Manna
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If you would, turn with me to Exodus 16. Exodus is the second book of the Bible right after Genesis.
As we turn to Exodus 16, consider a time when you were in need and God seemed far away. How did you respond in that situation. Maybe you can relate a bit to the situation of the Israelites in this story.
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, 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.”
[Opening Intro]
When I was 7 years old my family moved from a neighborhood out into the country. My siblings and I didn’t want to move away from our friends so our parents did everything they could to convince us that we would like this move. I’m not sure if these were told as promises or possibilites, but my older siblings told me that our parents promised that we would have dirt bikes, horses, and cabins in the woods. They painted an idealized picture for us of country living in hopes cheer us up about the move. When we actually made this move, few of these promises came to be, at least not immediately. As a boy I remember moving there and thinking, “this is not at all what I expected this to be like.” I felt tricked by my parents and disappointed. I doubted my parent’s decision to move and wondered for what reason we moved.
[COR]
This is how the Israelites felt in Exodus 16. God promised to free Israel from oppression in Egypt and to give them a land flowing with milk and honey. He fulfilled the first part of his promise and by rescuing them from Egypt. but now they are looking around and don’t see milk or honey, they only see sand and wilderness - not even water. They don’t see a kingdom or a king. They feel all alone.
One of the shocking things about our story today, is the drastic switch from Exodus 15, in which they sing the song of Yahweh’s deliverance, and Exodus 16 in which they grumble against the LORD because of their hunger. 8 times this passage repeats the word grumble to highlight their misery. It doesn’t take long for their confidence in God to evaporate.
They say that it would have been better if they had died in Egypt where they had great food rather than be taken out to the wilderness to die.
[FCF]
These feelings that they experienced are a common for us as well.
How many of you became Christians and thought that life would become easy the moment you believed? How many of you thought that your sin would leave and you wouldn’t have any more problems? Or how many of you who have been Christians for a while find deliverance from a sin, only to have it creep back up again?
What is your posture towards God in these moments? When life is hard, when you feel the pains of sin around you, when you sin and feel that disappointment, how do you respond?
Does it seem like God isn’t holding up his end of the deal?
Do you feel forgotten? …. abandoned? left out to dry?
Do you question where God is?
Do you feel like you are crying out to someone far away? Maybe you doubt he even hears you or exists at all.
If this is the case, then you are not alone. The Israelites doubted God’s presence among them and his faithfulness to his promises.
Christians today are also in the wilderness. Yes, Jesus saved us, but the struggle against sin and brokenness is real.
[GARDEN LENS]
As we journey through this Advent season, waiting Christ’s second coming, we remember that we also are not home yet. We long for Jesus to come and to bring his promises to completion.
God wants an intimate relationship with us in which we trust Him and rely on his care until we make it home.
[Big Question]
So as we look at our passage today, we will ask the question, How does God care for us in the wilderness?
[Scene 1]
To answer this question, we will read verses 4-21
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.”
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. 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. 16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer, according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.’ ” 17 And the people of Israel did so. They gathered, some more, some less. 18 But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat. 19 And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over till the 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. 21 Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.
[Explanation]
While the people thought that they were grumbling against Moses and Aaron, they were really grumbling against the LORD. Yahweh, the powerful God who brought them out of Egypt.
And how does the LORD respond to their grumbling?. Even though it would have been better for them to pray in faith to the LORD, he is patient. He has compassion for their dire hunger and responds by sending bread from heaven and Quail.
The bread, called manna, is flaky and it looks like frost because it covers the whole ground. The quail only came that evening to satisfy their initial hunger, but the bread fell every morning except for on the 7th day until they entered the promised land.
The Lord gives them specific rules to only pick up one omer, which is about half a gallon, every day per household member for the first 5 days of the week, on the 6th day, they are to pick up two omers per person so that they can prepare food for the 7th day on which no manna will come.
It was really important that they didn’t save any manna until the next day. This was to teach the Israelites a daily dependance on the LORD for his provision.
This idea of only gathering for one day was counterintuitive for an agricultural society. They are used to times of planting and harvest. There is no food source that constantly provides food, so their instinct in times of plenty is to gather for times of scarcity. To only gather one day’s worth of food would seem counterintuitive and irresponsible.
But the LORD doesn’t just want to give them what they need, he wants a relationship with them in which they depend on him daily for food.
[FIRST MAIN POINT]
So how does the LORD care for us in the wilderness? The LORD provides our daily needs.
