This is the miraculous event
that the Jews that were speaking to the Lord Jesus Christ said,
Moses gave us manna, what will you do? He's just fed 5,000 people. These are, of course, glorious
pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. In the context
of the scriptures, the children of Israel have been brought out
of the land of Egypt, out of the land of bondage, out of the
land of slavery, brought out of that land by a sovereign hand
of God, by blood redemption. Then they crossed the Red Sea
and then they came to the bitter waters of Mara and the Lord sweetened
the bitter waters of Mara. They come to this place where
they complain to God about the fact that he has brought them
out here just to kill them in the wilderness. And we have this
glorious picture of the manor. And the manor, of course, and
the Sabbath are pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ. And throughout
the rest of the scriptures, whenever the people treated by either
the manor or the Sabbath with disregard, God killed them. killed multitudes of them in
Numbers 11 and Numbers 21. He sent those poisonous serpents
amongst them because they treated the manna with contempt. They
said, their souls loathe this light bread, this despicable
bread. And the bread is the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's exactly what he's saying to them in John chapter
6. These are pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ and the redemption
of his people. And in Exodus chapter 16, we
have the first mention in all of the scriptures of the glory
of the Lord. the glory of the Lord revealed. We're going to sing again number
24. We'll come and I want us briefly
to have a look at the story of the manor and to see the Lord
Jesus Christ in these pictures. Number 24, blessed are the sons
of God brought with Jesus. He demands from the grave, and
eternal life He hath. Love of God He gives His Son, All of these pictures, of course,
in the Old Testament are pictures of God's salvation and the Lord
Jesus Christ is the bread. From heaven, he's the bread that
gives life to the world. And as we read these stories,
we pray that the Lord will cause us to do as he commands, which
is to come, to come and to eat and to live our lives upon His
life. So the book of Exodus is a message
of divine deliverance. It's a message of God coming
to His people and delivering them. It's interesting to note that
If you want a summary of all of the Old Testament in Luke
9, Moses and Elijah met with the Lord Jesus Christ on the
Mount of Transfiguration. And so they had a conversation
with the Lord Jesus in the presence of Peter, James and John. And
they had one topic of conversation on that mountain that's recorded
by God. One topic. When the Lord Jesus
Christ deity is revealed through his humanity and they saw the
glory, and Peter didn't have a clue what to say, but Moses
and Elijah did. Moses and Elijah were there. And they spoke, they spoke. They spoke of his decease which
he should accomplish at Jerusalem. That word decease is the word
exodus. The Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's
tree delivered His people, it was
an exodus of His people in Him. It's the Lord and He continues
throughout the Old Testament and He continues in the Lord's
Supper for us to remember. Remember, remember what we are,
remember redemption. Our God, if the Son makes you free,
you will be free indeed. So in Exodus chapter 16, and
it's good to note the context of Exodus chapter 16, as I said
earlier, the law is given in chapter 20 of Exodus. And if you go to most religious
people in the world, they'll tell you that we are to go back
under the law and by obeying God and in our own strength that
we then earn our righteousness with God. But the thing that's
really extraordinary is that they get to Mount Sinai and again
and again they say to God, they say, you just tell us what to
do and we'll do it. You just tell us, you just give
us some rules to live by and we'll be able to do it. Exodus
16 shows us that he gave them two very, very simple instructions
regarding manna and the Sabbath. you're not to keep any, you're
not to keep any it'll go rotten and grow worms and you're not
to try and pick it up on the Sabbath. They had two extraordinarily
simple rules as it were to live by and they broke both of them
and yet they turn up in chapter 20 saying you just tell us what
to do and we'll do it. The law, the law reveals Our
depravity, the law, has one function, isn't it? Guilty is what the
law declares again and again and again. Please don't think
that you can do things that God will find in your obedience something
that he's worthy of. He's very, very happy, our God,
with the obedience of his son. And if you find your rest and
your pleasure in the thing and the person that he rests in,
and you will be a blessed person indeed. So they immediately broke them. But this is a place where the
glory of the Lord is revealed, and the glory of the Lord is
revealed in redemption, and the glory of the Lord is revealed
in the grace that he shows to his people. The Lord Jesus Christ
is our Passover as the scriptures declare us. He's our Passover
sacrifice for us. And all, all for whom the lamb
died must go across the Red Sea. And all for whom the lamb died
must get through this wilderness wandering of this world. And
all for whom the lamb died must cross the Jordan and cross into
the promised land of Canaan. Christ is our Passover, sacrificed
for us. The Lamb slain, the Lamb slain
brought about the redemption and you, like me, might come
to love what the Lord said twice. He says, when I see the blood.
