YouTube video sermon
Exodus 16:1-36
As always, let me invite you to take your copy of God’s Word and turn with me to Exodus 16. This has been one of the most unique books that I’ve ever studied. Now, maybe I say that about every book when I really begin to study. Probably so, but the book of Exodus shows the life of Christ so clearly, and it also highlights the life of a Christian. For example, the Israelites came out of their bondage from Egypt under the blood of a lamb. We saw that back in the tenth and final plague. That’s what happened to me. That’s what happened to you. Under the blood of the perfect Lamb of God (Jesus Christ) we have been spared death in this life and eternal death and separation from God in hell (amen?).
But there’s another picture, there’s another image, there’s another similarity in this Exodus story that parallels our Christian journey and that’s the Red Sea crossing, which is symbolic of our baptism. And if you doubt that connection, if you question that parallel, then take it up with the Apostle Paul, because that’s exactly what he says in 1 Corinthians 10:1-4, “For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers [and sisters], that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.”
So, you have the blood of the Lamb, and baptism, and now they’re out in the wilderness. They’re out there wandering around and that’s a picture of the Church Age. Since the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ all the way up to the rapture of the Church, we’re in what theologians and Bible teachers call the “Church Age.” As such, we’re just like the Israelites. We’re on a journey from Egypt (our life in sin before Jesus) to the Promised Land (our eternal home with Jesus). And that’s what we’re seeing in this journey through the book of Exodus.
But the Israelites continue to face test after test after test, and we do too. G.K. Chesterton said, “Jesus promised His disciples three things – that they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble.” We like the first two (completely fearless and absurdly happy), but for some reason we scoff at the last one (constant trouble). Yet that’s the reality for every believer – from the first disciples to you and me. Some of those tests and trials are a result of our own sinful choices, but others are a direct result of God’s hand in our lives. And whenever that happens, God has a plan for the tests that He allows us to experience in life. That’s what we’re going to see this morning. So, follow along with me as we read Exodus 16.
1 The whole Israelite community set out from (Eleem) Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. 2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”
4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow My instructions. 5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”
6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In the evening you will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of Egypt, 7 and in the morning, you will see the glory of the LORD, because He has heard your grumbling against Him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?” 8 Moses also said, “You will know that it was the LORD when He gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because He has heard your grumbling against Him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the LORD.”
9 Then Moses told Aaron, “Say to the entire Israelite community, ‘Come before the LORD, for He has heard your grumbling.’”
10 While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the LORD appearing in the cloud.
11 The LORD said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning, you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.’”
13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning, there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.
Moses said to them, “It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat. 16 This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.’”
17 The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 18 And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.
19 Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.”
20 However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So, Moses was angry with them.
21 Each morning everyone gathered as much as they needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away. 22 On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much – two omers for each person – and the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses. 23 He said to them, “This is what the LORD commanded: ‘Tomorrow is to be a day of sabbath rest, a holy sabbath to the LORD. So, bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.’”
24 So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it. 25 “Eat it today,” Moses said, “because today is a sabbath to the LORD. You will not find any of it on the ground today. 26 Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”
27 Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none. 28 Then the LORD said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep My commands and My instructions? 29 Bear in mind that the LORD has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day He gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where they are on the seventh day; no one is to go out.” 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.
31 The people of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey. 32 Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the wilderness when I brought you out of Egypt.’”
33 So Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar and put an omer of manna in it. Then place it before the LORD to be kept for the generations to come.”
34 As the LORD commanded Moses, Aaron put the manna with the tablets of the covenant law, so that it might be preserved. 35 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.
36 (An omer is one-tenth of an ephah.)
“Father, I pray that in the next few moments You would gain honor for Yourself – that You would humble our hearts as we bow before Your Word, that we would free ourselves from the distractions of the world, in order that we might hear Your Holy Spirit and apply Your Scriptures to our lives. Use me, O God, as a coin in the hand of the King – spend me in Your kingdom’s realm for all that I’m worth for I offer this prayer in the name of Christ, Jesus, amen.”
Last week, we concluded with God bringing the Israelites to this place called (Eleem) Elim. It was a place in the wilderness that had 12 pools of water and 70 date palms, and the idea behind that, the principle, the truth that they should have seen and understood is this: God’s got you covered. God’s got this. In the very moment of their despair, in the very midst of their crying, God is providing the answer to their prayer and He’s doing it right underneath their feet.
