Let's begin just reading a few
verses in this chapter, Exodus chapter 16. It says, now this
is after that Moses had led the children of Israel. to the desert of Shur, S-H-U-R,
and they found no water, and you remember, they had the waters
of Marah that Moses, God told Moses to cut the tree and throw
it in the water, and the waters were made sweet. And verse one
of chapter 16 says, they took their journey from Elam, and
all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness
of Sin, S-I-N. Now that word sin there is not
related to the Hebrew word or the Greek word for what we call
transgression or sin. They don't know really where
it come from, what it meant. They think it may have come from
some, some say it come from a derivation of a name of an Egyptian god.
But when I read that, I think, you know, it's kind of appropriate,
isn't it? because the wilderness of sin, and that's what we're
in now. As believers in this world, we're
in a wilderness of sin. We're in a world that's cursed.
That's why we say this world is not our home. We're citizens
of a heavenly country. We're pilgrims. We're strangers
in that sense, aliens in that sense. So I thought it was appropriate
even though the word itself is not related to that. But he says
it's between Elam and Sinai. Now they're on their way to Sinai.
And you know what's gonna happen there. That's where God brings
Moses up into the mountain, gives him the law. And he says on the
15th day of the second month after their departing out of
the land of Egypt. So this is about probably around
a month after they crossed the Red Sea. And the whole congregation,
listen to verse two. The whole congregation of the
children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. So again, they're murmuring.
Now murmuring is, you could say it's equal to unbelief. That's
what it, complaining. And he says in verse three, and
the children of Israel said unto them, would to God, which means
this is what we wish. Would to God we had died by the
hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the flesh
pots. Plenty of food there. And when
we did eat bread to the full for you have brought us forth
into this wilderness to kill the whole assembly with hunger.
We don't have anything to eat. Now back earlier they didn't
have anything to drink. Now they don't have anything
to eat and they complain. And this is a continual picture
of all of us by nature, fallen in sin, unbelief, spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins, and even believers now. Whenever
we get into trouble, whenever we get into dire straits, as
they say, we have that same tendency because of the remaining presence
and influence and contamination of the flesh. And so this, understand
that. You see a people here laden with
sin. And it's, one of the things that
we see throughout Israel's history is this, and I've got this marked
in your lesson. It's apparent that the people
were totally dependent upon the Lord for their physical survival.
And that's a great picture of spiritual Israel because we're
totally dependent upon the Lord for our spiritual survival. The
Lord saves us by his grace, and thank God he keeps us by his
grace, and he'll bring us to glory by his grace all through
the Lord Jesus Christ. So here they are, they found
no water to drink insure, but God gave them water. Now here,
they find no food. So what's going to happen here?
So understand the situation. Now verse four, it says, then
said the Lord unto Moses, behold, I will rain bread from heaven
for you. Now this is God's work. And notice,
he says, and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate
every day. Now, notice the language here. It's not God saying, now I'm
gonna do this if they'll straighten up. Because number one, they're
not gonna straighten up. And again, that's another picture
of man by nature. God, as we've seen, as I've talked
to you about this covenant, we're gonna see that more when we get
to the covenant of Sinai. There are conditions laid upon
Israel for their continued prosperity in the land of promise. And in
that sense it's a conditional covenant. We find they failed
to meet the conditions and God kept them together according
to the promise he made to Abraham until Christ came into the world
and did his work. And then that was over. And it
was abolished by way of fulfillment. Christ came to establish righteousness
and when that was established on earth, that covenant was over. Everything God did for them to
keep them together until his accomplishment of sending Christ
into the world, it was unconditional. It was based upon the promise
he gave to Abraham. And that's what he said, I'll
rain bread from heaven for you and the people shall go out and
gather. He didn't say now they can take
it or leave it. No. He said, they're going to
do this. And so God's in control here.
He says, they'll gather a certain rate every day that I may prove
them, test them, whether they will walk in my law or no. Now
God's making a testimony here. He's not trying to find out if
they're gonna do this or they're gonna do that. God knows what
they're gonna do. God's sovereign and he's in control,
but what he's doing, he's making a testimony here to show us why
he's doing all this. And when we come to Mount Sinai
and the Ten Commandments and the law given, why was the law
given? It was given because of the transgression. And Adam fell, we fell in Adam,
ruined by the fall, were born dead in trespasses and sins,
and the law given to us, given to Israel, Mount Sinai, and the
law given to us in conscience is a testimony to our sinfulness. and our depravity. It's a testimony
to the impossibility of being saved and preserved unto glory
by our works. And it's a testimony to our need
of God's grace. We're totally dependent upon
God for salvation. We can't depend on ourselves.
