Let's go back tonight to Exodus. And we'll go to chapter 16. And I want to talk to you about
bread that rained down from heaven. Bread that rained down from heaven.
I'll get more into the subject of the manna that God sent. That will be next Wednesday night.
But this will kind of serve as an introduction to that subject. One of the things that we will
see, and we're already beginning to see, based upon what we studied
last Wednesday night, in the wilderness journeys of Israel,
our Lord continually met their needs. And he met their needs with fresh,
fresh supplies of mercy. They never really lacked for
anything. And it wasn't that they had everything
they wanted, but they had everything they needed. And when they got
thirsty, when they came to the waters of Marah, which were bitter,
God provided a a healing balm for the waters. He sweetened the waters of Merah
so that they enjoyed drinking it. And then they went just a
few days' journey and they went to Elam. And there God refreshed
them. They sat under the palm trees. They enjoyed the wells of water
there. Oh, how merciful and good the
Lord is to his people. We all have times of trial, times
of difficulty, but we also enjoy wonderful seasons of Elam when
we sit under the palm trees of our God and we eat of the fruit
of his mercies and grace given to us through that tree of life,
the Lord Jesus Christ. We sit under the shadow of his
wings and we enjoy times of quietness, times of rest, and then we must
continue with our journey that is through the wilderness. But
we know this, our God is always faithful, isn't he? He has abundant
supplies of mercy for us. He often tested Israel. He did back in chapter 15. If
you'll notice in verse 25, Moses cried unto the Lord when he was
at Myra, the bitter waters. And the Lord showed him a tree.
The Lord manifested to him a tree. I don't know how many trees there
were in the area. There were acacia trees, shidum
trees. There were also some cedar trees
to be found. And I suspect that this tree
that the Lord showed Moses appeared to be just like any other tree. This tree is a picture of our
Lord Jesus in his incarnation. He appeared before the eyes of
men and women to be just like one of them. There was nothing
special about him. Isaiah writes in chapter 53,
there was no beauty about him that we should desire him. He
didn't stand out from anybody else as far as appearance was
concerned. Little did most of those people
know walking amongst them was that one who's the very tree
of life. He's the one who under his shadow
we find rest for our souls. He is the one who provides abundantly
for us. He is our savior himself. God showed him a tree. Thank God He showed us Christ,
the tree of life. What a revelation of grace. What
a revelation of God to our souls. When He took the blindness away
and we beheld the beauties of the Son of God, and we learned
from the scriptures of His sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary, And
we found out this is the Savior of sinners and the Spirit of
God convinced us this is the Savior we need. And the grace
of God only flows to poor sinners through this one. Before we thought
perhaps a little of Jesus, but God the Spirit gave us eyes to
see something of His glory, the glory of God shining in His face. And suddenly the bitterness even
of our sin under conviction, suddenly our hearts were filled
with sweetness, the sweetness of grace, the sweetness of the
full pardon for our sins, the sweetness of being made the very
righteousness of God in Him. Moses saw a tree. He took that
tree and cast it into the waters, and the waters were made sweet.
As I advised you last week, and I advise me and you again tonight,
Oh, cast the sweet, sweetened tree of the gospel into any and
every trial that you face. The gospel, the gospel of the
grace of God will get you through anything. Any trial you face,
the gospel will sweeten it. Doesn't mean that the Lord, that
he'll automatically take the trial away. The trial may very
well be there, but he'll sweeten it. He'll sweeten it. And it'll be beneficial to you.
