Let us turn to the chapter that
we were reading in Exodus chapter 16. Earlier we were in chapter 15
and then we sought to say something with regards to that provision
that God made for the the children of Israel after they had been
brought through the Red Sea. Remember that Moses leads them
three days into the wilderness and they found no water. But
then when the water was found, the water mocked them. It was
bitter water, the waters of Mara. And we considered how those bitter
waters were sweetened when the Lord God showed to Moses a tree
which was to be cast into the bitter waters. And we thought
of the spiritual significance of that, the wood of the cross
of Christ, the sufferings of Christ, that sweetens every bitter
cup. Well now, as we come into chapter
16, we read of the the quails and the manner that
the Lord God sent. And turning to the end of the
chapter, and I'll read again that last paragraph from verse
32. Exodus 16, verse 32. Moses said, this is the thing
which the Lord commandeth, Philanoma of it to be kept for your generations. that they may see the bread wherewith
I have fed you in the wilderness when I brought you forth from
the land of Egypt. And Moses said unto Aaron, Take
a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up
before the Lord to be kept for your generations. As the Lord
commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the testimony to
be kept. And the children of Israel did
eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited.
They did eat manna until they came unto the borders of the
land of Canaan. Newnomer is the tenth part of
an ephah. And really those words that we
just read at verse 35 is what I want to center your attention
upon. How God provides this food throughout
the wilderness wanderings, 40 years. The children of Israel
did eat manna 40 years until they came to a land inhabited.
They did eat manna until they came onto the borders of the
land of Canaan, the land that God had promised to Abraham and
to Isaac and to Jacob. And just a twofold division,
first of all, to say something with regards to the mercy of
the manna, the manifestation of God's mercy, this provision
that he makes for them. And then secondly, the memory,
the memory of the manna. They're not to forget This is
what they're being commanded to do, surely here in this 35th
verse. And in the context, they had
to preserve the pots of manna throughout all their generations. First of all, the mercy. And
this provision was quite amazing. really a remarkable display of
God's mercy in the face of Israel's murmurings. You may have observed
as we were reading through the chapter how many times we read
there of the murmurings. Well, we'll come to those murmurings
just now, but how remarkable really is the miracle that God
is performing for this stiff-necked people. Such a thing surely had
never been seen before. What God does is, in that sense,
quite a remarkable thing. And we see it in the reaction
of the children of Israel. Verse 15, When the children of
Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna. Literally,
what is this? Or, it's a portion. They couldn't
understand it, they couldn't explain it. They wished not what
it was. And then Moses says to them,
this is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. It was something that they never
had any previous experience of. It was a remarkable provision.
And doesn't the Psalmist speak of it in rather striking terms
there in the 78th Psalm. In Psalm 78 at verse 24, following,
God drained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of
the corn of heaven. Man did eat angels' food. He sent them meat to the full.
He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven, And by his power
he brought in the south wind, he rained flesh upon them as
dust, and feathered fowl like as the sand of the sea. Not only
the provision of the manna, but the quails also. This remarkable
thing that God is doing. But we're thinking in particular
of this manna that they cannot explain. And in a sense, what
God is doing, the miracle is enhanced, because if they were
to keep it overnight, it would begin to stink. It would be of
no use to them. And yet, on the sixth day, if
they kept it, it would be edible the next day. God's hand is in
all that we're reading here. Here is God, of course, teaching
them the truth of the Sabbath day. Remember the fourth commandment. Remember the Sabbath day to keep
it holy. Now that commandment doesn't
come till the 20th chapter. And here, of course, we're in
chapter 16. We're reading of events before they came to Mount
Sinai. They've come now into the wilderness
of sin. They're traveling from Elim,
they're going towards Sinai, they're in the wilderness of
sin. And the Lord is making this provision
that He carefully guards the seventh day, because there'll
be no manna to gather on that day. And we're told in verse
29, see, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, Therefore
He giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days, that by
you every man is in his place, that no man go out of his place
on the seventh day." It's quite clear that the Sabbath is not
something that is first promulgated from Mount Sinai in the Fourth
Commandment. It's a creation ordinance of
course. It's what God ordained from the beginning. Remember
the opening words of Genesis chapter 2. God had finished all
His creation in six days and then He sanctifies the seventh
day. He sets that day apart as a day
of rest. Here is God then making that
remarkable provision for His people and The amount is measured according
to every man's requirements, according to every man's eating.
