God's Provisions in the Wilderness
Notes
Transcript
Call to Worship
Call to Worship
: Psalm 119:137-144
Righteous are You, O Yahweh, And upright are Your judgments.
In righteousness, You have commanded Your testimonies And in exceeding faithfulness.
My zeal has consumed me, Because my adversaries have forgotten Your words.
Your word is exceedingly refined, Therefore Your slave loves it.
I am small and despised, Yet I do not forget Your precepts.
Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And Your law is truth.
Trouble and anguish have found me, Yet Your commandments are my delight.
Righteous are Your testimonies forever; Give me understanding that I may live.
First Reading
First Reading
Hear the word of Yahweh, You rulers of Sodom; Give ear to the law of our God, You people of Gomorrah.
“What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?” Says Yahweh. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle; And in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats I take no pleasure.
“When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts?
“Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of convocation— I cannot endure wickedness and the solemn assembly.
“My soul hates your new moon festivals and your appointed times, They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them.
“So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Indeed, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood.
“Wash yourselves, purify yourselves; Remove the evil of your deeds from before My eyes. Cease to do evil,
Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Execute justice for the orphan, Plead for the widow.
“Come now, and let us reason together,” Says Yahweh, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.
Scripture and Prayer
Scripture and Prayer
And He entered Jericho and was passing through.
And behold, there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich.
And Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature.
So he ran on before and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way.
And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.”
And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly.
And when they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”
But Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor, and if I have extorted anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.”
And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham.
“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”
Intro:
Intro:
Bible Passage: Exodus 16
Summary: Exodus 16 recounts the Israelites' journey in the wilderness after leaving Egypt, where they complained of hunger. God responds by providing manna, a miraculous food, illustrating His faithfulness and provision even in desolate circumstances.
Application: This passage encourages Christians to trust in God's provision during their own wilderness experiences, reminding them to rely on faith rather than their circumstances. It highlights the importance of daily dependence on God for both spiritual and physical sustenance.
God is a provider who meets the needs of His people, even when they falter in their faith. It emphasizes the necessity of trusting God to sustain us in tough times and recognizing His blessings in our lives.
1. Grumbling in the Wilderness
1. Grumbling in the Wilderness
Then they set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt.
And the whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.
And the sons of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of Yahweh in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to put this whole assembly to death with hunger.”
V 1. 15th day of 2nd month = exactly 30 days after the Exodus (Exod 12:2, 6).
“This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you.
‘And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight.
Their grumblings did NOT come because it had been such a LONG time.
V 2. They kept grumbling
The phrase in Hebrew implies 2 things:
They (of their own choosing) continued to STRONGLY complained in a bad-tempered way.
It reminds me of an angry toddler!
I read a thread on Reddit where parents were asked to share their worst toddler meltdown stories. They didn’t disappoint.
"My son flipped out because he tried to eat a piece of candy and a piece of broccoli at the same time, and they tasted bad together."
—Kati P., Facebook
That type of toddler meltdown is what I picture every time I read grumbling in Exodus
V 3. “O that we had died” “pots of meat”
In their tantrum, they said we would have been better of dead as a slave in Egypt than out here being free.
Look at how quickly the Israelites' gratitude turned to grumbling upon facing discomfort.
They quickly forgot what God had done up until this point!
God kept adding to the list of miracles He did for them, and they kep on repeating the old pattern of complaining when any difficulty arrived.
AP: Complaints in adversity
This illustrates our human tendency to doubt God’s goodness in scarcity.
The big idea here is that complaints often stem from a lack of trust.
We think in the present and totally forgot our God’s past blessings and His nature.
Like Israel, we can fall victim of corporate nostalgia during transitions (new job, new season, etc). We long for what we fondly remember instead of embracing the future God has for us.
In those times, ask yourself this diagnostic question: “Are we romanticizing ‘Egypt’ (our past) because the wilderness exposes our idolatry of comfort?”
We must confront our own grumblings and see them as opportunities to lean more deeply into God’s promises of provision.
2. God’s Test of Faith
2. God’s Test of Faith
Ex 16:4-12
Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, I will 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 or not they will walk in My law.
v. 4 I am about to rain
lit. I will be raining
God was going to pour out a “rain” of bread from heaven.
This emphasizes God as the one doing the action.
“Now it will be on the sixth day, they shall prepare what they bring in, and it will be twice as much as they gather daily.”
So Moses and Aaron said to all the sons of Israel, “At evening you will know that Yahweh has brought you out of the land of Egypt;
v. 5 & 6 God is providing for them and at the same time testing them.
He built into the scenario a test of faith in His provision and regulation
He would send bread 6 days a week
The bread would not last overnight without spoiling
EXCEPT on the 6th day. That manna would last the night and be sufficient for the Sabbath, a day they were to rest and God would NOT send bread
and in the morning you will see the glory of Yahweh, for He hears your grumblings against Yahweh; and what are we, that you grumble against us?”
And Moses said, “This will happen when Yahweh gives you meat to eat in the evening and bread to the full in the morning; for Yahweh hears your grumblings which you grumble against Him. And what are we? Your grumblings are not against us but against Yahweh.”
V 7-8 Moses reminds them they are grumbling against GOD not just Moses and Aaron.
Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, ‘Come near before Yahweh, for He has heard your grumblings.’”
Now it happened as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the sons of Israel, that they turned toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of Yahweh appeared in the cloud.