Now look the rest of that verse. There he made for them a statute
and an ordinance. And there he proved them. There he tested them. And they failed the test. How many times has your faith
been tested and you didn't fare too well in the final score? And we all have to admit, so often in the tests of life
that God sends us, We don't do very well. We're like the Israelites. In verse 24, they murmured against
Moses. They murmured, they fussed and
complained. They said, what shall we drink? But even in times of our murmuring,
even in times of this failure during the testing, Our God doesn't
forsake us. He doesn't say something to the
effect, have your own way, you made your bed, now go ahead and
lie in it. No, time and time again, as he
did with Israel, though they murmured against him, he was
always faithful. Such is the case with the passage
before us tonight in chapter 16, verse 1. And they took their
journey from Elam. And all the congregation of Israel
came into the wilderness of sin. And when it uses the word sin,
it's not in a doctrinal way. The word sin here means thorny. It's a thorny place, lots of
thorn trees, which is between Elam and Sinai on the 15th day
of the second month after their departing out of the land of
Egypt. And so now we know we have kind
of a frame of time now. They've been gone, it's been
about one month since Passover, just one month. Before this they sang the song
of Moses, the song of redemption. Apparently the men sang first
and then the women. Miriam led the women in singing
and they all praised the Lord together. And then they came to the bitter
waters. And once again, or to begin with,
that was their first murmuring, they complained against God's
providence. And now they come to between
Elam and Sinai in the wilderness of sin in a thorny place. And you and I know thorny places
are not comfortable places. I used to pick blackberries up
at Nancy's mom and dad's house, and they had beautiful blackberries,
but they come at quite the price when you're picking them. You're
gonna pick out a lot of thorns out of your hands. Well, they
were in a thorny place. And verse two, and the whole
congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses
and Aaron in the wilderness." Now when it says the whole congregation,
I think we can take that as the word is usually used in the Scriptures,
the biggest majority of them. They began to all murmur and
complain together. They fussed against God's providence. And not just, now I know this
was a big thing as far as they're hungry now, but the scripture
says it's the little foxes that spoil the vines. Don't you find
that even, not just the big things of life that we tend to get upset
over, but little things, little foxes. They'll get you. And we all know that. But the
whole congregation, the biggest majority of the people murmured
against the Lord. Now, we know this, that Israel
as a nation, they stand as a picture of another nation. The physical
nation of Israel portrays the spiritual nation of Israel, that
is, the covenant people of God that He gave to the Lord Jesus
Christ in the everlasting covenant of grace. We are God's true Israel. Like the nation of Israel, we
were chosen in a covenant. Now the covenant that God made
with Abraham for the natural nation of Israel concerned physical
things, physical mercies, physical obedience. But it wasn't a spiritual covenant. It did not involve, for instance,
being obedient would mean salvation. None of that. None of that. But he did let God enter into
a covenant with Abraham. And the reason that even though
they murmured before God over and over again, the reason that
God kept faithful to his covenant is because God cannot lie. And he entered into a covenant
with Abraham 430 years before this. And God will keep His covenant. God will always fulfill His promises
and His threats because He can't lie. But the nation of Israel
stands as a picture of spiritual Israel. We're a chosen people,
chosen in Christ before the world began. Israel was a redeemed
people. Redeemed by price. Price being the blood of the
Passover lamb. We are a chosen people and a
redeemed people, but we were redeemed with the blood of the
lamb of God. God's blood, Paul said in Acts
20 and 28. He said to the elders, feed the
church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
Whose blood was it? It was God's blood. That's the
God-man's blood. What did it take to satisfy infinite
justice, an infinite price being paid, and only an infinite person
could pay it? That's the Son of God. We're
redeemed. We didn't have anything to do
with that. No work was involved on man's
part in that. Saved by price and then saved
by power. God opened up a way through the
Red Sea for the Israelites. And I'll tell you, God's work,
His gospel is a saver of life and a life for some and death
unto death for others. You see, the death of our Lord
Jesus Christ at the cross of Calvary, There's life and death seen there. There's victory, there's triumph,
there's also the conquering, and there's the bloody demise
of the enemy there. Surely the blood of Christ washed
our sins away, brought in everlasting righteousness for us, but there
was a battle, a war that happened at the cross, and the old serpent,
That destroyer of the souls of men, his head was crushed by
the Savior then. Redeemed by power, just like
Israel was redeemed by power. Brought out of Egypt through
the Red Sea. Who parted the sea? Who made
a way through the sea? God did. And who parted a way for us? all the way to glory. Who paved
that way? Christ our Lord. He said, I'm
the way, the way, the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh
unto the Father but by me. And then the test that they faced
were designed by the Lord and purposed by the Lord for them. When they wound up at the bitter
waters of Marah, do you think that was failure to understand
the map? The Lord led them there. Well
Jim, didn't the Lord know there was bitter waters there? He made
the waters bitter. He's the first cause of all things. The path that the pillar of cloud
by day and the pillar of fire by night, the path that God ordained
that the angel of the Lord led them, it led them right to that
bitter water. And if you're facing a bitter
water situation in your life, that bitter water didn't get
there by accident. And you didn't get there because
of a wrong turn. You're there because God has
purposed it. And that's where the gospel of
the grace of God, the sweet tree of the gospel comes in. That'll
sweeten things for you. But the tests that they faced
were designed and purposed by God for them. Which revealed,
watch it now, two things. It revealed their weakness. And it revealed the strength
and the goodness and the kindness and compassion of God in meeting
the need. They murmured. They murmured
saying, what should we drink? And then they murmured because
it didn't have anything to eat. Look at the third verse of chapter
16. And the children of Israel said
unto them, would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord,
by the hand of Christ, that's Jehovah, In the land of Egypt,
when we sat by the flesh pots and when we did eat bread to
the full, they acted as if they had it made in Egypt, that they
had lots to eat, it was comfortable, had a wonderful buffet every
day. Go down to the golden corral
and you don't even have to pay. It's just wonderful. And they said, for you have brought
us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly.