Just like I told you last week about the gentleman who kept
telling me, he said, well, I just believe we got a choice. I said,
we sure do have a choice. But the problem is, is by nature,
left to ourselves, we're gonna make the wrong choice. We made
our choice in Adam, and coming into the world and sinning, we
made our choice. And that's why the Lord said,
no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me
draw him. That's why he said, the natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. So
we see this continual, continual failure on the part of the children
of Israel. But isn't that what we see in
ourselves? Now think about it. Do we ever have anything to boast
in or brag in in ourselves? And the answer's no, not even
at our best moments. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross. We brag in Christ, we boast in
Him and His finished work. His blood washes away all my
sins, even the sins of my best works. His righteousness is my
only hope. And it's amazing to me, people
will sing that song that I love so much and you love it too,
my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
And then they'll say, I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but they have all kinds of sweet frames they trust in what they
think they've done for God, or in what they think God is doing
through them. But look at the children of Israel.
And always remember, when you're looking at their failures, don't
look at them with pride, because we don't have anything to be
proud of. Understand that and I always think about Romans 3
9 when Paul asked the question are we better than these? Are
the Gentiles better or the Jews better? No, he said not in any
wise for there's none righteous. No, not one There's none that
do it. There's none that seeketh after
the Lord So when you look at their failures, you know, and
and I believe that false Christianity is is basically founded on the
premise, as you look back at the Old Testament, of saying,
I am better than them. They made the wrong choices.
Look at what it says. They murmured. They complained.
And look here. He says, that, look at verse seven. He says, in the morning then
you shall see the glory of the Lord. See, this whole thing is
about God's glory. It's not about man's glory. Why
is God doing all this? For his glory. Ultimately, his
glory to preserve these people until Christ, the greatest expression
of God's glory ever found on earth. And he says, for the glory
of the Lord, for that he heareth your murmurings, verse seven,
against the Lord. Now they're complaining against
Moses and against Aaron, but he says, God hears it as against
him. He says, what are we? Moses says,
what are we that you murmur? Who am I? I'm just a voice like
old John the Baptist, the voice crying in the wilderness. You
can get mad at me. Pastor friend of mine was telling
me about a young man who was angry at him and angry at me
because we told him the truth. Well, who are we? I'm just a
clay pot that's telling what God said. So God says, he looks
at it, you know, why are you murmuring against us? Your issue's
with God. If the gospel is preached of
how God saves sinners by his grace through the blood and righteousness
of Christ, how God justifies the ungodly, and you don't like
it, you disbelieve it, you complain against it, your issue is with
God, not with the old poor preacher that's standing behind the pulpit.
And that's what people need to understand. Look at verse eight. Moses said, this shall be when
the Lord shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in
the morning bread to the full. We're gonna see later on, he
sent quails for them, and they ate quail. And then he sent the
manna at night. He said, morning bread to the
full, for that the Lord heareth your murmurings, which you murmur
against him. And what are we? Your murmurings
are not against us, but against the Lord. So understand that. And so the thing to do in this
situation is to go to the scriptures to see if what I'm telling you
is the truth. And if what I'm telling you is
the truth as it is in God's word, then you're to believe it. And
if you don't, you're issues with God. That's the whole thing.
But it's the glory of God here. So now from verses 11 to verse
15, here's where he sends the manna. He says in verse 11, Lord spoke unto Moses saying,
I've heard the murmurings of the children of Israel speak
unto them saying at evening you shall eat flesh and in the morning
you shall be filled with bread. So he's going to send this manna
in the night and they were going to get up in the morning and
gather it. And he says, and you shall know that I am the Lord,
your God. In other words, this thing was
more than just feeding their physical hunger. This thing was
meant in that way to turn them to the Lord. The Lord has provided. See, the Lord has given. And
I think about this a lot. And I've preached this a lot.
And I've often told you as a congregation, said, take a breath. What if you couldn't take a breath?
I watched a man die from emphysema one time. It's not a pretty sight. Just gasping for air, bubbles
coming up out of his mouth. What would you give for the next
breath? Take that breath. Do you know
what? That's a gift from God. You didn't
earn that. And we don't deserve it. That's
a gift from God. And that's what this is all about.
