Let us turn to the Word of God
again and this morning to the Book of Exodus and chapter 16
and verse 35. To the Book of Exodus, chapter
16, may the Lord help us as we Consider together this thirty-fifth
verse, 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. Exodus chapter
sixteen, verse thirty-five, 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. In this 16th chapter we find
the children of Israel about a month after they came out of
Egypt, about a month into their journey towards the promised
land. And we see in the early part
of the chapter how quickly they had forgotten what their life
was like in Egypt and how ready they are to look back to Egypt
and almost to think of their life in Egypt as a life of leisure,
a life of luxury. Look at what they say to Moses
and Aaron. They're in the third verse of
this chapter. They had been travelling, as
I say, only for a month. And they had just seen that remarkable
miracle in the previous two chapters, when the Red Sea was divided
and the Lord brought them through the Red Sea and out of the hands
of the Egyptians by a miracle. And in chapter 15 we find them
singing of it and rejoicing over the power of God and over the
providence of God. And yet here, In chapter 16,
what do we find them saying to Moses and Aaron in verse 3? They
say, 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 this whole assembly with hunger. Their life in Egypt was a life
of slavery, wasn't it? It was a life when they had to
labour, to work. There was no rest. There was
no sitting by the flesh pots and eating bread to the full.
And yet, as they look back to that time of captivity and that
time of slavery, they are almost ready to think that it would
have been better for them if they had never left it. how changeable
they are. They had seen the miracles, as
I say, in chapter 14. They had rejoiced over the miracles
in chapter 15. And now here in chapter 16, that
all seems to have been forgotten. They rejoice, and no sooner do
they rejoice than almost in the very next breath they seem to
be complaining against the providence of God and against the works
of God. And there's a warning for us
in their behaviour, isn't it? Because we can very often be
like that. We're so changeable, aren't we?
Hot and cold, says John Berridge, in half an hour. And how quickly
we can change from with these children of Israel rejoicing
in the works of God and in the grace of God to complaining against
those same works and against that same grace and against that
same providence. Would to God, they said, we had
died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt. And this
was really typical of their whole journey, wasn't it? It wasn't
just a one-off, isolated incident. But this complaining, murmuring,
rebellious spirit was seen frequently throughout their 40 years of
journeying. And you remember how Moses, when
he comes towards the end of his life, what does he say? to the children of Israel, he
says, remember and forget not how thou provokest the Lord thy
God to wrath in the wilderness from the day that thou didst
depart out of the land of Egypt until ye came unto this place,
ye have been rebellious against the Lord. Their whole journey
had been a journey of rebellion after rebellion. And again, later
on in that chapter in Deuteronomy, Moses says to them, ye have been
rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you. And it's a wonderful and remarkable
illustration of the grace of God, isn't it, that they ever
came into the Promised Land at all. You remember the giving of the
Ark, just a few chapters later on in chapter 25, when Moses
is instructed concerning the tabernacle and the furniture
of the tabernacle. And the first piece of furniture
that he is instructed to make is the Ark, the Ark of Shittimwood,
overlaid with gold, and he's not just given instructions concerning
the Ark, but he is given this promise, isn't he, that is attached
to the Ark. And the Lord says to him and
to the children of Israel through him, there I will meet with thee,
and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from
between the two cherubims which are upon the Ark of the testimony.
God promises that the Ark would be the place of meeting, and
yet, During the time when Moses is up there in the mountain for
those 40 days and 40 nights, what are the children of Israel
doing? Well, they're making an idol, aren't they? And you can
read how they come to Aaron and they say to Aaron, well, Moses
has gone up to the mountain and he doesn't seem to be coming
back and we can't stay here forever. And so Aaron makes a golden calf
and they begin to worship the golden calf. And Moses comes
down and you remember how the tables of the covenant are broken. And as you read through the following
chapters, you read time and time again about their rebellion and
their idolatry. And yet when you come to the
end of their journey, what do you read in Joshua chapter 3?