And they said, we wish that we had died by the hand of the Lord. But now wait a minute. Go back
here into chapter 15. Just a few days before this,
they were singing a different song about the hand of the Lord. Thy right hand, O Lord, O Christ,
O Redeemer, O Messiah, O Savior, thy right hand, O Lord, has become
glorious in power. Thy right hand, O Lord, hath
dashed in pieces the enemy, and now see how they change. They've just done an about face. We wish we'd have died by the
hand of the Lord in Egypt. And yet God put up with them. And I must be honest with you,
I'm so thankful that God puts up with us. We're not much different from
these folks. Not much different. Would to God we had died by the
hand of the Lord. And then in verse four, then
said the Lord unto Moses, and you almost wanna just say, uh-oh,
here it comes. Behold, I will reign, and you
almost think it's gonna be like it's read back in the book of
Genesis. Fire and brimstone from heaven. But he's not gonna do that to
his chosen people. No, not gonna be that way. He says, I will rain bread from
heaven for you. Oh, the goodness of our Lord. He is full of mercy. Full of
mercy. Here's Israel in the desert,
they have no food. They're fussing. But again, I
remind you, the Lord has led them to this place. Turn to Nehemiah. Look at the book of
Nehemiah, chapter nine. Nehemiah chapter nine. Find Job, back up to Esther,
back up to Nehemiah. Nehemiah chapter nine. Couple of verses here. Nehemiah
nine, verse 12. And I'll back up to verse 11. Nehemiah 9, 11, and thou didst
divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst
of the sea on dry land, and their persecutors thou threwest into
the deeps as a stone into the mighty waters. Moreover, thou
leadest them in the day by a cloudy pillar, and in the night by a
pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they
should go." You see, when they went to the
bitter waters of Merah, that was the way they should go. That
was the way. And then they go to Elam, and
then they leave Elam, heading towards Sinai, out into a thorny
wilderness, That's the way that they were to go. And I don't
know the way that you're taking now. I mean, we've got several
people here tonight, people who are watching. There may be obstacles in the
way, there may be events that are happening that disappoint
you. Know this, God is sovereign and
in control over every single thing. The direction you're going, the
event that is happening that's perhaps disappointing you or
upsetting you, it may be a sickness, it may be something else, some
need that you have, it's the way that God is leading you. I know we all take the same route
to glory. Christ is the way. But during our wilderness journeys,
Your path is unlike mine, and mine is unlike yours. There are
obstacles that you will face that I won't face. But I know
this, as God led us to Israel, so he's leading us. Look at verse
19. Back up to verse 18. Nehemiah 9, still verse 18, Yea,
when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is thy God
that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations, yet thou in thy manifold mercies
forsookest them not in the wilderness. Oh my soul, how compassionate
is our God. The pillar of fire departed not from them by day to lead them
in the way, neither the pillar of fire by night to show them
light and the way wherein they should go. The Lord never forsakes his people. That's one thing I want you to
take away from this message tonight. He will not forsake his people. Even though the Israelites were
really, they were chronic murmurers. That's what they were, they were
chronic murmurers. They didn't think they deserved
anything like this. In fact, you follow their history.