He said, I'm going to give you bread and you're going to know
that I'm the Lord. The problem with Israel was in their natural
state is they continually forgot about it. And the prophets were
sent continually to tell them, say, you need to know the Lord.
Don't you remember? Don't you remember when he brought
you out of Egypt and parted the Red Sea and gave you water from
the rock, which we'll study later on, gave you manna from heaven,
don't you remember? They had to be continually, well,
we have to be continually reminded too. That's why we meet together.
That's why we study the scriptures. That's why we worship. That's
what this thing is all about, see. But once the Lord writes
his word on your heart, you never really forget, do you? There
are times when our minds might lapse, but we never really forget,
because he will not let us forget. He'll always bring us to himself.
Well, verse 13 says, it came to pass that at evening the quails
came up and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay
about the host. 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." Now, literally the word manna means in the form
of a question, what is it? And that's what they called it.
What is it? They had no name for it. And
I thought about this, you know, When Christ was about to come
into the world through the Virgin Mary, who named him? God did. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people. His name shall be called Emmanuel,
God with us. He has many names, but all the
names that he has was given by God. Man didn't name him. They
didn't have these books like we have, you know, kids' names
and all that. God named him. And that's what's
happening here. This is God's name for it. It's
manna. What is it? They'd never seen anything like
this before. They would never see anything
like it again. And it was sent from heaven by God. It wasn't
the result of the labors of man. It was the result of God's work. It was untouched by man until
it fell to the ground. And he says, this is the bread
which the Lord hath given you. It's free. Doesn't cost him anything. In fact, if God had put a price
on it, it would be the price of their loyalty and their gratefulness,
which they weren't. You've been complaining against
the Lord, who did all these great things for you. And think about
us. being born in this world, given
life, given health, given all the blessings of physical life
that we've enjoyed. And he says, you've been complaining
against the Lord. So he gave you this to eat. And
he says, look at verse, well, let me just say a few things. This bread from heaven, this
manna, certainly is a picture. of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is our living bread. And if you'll look over at John
chapter 16, the Lord has such, quite a bit to say on this, such
a great commentary. Look back at John six and verse
27. This is the Lord speaking to
a religionist and the people. Verse 27, he says, labor not
for the meat or the meal which perisheth, but for the meat which
endureth an everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give
unto you, for him God the Father hath sealed. What's he saying
here? Spiritual life, eternal life
is a gift from God based upon the righteousness of Christ.
It's not something you work for, labor for. He says, verse 28,
then said they unto him, what shall we do that we might work
the works of God? And Jesus answered and said,
and this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom
he hath sent. I love that verse. If you believe on Christ, if
you really believe the gospel, that's the work of God. For we
are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good work. which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. And they said, verse 30, unto
him, what sign showest thou then that we may see and believe thee?
What dost thou work? Now look at verse 31. Our fathers
did eat manna in the wilderness. As it is written, he gave them
bread from heaven to eat. And Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from,
you didn't get that from Moses. You could say it this way, you
didn't get that by the law. Moses represents the law. But
my father giveth you the true bread from heaven. You got that
from God. You didn't earn it, you didn't
deserve it, but you got it. For the bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. That's God's
people all over the world. And what's he saying here? He's
the bread of life that came down from heaven. And then said they
unto him, Lord evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said
to them, I am the bread of life. He's the manna. He that cometh
to me shall never hunger. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness. They'll be filled. Well, we already
saw how he quenched their thirst in the waters of Merah, the sweet
waters. Now he's filling their hunger
with the man of life. To seek to be hungry for righteousness
is to be hungry for Christ. And when we see him as the Lord
our righteousness, justified before God based upon his righteousness
imputed, and it's all we need for our right standing with God. And he's all we need for the
life given in the new birth. Righteousness demands life. Then
that's when our hunger's filled. That's when our thirst is quenched.
He that believeth in me shall never thirst. And then look down
at verse 48 of John 6. He said in verse 47, he that
believeth in me have everlasting life. I am that bread of life. You see that? I am that bread
of life. Your fathers did eat man in the
wilderness and are dead. Now we'll see some comparisons
and contrast here coming up. They ate the man in the wilderness
but they died physically. Verse 50, this is the bread which
cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not
die. Christ is the spiritual manna
of everlasting life. We're gonna die physically, but
we won't die eternally and spiritually. He, verse 51, 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. And
again, that word world refers to his elect all over the world.
