Back several weeks ago when we
began to look at Israel's exodus out of Egypt, I printed out a
map of that general area where Egypt is, where Canaan is, where
Mount Sinai is on the map, the Red Sea, even the Jordan River. It was obvious from this map
that this journey should not have really been that long or
that difficult a trip. Just a pass through the land
of the Pharisees, northeast up around the coast of the Mediterranean
Sea, right into the land of Canaan. It's obvious that Goshen to the
land of promise wasn't that far, but we know what happened. The
Lord knew because of Israel's unbelief and lack of faith in
God that they would see the Philistines and run back to Egypt with their
tail tucked. He led them, the scripture says,
by the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. We're told very
plainly in chapter 13, verse 17, that God led them not through
the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. God was
behind it all. That's my point. God, knowing
them to be the cows they were, led them by the way of the wilderness
of the Red Sea. And according to the map, it's
pretty much the wrong direction to where they were going. But
it wasn't the wrong direction. It was the Lord's direction.
He led them by a pillar of a cloud and a pillar of fire. And there's
something else that I've grown to learn. When you go God's way,
there's gonna be some suffering accompanied with it. Just is,
just the way it is. Israel here in the book of Exodus
is a perfect example of that. They so well picture you and
I. God's way would certainly bring
trials and tribulations their way. Have you had trials and
tribulations, child of God? I bet you have. You see, the
way of God through the wilderness would, in the end, prove who
would enter into the real land of promise. Do you know who they
were? They were the ones that believed God. They are the ones
who, like Abraham, believed God, and it was counted unto them
for righteousness. We don't have to believe God.
Last week we talked about the bitter waters of this wilderness
world in which we live. And God makes this worldly wilderness
in which we live. He makes it bitter. Do you know
why? Because we'd settle down right
in it and never want to leave. But he makes it bitter to his
elect people, and he weans us off this wilderness, desert of
a world in which we live. It's amazing what you can do
on the computer with satellite pictures and all that. I can
call up your house and look at your landscaping pretty much
from a satellite in space. And you do that over there in
this area, and I'm telling you there is nothing but desert for
miles around. Just a vast desert. No cities, no life, no people. They were just passing through.
They were trying to get from here to here, and the thing in
between was the desert. But God's going to prove His
people. So after three days' journey into the wilderness,
they can't find any water until they come to Myra. And the water
they find there is not fit to drink. It's bitter to the taste,
and so is the water of the world. Christ in him crucified makes
it all sweet. What a picture that tree admire
is of Christ, the tree of life, who's cut down and sacrificed
for the sins of his people, who satisfied the wrath of God's
judgment and justice against us. Oh, isn't that a sweet thing? And then in verse 27 we read
this. I am going on into chapter 16
some tonight, but I couldn't just leave this verse. There's
so much there. I never realized how much in
this single verse. First it says in verse 27, and
they came to Elam. That name Elam means a place
in the desert. At face value, that may not mean
much. a place in the desert. But it
means a great deal to one who is in the wilderness. Because
it's a place in the wilderness. Key word there, in. It's in the
desert. Just as Christ is the place for
refreshing and rest for the weary believer, Elam was that place
of rest for Israel. Look at the rest of verse 27.
And they came to Elam where were twelve wells of water and three
score and ten palm trees. That's seventy palm trees. And
they encamped there by the waters. Elam was an oasis. It was a place
of refreshing and rest. That's what Christ is. He's the
believer's refreshing. And He's the believer's rest.
And shady palm trees and wells and waters mean something to
folks who've been walking for miles in the desert. When we
consider what wilderness is around us, and even more importantly,
when we consider the wilderness that's in us, the believer is
compelled to glorify God for Christ because he's a place in
a desert. He is our Elam. Are you a heavy
burden with the bitter waters of your sin? There's rest in
Elam. Christ can take the dead, barren
heart and replace it with a new one. And He says, come, come
to the refreshing waters and shade of Elam, and I'll give
you rest. If you can picture it in your
mind, here comes a million or more with livestock and children
walking in the desert. It gets hot in that part of the
world in the desert. You all know our son, Andrew,
he lives in Saudi Arabia, and he tells me it gets real hot
in the desert, real hot, well over 100 degrees, 110, sometimes
more. And here they are, and they come
up on Elam. Now don't you just imagine, can't
you just imagine when some of them there in the front, saw
that distant glimmer of those palm trees blowing in the hot
wind of the desert. Don't you imagine some of them
broke into a run and just took off toward those palm trees.