It's just as much as he would need from day to day. And then a certain quantity of
it, as I said, is to be preserved. Verse 32, This is the thing which
the Lord commandeth. Fill an omer of it to be kept
for your generations. that they may see the bread wherewith
I have fed you in the wilderness when I brought you forth from
the land of Israel. Oh how good God is and how very
good God is when we think of the circumstances because what
are these people? They are people who are forever
murmuring and complaining. God performed a miracle in order
to bring them through the Red Sea. There were the armies of
Pharaoh pursuing them and they've come to the Red Sea and the waters
are before them, the mountains each side of them, there's no
way. And surely the Egyptians are going to overwhelm
them. And they're fearful. And they
begin to murmur. There in chapter 14. In verse
11 they say to Moses, because there were no graves in Egypt,
hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore
hast thou thus with us to carry us forth out of Egypt? But God in his goodness makes
a way through the Red Sea. and destroys the pursuing armies
of Pharaoh. And as we read this morning there
in chapter 15, we have that great song of Moses, that great song of
triumph. Moses sang, and the children
of Israel, this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will
sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse
and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. All they glory
in what God hath done. And yet, even after that great
deliverance, when they're led forth from the Red Sea and they
go into the wilderness, again they begin to murmur and to complain. We saw it this morning. They come to the waters, and
the waters at Mara are bitter waters, and they murmur. They
murmur, they're full of unbelief. And yet not long previously they
seemed to be full of faith. At the end of chapter 14, when
they saw the great work that the Lord did upon the Egyptians,
the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord. and his servant
Moses. What fickle, changeable creatures
these people are. And God performs that miracle
that we were thinking of this morning, making the bitter water
sweet. And yet when we come into this
16th chapter, at the beginning we can continually read of their
murmurings. Verse 2, 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 he had brought us forth into
this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Well,
it's not going to be the Egyptians that are going to overwhelm us
there at the Red Sea. No, God has delivered them from
that, but they're going to die now of hunger. And so they continue
their murmurings. Their murmurings against Moses
and against Aaron, but really their murmurings against the
Lord God. And it's the whole congregation. And God is so, so merciful. He says there at verse 4, 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 him whether
they will walk in my law or not. But will they walk in the ways
of God? No, still they will be a people
so disobedient. And we see the disobedience of
course. Initially there are those who
want to hoard it overnight and then at verse 20 it spread worms
and stank. And then when it comes to the
sixth day when they are to receive a double portion because they
are not to go out on the seventh day, what do they do? They are
still so disobedient to the commandment of the Lord. There went out some
of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found
none, we are told. And the Lord said unto Moses,
How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws? Oh, what a people is this! God
performs miracles for them, God does wondrous works, they see
the works, they are the recipients of His goodness, they murmur
against Him, they complain, they disobey, And yet, God is so merciful. But you know, in a sense, there's
a method. There's a method in the mercies
of God. Because He doesn't only provide
them with the manner, He also provides them with the quails,
doesn't He? Verses 12 and 13 God says, I
have heard the mermaids of the children of Israel speak unto
them, saying that even you shall eat flesh, and in the morning
you shall be filled with bread, and you shall know that I am
the Lord your God. And it came to pass that at even
the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning
the Jew lay round about the host. Not only the provision of bread
from heaven, but these quails, these living creatures. Remember the words of the Lord
Jesus. He tells us, doesn't he, that the sparrow cannot fall
to the ground without your heavenly Father. And the word that you
say, the sparrow falling to the ground, isn't a reference to
the death of the sparrow. It's a reference to the way in
