Sem título Sermão
Leitura do texto:
The power that brought the Israelites out of Egypt is the same power that is sustaining them in the desert and that will eventually bring them safely into the land God promised to Abraham.
According to chapter 14, the Israelites are only about two years into the wilderness journey. The grumbling of God’s people reaches such a level that God reacts in a way that would have been unthinkable in the Exodus narrative. All those twenty years old or older will not be permitted to enter the promised land. They will be made to wander in the desert until the last rebel is dead (Num. 14:26–35). This is certainly a low point in Israel’s once victorious march to Canaan. By human standards, the entire plan seems to be hanging by a frayed thread. Israel’s grumbling is beginning to take its toll.
Echoes of the grumbling theme are heard in the NT. In John 6:25–59, Jesus claims to be the ‘bread of life’. This statement follows his miraculous feeding of the five thousand (6:1–15). Jesus, like Moses before him, provides bread and meat (fish) for the people. But his purpose is not simply to fill their stomachs, but to teach them that a greater ‘bread’ is among them. Having witnessed the miracle earlier in the day, the crowd begin to discuss with him what God requires of them. Jesus tells them that they are ‘to believe in the one he has sent’ (v. 29). But the people require a sign which will prove to them that Jesus is worthy of such attention. After all, as they argue in verse 31, Moses gave his people a sign, bread from heaven. What is Jesus’ proof? Jesus responds: ‘I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world’ (vv. 32–33). The benefits to those who ‘eat’ this bread from heaven are greater than the benefits to those who ate the manna; those who eat the bread of God will never hunger or thirst again, and they will be raised up at the last day (vv. 35, 40).
Even though this bread far exceeds anyone’s expectations—it does not merely fill the stomach and give life for a day, but brings eternal life—they will have none of it. But it is the only means by which they have any hope of life. In the same way that the manna was the only food available to keep the Israelites alive each day, Christ, the bread from heaven, is now the only way to life eternal.
Christ’s obedience provides a model not only for the church’s behaviour towards God but also for the behaviour of Christians towards one another. James admonishes his readers not to ‘grumble [stenazō] against each other’ (Jas. 5:9)