You see, if there are palm trees there, there's water there, dry
and thirsty, burning under that hot eastern sun, weary and tired,
They take off running to an oasis of shade and water, and it's
a place in the desert. Christ is a place in the desert. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you
and learn of me, for I'm meek and lowly in heart, and you shall
find rest unto yourself. My yoke is easy, and my burden's
light. A sinner can only find rest in
Him. You know why? Because there's
rest in no other. Not the kind of rest we need.
He is the way. The only way. The truth. The
only truth. That's what that word the does. It distinguishes. He's the way. No other way. The truth. No other
truth. And the life. And He said, No
man cometh to the Father but by Me. Now isn't that just so
plain? But by me. And men say, you've
got to do something. You've got to give Jesus your
heart. No man cometh to the Father but by me. Well, He made it possible. No, sir. But by me. No other way. No other rest.
No other salvation. But by me. No perfect righteousness. But by me. No heaven's glory. But by me. Can you imagine how
you would have felt when you saw this place in the desert?
Let me ask you even a better question. Do you remember how
you felt when you saw Christ? There were 70 palm trees, one
for each of the 70 elders of Israel. And as we know, the number
seven has to do with completion, it has to do with sufficiency,
it has to do with full satisfaction. And it shows us something of
the sufficiency of these provisions that God gave at Eli. There were
12 wells, one for each of Israel's tribe. What a picture of Christ,
our all-sufficient one. He said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. None will be lost, none will
be cast out. That number 12 and its multiples
shows us something of the completion of the people that God saved.
The whole. He saves them all. Not one will be lost. Jesus Christ
is our healer. He's the thirsty sinner's place
in the desert. He gives rest. to the weary and
exhausted traveler. We get exhausted, don't we? We
get tired. We need rest, and He gives that
rest. In times of trouble, times of
weakness, and even lack of patience, we grumble about the bitter waters
of Myra's wilderness, but the Lord makes the bitter water sweet
again, and He gives us Elam, a place of rest in the desert.
You see, the wilderness is no place for life. It has no place
of refreshment. There's no place to rest, no
place to go for peace, no hope for joy, no hope for hope. Elam was just that. It was a
place to rest, to refresh, find joy, peace, and hope. Christ
is my Elam. Elam was given to show what awaited
Israel in the land that flowed with milk and honey, that place
where God would provide all that Israel required. Heaven is glorious
to the believer because it's where Christ is. We rejoice that
he went and prepared a place for us so that where he is, we
may be also. Canaan was a gift to those who
trusted in the giver. All the others who did not trust
God, they perished in the wilderness. Only those under the age of 20,
along with Joshua and Caleb, perish not in the wilderness.
Though the elect of God will be a number that no man can number,
it'll still only be a remnant according to the election of
grace. Only two out of that vast multitude who originally came
out of Egypt, endured, believed God, trusted God's providential
way, until they arrived to Canaan. And that was Joshua and Caleb.
They were the only two men of the original group that believed
and trusted. Out of a couple million people,
how many entered into the land of promise out of the original
group? Two. Men who say they believe
in universal redemption, that God loved everybody, they need
to remember how many there were in the ark when God drowned the
whole world. Eight. Out of ten lepers that
were physically healed by the Lord Jesus one day, how many
of them returned and thanked the Lord Jesus and worshipped
Him. One. There are many called, but few
chose. In Elijah's day, there were many widows who died of
a great famine in the land, but to none of them was Elijah the
prophet sent, except to a widow in the city of Sidon. Wasn't
even a Jewish woman. There were many lepers in Elijah's
day, but none of them Zero were cleansed except Nahum and the
Syrian. As Israel came to Elam, you and
I must come to Christ. We must come by the way of the
Red Sea into the wilderness, through the desert, and we must
come trusting the Lord to provide all that we need. Where are these
weary travelers going to find refreshment? Especially refreshment
in a barren desert. Especially in this religious
world. That's what it all pictures. Where are they going to find
that sweet water and those deep wells that they so desperately
need and long for? They'll find them in Elam, and
Christ is my Elam. Weary travelers come here and
rest. They can refresh in the shade of those big palm trees.