In Egypt he says, when I see the blood. He didn't say when
I see your obedience. He didn't say when I see all
of your works. Good or bad, he says, when I
see the blood, I will pass over you. And he took those people
out of Egypt and he destroyed a superpower. Moses had a stick. God and he destroyed a superpower
and they carried all of the wealth of Egypt out and God destroyed
them and then he caused Pharaoh to follow them into the Red Sea
and he drowned Pharaoh and all of those people in the Red Sea
and he sent them to them at the Red Sea when they were terrified
about the prospects that were about them. And what a picture
it is for us to be taken to the Red Sea again and again and again
throughout our lives when all we see in front of us is something
which is impossible and all that we see around us and all that
we see behind us is just tragedy as the Egyptians pursued them. And what's God's response to
his people? Exodus 13, Exodus 14, verse 13,
14. He says, fear ye not. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord, which he will show unto you today. For the Egyptians
whom you have seen today, you shall see them again no more
forever. The Lord shall fight for you. Brothers and sisters, If we could
just take hold of those words of God, the Lord will fight for
you, the Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace. The Lord goes before them and
he separates them from the Egyptians and they come to the bitter water
of Mara's life for God's people in this world is a life of trial. But the Lord Jesus Christ and
him crucified sweetens those bitter waters and he says, I'm
the Lord, I'm the Lord that healeth thee. See both the manna and
the water came from the rock and they were God's provisions
throughout those wilderness years. 40 years they received this manna. Both the water and the manna
came supernaturally. Both the water and the manna
came abundantly. Both the water and the manna
came graciously. They grumbled and he gave. They did nothing to deserve his
provision in the wilderness. Were they any different from
the Egyptians? Please don't think you're better
than other people, brothers and sisters in Christ. You're no
different to the rest of the world. Who makes you to differ?
Who separates you? It's God who puts the difference
between his people and the world. His provision comes abundantly. His provision comes supernaturally. His provision comes graciously.
And it's good to note, isn't it, he takes his people into
a wilderness. where the only means of survival is His provision
of water and His provision of manna. If you're hungry and you're
thirsty, there is just one place to look, and that's the Lord
Jesus Christ. So let's contemplate this matter,
the supernatural falling of it. And don't forget these Jews in
John chapter 6 are accusing Jesus of not doing as big a miracle
as Moses did. They didn't have a clue who they
were talking to. So it is with us. We don't know
whose presence we're in. But let's have a look at the
matter and see how it pictures the Lord Jesus Christ. The manor
fell in the darkness, didn't it? The darkness covered the
deep. The spirit of the Lord hovered
on the waters. The earth was without form and
void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit
of God moved upon the waters. How does God find you? How does
God find you? How does God bring grace to you? in light or because you're in
darkness? His provision comes in the darkness, isn't it? He
has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us
into the Kingdom of His dear Son. When He comes to His people,
He finds them in darkness. And when the daylight comes,
when the daylight comes, there was God's provision. When the
Son of Righteousness arises with healing in His wings, there you
see God's provision that's come in the night and it came with
the Jew from heaven. And this manner was small. It
seemed so insignificant. If we could possibly understand
the wonder of the condescension of God Almighty donning human
flesh. And throughout the Gospel accounts,
you have the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God Almighty in human
flesh, encountering men again and again. And such was His humility
that they had no idea they were in the presence of God. He was
so much like a man that you couldn't imagine him to be God. And then he was so God-like that
you couldn't imagine a God-like man. He is the God-man, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the one mediated between
man and God. He's the one who can touch God
and not be consumed, and touch man and not be defiled. His humility is remarkable. The manor was small. There was
no evidence of majesty or glory or royalty about the Lord Jesus
Christ. The manor was small, the manor
was round. We, some of us, wear wedding
rings on our fingers, don't we? And the roundness in the scriptures
is a picture of the eternal covenant. It has no beginning, no end.
There are an infinite number of infinite circles around something
that is round. It speaks of the eternality of
our God. It's white. It's white. The purity of heaven fell upon
the red earth of this cursed world. The perfect humanity met
with defiled man and was undefiled. It was sweet. The taste of it
was like wafers made with honey. It speaks of the sweetness of
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
in our believer's ear. it pictures in his sweetness,
all the sweetness of his provision for life in this world, isn't
it? The sweetness of the fact that all the sins of all of his
people are gone. The sweetness of the fact that
he has taken all of the guilt of our sins upon himself. The
sweetness of the fact that in that exodus he accomplished all
of our debts are paid and we owe God. We owe God nothing nothing
but love and gratitude. The sweetness of the fact that
all the promises of God are yay and amen. The sweetness of what
he says, you eat this living bread. I am the living bread,
John 6.51, that came down from heaven. If any man eat of this
bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, and I give for the life of all. It's revealed in the light. It's
small and round and white and sweet. And it was gathered by
all. There was no, there was no qualification
for gathering. All you had to do is be in the
wilderness. All you had to do is be in that
camp. All you had to do is go out and gather. Such is the presence and the
provision of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's always sufficient, isn't
it? There was enough for every man
to live on. See, grace perfectly supplies
all that we need. His blood always speaks peace. His righteousness always covers
completely and perfectly. We seek him and feast upon him,
and there's always a sufficiency in the Lord Jesus Christ. But
this manna couldn't be stored, and you can't hoard it, for it
bred worms and rotted. You need a fresh supply every
day. Such is the provision of the
Lord, isn't it? That we never go to a place where
we've stored up enough righteousness that we don't need him for this
moment and the next moment. For every breath of life, we
need him. In him is life, outside of him is nothing but death.