They always felt like they were a people of entitlement. That's how they felt. In the
Gospel of John, John chapter 8, what did they say to our Savior? We're Abraham's children. Don't
you know who we are? We're entitled. And I'm sure
these people said, we don't deserve all of this. We don't deserve
bitter waters. We don't deserve to being hungry
out here in this thorny desert. We're God's chosen people. I hear a lot of people today
clamoring about having their rights. I heard a lady on television
the other day said, I'm entitled to health insurance. I don't
know who said that. I don't know where you got that
from. We're a people of entitlement. I got news for her and for everybody,
and for anybody who'll listen to me. About the only thing we
got coming to us is death, hell, and an eternity of being forsaken
by God. That's what we got coming. You
want your rights? We have a lot of mercies. Say,
Jim, don't you know anything about the Bill of Rights? I know,
I know. And I'm thankful for the privileges
we had. But don't get up on your hind
legs and start yelling about how you got all these rights. I tell you, what you've got is
the people of God. You got the mercies of a covenant
God. That's what you got. You got
the Lord to lead you and guide you. He is leading you in the
way and he's keeping you in the way, in the way of grace and
in the way of salvation. These people were chronic murmurers. Numbers 11. Let me show you this,
Numbers 11. I read in this reference this
morning and had an interesting footnote in the translation I
was reading, Numbers 11, verse 1. And when the people complained,
it displeased the Lord. And the Lord heard it, and His
anger was kindled. And the fire of the Lord burnt
among them and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts
of the camp. when the people complained. And
the footnote on this verse says, they were complainers. You see,
back in chapter 15, and there at the beginning of 16, they
murmured. They said, well, that was just
kind of a one-time thing, or maybe just a couple of times.
Oh, they were chronic complainers. They just couldn't be happy.
They couldn't be satisfied. Unless they're sitting in Edlam
from now on. As long as they can be in Edlam.
Well, I can enjoy this now. This is a whole lot better. Don't be a chronic complainer. You know, we would do well to
remember that our God's the first cause of all things. He's the
first cause. And I know he uses people, and
sometimes people do things or say things that
hurt us, and we wanna get some vengeance on them. And you see,
these people, when they came to the bitter waters, When they
were out there in the wilderness, the thorny wilderness, who did
they go after? Moses. Because it couldn't get
to God. And I'll tell you what, the one
they were really angry with and the one they murmured against
was the one who was leading Moses. And Moses could say to them,
hey, I didn't lead you here. Don't get upset with me. And what we need to remember
is when we're unhappy and disgruntled by circumstances or events that
are in our path that we must experience, Don't get upset that
the people that God uses in bringing about these things. Remember,
God's first cause of all things, so don't even, certainly don't
get upset with him. But that's really, that's really
the one who's the, even through the history of Israel
in Egypt, The Lord raised up an evil Pharaoh,
didn't He? The Lord did. I don't know why He did that. To
fulfill His purpose. And I don't know if you've run
into an evil Pharaoh. Just remember the King's heart
is in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water, He turneth
it whithersoever He will. And that passage that I read
just before I preached to you, he turned the hearts of the Egyptians
against Israel. And then they began to cry unto
the Lord. And when they cried unto the
Lord, he heard them. He heard them. And I'll tell
you, you follow their wilderness journeys, the Lord would get
them in trouble, He'd lead them in a place and they was in trouble.
They'd cry to the Lord. He heard them every time. And he'll hear you too. And me. Despite our moaning and groaning
and complaining, God forgive us for that. I'm thankful that
my way has been charted by the great pilot who's in charge of
all things. And I don't know what the future
holds for me, except I know this, one day I'll be with him. And
the path from here to there might not be a pleasant path. I might
be in the wilderness of sin, might be a thorny, might be a
thorny goat. Yeah, but I won't be alone, because
the Lord's always with us. Well, let's sing the closing
song. Hope that'll help you a little bit. on your wilderness journey. Next week we'll go into more
detail about the bread that came from heaven. We'll sing now 176