which the bird comes to the ground to find its food and its preserve. It flies away and it comes again
and it obtains its food. All the days of the bird's life
it's provided for. God is watching over its every
movement. And God of course is watching over these quails, his
creatures, and they serve his purpose. Now this morning I referred
to the commentary really of Joseph Hall in what's called his Common
Contemplations. And it's a commentary really
on the historic parts of the Old Testament. And I find his
comments so judicial, so good really. And he comments in this
way with regards to these quails. He says, how ashamed might these
Israelites have been to see these creatures, these birds, so obedient
to their Creator, as they come and offer themselves to their
slaughter. Here they are, you see, and they
come over the camp, as we saw there in verse 13. They came
and covered the camp. And this is them coming at the
bidding of God and they're providing food for these disobedient and
murmuring children of Israel. Oh friends, God is in this. Though we not to recognize that
all of God's dealing speak to us, the Lord's voice crieth unto
the sitter, The man of wisdom shall see thy name, hear you
the rod, and who has appointed it, whatever the Lord does, even
when God seems to go contrary to us, when God crosses us, when
God chastises us. There's a voice in it, the Lord
deals with his people. And what does he teach us? We
have to live daily by faith, don't we? Remember how the Lord
tells us how to pray, He teaches us in that pattern of prayer
what should be the content of our prayer. And we are to pray
for our bread, give us this day our daily bread, is what we read
in Matthew 6 and verse 11. But on that other occasion, It
is a separate occasion spoken of in Luke 11. The instruction
is somewhat different. Give us day by day our daily
bread. Oh yes, it's daily bread, sufficient
to the day, just as the manna was sufficient for each day.
But it's also daily, because it comes day after day after
day after day. This is how God works. He makes
that provision for His people as it is necessary. He sees what
they stand in need of and He opens His hands and supplies
that need. Here in verse 4 He says, I will
rain bread from heaven for you and the people shall go out and
gather at certain rates every day that I may prove them whether
they will walk in my law or not. Oh friends, are we those who
would desire to walk by faith and not by sight. Remember when
they come to the end of all these wilderness wanderings. There
in the book of Deuteronomy the end of the wanderings has come.
What do we read? Those words in the 8th chapter
and verse 3 2 Thou shalt remember all the way
which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness,
to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine
heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no.
3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee
with manna, which thou knewest not. 4 Neither did thy fathers
know that she might that he might make thee know that man doth
not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out
of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. For this is the Lord's
doing, who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers
knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove
thee to do thee good at thy latter end. We read there in the 16th
verse of that chapter. God's dealings with his people,
his merciful dealings, in spite of all their provocations, and
our sin is a provocation unto the Lord, and how long-suffering
and merciful the Lord is, not dealing with us after our sins,
and not rewarding us according to our iniquities. Well, what
are we to do? were to take heed of these things.
I mentioned this morning how that it's these things that are
taken up by the Apostle Paul there in 1 Corinthians chapter
10. Remember how in the opening verses we read the verses this
morning. In the opening verses of that
10th chapter he speaks quite specifically of this food that
the Lord provided for them in the wilderness. the meat from heaven, the drink
that they received, that God followed them all their days.
And then we're told, aren't we, that these things happened unto
them for ensamples. And they're written for our instruction
upon whom the ends of the world are come. All this history that
we have in the Old Testament It belongs to us in this gospel
day, the ends of the earth, the ends of the world. We have to
compare spiritual things with spiritual. There are spiritual
lessons to be learned even from God's providences. We're reminded
of that in the 107th Psalm. The man who is wise will observe
these things. Whoso is wise will observe these
things, even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord.
