a command from the Lord. Will they pay attention? Verse 20 gives us the answer. Some of them paid no attention to the word of the Lord and kept some of the manna until the next day. When they did it turned rotten, maggots got into it and it stank. We see God’s reaction in Moses’ reaction. He was angry that they paid no attention. After they realized it was impossible to keep it from one day to the next, then they only collected what they needed for each day and didn’t keep any leftovers. But then on the sixth day of the week, the same amount of work produced twice as much manna collected. This shocked the leaders and they came and told Moses what had happened. Moses again reminds them that they shouldn’t be surprised as this is exactly what the Lord said would happen. They were to collect twice as much on the sixth day and prepare it anyway they wanted. Then they would have enough for both the sixth day and the seventh day, which was to be a day of rest. In v. 25 Moses tells the Israelites that they will not find any manna on the ground on the seventh day. Here is another word from the Lord. What do they do? Some of them go out on the Sabbath anyway to gather manna and, just as the Lord said, there was none to be found. Again, they do not obey the Lord, or pay attention to his commands. Again, the Lord expresses his displeasure by asking, “How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions?” Once they see for themselves that there is no manna to be collected, then they keep God’s Sabbath and don’t go out to collect manna. What’s the point in recording these events? First, Israel again disobeys on two occasions. These people are sinful people. Second, God is not saving these people because of their goodness. He sends the daily manna out of his mercy. He sends twice as much on Friday out of his mercy. He gives them the Sabbath to remind them that it is his work that matters, not their work, out of his grace. He sends twice as much manna on Friday and he preserves it from rotting on the seventh day. Third, God tells them what is going to happen and then he makes it happen. He is faithful to his word. Fourth, God expects Israel to trust him and do as he says. Obedience is always the result of faith. Those who trust that God is going to do what he promises and that what he promises is the best thing for them, do what God asks them to do. The Sabbath is instituted for just this purpose, to remind Israel that they are God’s people. He is going to take care of them. Their work is not what matters but God’s work is what matters. God is the one who provides for them. They don’t make the manna fall each day and they don’t provide twice as much on Friday. They are to live by faith in his promises and rest from their work. This points forward to our Lord Christ who is the Lord who gives Sabbath rest to his people who rest from all their efforts to try and earn God’s favor or to provide life for themselves. God provides us life through Christ, the bread of heaven. We are to trust in him and rest from our efforts to gain eternal life by our own work. God aims to convince us that he alone is what we need by
IV. Reminding us of his eternal provision (15:27 & 16:31-36) Verses 31-36 show that this entire account was written down while Israel is nearing the end of their 40 years of wandering in the desert as a result of their sin at Kadesh Barnea, which will happen about 2 years from the time of these events. We know this because the Lord commands Moses who commands Aaron to place a jar full of manna next to the Testimony in the presence of the Lord. The testimony is the Ark of the Covenant and God has not yet given instructions on the construction of the ark. Why does Moses want to tell us that an omer of manna was placed in the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle next to the Ark of the Covenant? The manna by the ark is to remind Israel of how the Lord provided for them throughout their 40 years of wandering in the desert. The manna is a permanent reminder that God sustained their life by giving them the bread of heaven even while they lived in open rebellion and sin. The Ark of the Covenant contained the 10 commandments. Israel did not obey God’s law. Yet, God kept feeding them. In the Most Holy Place, where God said he would dwell, is the Ark of the Covenant containing the law, which they have broken. Right next to it is a jar of manna, the bread of heaven, which God provided to sustain the life of these lawbreakers for 40 years. This is to be the arrangement in the temple throughout their generations. In other words, it is a perpetual symbol in the presence of God. They deserve death because they broke his law, yet God gave them life. I hope you can see the glory of Christ in this symbol. In Hebrews we are told that the earthly tabernacle was a physical representation of heaven. In heaven is the absolute holy law of God, which stands as evidence of our unworthiness. Yet at the same time, Christ, who is the bread from heaven, is also present there promising God’s life to all who will eat. The manna, which represents Christ, is in the presence of the holy God whose laws we have broken. How can any of us dare to approach God, who blazes in his holy righteousness? We know that we have no hope of surviving such an encounter. We cannot stand in the presence of this holy God because we are lawbreakers. We have transgressed. However, in spite of our breaking of God’s laws we know that Christ has been given as the bread of heaven to sustain us. If we come to him and eat, we have eternal life. He is the life giving bread that overcomes the poison of sin that is in us. Just as God sustained the physical life of lawbreaking Israel for 40 years through the giving of manna, so he sustains our eternal life through the life giving bread, which is Jesus Christ. Jesus always lives to be the bread of life for us. God aims to convince us that he alone is what we need by
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2004 John Swanson. |