And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
“I have heard the grumblings of the sons of Israel; speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread, so that you shall know that I am Yahweh your God.’”
V 9-12 God instructs Israel and displays His glory
10 Yahweh appeared in the Cloud
The shekinah glory of God was present.
God not only fed them, He showed them His glory
11 God spoke to Moses (probably audible to all)
12 The plan was unfolded
AP: God tests His people by providing manna, designed to build faith and reliance on Him.
God desires that we live by faith, trusting Him for daily sustenance.
Jesus put it in the model prayer:
‘Give us this day our daily bread.
Consider how God uses daily needs, met miraculously or mundanely, to draw us closer to Him.
This is echoed by Jesus, who taught us to rely on Him as our daily bread and ultimate spiritual provision.
3. Deliverance with Instructions
3. Deliverance with Instructions
Exodus 16:13-21
So it happened at evening that the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.
Then the layer of dew evaporated, and behold, on the surface of the wilderness there was a fine flake-like thing, fine as the frost on the ground.
God kept HIs promise
Meat-quail
Bread- manna
And the sons of Israel saw it and said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread which Yahweh has given you to eat.
Manna- They walked out and asked, “What is it?” Which in Hebrew was “Manna?” The question became its name!
Instructions:
“This is what Yahweh has commanded, ‘Gather of it every man as much as he should eat; you shall take an omer apiece according to the number of persons each of you has in his tent.’”
Each family was to get what they needed for the day.
And the sons of Israel did so; some gathered much and some little.
And they measured it with an omer, and he who had gathered much had no excess, and he who had gathered little had no lack; every man gathered as much as he should eat.
v. 18 Septuagent, Greek translation of OT, is a perfectly quoted by Paul in 2 Cor 8:15
As it is written, “He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little had no lack.”
And Moses said to them, “Let no man leave any of it until morning.”
1 string attached: don’t try to hoard it!
But they did not listen to Moses, and some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul; and Moses was angry with them.
So they gathered it morning by morning, every man as much as he should eat; but the sun would grow hot, and it would melt.
Of course, they didn’t listen
Thus they “failed” God’s test.
God's provisions often come with instructions and boundaries, symbolizing His order and care.
These instructions were meant to cultivate a rhythm of trust and dependence on God.
Each day they were reminded that God was their provider.
Now it happened that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. Then all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses.
And he said to them, “This is what Yahweh has spoken: Tomorrow is a sabbath observance, a holy sabbath to Yahweh. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is in excess put aside to be kept until morning.”
So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had commanded, and it did not become foul nor was there any worm in it.
And Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to Yahweh; today you will not find it in the field.
“Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none.”
Now it happened on the seventh day, that some of the people went out to gather, but they found none.
2nd test: get 2 days provision on the 6th
Many did it, however, some didn’t
AP: Follow God’s guidance
Living His way is righteous and the best way to live.
It is ALSO a statement of faith!
We display our faith by our actions.
Jesus commands us to abide in Him, where true life and provisions flow.
And a man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years.
When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been sick a long time, He said to him, “Do you wish to get well?”
The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”
Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your mat and walk.”
Fruit grows at the end of the branch.… but a branch cut off cannot produce fruit.
His provision comes AS we serve Him.
Don’t wait around, get started!
Find peace and even abundance in God's prescribed ways.
4. Preserving Providence's Testimony
4. Preserving Providence's Testimony
In light of some going out on the Sabbath, God closes this episode reminded them of regulations and set aside a portion as a memorial.
Exodus 16:28-36
Then Yahweh said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?
“See, Yahweh has given you the sabbath; therefore He gives you bread for two days on the sixth day. Remain every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.”
So the people rested on the seventh day.
Beyond teaching the people to rely on God’s provision, God also developed the rhythm of life:
6 days of work
1 day of rest
This pattern goes back to creation.
And the house of Israel named it manna, and it was like coriander seed, white, and its taste was like wafers with honey.
Then Moses said, “This is what Yahweh has commanded, ‘Let an omerful of it be kept throughout your generations, that they may see the bread that I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’”
And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar and put an omerful of manna in it, and place it before Yahweh to be kept throughout your generations.”
As Yahweh commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the Testimony to be kept.
And the sons of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate the manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.
(Now an omer is a tenth of an ephah.)
God had them preserve some manna as a testimony to future generations of God's faithfulness.
AP: Remember your journey
It is important to remember the milestones in our faith journey.
Come Thou Fount v. 2
Here I raise mine Ebenezer
Hither by Thy help I'm come
And I hope by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wand'ring from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood
Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and he named it Ebenezer. And he said, “Thus far Yahweh has helped us.”
Ebenezer means "stone of help.": The word is Hebrew, combining "stone" (eben) and "help" (ezer).
The stone was a monument to God's help. Samuel set it up to commemorate a great victory God had given the Israelites over the Philistines, serving as a reminder of His faithfulness.
We should build our own 'memorials' of God's faithfulness in their lives.
It doesn’t have to be a pot of food or a stone monument, but at least in our minds (perhaps journals) take note of what God has done.
It helps us face the future in faith as we reflect on God’s past blessings upon us.
We are also called to be testimonies of His ever-present and ever-sufficient grace.
“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
Conc
Conc
Big Idea: God's faithful provision in our lives encourages us to seek Him daily and trust Him to fulfill our needs according to His riches and mercy.