They come to the river of Jordan and it's just that river now
that separates them from the promised land. How do they come
across that river? What is it that brings them through
the river? It's the same arc. It's the same arc that Moses
had been instructed to make almost 40 years previously. The same
arc that God attached that promise to, there I will meet with thee.
And it's a wonderful thing, isn't it, that despite all their wandering
and all their rebellion and all their disobedience, the Ark is
still there. God doesn't take the Ark away.
God doesn't take His promise away. But He maintains and sustains
them all through that journey, and the Ark goes across Jordan
before them and brings them into the Promised Land, where we see
that same grace here, don't we? despite their wrong views that
we see in verse three, despite the way that they almost think
that Moses has rescued them from God. They say, would to God we had
died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we
sat by the flesh pots, for ye have brought us forth into this
wilderness, they say to Moses. It's as if they think that Moses
has rescued them from God, and they fail to realise that it
was God that brought them forth, that He delivered them from slavery,
that He brought them out from under the power and the hand
of Pharaoh, and that He brought them into the wilderness. And
yet despite their wrong views, look at how God responds in verse
4. It would have been no surprise,
it would have been quite justified if God had said to them, well,
if that's your attitude, don't think that I'm going to bring
you any further on this journey. This is not a very good start,
is it? You're only a month into it, and you're already looking
to turn back into Egypt? No, says God. Behold, I will
rain bread from heaven for you. They're looking back to Egypt.
They're turning their backs to God. They're complaining against
the providence of God. And this is God's response. Behold,
I will rain bread from heaven for you. And we see that same patience
here in verse 35, don't we? Because that manna, like the
ark, it followed them all through those 40 years of rebellion.
And as it says here, the children of Israel did eat manna 40 years.
until they came to a land inhabited. It was a bread that was miraculously
given. You read in verse 13, it came
to pass that at even the quails came up and covered the camp
and in the morning the dew lay round about the host and when
the dew that lay was gone up Behold, upon the face of the
wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the
hoarfrost on the ground. And when the children of Israel
saw it, they said one to another, it is manna, which literally
means, what is it? Because they didn't know what
it was. And Moses said unto them, this is the bread which the Lord
hath given you to eat. It was a bread that was miraculously
given, and all they had to do was to go out and gather it.
And enough was given for the whole congregation. And as I
say, that bread maintained them and sustained them and preserved
them all through those 40 years of wandering until they came
to the promised land. And every day of the week, apart
from the Sabbath day, the manna was given. It's interesting,
isn't it? This chapter is the first chapter that we have mention
of the Sabbath. There in verse 25, when they
go out on the sixth day and they gather twice as much bread, and
the rulers come and they tell Moses what's happening, and Moses
says, well, tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the
Lord. And there are those that say that this was the institution
of the Sabbath, and therefore they say it's a Jewish ordinance.
Well, that's evidently not true, is it? Because what does the
Lord say to Moses in verse 28? How long refuse ye to keep my
commandments and my laws? See for that the Lord hath given
you the Sabbath. This was something they should
have known. Tomorrow is the rest of the Holy
Sabbath. It was something that they should have known about
already. A creation ordinance, isn't it, the Sabbath? Six days
of work, one day of rest. And so when they go out on the
seventh day, in verse 27, they find no manna. They're given
twice as much on the sixth day to last them through the seventh. This Sabbath that was made for
man. See, says the Lord, the Lord
hath given you the Sabbath. It's something that's given.
It's a gift, the Sabbath. It's not a burden. It's not meant
to be something onerous. It's not meant to be something
that makes us think, oh, here we are again on the Sabbath day.