They can drink from the fresh waters of Elam's well. Oh, this
oasis meant something to them, and it will to all those who
are living in a desert. You can hear all the preaching
in the world, every denomination, every religious organization.
When all is dissected and narrowed down, there'll still be two religions
that remain. There'll still be two beliefs
that exist, and one's true and one's not. There's only one thing
that can be true. And the two things are salvation
by works, which is false, or salvation by grace alone, which
is true. And I think that we've been in
this book of Exodus long enough to know that the careful study
of the book of Exodus lets us know that salvation and divine
deliverance are of the Lord. The Lord does the saving. You
know that. I know that. That's our experience. God alone redeemed and delivered
His people out of Egypt, and it's God alone who can redeem
and deliver His chosen people from their sin. We will not be
delivered any other way. Israel cried by reason of their
taskmaster, but they didn't cry unto the Lord. But it was the
Lord that heard them, and they came to Elam. Had they charted
this course? Had they gotten their brilliant
minds together and charted out this place? Well, there's no
aces right up here on the right. No, they came to Elam. It was
the Lord that led them there. The Lord led them and they came
to Elam. Oh, before the foundation of
the world, God chose a people for Himself. It pleased Him to
do so. For no reason outside of Himself.
And it wasn't because those people were larger in number or greater
in character or more holy in their actions. Actually, the
scripture says they were the fewest, and the fewest in every
category. Isn't it amazing that God saves
the worst of the worst? That's what Paul said, of whom
I am chief. It certainly didn't have anything
to do with our works, our merits. It was by mercy and grace of
a forgiving God. Now let me hurry along here and
say that at this point that we're at here in the story, it's only
been about a month or so since they came out of Egypt. They
haven't traveled but a short distance and they found themselves
in chapter 14 helmed in at the Red Sea. And what did they do? First thing they started doing,
murmuring and complaining and arguing and blaming God for their
trouble. And then God delivers them through
the Red Sea on dry ground, and He kills all their enemies. And
they're sitting there looking at their enemies on the shore,
and they start singing, and they start dancing, and they start
rattling their tambourines, and everybody's happy. Well, and
then the next day, they got to get back on the road again. So
they're back in the desert. And their emotions are up and
down. That's the way this world is. Up one minute, down the next. And that's usually the way we
are, if we're honest with ourselves. They get up the next day and
go three days journey in the desert looking for water. And
then they only find Mara's bitter waters. And they're not singing
anymore. They begin to complain against
Moses and say, what shall we drink? It's all about us. What
shall we drink? I don't care what you drink,
Moses. What shall we drink? The contentment of fallen men
and women is as fickle as they themselves are. It's just the
truth. We are so fickle. What a great
mercy contentment is. Great mercy. Okay, look at chapter
16 verse 1. And they took their journey from
Elam, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came
into the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elam and Sinai. And they did this on the 15th
day of the second month after their departing out of the land
of Egypt. Now, they're just getting started on a 40-year journey
here. And what they've already moaned
and complained to the Lord three times that I can count. That's
just what's recorded. I'm sure they were murmuring
and complaining every day. Maybe not to Moses' face, but
probably to each other. So they leave the comforts of
Elam. Oh, don't you know they enjoyed
being there. I love when I'm in Elam, don't you? They leave
the comforts of Elam and they find themselves right back in
the desert, a place called the Wilderness of Sin. And you know
what? Their depravity shows its ugly
head again. It always does. And in verse
2 we read, And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured
against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children
of Israel said unto them, Would to God We had died by the hand
of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots,
and when we did eat bread to the full. For ye have brought
us forth into this wilderness to kill the whole assembly. And
you're going to do it with hunger. You can do it a more cruel way.
You're going to starve us to death. How much like these murmuring
Israelites are we? A lot like them. Natural man
would rather perish in the creature comforts of this God dishonoring
world. They'd rather eat the flesh pots
of sin and drink the refreshing water of Egypt's water pots from
the now gods than to be free from their sin. If God doesn't
divinely intervene and show a man his need, a woman her need of
Christ, they'll perish in their sin. I'm telling you it's so.
You can keep talking about what you're doing for Jesus if you
want to. I'm going to preach Christ and Him crucified, the
sinner's only hope of being reconciled to a thrice holy God. They vindictively
blame God with the intention of their murder by way of hunger. Aren't you glad that God's merciful?
