The Provider

Introduction:

3 types of test takers:

Over prepare and believe they will fail the test

Prepare for the test and hope for the best

Who had no idea there even was a test

Tests can reveal our character but it can also reveal the character of the teacher:

I never had “relearning logs”

Helpful teachers gave study guides or walked through what would be on the test

Gracious teachers gave extra points or graded on a curve

I had one teacher that would give extra points on a test if students could beat him in a push up challenge.

How would you do if God gave you a test?

What would it reveal about your character? How would you approach it?

What would it reveal about God’s character?

Second episode of grumbling:

The people depart from “Palm Springs”

Exodus 16:1 (ESV)

1 They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt.

2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness,

How’d we do this past week?

THREE WAYS TO COMBAT COMPLAINING:

1. REMEMBER the God who leads you.

2. TRUST in God’s leading.

3. WAKE UP and see God’s faithfulness.

3 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 the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

God provided our need for provision.

Most of us do not know true hunger - we only know ‘HANGER’

Ever stop to think WHY we even get hungry? Why did God create us this way? Could he not have created us without a perpetual need to eat in order to stay alive?

Of course he could have.

Westminster Kid’s Shorter Catechism:

Who made you?

What else did God make?

Why did God make you and all things? For his own glory.

How does my hunger point to God’s glory?

"Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water…. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably, earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing."

— C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Rightly understood, our physical hunger reminds us of our limited nature, and our need for provision in order to live.

Fasting as a spiritual discipline voluntarily lays aside the satisfaction of our physical desires in order to satisfy a spiritual need - in essence, it is saying ‘I desire God more than I desire food.’

That’s not always our experience, am I right?

I fear that sometimes we are more like the Israelites looking at their empty plates:

Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full,

When staring at our problems we tend to lose perspective.

They are saying they would rather God had killed them in their comfort then for them to rely on him in freedom.

ILLUST - Would you rather have one million dollars right now or one penny today that doubles everyday for a month?

Day 1 - $0.01

Day 2 - $0.02

Day 14 - $81.92

but because of the power of compound interest

Day 30 - $5,368,709.12

*Would you rather have a few pennies now or the limitless God forever?

Some of us choose the penny - we beg God to give us the THING (job, etc) as provision instead of seeking the God who provides.

Here’s what happens. . .

4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.”

6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, 7 and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. For what are we, that you grumble against us?” 8 And 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 grumble against him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.”

God is saying he is going to do this to test them.

God provides tests of character.

God tests you to reveal your character and show you His.

God is giving them a character test - not only a test that would reveal the character of the Israelites but a test that reveals the character of God.

Their test - Will they trust God as their provider by only gathering enough for each day for six days and trust God for the seventh? Or will they manipulate God’s provision to become the means itself?

This is what they did to the Law - The Law was never to be a means of salvation - Only God can provide salvation

Sometimes we fall into this trap of what I call “card-carrying Christians.”

We expect God to provide through means we manipulate simply because we’re a Christian - he owes that to us, right?

He should provide for me because I’m a Christian - a card-carrying Christian - I go to church, I even give tithe.

*God doesn’t provide for those who trust in Christianity; He provides for those who trust in Him.

Gen 22 - God had promised to Abraham that he would make Abraham into a great nation. Abraham and Sarah were, according to the world’s standards, too old to have children.

God provided a child to Sarah - a boy named Isaac - the son of promise.

One day God “tested” (Gen 22:1) Abraham.

He told Abraham to take his only son and to offer him as a burnt offering to the Lord.

He wanted to know which Abraham held more tightly - the provision or the Provider?

Just as Abraham is about to kill his son. . .

Genesis 22:13–14 (ESV)

13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

Yahweh Yireh

God tested Abraham and it revealed Abraham as faithful to God and it revealed God’s character as faithful to provide.

9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, ‘Come near before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.’ ” 10 And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.

The people saw the glory of God in the cloud - the instrument God was using to guide them.

The God who guides is the God who provides.

The people were not complaining against Moses and Aaron because Moses and Aaron were not the ones truly leading them — Moses and Aaron were only God’s given means by which God was leading them on this journey.

God saved them; God is guiding them, and God will provide for them.

God is using a cloud and fire - elements of the world HE created - to guide them and now to remind them that everything they have EVER had came from Him.

*It is not your employer that gives you your standard of living; it is not the government that provides for people’s basic needs; it is not your bank account, investments, 401K, it is God who provides.