Isn't it miserable? If we think of it in that way,
we haven't understood what the Sabbath is for. The Sabbath was
made for man. The Lord hath given you the Sabbath,
says the Lord. And we see that same grace, that
same faithfulness here in verse 35. Despite all their undeservedness,
despite their murmuring, complaining, their disobedience, they're looking
back to Egypt. Yet God's faithfulness and God's
provision continues. And you can think of any one
of those rebellions that are given, that are spoken of throughout
the following chapters. And it's an amazing thing, isn't
it? That in each of them, the manna kept coming. And the manna
kept coming. And every day, despite what they
had done the day before, despite how rebellious they had been,
they go out in the morning and the manna is there. And the children
of Israel did eat manna 40 years, until they came to a land inhabited.
And it was given, not even when they asked for it, in our opening
hymn, Perhaps you noticed there is that line towards the end
of the third verse where John Newton says, safe they feed upon
the manna which he gives them when they pray. Well, it's true
that he does give manna when they pray, and it's true that
God does feed his people with spiritual manna when they pray,
but the point here and throughout these 40 years is that he gives
the manna often to those that don't pray. He gives the manna
even to those who don't deserve it. who have done nothing to
deserve it. And the children of Israel did
eat manna forty years until they came to a land inhabited. Well,
this great mass of people that we have set before us here in
this passage, they're a picture, aren't they? The pastor would
say they're a typical people. They represent something else.
They represent the followers of God all down through the ages. You remember how Paul, when he
writes to the Corinthians, he speaks of the children of Israel
and the things that happened to them. And he refers to some
of those things, how they murmured, how they complained, how they
were destroyed of serpents, how they were idolatrous, how they
lusted after evil things. And what does he say about those
things that happened to them? He says, now all these things
happened unto them for examples, for examples, for types. They
tell us something significant. And these things that God does
for the children of Israel and this manna amongst those things,
it's a picture of what God does still for his people today. He fed them all through those
40 years of rebellion until they came to a land inhabited. That's
an interesting expression, land inhabited. It really could be
translated a land of sitting down. In other words, it's a
land of rest. That wasn't true of their journeying,
was it? All through those 40 years in
the wilderness, they had nowhere to rest. They had to keep moving.
They couldn't sit down and relax and make their houses in the
wilderness. There was nothing there to live on. They had to
keep moving from place to place and the pillar of fire and the
pillar of cloud, it led them until they came to Canaan, a
place of sitting, a place of rest. Well, what is the significance
of the place of rest? It's heaven, isn't it? Heaven
is the place of rest, that's the rest that remains for the
people of God. And what do we learn from this
verse? Well, we learn that there is no hope of any one of us coming
to heaven unless we are maintained and sustained by a miracle every
day. The manna came down every day. And it came down by the patience
of God, by the grace of God, by the long-suffering and forbearance
of God. And what does it teach us? Well,
it teaches us that there is no way for any one of us to get
to heaven without God revealing his same patience, that same
grace, that same forbearance and long-suffering. to us, as
he showed to this children of Israel. The children of Israel
did eat manna 40 years until they came to a land inhabited.
Well, what does this manna represent then? Well, it must represent
something. The principle here is that God
provides for his people to maintain them, to sustain them, to give
them life all through their journeys until they come to a place of
rest. Well, what is our manner? What is the manner of the church
today? What is it that God sustains his people with today? And what does this manner teach
us about God's provision for us? Well, you can consider it
in two ways, and you can think first of the Word of God, as
in the written Word of God. Where did this manner come from? Well, as we notice in verse 4,
what God says is, I will rain bread from heaven for you. The
manna came from heaven. It didn't come up from the earth.
It wasn't something that the Israelites had to produce themselves. God didn't just give them instructions
as to how they were to create this manna. No, he says, I will
rain bread from heaven for you. Well, that tells us something
about scripture, doesn't it? and Martin Luther. He said the
Holy Scriptures did not grow on earth. The Holy Scriptures
did not grow on earth. The Holy Scriptures were not
generated by human initiative. That's true of every part of
them. We read that Psalm And you can think of the Psalms,
and we know that the Psalms were born out of David's deep experience,
weren't they? David was not just writing the
Psalms like a typewriter might be used by a man. But he said
these things because he felt them, because he experienced
them. They were born out of his deep
experience. And yet, that experience was
the experience that God gave him. And so the words, they are
not so much David's words as God's words. When he says, I sought the Lord
and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears, that was
true of David. He said it because it was true.
