God's Miraculous Provision

Introduction

Have you ever lost all your data? I can remember years ago when you would work on computers there would be a crash and if you didn’t save your work you were out of luck and had to start all over. I feel like most programs now will autosave our work and they allow you to recover stuff even if your computer crashes. Early this week one of the storage devices I use got corrupted somehow and I was unable to access anything on it. It was a frustrating and long day trying to recover any of the files I could and it wasn’t until the next day that I was able to get what I needed. The most frustrating aspect of it was I felt like I had no control. It felt like there was nothing I could do to remedy the situation. Have you ever felt like that? Are you at a place in life where you feel helpless? When you experience moments like that in your life what is typically your response?

We’re going to take a look at Exodus 16 this morning and in this text we see the Israelites in this situation where they feel completely out of control and they respond in the same way we typically respond when faced with difficulties but what I really want us to see is how God provided. No matter where we are in life we cannot forget God’s provision in our life. Let’s take a look at our key text and start reading.

Exodus 16:1–8 ESV

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.” 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.”

Open in prayer

The Israelites have been on this journey about one month. They were in Egypt as slaves about one month ago before God miraculously brought them out. And they move to this wilderness area called Sin and what happened? People started grumbling against Moses and Aaron. You probably caught that theme right off the bat as we read because grumbling is used 4 times here in theses verses.

God provides despite our complaints

Look down to verse 8, God provided them with exactly what they are complaining about. This is God fully displaying his grace and mercy not giving these people what they deserve. We should be daily thankful God does not give us what we deserve because we have these same traits. Let’s look at three things that are true about our comlaining hearts/attitude.

Complaining keeps us in the moment.

Exodus 16:3 ESV

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.”

These people have greatly misremembered their time in Egypt. They were slaves. Pharaoh was harsh to them. Even if they did have food to eat it definitely would not have filled them. They were uncomfrtable in this place and their longing was really for a place of comfort. Their current circumstance were pushing them to misremember things in their past and our minds always distort what has happened in our past. If we’re experiencing something horrible we think these same thoughts, I wish I could just go back to this simplier time, because at least I understand it. It makes sense to me. Ironically not only does complaining keep us in the moment...

Complaining distorts our present circumstances.

In the very next chapter the people were again complaining of thirst and said they didn’t have enough water for their livestock. That means they have all these animals that they can get milk from and that they could slaughter and eat. They weren’t starving, and they really didn’t have a need. We need to be careful not to confuse our needs with our greeds.

Complaining is always against God.

Did you notice the wording at the end of verse 8? What are we? They are referencing their position. And the reiterate their point immediately after by saying, your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord. A psycologist would call this displacement which means someone is fearful of going to the real source so we take our emotions out on someone less threatening.

For the Israelites that was Moses and Aaron. For us maybe it’s our spouse or friends or parents but in all cases, whenever we grumble about something happening in our life all we’re doing is finding fault with God. We complain about what he has provided, or what he hasn’t provided and there is a really important truth for us to understand, our complaints are never really caused by our outward circumstances, they reveal the inward condition of our heart. A complaining spirit always indicates a problem in our relationship with God.

God provides despite our complaints

God provides through testing

Jump back to verse 4 to see the manner in which God was going to provide. He was going to send them bread from heaven, it was going to rain down on the Israelites and their camp every day. Which, asan aside, there have been some who have attempted to understand what this substance in an effort to downplay the miraculous nature of this event but the arguements all fall short, this is a supernatural act of God’s provision.

The Isrealites ate this manna/bread every day for 40 years. It wasn’t the only thing they ate but they did eat it every day. But here’s what God did, he only gave them enough to eat for the day. He only gave them provisions for one day, why? It says why at the end of verse 4,

Exodus 16:4 ESV

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.

There are a lot of reasons for testing:

"Testing refers to the act of scrutinizing, proving, or trying as a test of character, such as faith, love, humility, endurance, and obedience.”

There are many different purposes and reasons why God would test us but here his purpose is to steer people toward obedience. Are you going to follow me and trust me or not? We have such a hard time with this concept. Look down to verses 18-20,

Exodus 16:18–20 ESV

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.

They just couldn’t believe that God was going to provide for them each and every day.

Weren’t a bunch of people doing this last year? Stocking up on toilet paper and paper towels and clorox wipes? They weren’t purchasing and using, they were purchasing and storing. There’s nothing wrong with having things saved. I think God wants us to be wise with our resources. We should be planning for the future. But often times our faith shifts from relying on God to relying on our stuff.

So here’s what God did for the Israelites, he told them i’m going to make you go out every day and collect just what you need for that day. Do you know why? Becuse then you will fully trust me. Some people failed the test though, they kept some and saved it up just in case God didn’t provide for them.