says the Psalmist. Here then we see a remarkable
display of God's mercy because he provides for a people
who are always murmuring, complaining, disobedient and he provides for
them in remarkable, even miraculous ways. But turning in the second
place to to the memory of the manna they were to make a pot of the manna for all their generations it
says in verse 32 again in verse 33 this is Moses
to Aaron take a pot and put an armour full of manna
therein and lay it up before the Lord to be kept for your
generations. And of course when we come to
the New Testament and there in Hebrews chapter 8 where Paul
is speaking about certain pieces of furniture that were kept in
the tabernacle He mentions, it's Hebrews 9 rather, Hebrews chapter
9, he mentions the golden pot that had manna. The golden pot
that had manna preserved. It was a memorial. It was there
that they might remember. Now what are they remembering? Well of course, they're remembering
something from the past. They're remembering, this is
the children of Israel, they're remembering something from their
own history as a people. It's clearly pointing backwards
to what happened to their fathers. The children of Israel did eat
manna 40 years until they came to a land inhabited. They did
eat manna until they came onto the borders of the land of Canaan. They're reminded then of God's
amazing provision for them. He says again in chapter 29 of
Deuteronomy verse 5, I have led you 40 years in the wilderness. Your clothes are not waxen old
upon you, and thy shoe has not waxen old upon thy foot. You
have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strung
drink, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God." Oh,
He makes provision. They don't do anything. They
don't sow any seed, they don't harvest any crops. They're nomadic
people, they're wandering about, but the Lord is continually making
provision for them. What a reminder of God's providence. And that's to live, you see,
this life of faith. We think of that remarkable passage
in the prophecy of Habakkuk. Those lovely words that we have
there in the third chapter. Verse 17, Although the fig tree
shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labour
of the olive shall fail, the field shall yield no meat, the
flock shall be cut off from the fold, there shall be no herd
in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the
God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength,
and he will make my feet like hind's feet and he will make
me to walk upon mine high places and then that sentence to the
chief singer on my stringed instrument is a song of praise and a thanksgiving
to all that the Lord does when everything fails in nature that
the Lord makes provision for his people oh what a God is this
God, they had to remember this Did they remember these things?
No, they soon forgot his works. That's what we read there in
the 106th Psalm, a Psalm that speaks very much of their murmurings
and God's mercies. They soon forgot his works. And are not we all so prone to
forget? We forget so much. we overlook
so much. And the Lord in His wisdom of
course tells us that we should remember. He understands us in
good measure. Why has He not given us a memorial
feast? What is the Lord's Supper? The Lord says to His disciples
as He institutes that Holy Supper this do in remembrance of me.
how we need to be reminded because we forget you cannot really cast
stones at these Israelites we know better than they we forget
so much of what God has done and I dare wonder whether the
Lord didn't institute such an ordinance as that Holy Supper
because if we didn't have that we'd even forget all that the
Lord Jesus Christ accomplished by His blessed death upon the
cross. We need to be reminded. We need
to look back. We need to have that backward
look. But also, surely there is a forward
look here. It's not just God's provision
that will aid them and help them to remember God's goodness to
them historically, is there not a promise in these things? Aren't
all of these things really pointing forward to the New Testament?
Are they not directing us to the Lord Jesus Christ? Isn't
Christ in all the Scriptures? When the Lord says to the Jews,
search the scriptures in them ye think that ye have eternal
life these are they that testify of mine isn't Christ here in
the manor? well the Lord makes it quite
clear that that is the case remember the language of Christ there
in the sixth chapter of John where he speaks of himself as
that bread that has come down from heaven. There in John 6
at verse 32, then, said Jesus unto
them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that
bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from
heaven. All the Lord Jesus Christ is
that one who is the true bread from heaven. Again at verse 48
he says, I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in
the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am
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 will give for the life of the world. Oh, the Lord Jesus, He looks
back at these things, and He brings out the significance of
them, the promise of God that's in them. This manner that they're
partaking of, it was a dead thing, really. It would putrefy. It would breed worms, it would
stink. That's what we are told of it
here in verse 20. But the Lord Jesus Christ is
that ever-living, that everlasting bread that has come down from
heaven. What did the manna do? It sustained
their physical lives. That was the purpose of it. It
was a provision for their bodily good. All the days of their wilderness
wanderings they were able to partake of
it as their daily bread. sustaining their physical life.