[ILLUSTRATION]
One man who experienced a similar provision for God on a daily basis was the German pastor George Müller. He did a lot as an evangelist and educator, but was most known for his 5 orphanages that served over 10,000 orphans. What is remarkable about his work is that he never asked for donations to fund the orphanages. Instead, Müller just grumbled to God like the Isrealites - Just kidding - No, Müller did exactly what the Israelites should have done. He prayed for the specific things that the orphanage needed, whether that be food, clothing, or funds, and people seemed to come out of the woodwork to bring the specific things that he prayed for.
One example that is documented in his biography, is a morning when all of the orphans gathered together for breakfast even though they didn’t have anymore food in the orphanage. After praying for the food, a local baker knocked on the door with enough bread for all of the children. A few moments later, a milkman’s kart broke down in front of the orphanage. To keep the milk from spoiling, he gave it to the orphans. God proved daily bread to the orphans!
Now I don’t know if I would recommend Müller’s method for all of us! His was certainly a special situation and the focus of the story is not on his faith or prayer so much as on God’s daily provision of food!
God provides our daily needs!
[APPLICATION]
We should live lives of daily dependance on God. Some of you will have seasons in your life where you won’t know where the next meal will come from, or where the money will come for your next month’s rent. In those cases, we should not grumble to God, but approach him with confidence. We should approach him with a posture that communicates our reliance and trust in him. Jesus commands us to pray “Give us this day our daily bread”.
This does not meant that we will never be hungry. Sometimes God does allow the brokenness of sin to affect us in a way that we suffer from hunger. It happened to the Israelites and as long as we are wandering in the wilderness between Christ’s first and second coming, it could happen to us as well. I hope this never happens to you. These times require a special faith that clings to God and waits for the promised land to come.
Some of you are on the opposite end of the spectrum with steady incomes and significant savings might have an easier time forgetting that you depend on God for your daily bread. We live in the country that values self-sufficiency and it’s easy to feel like we can make it fine on our own without His help.
Having a stable income is a great thing! But we must never pretend that we are independant of God. It is the LORD who gives us our jobs, our income, our houses, and our food, and he could allow those things to be taken from you at any moment. Pray for God to open your eyes to your dependance on him and that you will live accordingly.
One way to live accordingly is to tithe to the church. Tithing allows us to express our thanks to God for his daily provision. We recognize that all we have is a gift from him so we gladly give a portion of that back.
[CROSS EXAMINE]
For some of you, the wilderness might not seem like a place of lacking things, but an exhausting place. Maybe you feel like you have been walking through the desert for years and you are just exhausted. You’re tired, and you’re asking, “Lord, when will you return? I just want a break. Well if this is what you feel right now - and I imagine that some of you in the room do - then God provides for you as well.
[SCENE 2]
Lets continue in verses 22-30
22 On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, 23 he said to them, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’ ” 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? 29 See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth 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 seventh day.” 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.
[Explanation]
In this section we see how the Lord provides a Sabbath for them. He sends twice as much manna for them on the 6th day so that they do not have to gather on day 7. Remarkably, the manna does not go bad on day 7 as it would if kept for other days of the week. This was to prevent the Israelites from working on the sabbath - a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD.
Not only were they supposed to stop working, but the day was holy. The 7th day of every week was dedicated to worshipping the LORD and remembering him.
[Second MAIN POINT]
The second way that the LORD cares for us in the wilderness is by providing Holy Rest
[ILLUSTRATION]
God gave us a rhythm of working and taking the Sabbath because he knows that we are creatures of habit that need rhythms in our lives.
I’m a seminary student, and each semester I get into a rhythm of the classes I am in. As the semester progresses, I get into auto-pilot mode where I walk from one class to the next automatically, without thinking about where I am walking, it just happens automatically. So much so, that if a class is cancelled, I often walk to the class mindlessly and only remember that the class is canceled when I see the empty classroom.
Do you also have habits in your life that just happen automatically without you thinking about it? This is the way we function as humans.
God created us as humans to operate in rhythms. Just as he rested on the 7th day of creation, so we too rest one day a week.
[APPLICATION]
So my encouragement to you would be to receive the Sabbath rest as gift from God! It is a way in which he cares for you in the wilderness. Make it a habit so that you do it automatically. It shouldn’t be something you decide each week to do. Frankly, that’s exhausting. You rest much better if you aren’t evaluating whether or not you are able take the Sabbath this week. make it a rhythm of your life. If it becomes a regular part of your rhythm, it won’t feel costly, it will feel like a gift, something you look long for each week.
And remember that the Sabbath is not only about rest, it’s a holy day. It’s great that you guys are here to worship and I encourage you to use the rest of the day to reflect on God and to enjoy his rest.
