God Provides Food for the Hungry, Part 2

Turn with me in your Bible to Exodus chapter 16. Exodus chapter 16 It's a chapter about the grace of God, the Son of God, and the Word of God. And we're going to have that unfold before you over the next couple of weeks. How does Exodus chapter 16 teach us about God's grace? God's Son and God's Word. I'm going to read it to you, and then we're going to spend some time talking about it as we begin to understand how God provides food for The hungry. When you have a need, God provides. God always provides for his people.

Let's look at it together. Exodus 16, verse number 1. Then they set out from Elim. And all the congregation of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sain, which is between El and Sin, 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. The sons of Israel said to them, Would that we had died by the Lord's hand 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 the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Then the LORD said to Moses, Behold, I will reign 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 instruction.

And it will come about on the sixth day when they prepare, what they bring in, 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 the LORD has brought you out of the land of Egypt. And in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord. For he hears your grumblings against the Lord. And what are we, that you grumble against us? And Moses said, This will happen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening, and bread to the full in the morning.

For the Lord hears your grumblings, which you grumble against him. And what are we? Your grumblings are not against us, but against the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, Say to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, Come near before the LORD, for he has heard your grumblings. And it came about, as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the sons of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud. And the LORD 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, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God. So it came about at evening that the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the layer of dew evaporated, behold, on the surface of the wilderness There was a fine flake-like thing, fine as a frost on the ground. When the sons of Israel saw it, they 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 the LORD has given you to eat. This is what the LORD has commanded. Gather of it every man, as much as he should eat. You shall take an om apiece, according to the number of persons each of you has in his tent. And the sons of Israel did so, and some gathered much and some little. When they measured it with an omer, 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. And Moses said to them, Let no man leave any of it until morning.

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. And they gathered it morning by morning, every man, as much as he should eat. But when the sun grew hot, it would melt. Now it came about on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two homers, for each one. When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, then he said to them, This is what the Lord meant. Tom is a Sabbath observance. a holy Sabbath to the Lord.

Bake what you will bake, and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning. So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered, and it did not become foul, nor was there any worm in it. And Moses said, Eat it to-day, for to-day is a Sabbath to the LORD. To-day 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. And it came about on the seventh day, and some of the people went out to gather, but they found none.

Then the LORD said to Moses, How long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my instructions? See, the Lord has given you the Sabbath, therefore He gives you bread for two days. On the sixth day, rem 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. and the house of Israel named it man, and it was like coriander seed, white, and its taste was like waf with honey. Then Moses said, This is what the LORD 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 the LORD to be kept throughout your generations. as the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept. 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. It's an incredible story. There is much truth in Exodus chapter 16. We are in no hurry to finish the 16th chapter.

As you recall, We began by looking at the murmurings of the people. We looked first of all at the expressions of that murmuring.

And today, I want to begin by looking at the essence of that murmuring. And then we'll move to the manna and understand how God provides for His people. Because what they do in the first four verses helps you understand God's marvelous grace and goodness to His people.

It begins with their murmuring. Once again, they begin to complain. Unfortunately, sometimes that characterizes us. For we too can be grumblers. What is the essence of grumbling? Let me explain it to you.

Number one. Grumbling rejects God's sovereignty. God was in charge of leading the nation of Israel. And yet, for some reason, that wasn't good enough. They weren't really going to outright blame God. They began to complain against God's representatives, Moses and Aaron. Now, you know as well as I do that when you sit down to eat your meal and you have kids in your family that they don't always like what is placed before them And they tend to grumble just a little bit about the food that's placed before them, if it's black-eyed peas or grits or.

liver and onions or broccoli. They never complain if it's ice cream. They always complain if it's vegetables or something they don't like. And they might not outwardly def you. They just might look at the food and just keep looking at it, hoping that it will disappear in some miraculous way.

We forget that Romans 8 says that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. So, if you are a child of God, you love him, you are committed to him, God is going to cause all things to work out for you. Ultimately, your good and his glory. So the Bible says, do all things without grumbling and disputing.

Because when you do, you are really saying that God's plan for your life is insufficient. And yet, people tend to complain in their marriage, they complain about their spouse. They're not what they used to be. They're not what we hoped they would be. And we begin to grumble and begin to gripe and complain. And what you do is you reject God's sovereignty over your life. Maybe it's your children. Maybe you don't like your children. Maybe you can't get them to behave. Nobody has a child without God giving them a gift.

Right? And they are a blessing to the parents. And so, what we do when we complain about our children, whether they are obedient or disobedient, whether they don't do the things that we think they should do, or they go off and do things that disappoint us, they Are God's gift to us? God gave them to us, and God, in His perfect sovereignty, designed that child for your family because God is in complete control of everything, right? How about your job? You ever complain about your job? Or maybe you complain about your boss at your job.

See? Do you think that you have a job because you got a good education? Do you think you have a job because you're handsome or because you're pretty? Do you think you have a job because of somebody you know? No. You have a job because God in His sovereignty happened to place you in that location in order for you to be a testimony for the sake of the kingdom of God. God is in control of all things. We forget that, see? And so we begin to understand God is orchestrating the events of life to bring about his great and wonderful purposes.