The Jews, therefore, strove among themselves, saying, how can this
man give us his flesh to eat? They weren't thinking spiritually,
were they? They were thinking naturally. That's our problem,
isn't it? Then Jesus said, and verily,
verily, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son
of Man and drink his blood, you 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. Now, he's not talking about cannibalism.
He's not talking about transubstantiation. You ever heard that term? That's
the Catholic view, that when they take the Lord's Supper,
it actually The wine actually turns into the blood of Christ
and the wafer turns into the flesh. No, that's crazy. How do we eat the flesh and drink
the blood? By faith. God-given faith, believing
in Him, resting in Him, being filled with Him, consuming His
Word. Verse 55, he says, for my flesh
is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56, he that
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and
I in him. Verse 57, as the living Father hath sent me, and I live
by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.
And verse 58, he says, this is that bread which came down from
heaven, not as your fathers did eat man and are dead. He that
eateth of this bread shall live forever. Now what a commentary
on Exodus 16. And you know it's not just Exodus
16 because this manna was provided for them by God throughout the
40 years that they wandered in the wilderness. And then it stopped
when they went into the promised land. But let me give you some
comparisons now how this manna is a type of Christ. Number one,
manna was prepared in heaven and came down to earth. And the
people of Israel, they've got to have food. It was impossible
for them to provide for themselves. So their bread was prepared in
heaven and sent down to earth. Well, that's the way it is in
our salvation. Christ Jesus had a body prepared by the father
that he might be food for the believer. He came down from heaven
to be the bread of life, to be our salvation, to be the Lord,
our righteousness. Secondly, in the wilderness of
flesh, And sin, there is no food. There's no spiritual food on
this earth, in this earth, let's put it that way. People try to
fill their hunger, their what you might say a spiritual hunger,
but they're spiritually dead. They'll do it with false religion.
They'll do it with religious rituals and rites, actions that
they perform or try to perform. They'll do it even with materialism,
whatever, but it won't work. All the nourishment needed for
Israel was found in the manna from heaven. That manna, whatever
it was, it was enough to sustain them. And so Christ is our whole
salvation. He's our wisdom, our righteousness,
our sanctification, our redemption. He's all we need. Everything
that God requires of us is given to us as found in the person
and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then thirdly,
manna was a gift. Well, my friend, salvation's
a gift. We don't earn it, we don't deserve it. It's given
freely to us by God. And then fourthly, manna was
provided for all who were hungry and the manna met everyone's
need. Here's the thing, anybody who was hungry for that manna,
they got it, and it fed them. And I'll say this, somebody says,
well, as they complain against election,
they'll say, well, then it doesn't matter what I do. He said, if
I'm not elect, I could come to God and beg for salvation. He
wouldn't give it. Listen, if you're not elect, you won't come
before God and beg for salvation. You won't be hungry for this
bread. Every one of God's people, he gives them a hunger for this
bread, whoever they are. Anybody who's hungry for Christ
will have it. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. Are you hungry for this bread?
And then fifthly, the Israelites gathered the manna daily, and
the man who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered
little had no lack. They gathered what was needed.
Well, we feed on Christ daily, and not a day without our feeding
upon him. In our prayers, in our word,
in his word, he's sufficient for every day. And then sixthly,
manna was pleasant to the taste. How sweet and satisfying is the
Lord Jesus and his word to the taste of those to whom he's given
spiritual hunger. And let me give you an illustration.
That is myself. When I first heard the gospel,
it was distasteful to me. Something I didn't like. I was
included in that number. It says the light came and men
hated the light because their deeds were evil. But when God,
the Holy Spirit, gave me a new heart, gave me life, it become
the sweetest message I've ever heard. That's the key. Well,
I think, you know, we've looked at many types and pictures as
we've gone through the scriptures here. You know, whenever you
talk about types and pictures, there's limitations. There's
a point where the type is not really picturing the anti-type
or the fulfillment of that type. There's ways in which this manna
was not like Christ at all. Let me give you some of those.
Manna was food for the outward man only. Just like the waters
of Mer was water for the outward man, but Christ is water and
bread for the inner man, the spiritual, the heart. And that's
why we believe we feed upon him by faith. He's our bread. And the manna was eaten for those
who later died. This manna, this physical manna
that God gave him could not sustain physical life. The wages of sin
is death. But Christ Well, if we feed upon
him as the manna of life, we'll never die. He said that in John
6, didn't he? And the manna, you know, if they
gather too much, if you read this whole chapter, let's say
if they went out and tried to hoard the manna, in other words,
they got more than they could eat, what would happen? It would
rot. There'd be worms in it, see? Because that was a signification
they didn't trust the Lord. The Lord's gonna give it to you
every day, he said. But now Christ, he'll never rot. He'll never
grow old. He'll never spoil. He ever lives
and he'll never die. He abides the same yesterday,
today, and forever. Now the manna was only found
in the morning, but we feed upon Christ morning, noon, and night.