None of us would desire God to give us that which we've earned
or deserved, would we? Israel murmured, God bestowed
mercy. Israel grumbled. God was gracious. Israel deserved wrath. God gave
his grace. Look at verse four. Then said
the Lord unto Moses, behold, I will rain bread from heaven. From heaven for you. We're hungry. God's starving
us to death. We'd rather be sitting by the
flesh pots in Egypt, having a cold glass of water with our taskmasters,
than to be here. And the Lord said unto Moses,
behold, I'll reign bread from heaven for you. And once again,
by glorious substitution, God provides for himself, and God
provides himself as the life-giving bread from heaven. What a gracious
God God is. How soon we forget. They thought
He was gracious on the night of the Passover when God passed
over them who had the blood of the Lamb upon their door. Thought
God was gracious when the Egyptians just came up and started handing
them their possessions. But they didn't think God was
too gracious at the first sign of trouble at the Red Sea. They
said unto Moses, because there were no graves in Egypt, thou
hast taken us out to die in the wilderness. You're just trying
to save grave plots. What a horrible accusation. Didn't
we tell you to leave us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians?
It would have been better for us to build pyramids without
straw for bricks than to die in this God-forsaken desert of
hunger especially. At least in Egypt we had something
to eat. Do you think the Lord heard their
murmuring and their groaning? Well, you know He did. He hears
everything. He hears all ours, too. Oops. We forget that sometimes,
don't we? Yes, God heard them. You better
believe He did. Did He send forth judgment as
He should have on them? No. The Lord's full of pity,
delights in mercy. He opens the heaven and He pours
down great supplies of bread. And He does it every single day
for 40 years. And it suffices their hunger
and it sustains their lives. Again, verse 4, God said, Behold,
I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall
go out and gather a certain rate every day that I may prove them
whether they will walk in My law or no. Child of God, God's
going to prove you. Are you faithful to Christ? Do
you love and trust Him to do everything for you that you cannot
do for yourself? That manna didn't come by human
merit, did it? God rained the bread from heaven.
They had to gather the manna to eat. And Christ is the same
for chosen sinners without them exercising any effort of their
own, but they're responsible to hear the gospel. You've got
to gather it, responsible to hear it. The manna sustained
the lives and bodies of men for a while, but it couldn't keep
anyone from dying. But Christ, the bread of life,
oh my, He is that manna that gives eternal life to all who
eat. He said, I'm the living bread
which 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, which I give for the life of the world. That's
what your Savior said. Can you believe me? This manna
was a day-to-day miracle in the wilderness for 40 years. It was
found every day of the week, six days a week, and it was found
for 40 years through their wilderness march. What a picture of Christ,
our All-Sufficient One. That manna began to fall from
heaven from the time the Israelites arrived in the wilderness of
sin, right here where we're talking, and it continued every morning. to satisfy the daily hunger of
a couple million people for 40 years until they reached the
land of Canaan. I would also want you to consider
briefly that this manna was a gift of unrelenting mercy. Every day,
every day it fell. Israel sinned against the Lord
often, but there was never a day that the manna didn't fall. Salvation
doesn't have anything to do with your faithfulness. It has everything
to do with Christ's faithfulness. Do I deserve manna today? No. But He gives it graciously. He graciously gives it. Look down at verse 35. And the
children of Israel did eat manna forty years until they came to
a land inhabited. They did eat manna until they
came into the borders of the land of Canaan. Child of God,
though we rebel against Him, His mercy to us is not suspended. Though we murmur and complain,
His grace to us still abounds. Though we sin and forget Him,
He will not forget us, and He will never forsake us. That was
another one of His promises. And He proved it to Israel every
single day for 40 years. Morning after morning, mercy
still comes. Mercy still comes. What am I
going to do today? Mercy still comes. Every day. Manna still comes. Day after
day, God's grace is certain and sure. Lord, help me not to grumble. I do my share. Keep me from complaining. How about this? Enable me to
trust your Son. Enable me to trust Christ. I mean really trust Him. It calls
me to daily partake of Him. I need to pick that bread up
and eat it. It's not going to do me any good if it stays on
the ground. It's going to spoil and breed
worms. I've got to gather it. I've got
to eat it. Between Elam and Sinai, God sent
the bread of life from heaven as a provision for His people.
And somewhere between us and Sinai's holy law, our Savior
and Substitute stands as our only provision.