And the manna and the Sabbath, as we saw in our reading in Exodus
16, the manna and the Sabbath are both given together. And there was 40 years of miraculous
supply. For 40 years, every morning they
woke up and there was a miraculous provision from God. For 40 years
there was a Sabbath that God kept. It never fell on a Sabbath. As I said earlier, the Sabbath
and the manna came before the law and they broke both at Sinai. But there was one And Omer is
about a litre and a half. It's a measure of volume rather
than weight. So it's about a litre and a half
or a litre and three quarters. But there was one Omer of manna
that survived for nearly a thousand years. And it was there before
the Ark, this perfect manna, there before the Ark of God. What mercy, what mercy from our
God, just this unrelenting mercy, what unrelenting grace comes
to the believers, isn't it? Every day, even in their rebellion,
even when God slew them for their wicked unbelief and their wicked
rebellion against the Lord Jesus Christ in the desert. He still,
as they were rebelling against him, they were doing that rebellion
with the very food that he had given them, sustaining their
lives. What a provision of our God. No wonder he says to us again,
and he says, come and eat. It's new every morning, come
and eat. His mercies are new every morning.
He says, come and rest in what I provide for you. I provide
for your life. Come in returning and rest, show
your peace be. There is no other food, neither
does Men who had spent those 40 years in the desert and were
40 years old when they crossed into the Promised Land, they
had lived on nothing for 40 years but manna and a few other things
that had been provided. It was perfectly sufficient for
all of your life. And it's perfectly sufficient
to take you through this wilderness world until you come to the crossing
of the Jordan and you no longer need the food of this earth. It's a glorious picture, isn't
it, of Christ and His salvation and Christ and His sustenance.
He's the Lamb slain that delivers from death and sin and hell.
He's the Lamb slain that redeems His people from the curse of
the law. It's the lamb slain that is the
ransom that brings his people out of captivity. It's the lamb
slain that saves his people from going down to the pit. And here
in the manor, we feed on the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. We feed on his salvation. We
feed on him as we travel through this world and we're sustained
by him. And we rest, we rest, in him
who is the Sabbath. And we remember these people
of Israel were called upon to remember the Jews that are here
having this confrontation with the Lord Jesus Christ and have
seen the remarkable provision. At this very time, they are preparing
and possibly on their way down to celebrate a Passover where
they remember all of these events. And that's what the Lord's Supper
is, isn't it? The bread and the wine of the Lord's Supper is
a reminder of redemption by the body and the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It pictures this journey that
all of the Lord's people are on. Redemption by blood, salvation
seen at the Red Sea, the bitter waters sweetened, Your murmurings
against God shown in stark contrast compared to his extraordinary
provision of grace and mercy to his people. He leads his people into this
wilderness before he takes them to the promised land. And he
leads his people to see that this world is a wilderness. It has no sustenance for the
children of God. And in this wilderness wandering,
his provision alone will sustain. And he, in this wilderness, will
reveal his law. you'll reveal that all of your
works are nothing other than filthy rags, that you have disobeyed
in Adam, you have disobeyed even before you get to Mount Sinai. The law reveals our need of a
saviour, we need a saviour, we need a substitute, we need a
sacrifice, we need someone to provide for us, we need of heaven
to survive. We need a sacrifice to stand
in the presence of God. We need to be hidden in the rock,
the rock smitten, and Moses could stand in that rock and see the
glory of God and not be ashamed. Christ is the manna. Christ is the bread of heaven. He's heaven's bread. It's heaven's providing. It's
heaven's treasure come to earth to sustain his people. You are
not come, Hebrews 12, and I'll finish. You're not come unto
Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, and the heavenly
Jerusalem, unto innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly
in church of the false born, which are written in heaven,
and to the judge. of all, to the spirits of just men made
perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the
blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than the blood
of Abel. His word at Mount Sinai, his
word in the Old Testament is his word to these Jews now. Verse 25, he says, see that you
refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escape not who refused
him that spake on earth, much more shall we not escape if we
turn away from him that speaks from heaven, whose voice then
shook the earth, but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more
will I not only shake the earth, but heaven also. And this word
yet once more signify the removing of those things which are shaken,
as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be
shaken may remain. Wherefore we, receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, let us have grace. Whereby we may serve
God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear. The Israelites
who considered the manna light bread, considered the Lord Jesus
Christ despicable, died in their multitudes in that wilderness.
What a remarkable provision that our God says to us now, come,
come and eat. Come and believe. Come and find your life in this
world, in the life of the true bread from heaven. And the Lord
calls us to see the Lord Jesus as the manna, in the manna, calls
us to feast upon him now by faith. Let's have a break.