We're a part of that plan, so God places us in a specific Location, a specific job, so that we might honor and glorify his name. And yet, so many times we grumble and complain about our job. That's why the Bible says do all things without grumbling and complaining.

Go to work without grumbling and complaining. Be involved in your marriage without grumbling and complaining. Be involved in your parenting responsibilities without grumbling and complaining. Why? Because it rejects the sovereignty of God. You see, Israel Was not satisfied with God's leading in their lives. Listen to Psalm 106. Psalm 106, verse number 24 says this: Then they despise the pleasant land. They did not believe in his word, but grumbled in their tents. They did not listen to the voice of the Lord.

Therefore, he swore to them that he would cast them down in the wilderness. You see, God had brought Israel to a certain place in their life to test them. To see whether or not they would believe in him and trust him to provide for their needs. And sometimes we find ourselves in a very difficult predicament, a very difficult situation. Unwilling to recognize God in it, instead to complain about our situation. When you begin to grumble, it rejects God's sovereignty. Number two, it rebels against God's authority.

It rebels against God's authority. In this case, Moses and Aaron. Moses, of course, had already been the brunt of some criticism earlier when it came to the party of the Red Sea, when it came to the whole water ordeal in Exodus chapter 15. But now it's a food ordeal. Now it's both Moses and Aaron they complained against. These were people that God had placed in authority. And when we begin to grumble and complain, we rebel against God's authority. That is, the people He has placed in positions of authority.

Let's turn the tables and let's let's talk to children for a moment. Sometimes our children don't like the rules that mom and dad set down. Some children despise their parents and yet they rebel against God's ordained authority in their life. Let me tell you something.

The parents you have are the exact parents God wanted you to have. We like to rebel against, listen, I't want to step on anybody's toes here, but we like to rebel against our society's authority. We don't like the decisions that society makes, that those in legislation make, that those in government positions take. We don't like the rules they set out or the laws that they give. Let me tell you something.

Just because you don't like them doesn't mean you've got to grumble about them and complain about them. That's not going to change them. You see, the people that are in authority, as Romans 13 tells us, are there because God placed them there. You know that, don't you? There's nobody who's a mayor, who's a governor, who's a senator, who's a president. Oh, by the way. Who's a pope? That God did not place in that position. The Bible is very clear about that: that God is in complete control of who's in charge.

Of what? Because God will use the wrath of man to praise his name. So God's in complete control. But it's very easy for us to rebel against God's authority, the people that God has put into position. When in reality, we need to be praying for the salvation of those people's lives. We need to pray that God changes their hearts and that God does a mighty work in their lives. So many times we want to rebel against God's authority. That's what happened to Israel. They rebelled against their authority.

You see, it's rebelling against God's ordained authority in your life. That's what grumbling is. That's what complaining is. That's why it's wrong. Number three, gr is that which reveals man's carnality and iniquity.

It reveals man's carnality and iniquity. Listen to Lamentations chapter 3. Lamentations chapter 3, verse number 39. Why should any living mortal or any man offer complaint in view of his sins? Why is it any person would offer complaint in view of their sins? If you're a sinner, you have no reason to ever complain, is what Lamentations 3 says. None whatsoever. And yet, whenever we complain, we truly are revealing the carnal side of our life, the fleshy side of our life. When the Bible speaks of carnality, it's talking about operating in the realm of the flesh, in the realm of selfishness.

And when we begin to complain and grumble and mumble, really we reveal our carnal side. We reveal our sinful side. And that's what Israel was doing. Their sin was being exposed through a bad attitude, through a negative spirit, through a complaining, complaining spirit. Number four. Grumbling and complaining requires man's sensitivity to the Spirit's conviction and his reliability upon the Spirit's leading. Man's grumbling and complaining requires man's sensitivity to the Spirit's conviction. And his reliability upon the Spirit's leading.

Lamentations 3 again, verse number 40. Let us examine and probe our ways, and let us return to the Lord. It requires all of us to be sensitive to the Spirit's conviction and to rely upon the Spirit's leading, right? Sure it does. And a lot of times we just are not sensitive to that, but we need to be. Philippians chapter 2, verse number 15. Do all things without grumbling and disputing, that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent children of God, above reproach. In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.

If you want your testimony to be pure and clean and holy, you can't be a grumbler. You can't be a complainer. You can't. And that is the essence of grumbling. And that's what happened to Israel. That's where they were at. See? And that leads us now to the manna. Because this is an amazing, amazing scene. Look what it says in verse number 5 of Exodus chapter 16. Then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will rain down fire and brimstone upon him. That's not what it says, is it? See, if I was God, that's what I would do.

Shame on you for complaining. Here they are, murmuring, grumbling, complaining again for the third time.

And listen to what the Lord says. 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 instruction. Let me tell you something.

The whole man of scene is about God and His grace. Boy, I tell you, this is a marvelous scene. If you don't understand the grace of God, Exodus 16 will help you get it. What did they deserve? They deserve to die. I mean, here they are sinning. The soul that sins, it shall die, right? And then what the Bible says?