And he said it because he was rejoicing in it. When he says,
O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together,
he says that because he wants others to magnify the Lord with
him and to exalt his name together with him. When he says, O taste
and see that the Lord is good, he says that because he has tasted
that the Lord is good and he wants others to have that same
experience. But these words, these exhortations,
they are God's words. David didn't generate them through
his own initiative. He didn't create that experience
himself that brought those words out of his mouth. I will rain bread from heaven
for you this manner. It was not given by human initiative. It was just there, wasn't it?
It was just there. And when they went out of their
tents every morning, it was just there. It was something that
was given from heaven. There's a very wonderful promise
in Jeremiah's prophecy, where he speaks of the gift of pastors. And what does he say is the work
of the pastor, and it's a wonderful blessing to have a pastor. Some
of you have probably known what it is to have a pastor for a
long time, but I can remember times when I haven't had a pastor.
It is a very wonderful thing. What does the Lord say concerning
pastors in Jeremiah's prophecy, verse 3? I will give you pastors
according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge
and understanding. And that word feed, it really refers to the
way in which the shepherd feeds the sheep. And specifically,
it describes the shepherd taking his sheep to the fields of grass. In other words, when he speaks
of the pastors feeding the sheep with knowledge and understanding,
he's not saying that that knowledge and understanding is something
that the pastors create themselves. The pastor is there to take the
sheep to the place where the food already is. And that's certainly
true of the word of God, isn't it? As I say, it came down from
heaven. The manor was there already,
just as the grass is there in the pasture, before the sheep
come. And we sang about that in our
second hymn, didn't we? Those words of John Berridge.
What did he say about the food that he fed upon? He said, the
people of God, they feel a daily need of Jesus' gracious store,
and on his bounty feed, and yet are always poor, no manna can
they make or keep. The Lord finds pasture for his
sheep, and he does. He finds pasture for his sheep
today in the same way that he provided manna from heaven for
these Israelites so many years ago. The Lord finds pasture for
his sheep. That's the first way in which
the Word of God is like this manna. It came down from heaven.
I will rain bread from heaven for you. And then you can think,
secondly, of the sufficiency of the Word of God. And again,
we have that indicated there in verse four, don't we? What
does the Lord say? Behold, I will rain bread from
heaven for you. Not just that it will come in drips and draps. But there's an indication here
that it will come down in a great abundance. When we talk about
something raining down, we don't mean it's just trickling down.
We mean it's coming down like we would say cats and dogs, wouldn't
we? I will rain bread from heaven for you. There's a wonderful sufficiency
in this manner, isn't there? The children of Israel, they
went out and they gathered it. Verse 16, gather every man according
to his eating, an omer for every man according to the number of
your persons. Take ye every man for them which are in his tents.
And the children of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some
less. And when they did meet it, or measure it with an omer,
he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little
had no lack. They gathered every man according
to his eating. There is a wonderful sufficiency
in this manner. It was an enormous company of
people, wasn't it, that came out of Egypt, 600,000 men, we
read in an earlier chapter, and yet there's enough manna
for all of them. It's sufficient. It gave them
everything they needed. They could live on this manna.