Brothers and sisters, may we let the weight of that truth sit on us this morning. God hears us. God sees us. God is working, even now, and perhaps right under our very noses, to bring us the relief, the comfort, the blessing that we so desperately need and want. This morning, as usual, I have three things that I want us to see and the first is…
God’s Purpose in Testing
Chapter 16 opens and they’re about 6 weeks out of Egypt. They’ve run out of unleavened bread. You remember, during the Passover, the final plague against Egypt, God tells them not to put any leaven in their bread because they don’t have any time to let it rise. They’re going to have to bake it and move quickly. Well, they had enough bread to last them for about 6 weeks and now they’ve run out and what do they do? You don’t even have to look at the text? What did they do? (They grumbled.)
By the way, fun fact, the Hebrew word for grumble is luwn (loon). Don’t be a loon. Don’t be a grumbler. See, I give you some fun stuff to use at lunch. They grumble. They complain, and now, notice this, they’ve witnessed 10 plagues, they’ve witnessed the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea, they’ve seen bitter water turn sweet simply by throwing a stick of wood into the water, they’ve been led down to an oasis called (Eleem) Elim in the middle of the desert and still they grumble. Isn’t that amazing.
But do you know what I find more amazing than that? We do the same thing. We tend to forget the blessings of God from yesterday, from last week, from the previous months and years, and we have the benefit of the Bible. Yet, we fall victim to the same kind of response that Israel did. We grumble. We’re loons.
And notice verse 2. Their grumbling now includes Aaron. Before, it was just Moses, but now they’ve included Aaron. That’s the nature of grumbling; it expands. I’m going to complain about someone today and, if I’m not careful, then tomorrow it’ll be two people and the next day it’ll be three. It’s just an ever-expanding circle. You’ve heard that quote, “Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.” That’s what’s taking place in the lives of these Hebrews, and it’s demonstrating a lack of gratitude, a lack of thanksgiving, and a lack of faith.
And notice how they grumble (verse 3). They couldn’t get Egypt out of their minds; and so, in their hearts they embellished what it was like back in Egypt. What verse 3 is saying is this: they were out by the pool every afternoon drinking Arnold Palmers and BBQing up a storm. In their minds and hearts, it was party central. No, it wasn’t. They were slaves making bricks and barely getting by. But that’s how grumbling works. It clouds our memory. It distorts the facts.
You say, “Pastor, I thought you wanted us to see God’s purpose in testing, but all you’ve talked about is grumbling.” Yes, but in order to appreciate the purpose for God’s test, we have to feel the weight of what brought it about. And here’s God’s purpose in the testing – God had brought them out of Egypt, but now He’s trying to get Egypt out of them. Why do I go through tests? Why do you go through tests? For the same reason. God is working on us to get rid of sin.
Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity of going up to Charlotte for the National Conference on Preaching, and I spent two days getting to sit in your seat. I was preached to, rather than being the preacher. And one of the guest preachers was a SC native by the name of Dr. Mac Brunson. I’ve referred to Mac before. He grew up in Greenwood and went to North Greenville and transferred and finished at Furman. Dr. Brunson used this illustration in his sermon and so I’m borrowing it from him. But you remember The Beverly Hillbillies, right? (Of course, you do.)
Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed, a poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed. And then one day, he was shootin at some food and up through the ground came a bubblin crude – oil that is, black gold, Texas tea.
Well, the first thing you know ole Jed’s a millionaire. The kinfolk said, “Jed move away from there. Said, California is the place you ought to be.” So, they loaded up the truck and they moved to Beverly – Hills that is, swimming pools and movie stars.
Now, if you remember, they pull up to this massive mansion. One of the first mansions that I remember seeing as a kid, assuming I knew what a mansion was. And the Clampett family moved into this mansion, but Granny ain’t happy. She’s depressed. She’s discouraged. She’s despondent. She’s not satisfied. She just doesn’t like that big ole Beverly Hills mansion. So, what did they do for Granny? They go out back and build her a one-room log cabin, with a little front porch and a rocking chair, and you see Granny on that porch rocking in the chair and she’s snapping beans.
And you say, “Pastor, what’s the point?” The point is this: in our Christian life, we often leave the mansion of grace for the ramshackled cabin of sin. God has provided so much for us. And yet, in His provision, we can’t simply trust Him day by day. And so, we long to go back to some old rundown shack of a cabin in our former days as sinners, rather than living in the mansion of God’s grace, and love, and mercy, and forgiveness found in our relationship with Jesus Christ.