(Notice, if anyone was not near the cloud - not allowing God to lead, they would not receive the provision God promised)

11 And the Lord said to Moses, 12 “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.’ ”

13 In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp.

14 And 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. 15 When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.

This is the intended result of God’s provision to them.

God already has plans to provide.

It seems unlikely that God created quail out of thin air. It is more likely that the God of Creation directed his creation in a way similar to what would be a future instance when God provided quail for the Israelites.

Numbers 11:31 (ESV)

31 Then a wind from the Lord sprang up, and it brought quail from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, around the camp, and about two cubits above the ground.

Flake-like thing - manna - “What is it?”

Numbers 11:7–8 (ESV)

7 Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium. 8 The people went about and gathered it and ground it in handmills or beat it in mortars and boiled it in pots and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil.

Even if God chose to use the natural world to provide - he used supernatural timing and so no less miraculous.

God had enough quail in flight to blow them over to the Israelites.

He hade enough manna in the area for everyone to be satisfied.

And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.

16 This is what the Lord has commanded: (TEST)

Gather enough for the people with them.

Whatever they gathered - they all ended up with enough

— Do not leave any until morning

20 But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them.

FAIL

Sixth day they gathered twice as much - next day Sabbath - no work - gather enough for Sabbath - prepare - won’t spoil

24 So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. 25 Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. 26 Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.” 27 On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. 28 And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?

It seems they passed part of this test and failed the other part. The Israelites passed on gathering too much and keeping it until the next day (something they did any way when disobeying)

They passed how to TAKE God’s provision, but they failed in TRUSTING for God’s provision.

God always provides the right amount at the right time.

The right amount

It wasn’t “Trust God and Tupperware”

God wanted the Israelites to have a fresh faith!

The right time

Israelites keep failing when it comes to trusting God for the next day.

God says SEE! I will do it for you.

*How are we on trusting God for the next day? For tomorrow? A year from now?

If you are

We worry not because God’s faithfulness might change (it can’t). We worry because our faith has changed.

God will always be faithful to provide enough for you to be faithful to obey.

Exodus 16:32 (ESV)

32 Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’ ”

Save some for generations later.

What stories do you have of God’s faithfulness?

Your stories of how you have provided are helpful for your family for only as long as you live. However, the stories of how God has provided will guide your family for as long as THEY live.

35 The people of Israel ate the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land. They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan.

God is faithful today AND tomorrow.

Notice the rhythm they needed to keep - Going out every morning to gather for the day and every sixth day to gather twice as much.

Could God have given them enough on one day to last them throughout the journey - Yes.

But each day they needed to wake up and ask, “Will God provide today?”

Until one day (5 years, 10 / 20 / 40 years) the question turns to a statement, “God WILL provide today.”

Forty years of learning to trust God.

14,610 days of waking up needing to trust God or you didn’t eat!

Different day - Same God.

God provided just as miraculously on d

*How long would you need?

Do you suppose this is why Jesus taught his disciples to pray,

“Give us this day our daily bread?”

Jesus didn’t teach us to pray, “Give us a stash of bread to last us until you return.” Nor, “Give us a bread factory so we can make the bread ourselves.”

Jesus wanted us to rely on our Good Father for our needs every day.

God, your mercy is new every morning, and it’s morning.

His faithfulness is great every day!

*How much do you want to see God’s faithfulness to provide for your needs?

On a scale of meat pots in Egypt to manna in the wilderness, how hungry are you for God to provide what He knows you need when He knows you need it?

9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, ‘Come near before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.’ ” 10 And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.

If you are unsure if God will provide - come near before the Lord in prayer - look even into what seems like a wilderness and see - Jesus.

Jesus is the promise of God’s provision.

John 6:1-15 - Jesus provides meat and bread just like the Exodus - something only God could do

John 6:22-35 - People seek Jesus out

John 6:26 (ESV)

26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

How many times do you and I base the depth of our faith on whether or not God provides what WE think he should provide?

The people then ask what sign will Jesus do to show that he can be trusted:

John 6:31–35 (ESV)

31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 32 Jesus then 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. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

Jesus already proved he could satisfy the people’s immediate need for food, and he now tells them he can permanently satisfy as their object of faith.

How are you doing on the test?

Let go of everything but God, and let God show you His faithfulness in everything.

because

The God who guides is the God who provides.

Psalm 81:10 (ESV)

10 I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

God provided immediately

God provided daily

God provided faithfully