They needed nothing else. He that gathered little had no
lack. They gathered every man according to his eating. Well,
isn't the Word of God wonderfully sufficient? I know we can become so familiar
with it that we can very often read it without reading it. But
haven't you known those times in your own life when there have
been passages that you've been reading through and suddenly
a verse that you must have read hundreds of thousands of times
before, it suddenly seems to spring out at you with a new
and a fresh meaning that you hadn't seen? and a verse that perhaps you
had read before and it just seemed rather dry and historical and
boring and meaningless. Suddenly you see Christ in it
as a wonderful sufficiency in the Word of God. Everything we need, there's no
situation we come into, no decision that we have to make that the
Word of God does not contain guidance on. There's no reason
to go beyond the Word of God. And in fact, That's a very dangerous
thing to do. There were those times when the
children of Israel, they got bored of this bread, didn't they? And we might be amazed at their
ingratitude, but if we're honest, we often make the same mistake.
Look at what they say in Numbers chapter 11. The children of Israel are weeping
and they're saying, who shall give us flesh to eat? And again,
they look back to Egypt and they entirely misremember what their
lives were like in Egypt. We remember the fish, which we
did eat in Egypt freely. They didn't do anything in Egypt
freely. The cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, the garlic.
But now our soul is dried away. There is nothing at all beside
this manna before our eyes. And they look at the manna that
God gives them every morning and they say, well, we're tired
of it now. We want something different.
We want to go beyond it. A manner that was miraculously
given. And what was the result? Well, the result was death, wasn't
it? Well, yes, God answers their prayer. He says you shall not eat. He
says the Lord will give you flesh and you shall eat. You shall
not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days,
nor twenty days, but even a whole month. until it come out at your
nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you, because that ye have
despised the Lord which is among you, and have wept before him,
saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt? And they are given meat to eat
according to their prayer. The quails come and fall about
the camp, but while the flesh was yet between their teeth,
ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against
the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great
plague, They want to go beyond the manna, but the result is
death. And again, not many chapters
further on in Numbers chapter 21, what was it that brought
those fiery serpents among the people to bite them? By which
much people of Israel died, well, it was again the same kind of
attitude. The people spake against God and against Moses. Wherefore
have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?
For there is no bread, neither is there any water, and our soul
loatheth this light bread. That's how they describe the
manna. What they say is light bread. Our soul loatheth it. God patiently, morning by morning,
for 40 years, gives the manna from heaven, and yet this is
their attitude to it. Like bread, how so loatheth it.
Well, it's a terrible thing, isn't it? And yet, it's equally
terrible if we come with the same attitude towards the Word
of God. And if we say, well, we've had the Word of God for
so long, And we've been reading it for so long, isn't it time
we went beyond it? There were those that would encourage
us to do that. No doubt many people, if they saw us meeting
in this chapel and reading this book, they would say, well, isn't
it a bit old-fashioned to still be reading that old Bible? Don't
you want to read something more up-to-date, more modern? Well,
when people come to you with that kind of suggestion, remember
what the result was. when the children of Israel began
to loathe the manner that God sent them from heaven. A terrible
thing to go beyond the word of God, a terrible thing to think
that it's not adequate, to think that it needs to be bolstered
up by our traditions. To say the word of God, it doesn't
so much say this, but we ought to do it anyway. No, the word
of God is sufficient. It's more than sufficient. There's
an abundance here, isn't there? And all through those 40 years
of journeying, the manna was given to keep them alive and
to sustain them, to maintain them. The manna represents the Word
of God. You remember the words of Christ when he spoke of natural
bread? And he said, man shall not live
by bread alone, by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth
of God. Every word that proceedeth out
of the mouth of God. Well, do we feed upon the manna?