And so, what does God do? Instead of killing them, He graces them. And instead of condemning them, what's He do? He offers them the bread of heaven. I'll take care of them. I'll feed them. Isn't that the way it is in salvation? Isn't that the grace of God? When we sin, what do we deserve? Hell? What does God do? He graces us with His presence. He calls us to him, and all of a sudden, like Israel was sustained through physical food, we now are sustained through spiritual food. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

That's the grace of God. Then Moses said to Aaron, Say to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, Come near before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling. Come near. Before the Lord. See, that's the grace of God. They have no right to access God's presence. But what does God do? He wants them to come near to him, come near to his glory, that he might be able to help them understand exactly what he's doing. Isn't that what Ephesians chapter 2 says when it says, Now in Christ Jesus, you who were once afar off have been made near to him by the blood of Jesus Christ.

We were at enmity against him. Israel was acting as the enemy of God, and God says, Come near to me. Come near to me. I want to explain something to you. And they were able to understand God's plan for their lives. And then, on top of that, you have the glory of the Lord. It says twice over, once in verse 7 and once in verse 10: In the morning you will see the glory of the Lord. Verse number 10: Look toward the wilderness and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. The glory of the Lord is the presence of God.

See, salvation is about the glory of God, and what God does, He does for His glory. And for his honor, and that's the grace of God, and that's what's seen in Exodus chapter 16. So, this is what we call the elucidation of the manna. The word el means to shed light on. And how do we shed light on this manna, on this bread from heaven? We shed light on it by helping you understand God and His grace. Because that's what Exodus 16 is all about. How God gives to those who are undeserving a blessing from heaven.

You see, they needed to know God. They complained against Moses and Aaron, but he says, Now you're going to know it's me who does this. It's me. But why does God do what he does? So you will know that he is Lord. That's why. So when you find yourself just about to complain, just about to grumble, just about to let those words fly of discontent, realize, realize that God does what he does to show you that he is Lord over all. And that's what Exodus 16 is all about. Next thing I want you to see is number two: the description of the manna.

The Bible tells us. It's called manna, bread, and in Psalm 78, the food of angels. Isn't that neat? And the names are unique. Manna really means what is it? That's what it means. What is it? What is this? And it speaks to the fact, listen to this. It speaks to this instance that God does what He does and you're never going to understand how and when. And why he does it. And that's what Exodus 16 is about. God's going to provide in a supernatural kind of way. So they would come, and Israel would say, Well, what is it?

We don't understand it. It speaks of the perplexity of how God provides for His people. How many times have you seen God provide for you over the years and never truly understand exactly how He does it, but He does? That's called manna. What is it? And then he calls it bread because bread is a staple of life. They need it to live by. And you will note that for 40 years they lived on the same diet. 40 years. The text tells us until they get to the land of Canaan, this will be their fo every morning.

He also calls it Psalm 78, angels' food. The food of angels. It speaks of its divine nature. What does James 1 say? Every good and perfect gift cometh down from the Father of lights, right? It speaks of its divinity. It's God's gift to man. It's called angel's food. And is it not true that when God supplies in your deepest need, it is a divine supply? You see, if you can explain it in the natural realm, God's not involved in it. But if you can't explain it, God's involved, and God did it. And that's the manna.

That's the bread. That's the angel's food. And that's what we need to understand. The Bible also says that it's like a coriander seed down in verse number 31. It's not very big at all. It's about the size of a pea, very small, but the size is not important because it was always enough whether you had a large family or a small family. And the Bible also tells us that its color was white. It was white. So they'd be able to pick it out as they were able to see it there in the wilderness, but it speaks to the purity of its nature.

But notice this also. It tells us that its taste down in verse number 31 was like wafers made with honey. It had a sweet taste to it. Didn't have a bitter taste, but it had a sweet taste to it. The Bible tells us, taste and see that the Lord is good. And so God is setting the tone for us as we begin to understand this manna, its color, its size. Its taste, its name, as He begins to set the tone, as we are going to soon understand how God is going, listen, to describe Himself through what He provides for His people.

This is a beautiful study in Exodus chapter 16. It's also interesting to note that when God provides, His provision lasts for as long as he needs it to last. For 40 years, they would have the same diet every morning. But God, in a supernatural way, would always provide it. The Bible tells us that if the sun came out, It would melt this bread. You know, bread turns hard when the sun comes out, right? You leave your sandwiched out on the beach, and if it doesn't get eaten by the seag, then the sun's gonna bake it.

It's gonna get real hard and crusty. But this man, this bread. Would begin to melt. And you couldn't keep it overnight, stored up for the next day because the next day it'd be filled with worms. It would be no good to eat. Except on Friday. when you gathered for the next day. Because the Lord says, I'm going to do this in a supernatural kind of way. So that on the next day, you don't have to go out and collect it. You can sit back and rest because I'm already going to have it provided for you. Wow.

God is so good. That's the beginning lesson of Exodus chapter 16. Let's pray.