[CROSS EXAMINATION]
If you are wondering what exactly it means to keep the Sabbath holy, that is a really good question that I am still asking myself a lot. Keep asking that question!
As I mentioned briefly, it is helpful to remember what the LORD has done for us on the Sabbath.
And this leads us to the third way in which the LORD cares for us in the wilderness.
[Scene 3]
Turn with me to verse 31 and we will read to the end of the chapter.
31 Now the house of Israel called its name manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. 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.’ ” 33 And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the Lord to be kept throughout your generations.” 34 As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept. 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. 36 (An omer is the tenth part of an ephah.)
The LORD cares for his people by commanding them to take an omer of manna and to place it before him. At this point they didn’t have the ark of the covenant, so we aren’t sure exactly what they did at first, but eventually God gives them the Ark of the Covenant in which this manna was preserved.
This manna is described as the best food imaginable for the Israelites. Honey was very rare, and the only type of sweetener that they had at the time. Also wafers were a luxury that Israelites rarely had the chance to make. So Israel is to remember how God went over the top to provide not just sustenance, but pleasure! He gave them good food to fill their stomachs and their hearts with joy!
This manna in the ark was preserved for generations to come. This preservation is another miracle. Usually the manna would spoil after one day or two. But this manna God preserved permanently.
When God felt far away, they could see the manna, something that normally would spoil quickly, and see that God is active. He isn’t sleeping at the wheel, he is preserving the manna as a sign that he has and will preserve his people.
The manna in the ark of the covenant it is not just a remembrance of his faithfulness in the past, but an active miracle that shows his presence with them continually.
[THIRD MAIN POINT]
So here we see the third way in which the LORD cares for us in the wilderness. The LORD provides signs of his provision. He allows us to see it with our eyes.
[Illustration]
The LORD’s supper and baptism function for us in a similar way. When we see someone washed in the water, we are reminded of our redemption and purification in Christ. When we taste the bread and the wine, we experience the body of Christ which was shed on our behalf. These visual encounters engage our senses strengthen our faith in wilderness times. By reminding us of God’s faithfulness in the past, we are assured of his faithfulness to come.
32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
[APPLICATION]
Visual signs of God’s faithfulness are helpful for us as we worship, but it is also important to have in our daily lives.
Christmas, for example, is a great time to remember the faithfulness of God in sending Jesus. Thanksgiving is also a time when we can remember God’s provision. We can also celebrate birthdays with a focus on God’s faithfulness to us for yet another year.
It is also important that we have prayers and songs that remind us of what God has done. Many of the psalm praise God for his deliverance of Israel out of Egypt and through the red sea. Psalms 105 even praises God for his provision of manna. We too should sing of God’s deliverance and provision for us.
Experiencing signs of God’s provision gives us hope in the wilderness.
[Conclusion]
When life is hard, it is easy to feel like God has forgotten about us. We cry to him and he seems slow to answer. But as the nation of Israel looked back on these events, they did not remember their pain near as much as their remembered how God cared for them
He provided for their daily needs
He provided holy rest
and He provided signs of his provision.
But the main provision is far greater than these things. The main way that God cared for Israel in the wilderness is by providing himself.
Shortly after our passage, Israel arrives at Sinai where they enter into a covenant with God. After the covenant is established and all the requirements for the priest and the tabernacle are completed, the people are ready to receive their king. The book of Exodus ends with God coming down in his glory to dwell with his people in the wilderness.
34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 36 Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. 37 But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. 38 For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.
And so the book ends.
God does not free Israel simply to get out of oppression, and leaves them in the desert all alone.
The book of Exodus does not end with them crossing the red sea, it ends with the presence of God coming down to dwell in their midst. He dwelled in their midst and led them through the wilderness with a cloud by day and fire by night.
So too, our story does not end at conversion. We know that after conversion we still have some wilderness to walk through until we make it home.
But our wilderness experience is different because we have the Holy Spirit. God dwells with us, not in a tabernacle, but as the Holy Spirit with us. We are his temple!
The Holy Spirit guides and directs us through the wilderness. He is the manna which sustains us until we reach the promised land.
Jesus speaks of this in John 6:32-35
John 6:32–35 (ESV)
“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.
If we come to Jesus he will satisfy us. If we come to him confessing our sins, he will forgive us and enter into relationship with us. In this relationship we will never hunger or thirst because we will have him, the true bread of life! He will provide our needs, he provides holy rest, and he will remind us of his provision, but most importantly, he will give us himself.
In this Advent season, we are waiting for Christ’s second return. We are longing for the day when we will be fully fed and cared for, but most importantly, we long to be with God!
Let us pray