Do you feed upon this manna which is here in this book? Upon this
bread of life which is set before us in these pages? One thing
to read it, isn't it? And it's a good thing to read
it, it's a vital thing to read it. You can't feed upon it without
reading it, but it is possible to read it without feeding upon
it. It's impossible for the seed
to bear fruit if it doesn't fall onto the ground, but we do need
the ground to be prepared, don't we? We do need to be given understanding
so that it doesn't fall and just have a temporary effect. like
that seed that fell by the wayside or on the stony ground or amongst
thorns. But we need the ground to be
prepared so that the seed takes root and bears fruit. Jeremiah,
he fed upon it, didn't he? And he rejoices in the Word of
God. And he speaks to us of how he
fed upon that Word. In Jeremiah chapter 15, thy words
were found, he says, and I did eat them. And thy word was unto
me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart, for I am called by thy
name. O Lord, God of hosts, the children
of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land
inhabited. And there is enough in this book,
enough in these pages, to sustain you if you are following God.
no matter how long you may live. They did eat manna until they
came unto the borders of the land of Canaan. Yes, you can
think of it as the word of God in the sense of the written word,
but how much more is it true of the word incarnate? in the
second place. Think of it as it refers to the
Lord Jesus Christ himself, the Word made flesh. That's how John
describes him, doesn't he? At the very beginning of his
gospel, he says, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was
with God and the Word was God. And then as he goes through,
it becomes clear what he's referring to and who he's referring to.
He says, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld
his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth. And just like the written word,
the incarnate word also came from heaven. It came from above. We read it in that passage that
we read in John's gospel, didn't we? This was one of the things
that the Jews were offended at, when Jesus is speaking of himself.
And he refers to himself as the living bread which came down
from heaven. And the Jews are ready to say, well, that can't
be right, because we know this man. It's not this Jesus, the
son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know. How is it then
that he says, I came down from heaven? I am that bread of life, says
Christ. 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, just like this manna did. And again, just like this manna,
there is a sufficiency in Christ, there is an abundance in Christ. He said himself, didn't he, I
am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. And he that believeth on me shall
never thirst. That's one of the differences,
isn't it, between this manner that we have here and what it
represents. It's a picture of Christ, but
it's not a perfect picture. Because this manner, it satisfied these children of
Israel for a time, but not forever. And we know also that many of
them who ate of it, they never came to the Promised Land. It's
not a perfect picture, but it did sustain them as a people
all through those 40 years. But Jesus says, he that cometh
to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall
never thirst. In other words, there has to be a feeding upon
Christ. Just as Jeremiah fed upon the written word, do we
not have to feed upon the word incarnate? Terrible thing if
we are just those who see Christ at a distance. A terrible thing
if we're like those that Jesus speaks to here. Ye also see me
and believe not. There must be a believing, there
must be a feeding upon him. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. To be sustained by him,
to be strengthened by him. There must be a coming, there
must be a believing. This man had to be eaten, didn't he? There's
no use the children of Israel just looking at him. But it had
to be united to them. He came down from heaven and
he is sufficient. They ate this manna 40 years,
and if you'll excuse the expression, there is enough Christ to last
a lifetime. There is no lack in him. There is no inadequacy in him. Again, John Berridge rejoices
in it, doesn't he, at the end of that hymn that we just sang
together. He says, no stock will keep up
on my ground. My all is in thy storehouse found. My all. Charles Wesley, he said
the same, didn't he? Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in thee I find. There is a tremendous sufficiency
in Christ. The children of Israel did eat
manna 40 years until they came to a land inhabited. the beautiful
hymn that's not in Gadsby's hymn book by that Scottish hymn writer,
Horatius Bonar. He says, I have no help but thine,
nor do I need another arm save thine to lean upon. It is enough.
My Lord, enough indeed. My strength is in thy might,
thy might alone. He proved it. The abundance. of sufficiency that there is
in Christ. And it was sweet bread, wasn't
it? Look at how it's described in verse 31. It was like coriander
seeds wiped and the taste of it was like wafers made with
honey. It's a sweet bread, it's a sweet food. Isn't there a sweetness
in Christ? Have you ever tasted the sweetness
that there is in Him? That's what made Charles Wesley
say, thou, O Christ, art all I want, because he had tasted
the sweetness that there is in Christ, an abundance, a sufficiency. Are you hungering and thirsting
after him? Are you hungering and thirsting
after righteousness? Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness, says Christ, for they shall be
filled. Filled with what? Filled with
him. filled with the heavenly manna,
filled with the bread of God that cometh down from heaven.
