Manna must Cease (2)
Notes
Transcript
11 And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day.
12 And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.
Manna Must Cease
Manna Must Cease
In Exodus chapter 16, we find that the children of Israel have completed their Exodus from Egypt and their miracle crossing of the Red Sea. Just one month and 15 days removed from bondage in Egypt, the people begin to murmur. “Would to God we had died in Egypt…at least there we food to eat”.
And there in the wilderness, moving from bondage to promise, God hears the murmuring of the people and speaks to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you: and the people shall go out and gather every day. And so it was from that day forward, every morning when Isreal would wake up, bread from heaven would be piled up on the ground.
First of all, I want to establish that manna was a good thing. This bread like substance, the Bible says tasted like honey wafers. It was miraculous provision. The bible also refers to manna as “bread of heaven”, “corn of heaven”, “angel’s food” and “spiritual meat”.
More than just a good thing, Manna was a God thing!
Manna was the right thing for the wilderness
Manna was the right thing for the wilderness
But this Manna that was intended to be a temporary, 2-year provision as they made their way from slaver to promise would become much more than that.
—> Manna would become miraculous provision for Israel in a place they weren’t suppose to be.
Manna is also known in the Bible as the "bread of heaven," "corn of heaven," "angel's food," and "spiritual meat."
Manna was a good thing
For it was at the beginning of the third year of their wandering that they came to Kadesh Barnea, and there God spoke to Moses…() send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel.
Manna was a God thing!
Not go search out to see if I give it to the children of Israel
Not the land that I may give to the children of Israel
No…it was an emphatic, absolute...
Manna was miraculous provision
Search the land which i DO give to the Children of Israel.
and somewhere, somehow God telling him to send a party to search how they would take the land, it turned to see IF we can take the land.
The search party was never intended to decide IF they could take the land…they were intended to simply search out a land that was already theirs.
Manna was miraculous provision for Israel in a place they weren’t supposed to be.
God spoke to Moses to send men from the 12 tribes to search the land that God was giving them.
We know the story…10 spies come back with a report that they can’t take the land, and only 2 come back with a report that they are well able to take the land.
The search party was never intended to decide IF they could take the land…they were intended to simply search out a land that was already theirs.
In Numbers chapter 14 vs. 26 God speaks again to Moses and says because you doubted me you will wander in the wilderness for 40 years.
And the mannah that was intended as provision on a path to promise, would instead become a substance that would sustain them in a place that they weren’t supposed to be.
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Is there anybody here that this morning that you found yourself in a place that you knew you weren’t supposed to be?
You found yourself doing things you knew you weren’t supposed to be doing?
Living a life you knew wasn’t the life you were supposed to be living?
When because you doubted God…or you doubted HIs word, you made some decisions that left you wandering in the wilderness...
"even in this place that you knew you shouldn’t be, God sustained you! “
"even in this place that you knew you shouldn’t be, God sustained you! “
When you were out there living your best life…or so you thought…when you were out there sowing your wild oats…doing your thing…even then God was sustaining you.
Times that you felt like you were falling apart, but God held you together
Circumstances that should have destroyed you, but somehow God sustained you!
This is the mercy of the Lord…its manna in the wilderness.
Its his provision when I found myself in a place that I had no business being in.
22 It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
Lamentation
Thank God for mercy!
Thank God for manna!
manna will sustain you when you’ve strayed
Thank God that his hand that kept me when I didn’t deserve to be kept!
Manna will
Thank God for manna!
“if we aren’t careful…we can become addicted to Manna!”
“if we aren’t careful…we can become addicted to Manna!”
Manna is easy…we just get up in the morning and manna is there waiting to be gathered…there is no planting…no water…no harvesting…It takes no work at all…just go outside and gather.
And just living on mercy is easy. It requires nothing of us. We continue living immoral lives that we know we have no business living, because we know there will be manna the next morning. We can continue to live lives that we know aren’t pleasing to God but hide under the “i’m under grace” copout…
Be careful not to confuse God’s mercy with God’s approval!
Just because God is still feeding me, doesn’t mean he is through leading me!
Just because God
In the epistle of Jude, the 4th verse he writes:
4 I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
"you are meant for more than manna.”
"you are meant for more than manna.”
The purpose of the manna was to be provision on your journey toward promise...
You’re always going to need mercy!
I thank God for his mercy…but mercy wasn’t meant to be the ceiling of your walk with God…it was meant to be the foundation.
mercy is not the summit of our walk with God that we hope to ascend to, rather it is the base from which we all must begin.
thank God for manna…but he made me for more than manna!
Because while manna was a good thing
and manna was a God thing...
God had more for Israel than manna!
And the bible tells us that the day that Israel crossed the Jordan…the day that they moved from Wilderness wandering to promise possessing, God said the manna must cease.
The day that they moved from the wilderness to the promise, God caused the manna to cease.
For while manna is a good thing when you are in the wilderness, you need more than just manna when you are possessing promise!
While Old Testament manna was a good thing and a God thing…there are some issues with manna.
Its the same thing every day!
I cant imagine eating the same thing everyday for 40 years!!!
if there is one reason I wouldn’t want to be a dog…they east the same thing everyday...