What’s God doing with you in the tests of life? What’s God doing with me in the tests of life? He’s saved us from the kingdom of darkness and delivered us to the kingdom of light, and He’s working to get the rest of that old sinful world out of us. He’s testing us to see if we’ll be faithful and obedient to His instruction, to His calling, to His purposes for our lives. That’s God’s purpose in testing, and the second thing is this…
God’s Provision in Testing
I’m going to show you something that’s hard for me to believe. It’s hard for me to fully comprehend, but I want you to see something right here. Look at verse 3. The Israelites say, “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt!” Now, I’m going to tell you what I think these Hebrews are saying. I think they’re saying, “It would have been better for us if we hadn’t listened to God and we didn’t put the blood of the lamb over the doorposts.” Think about the implications of that for a minute. That’s very close to blasphemy. The one thing that saved their sorry tails in Egypt was God’s command for them to sacrifice a lamb and put its blood on their doors. And yet, that’s exactly what they’re saying they wish they hadn’t done. It’s as if you and I said, “It would’ve been better if Christ hadn’t died for my sin.” That’s scary. That’s blasphemy.
Follow me here. Don’t give up on me. Stick with me. If you were God, how would you respond to people saying that about your hand of deliverance? I know how I would respond. I’d have zapped them all. Just be glad that Lee Norris isn’t God, because I would’ve killed them all right then and there. But, now, watch this. This is the amazing part that I can’t fully wrap my head around. Look at God’s response in verse 4, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you.”
Folks, that’s GRACE! And not just any grace; that’s AMAZING GRACE! That just blows my mind, that in the face of people who have just spurned your very love and grace and mercy and deliverance and rescue, God says, “That’s okay, I’ll provide what only I can provide. I’ll cause bread to rain down from heaven.” To think of the things that I’ve regretted or thought in my mind or my heart against God, the things that I knew were absolutely wrong and sinful and outside of God’s will and yet I still did them, to know that God had every right to take my life, but instead He blessed me… It’s just too much.
And this is not just physical provision. Yes, it’s physical provision. But it’s more than that. It’s spiritual provision too. Deuteronomy 8:2-3 says, “And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. And He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” Does that not remind you of somebody else that faced testing? And He faced testing from none other than Satan himself, and yet Jesus responded, in the midst of His hunger – the very same issue that these Israelites were facing (hunger) – and He responded by quoting this verse.
God’s provision in times of testing is perfect. It’s physical and it’s spiritual. That’s God’s purpose and God’s provision, let’s close by looking at…
God’s Proof in Testing
Look at verses 34-35. These verses are a great example of Moses slipping into the narrative or interrupting the flow of past remembrance by inserting present reality. What I mean is that verses 34-35 are not a direct part of the narrative. We’ve been following the Jewish people in their journey, but they haven’t gotten to Mt. Sinai yet. They haven’t received the Ten Commandments yet. They haven’t made it all the way to the Promised Land yet, but Moses is writing as if they have.
That’s because when Moses writes Exodus 16, he’s remembering their previous experience and they’re standing on the banks of the Jordan River getting ready to enter the Promised Land. And some of the manna, at the direction of the LORD, was put into a jar and preserved so that the people could remember God’s presence with them in the wilderness.
It’s not too uncommon to read in the earlier pages of the Old Testament, and even here in Exodus, of people living into their hundreds. Moses died at 120. Aaron died at 123. Joshua died at 110. We don’t know how old Caleb was when he died, but we know he was 85 when the Israelites finally entered the Promised Land and he fought against the Amalekites. Not only was the manna God’s daily provision for the people of Israel to help them survive the wilderness wandering, but it also served as proof of His presence. Just as He manifested Himself in the pillar of cloud and fire. Just as He came down and visited with Moses on Mt. Sinai and delivered the Law. He was also present in the jar of manna that did not spoil and was preserved for future generations.
In a similar way, our lives are proof of God’s presence. The Apostle Paul would put it like this in 2 Corinthians 4:7-10, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay…” What’s the treasure that Paul is referring to? It’s the Gospel. It’s the Good News of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. It’s the reality that our relationship with God can be made right through Jesus. It’s the story of how Jesus redeemed us from our Egypt, our slavery, our sin. And what are the jars of clay that this message, this manna, this proof is kept in? It’s us. It’s our lives.
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.” When, by God’s power and strength and mercy, we weather the storms and the tests of life and testify to His goodness and grace and faithfulness, then our very lives become the proof of God’s presence for future generations.
God’s purpose in our testing is to weed out sin and make us more like Him. God’s provision in our testing is the physical and spiritual strength of His manna, His heavenly bread, His Word. And God’s proof in our testing is the gospel of Jesus manifested in our lives so that future generations might see and give Him glory and honor.