And it's given freely, isn't it? And the hymn writer says,
if free grace, why not for thee? Even for rebellious Israel. It
sustained them all through those 40 years until they came to a
land inhabited, a land of rest, a land of sitting down. There
is that perfect rest. Heaven is that perfect rest that
God will bring his people to, a land inhabited. And we see
it in the book of Revelation. When we see the church, the glorified
church, that multitude, that great multitude which no man
could number, of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues,
standing before the throne, before the Lamb, clothed with white
robes, palms in their hands, and they cried with a loud voice
saying, salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne
and unto the Lamb. And when the question is asked,
how did these people come here? The answer is, these are they
which came out of great tribulation. and I've washed their robes and
made them white in the blood of the Lamb through the living
bread, through the sustaining bread of God which came down
from heaven. It was that that preserved them, maintained them,
sustained them, strengthened them all through that journey,
all through that time of great tribulation until they came to
a place of rest and again No wonder that wonderful hymn by
William Williams speaks of that same feeding, doesn't it? Bread
of heaven, he says, feed me now and evermore. Let the fiery cloudy
pillar lead me all my journey through, strong deliverer, be
thou still my strength and shield. Still my strength and shield.
The children of Israel did eat manna 40 years. Perhaps some
of them would have looked forward over those 40 years and thought,
well, it seems impossible. If we, we've been given this
bread now a month into our journey, but perhaps they looked forward
to the rest of their journey and they thought, well, however,
are we going to get through it? However are we going to come
to that place of rest? Do you ever think about heaven
like that? However will I get there? This is the only way to
get there. This manna sustained them and
the bread of God can sustain the sinner all through the journey
of life until they come to a land inhabited. No wonder the Sami
said what he did in that 34th Psalm. Oh, taste and see that
the Lord is good. There's no seeing without tasting.
And what is it to taste? What is it to feed? Well, it's
to trust, isn't it? Oh, taste and see that the Lord
is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. The children of Israel did eat
manna 40 years until they came to a land inhabited. They did
eat manna until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan. And we're going to sing again
in a few minutes. in our closing hymn of that same
manner and how the hymn writer, he realised his reliance upon
it. He speaks of the manner that
was given to the Israelites, but now he says, better bread
by far is now to Christians given. Poor sinners eat immortal meat,
the living bread from heaven, We eat the flesh of Christ, who
is the bread of God. Their food was coarse compared
with ours, though theirs was angels' food. The children of
Israel did eat manna 40 years until they came to a land inhabited,
and then they didn't need the manna anymore. And there's another
difference. It's true that the word of God
is given to bring us to heaven. and we won't need it in the same
way when we're there. You know, John Gill, when he's
writing about this verse in Exodus, he says, this signifies that
the children of God are to live by faith upon Christ while they
are in the wilderness of this world, nor will this spiritual
food be wanting to them while in it, but when they are come
to Canaan's land, to the heavenly glory, they will no more walk
and live by faith, but by sight, The word and ordinances will
then cease. Christ will no more be held forth
to them in that way, but they shall see him as he is and behold
his glory. And they came to the promised
land. And there was an abundance there, wasn't it? A land of milk
and honey. That's how the Bible describes it. And the manna now
is not necessary. Their food changed when they
crossed over Jordan, but that won't be true of the Christian.
It's true that we don't need the written word in heaven, but the glory of heaven is still
Christ. The same Christ that the Christian feeds on as they
pass through this journey is the Christ that they will feed
on through eternity. And they shall see his face,
and his name shall be in their foreheads, and they shall serve
him perfectly 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. May God give us to eat of the heavenly food that
is represented by this manna all through our lives, no matter
whether it may be a long or short journey, but bring us safely,
securely to that place of sitting down, that place of rest, that
heavenly Jerusalem. Amen.