Brooke’s dog JoJo and that dude wakes up everyday like its his best day when you open that little package of chicken liver in brown gravy…its the same thing every day!!
And that may just be a preference issue, but the second one is a possession issue.
You see, one of the reasons that God gave Israel manna in the wilderness is because when they were in the wilderness, they were unsettled.
They would dwell in one location for a period of time, and then God would move them to another location. Therefore, when they were in the wilderness, they needed a source of food that was as transient as they were.
And manna was a transient source of food. Wherever they went, manna went with them.
Sounds like a pretty sweet deal…food that follows you! Thats one step better than fast food…fast food is food that you can drive to …manna was food that drove to where they were!
Its the same thing every day!
I cant imagine eating the same thing everyday for 40 years!!!
if there is one reason I wouldn’t want to be a dog…they east the same thing everyday...
Brooke’s dog JoJo and that dude wakes up everyday like its his best day when you open that little package of chicken liver in brown gravy…its the same thing every day!!
But here is the problem with transient food…it had no roots…and as long as Israel was eating manna, they would never possessing anything…they were never become established…
And when there is no possession there is no inheritance...
As long as you’re collecting manna…you’ve got no property!
As long as you’re collecting manna…you’ve got no property!
Sometimes we’re singing about the devil giving back our stuff that he stole…give me my peace back…give me my job back…if you’re still living on manna…you don’t have any stuff!
The issue isn’t the devil stealing your stuff…the issue is you you don’t have any stuff for the devil to steal.
Manna was given to the Israelites because they were unsettled. They could grow no crops of their own in the wilderness of Sinai (although they were not originally to have remained there for so long - see A Journey Without A Destination). —> the mercy of the Lord will keep you when heaven is the last thing on your mind! When you were out there living for the moment and no thought of your destination…its the mercy of the Lord that brought you through!
When I’m living on manna, I’ve got no faith to hand to my children!
When I’m living a life where we are comfortable living unchanged and unchallenged by the word of God, we have no anointing to give to the next generation
List more of the good things about Manna...
And while Manna was a good thing…and manna was a God thing…it wasn’t all that God had for them.
It was connected to God’s provision…but it was detached from God’s promise.
as long as you’re collecting manna, you’ve got no property...
thats why so many of us never feel like we’re progressing…like we’re never possessing.
Why is there no fruit of the spirit in my life!
Why is there no peace?
Why is there no joy?
Why is there no love?
Because fruit only grows when there are roots and there won’t be roots until the manna ceases!
18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,
And when there is no possession there is no inheritance...
And when there is no possession there is no inheritance...
When I’m living on manna, I’ve got no faith to hand to my children!
When I’m living a life where we are comfortable living unchanged and unchallenged by the word of God, we have no anointing to give to the next generation
manna must cease!
God is calling us to leave our wandering in the wilderness and move into possessing the promise.
And the day that the manna ceases, they began to eat corn.
Corn = produce…it was just ears and ears and ears of corn....it was produce…it was lettuce, and tomatoes and cucumbers and watermelon and cantaloupe and cabbage and zucchini and squash...
And when there is corn in the field, there are cows in the pasture…come on…somebody say Ribeye!
When we were wandering in wilderness, eating the same old thing everyday…but when you allow God to position you in the place of promise, the menu changes…its more than just begging God to be merciful everyday and hoping that the harvest of all of those wild oats you sowed doesn’t show up! But now there is an abundance of food that we can feast on!
Thats what Jesus was talking about when he said that he came that we might have life and that more abundantly!!
Thats what happens when you move out of the places you know you have no business living and you decide that I’m going to make mercy my foundation rather than my bedroom!
4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,
7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:4-
What I’m becoming won’t let me remain what I’ve been!
Let me say this…you will never come to the place that you don’t need the mercy of the Lord! You will…I will…we will all need the mercy of the Lord. There will never come a day that I don’t need the mercy of the Lord.
But when we come to the place that mercy is what it was intended to be in our lives…God’s favor that sustains us as we move toward the promise…Then we come to a place that
So…if staying in the wilderness means manna for 40 years…if never advancing beyond just the mercy of the Lord means I’ll never have an inheritance…but moving into the promises of God means that I’ll produce in the filed and fruit of the Spirit in my life...
Why would anyone not want the manna to cease?
What I’m becoming won’t let me remain what I’ve been!
Corn also ends the process of just waking up and its there for you every morning…When the manna ceases, you have to allow God to do a WORK in your life.
You have say goodbye to the old way of thinking!
You have to say goodbye to old habits!
See you can’t have corn and manna!
thats why so many come to the Jordan but they decide to stay in the wilderness…because in the wilderness there will always be manna and it doesn’t take any effort on my part.
I can keep doing what I’ve always done…I don’t have to change anything…and look, there is delicious manna every morning.
YOU can’t have corn and manna at the same time!
There are people today that God is trying to move you into a land of promise!
He is trying to take you from living off of mercy to walking in Grace!
But manna must cease!
Brooke’s got a little dog…jojo…Joe Joe gets so excited every morning about eating the same old thing…NO THANK YOU!!
but the presence of corn was more than just stalks in the field…it was a statement that I am established.
When there’s corn in the field, there are cows in the pasture!