All the time. And then later on, we're gonna
see how the manna ceased when they entered Canaan. Because
that was during their wilderness wanderings. And when they entered
Canaan, it ceased. But Christ never ceases. Our
bread is forever and ever and ever and ever. So that just gives
you some ideas. Let's look over at verse 16.
No, verse 20. Or verse 19, he says, and Moses
said, let no man leave of it till the morning, notwithstanding
they hearkened not unto Moses, but some of them left of it until
the morning, and it bred worms and stank, and Moses was wroth
with them. This is their disobedience again. Look at verse 23, or verse 22.
And it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice
as much bread, two homers for one man, and all the rulers of
the congregation came and told Moses, and he said unto them
this is that which the lord hath said tomorrow is the rest of
the holy sabbath unto the lord now that's the first mention
of the sabbath right there the holy rest unto the lord look
how it's now how it's done he says bake that which you will
bake today and see that which you will see and that which remaineth
over lay up for you to be kept until the morning here's what's
happening now see god provided that manna every day as much
as they needed for each day but on friday He gave them twice
as much so that on Saturday, they could rest on the Sabbath.
And on that day, the manna didn't spoil. It's like this, if you
went out on Monday and got too much, by Tuesday, the over would
be spoiled. But on Friday, it didn't spoil.
Now whose work was that? Well, that was God's work. And
so he says, you go out now, you go out. And what he's showing
us here is not only do we need manna, for our salvation, but
we need rest, Sabbath rest. Sabbath rest is a picture of
Christ, our Sabbath. And we'll see that more and more
later on. The Sabbath day. See, we don't keep a Sabbath
day today. Now understand what I'm saying.
Sunday is not the Christian Sabbath. You know what the Christian Sabbath
is? Christ is. And you can read about that in
Hebrews 4, for example. We rest in Christ. He said, come
unto me all ye that labor and heavy laden, I'll give you rest.
Now Sunday is what we call the Lord's day. It's a day set aside
that we're to gather together and worship the Lord. But it's
not a Sabbath day. I had a Seventh-day Adventist
one time ask me, he said, where in the Bible does it say that
God changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday? It doesn't. I'll tell you who changed it
from Saturday to Sunday, the Catholic Church did, the false
church did. But Sunday is not the Sabbath,
Christ is our Sabbath. Now we're to set Sunday aside
to come and worship. to identify with the people of
God, to testify of our faith in Him and our love for Him and
our love for the brethren. That's what it's all about. But
Christ is our Sabbath, understand? So as Christ is our manna, He's
our Sabbath. And then in verse 31, look over
there. He says, and the house of Israel
called the name thereof manna, that's what they called it, And
it was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like
wafers made with honey. We don't know what this manna
consists of as far as its physical makeup. There's several passages
in the Bible that tells us what it was like. In Numbers 11, it's
called like dallium and resin. In Psalm 78, it's called the
corn or the wheat of heaven. And an angel's food, but we don't
know there's no recipe for manna. So don't go home and look it
up and try to make it All right, and if you find a recipe it's
a lie There's nothing in the Bible that tells us what it is.
This is God's work and I thought about this. It's a mystery And
I thought about the person of Christ, God in human flesh. We
know some things about him in his person, but boy, isn't he
a mystery. It's an amazing mystery. Well,
you read the whole chapter. I'm running out of time, but
let me just say this. God also commanded Moses and
Aaron to take an omer. Now that's a particular measure
of manna. I don't know exactly how much,
you can look that up if you want, it doesn't matter. He said, you
take that and put it in a pot. And then later on, when God gave
him the instructions for the tabernacle and the holy place
and the holy of holies, where the Ark of the Covenant would
be, he says, you take that pot of manna and you put it in there,
okay? And that manna was gonna last
as long as God had it. It wouldn't rot. It wouldn't
stink, it would keep because God kept it. And obviously, you
know, that whole Holy of Holies, the Ark of the Covenant, the
Mercy Seat, the Blood of the Lamb, the manna, Aaron's robbed,
that's all picturing our complete salvation and sustenance in Christ. But you can read about that as
you go along. All right.