But Christ is that one, of course, who comes to sustain the spiritual
life of his people. Listen to the words again of
Christ, there in that sixth chapter of John, in verse 48. He says, I am that bread from
heaven I am that bread from heaven again
at verse 58 this is that bread which came
down from heaven not as your fathers did eat manna and are
dead he that eateth of this bread shall live forever all this this
is meat you see for the soul this is that that brings nourishment
to the soul of the sinner, it's feeding upon the Lord Jesus Christ. But what does it mean to partake
of this bread? We partake of it by faith. Doesn't
the Lord say as much in that same chapter? They come to the
Lord and say, what shall we do that we may inherits eternal
life, what shall we do that we might work the works of God,
they say. And he says this is the work
of God that you believe on him and me have sent. It's faith, it's believing on
that one who has been sent, the true bread that has come down
from heaven. Well that's the Lord Jesus. It's not their own work. They
speak of works. What shall we do to work the
works of God is their question. But there's no work to be done. If salvation is of grace, it's
no more of works. If salvation is of works, it's
no more of grace. These are exclusive one of the
other. What is the Lord saying then?
When he answers that question, what shall we do that we might
work the works of God? The work of God is this, that
you believe. Oh, it's that faith, and it's
that faith that can only come by the operation of God. I am the bread of life, he that
cometh unto me shall never hunger, he says. He that believeth on
me shall never thirst. The coming is equivalent to the
believing. They are one and the same thing.
It's looking to Christ. Well, this is what the Lord has
done. And now it's so necessary that there is a right feeding
upon Him, that remarkable passage in that sixth chapter, verse
53, where the Lord says, except ye eat the flesh of the
Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso
eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life,
and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat
indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh,
and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the Living
Father hath sent me, I live by the Father. So he that eateth
me even he shall live by me." What is the Lord speaking of
here? It has nothing at all to do, of course, with the Romish
doctrine of transubstantiation, where they imagine that the priest
is able to change the wafer on the altars of Rome into the body
and blood, the soul and divinity of Christ, and the poor benighted
people imagine that when they receive the wafer, they are literally
eating the flesh of Christ. No, it's a spiritual feeding.
It's a spiritual feeding. He that cometh to me, says Christ,
shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. Or the coming to satisfy the
hunger is the believing that is there where we eat the flesh
or drink the blood it's partaking of Christ and the remarkable
thing is this bread that has come down from heaven this heavenly
manna comes to us so freely when Christ says I am that bread of
life oh how freely it comes and yet there is a cost and who is the one who meets
the cost? it's the Lord Jesus Christ when we think of bread
in Isaiah 28 and verse 28 we read those words bread corn is
bruised bread corn is bruised how is the corn produced? Well, of course, it's wheat. And the wheat has to be harvested,
and when it's harvested it has to be flayed, it has to be winnowed, there has to be that separation
of the chaff from the grain, and the grain has to be taken
to the miller, it has to be milled, ground in the mill, and then
it must be taken and baked in the oven and all to produce bread. And you think of the significance
of all of that with regards to the Lord Jesus Christ and all
of His sufferings. Bread corn is bruised, we're
told there in Isaiah 28, 28. And then when we come to the
great 53rd chapter, He was bruised. and he was bruised for our iniquities. All the manner it comes so freely,
it falls to the ground, it's there, they get up in the morning,
it's available. It's God's doing. But God has
done a more glorious thing, of course, in the Gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ. when He came down from heaven,
all the work He came to accomplish. It's all the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ and His obedience. His obedience unto death, even
the death of the cross. As these Israelites say, continually
were falling short. They were not keeping God's commandments. They were not walking in accordance
with His statutes. They were forgetful. They were
murmuring. They were complaining. But friends,
are we any different? Or are we any different to these
people? Are we not tainted with the same sins? But
God has made that wondrous provision for sinners in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That bread that has come from
heaven and set before us so freely as a glorious feast in the gospel
of the grace of God. Oh, the Lord grant that we might
be those who know what it is to eat His flesh, to drink His
blood, to be those who have such a living union with Him and rejoice
to commune with Him and to come and to continually pour out our
hearts before Him. Oh, the Lord then be pleased
to bless His Word to us. Amen.