What makes me so sad reading this is we can see everyone collected just enough to satisfy them. Some collected more than others but everyone collected eactly what they needed for their families. It doesn’t say that those who saved some until the next morning collected more. They collected just enough which means for them to save some for the next day, they weren’t experiencing the fullness of God’s blessing.

How often in life are we missing out on God’s blessings in the present because we are fearful about what’s to come? There are always going to be things to fear in life but we can’t allow that to blind us of the reality of God’s provision.

Are there areas of your life where you can identify, God is testing me in this? Is he allowing opportunities come into your life where you could choose to sin?

Maybe God allowed you to overhear something personal because he wants to test whether or not you will keep a confidence

Maybe God gave you extra financial resources because he wants to test how you will give back to him

Maybe God blessed you witha new home because he wants to test how hospitable you are

What is it that God has brought into your life that you could view as something to steer your focus toward him?

God provides through his law

Exodus 16:21–30 ESV

21 Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted. 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.

The people failed again, I mean it’s a little bit different but it’s essentially the same. God said on the 6th day I’m going to give you double so you can keep half to have for the 7th day. Don’t go out on that day, it’s the Sabbath. The seventh day comes and people go on out and wander around looking for the bread from heaven. Why? Because they wanted what they wanted, when they wanted it.

What’s interesting here is that the Sabbath hadn’t been established yet. I know we just jumped into the book of Exodus today but God gave the Israelites the 10 commandments at Mount Sinai and they haven’t gotten there yet. It’s probably why when we read the 10 commandments there is no explanation of what the Sabbath day is, the people knew, oh yeah that’s the day we don’t get any bread. God says, that day is holy, rest from all your work on that day.

What happens with the Sabbath is that a lot of us view this as an Old Testament thing, that oh that’s not relevant to us as believers because Jesus came to eliminate the law. Jesus did eliminate the law and everything is now fulfilled in him, but the Sabbath was established before the law was given. It actually goes all the way back to Genesis when God weaved this into the fabric of our creation. He designed a work week that was 6 days long with one day dedicated to rest.

A few weeks ago Pastor Mike talked about our money and how we should be moved to give our tithes and offerings and the motivation is that everything we can have and earn is God’s anyway. Our giving is a way to give back what already belongs to God. This is the same principle except it involves something much more valuable than our money. It’s our time. Time is priceless, and yet God expects us to sacfrifice our time for him. But this is hard right? Your to do list is forever long, we think well i could get in some overtime hour and make some more money, there are always going to be things like this that we feel can add value to our life. And there are lots of opportunities to justify these things before God and think I just can’t sacrifice this. Let me tell you, if you ever catch yourself saying that anout anything, it should immediately push you to think, well this is exactly what I need to sacrifice, because maybe this is keeping me from God.

There are a few examples in the New Testament about why followers of Christ should keep the Sabbath day holy, the most extensive summary is in Hebrews 4 if you are interested in studying this. But the most relevant summary is in Mark 2:27 when Jesus says this,

Mark 2:27 ESV

27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

Between the Old and New Testament the meaning of the Sabbath was twisted from something that benefited man to somethign that was required to love and serve God. So the religious leaders made all types of requirements for what you could and couldn’t on the Sabbath day. This is the behavior that Jesus came to eradicate. And this short verse in Mark reveals the created purpose of the holy day each week was for man, not for God. God wants you to work, he desires you to work, you should find satisfcation and joy in your work, but he gave us one day each week, 14% of your week as a gift of rest and i encourage you to ask yourself what are you doing with that gift?

Conclusion

I’m sure you can look back at numerous examples in your life of God providing what you need at just the right moment. I was actually overwhelmed thinking about all the example sin my life this week. Do you know why God does that? Do you know why he provides for you?

For the good of his glory.

The glory of God is the reason all this good stuff happens. There is glory in the ordinary providence of God and every time he provides he adds just a little more weight to his glory.

Every time he takes care of our needs.

Every time we are spared from danger.

Every time he gives us the ability to repent of our sins.

Every chance we have to believe in his promises.

Every time he works out something in a way that seemed impossible.

Every time, we see a little bit more of his glory, or, we should. If we’re not giving God the glory after all he has done for us, what more is it going to take?

God’s ultimate provision is in Christ

The very fact that you are here today or watching online is proof that God has provided something for you, you’ve been alive up to this point, you’ve been educated enough to follow along with me throught he last 40 minutes. You’ve been given transportation to get here or internet access and a computer to watch at home. There has been lots of provisions in your life.

But maybe there is one thing that hasn’t yet been provided for you, salvation from your sin. Jesus is that provision. In John 6, Jesus says this,

John 6:32–34 ESV

32 Jesus then said to them, “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.”

He’s referring to this example from Exodus 16 and reminds them, he reminds us, that he is the true bread from heaven and when we believe in him and allow him to reign we experience life. Maybe you need to have the same response as the crowd here, Jesus give me the bread that is your presence.