Sermon Tone Analysis

Background

This morning we are going to do a bit more digging into the Old Testament looking for the Scarlet Thread that winds its way through the Bible, and this time we are going to look at Jesus as the Bread of Life.

I want to set this up for you again, go back to the Exodus.

So before the incident with the water that I preached on last time when Moses struck the rock in Exodus 17, we have the people of Israel complaining that they had no bread to eat.

So this is where we are, before Rephidim in the Wilderness of Sin and the Israelites are complaining to the Lord.

A short while ago they were in Egypt as slaves, worked to death and under the yoke of Pharaoh.

They had no riches, no freedom, beaten under the whip of the Egyptian task masters.

Let us refresh our memories about what the Bible says about their bondage and their pleas so turn back with me to Exodus Chapter 1.

So Israel has cried out to God to deliver them from from the Egyptians because of the bitter bondage.

Now we are in the Wilderness, and have experienced the 10 plagues, and most amazing of all, God passed over the houses with Lambs blood on lintels of the doors, killing every first born of those who didn’t have the blood of the lamb covering them.

Then they had the pillar of fire leading them to the Red Sea, then the parting of the Red Sea in which God destroyed the Egyptian army.

Directly before this there another incident with water at a place named Masah where they complained again.

Diversion: Application

We will dig deeper in a minute, but there is a lesson here and I want to stop for a minute to examine it.

It seems like to the Israelites that they have totally forgotten their former state in Egypt doesn’t it?

They think the grass is greener, and are saying to the Lord - your provision isn’t good enough.

They are complaining against God who had done so much for them, and lack the faith that God would complete the work He has started.

Did the Israelites not think that should they perish in the desert, it would make God look weak and unable to fulfill His promises?

Just like us, the wandering Jews thought the grass was greener back in Egypt.

The preferred Egyptian bondage because they missed meat.

Was slavery in Egypt and the lashes better than freedom in the wilderness without meat or bread?

Of course not, but that is they way we are when we are not content; everything else seems better.

Making bricks under the whip with slave food under a baking Egyptian sun is not exactly one’s dream job or lifestyle.

When they left Egypt they left rich.

They now had God who has delivered them, and not just mundanely, but spectacularly to His Glory.

They had posessions where once they had none, freedom when they had none, but all of sudden with no meat or bread they look back to the squalor of their past lives and long for it.

How often do we do that, and look back to the squalor of our past lives and think that it was better and we complain?

So Why is Complaining Bad?

Have you ever thought to yourself?

I need to take control, because maybe God isn’t going to help me unless I help myself?

God needs to do more for me, and moreover, it needs to be done now in my time, because I am feeling lousy about my lot in life?

I can provide better for my family and myself than God can.

God says in Psalms 145,

God is our soveriegn provider in His own time.

It is interesting to see the Israelites, their complaining, our worries about this life then in the light of Jesus’ words in Luke 12.

What Would You Have Done?

Consider the Israelites at this time, while drawing parallels in your own life.

I have my own Israelite story to share, and I will do that in a minute, but let us refocus on Israel and Moses again.

So God sent 10 plagues to force Pharoah to release His children.

Parted the Red Sea and destroyed Pharoahs army.

God produced pure water from a rock, and yet they grumbled against God.

Me? Well I am a pretty good grumbler and I cannot claim to be better than the Israelites.

My story really starts when I got married.

I had no idea about the future, I was 22 years old, and scared out of my wits as to how I would make something of this life.

What if I married the wrong girl, would we have children and would I make a big mess with it?

I started off well, and I married in faith, believing in God that He would give the increase in our love together as husband and wife.

I put my faith in God to love Bec and I am so thankful I did.

I saw God deliver.

I decided to give up a successful career as an accountant to become an agronomist.

I was unhappy and grumbling - I was asking for a change, and you know what?

God saw me through.

I don’t know how I got through it all - starting again and studying 3 years.

Again I fretted when I had finished and had to move.

What about out house?

Can we sell it?

how much will we lose?

How do I navigate this when I can’t find a rental in a town I don’t even know?

We worked out to stay afloat it was cheaper to actually buy a house than rent.

But boy, buy a second house?

What if I can’t sell it if this job doesn’t work out?

We want to have kids, and we can’t wait any longer because we are getting older.

How is that going to work?

What about school?

You get the idea.

Well in about 3 -4 months of moving here we fell pregnant with Abigail.

Everything was going well until almost 2 years ago when things started to unravel a bit I knew I was being managed out of the business, not because I wasn’t worth it, but because they didn’t see value in agronomy for whatever reason.

As a lot of you know this gave me a lot of anxiety.

I acted in ways that in my opinion, were faithless and showed more trust in my own ability than God’s ability to provide.

I have a stubborn nature that sometimes is good and sometimes bad, but its based on selfreliance.

I could have saved myself, and Bec and a lot of other people if I had rested in God’s hands instead of my own.

Everything that I did seemed to make the situation worse, and not better.

For the last 2 years I was in a wilderness of my own.

Wandering aimlessly complaint in my heart with little or no faith.

It wasn’t until I saw God again working in small little ways to show me that in fact He was in control, that I stopped to think more, with more than a little prompting from Bec.

Letting Jesus take that yoke and me taking his was a far better thing.

I had done a lot of talking and the more I thought and prayed about it the more I realised I needed to let go.

In the end its His will not mine.

If I am to stay here, its God not me.

It was incredibly hard, and in my heart were all sorts of accusations to God, but mainly it was my reliance on my self.

I’d be willing to say that we all have similar experiences like this, where we want to blame God and rely on ourselves or the things we can see do or touch.

So, what would you have done about the Malcontents and the grumblers?

I know if I had been looking on myself, knowing what was in the future, I would have gotten impatient.

What God Did

You and I would have bashed the complainers over the head with a thick book, a hard covered one if we could swing it.

God showed kindness.

We would have acted like dictators.

God acted like a caterer.

God’s way is patient, kind and long suffering.

His longsuffering and patience is our salvation.

You know a lot of people believe that in the Old Testament that God is mean?

Athiests always point to the Caananites who lived in the Promised Land were in the wrong place at the wrong time?

That’s hardly accurate:

God waited hundreds of years (some of that while Israel was in captivity)

Worshipers of Molech placed their own babies in to the scalding hot arms of an altar in the idolic image of their god to sacrifice them.

Cruel, painful and torturous for a small helpless baby.

Practiced many evil rites connected with fertility cults and the occult.

God is never mean, in fact He is exceedingly kind, longsuffering and good to those who put their trust in Him.

The murmuring Jews whined about God’s provision, but instead of giving them wrath God gave them bread.

Jesus the Bread of Life

Fast forward now to the time of the New Testament.