I invite you to turn in the Scriptures this morning to the second book of the Bible, the second book of the Bible, Exodus chapter 16, as we now come to the section of the manna in the wilderness. We're going to look at the first part of this through verse 21 this morning. Exodus 16, beginning at verse 1, this is the word of the Lord. They set out from Elam, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elam and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the people of Israel said to them, would that we have died by the hand of the Lord in the land of egypt when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger then the lord said to moses behold i am about to rain bread from heaven for you and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day that i may test them whether they will walk in my law or not on the sixth day when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily. So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, at evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt. And in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. For what are we that you grumble against us? And Moses said, when the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat, and in the morning bread to the full, Because the Lord has heard your grumbling, that you grumble against him. What are we? Your grumbling is not against us, but against the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, Come near before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling. And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord said to Moses, I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, at twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God. In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine flat-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, what is it? For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded. Gather it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall eat. Each take an omer according to the number of the persons that each of you has in the tent. And the people of Israel did so. They gathered some more, some less. But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat. And Moses said to them, let no one leave any of it over till morning. But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till morning and it bred worms and stank. Moses was angry with them. Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could, but when the sun grew hot, it melted. We'll end the reading of God's word there. The Lord has been so wonderful through this whole study of Exodus, and all the way from Genesis 3 when he made this promise. Here we are in Exodus, and we are seeing all these things unfold, the promises to Abraham, and you draw the conclusion, look at how wonderful the Lord is. He has saved them. He has delivered them. He brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm. Their bondage in Egypt was broken. He had saved them from death by this, remember the blood of the Passover lamb, which we know all was the type and shadow of Christ. They had crossed over the Red Sea. He had heaped up the walls of the sea and then he brought them over to the newness of life, which we know the entire New Testament has the perspective. This is the Christian story. You were brought out of darkness into light. You've passed from death to life. You sing as they did the song of the Lamb and the song of Moses together. The Lord has triumphed gloriously. He fought and won for us was their song on the beach. But then the very challenging wilderness journey began. Here's the problem as I opened up Exodus chapter 16, actually beginning last week. things, especially though, as you see the progression here, things are not getting better. Things are getting worse. It's really quite puzzling, isn't it? The relationship seems to be, they seem to be getting further alienated from each other out in the wilderness. In other words, after all this deliverance, after all this care, they don't seem to be loving God very much, do they? Yahweh's not getting much love. In fact, if you were to summarize it, actually their hatred for God seems to be growing here. I mean, that's just an easy surface reading of the text. It's getting worse. It's astonishing because of all that the Lord has done for them. He has preserved them. And then we come to these initial passages of Exodus and we read some things that are beginning to happen that should make us pause and say, what is the Lord doing? He told us last time that he's testing them. God said that he was testing them. And then he gets even stronger in the next episode of the bread episode, the manna episode in the wilderness. God says something in verse 4 that is intentionally jolting. It should be intentionally shocking for us. He's going to test them to see whether they will walk in his law or not. will they we sang out a psalm a bit ago that said in under inspiration of the spirit they did not they did not all of this is the perspective of the new testament writers who stood back from this and understood that israel in its own righteousness you remember what the new testament writers said was a giant case study israel was meant to be a giant study for the world when they looked at israel in relation to god in sinful humanity in relation to this holy pure god resplendent and glory we're going to see here in a moment in many ways israel was in spiritual infancy but through all of this the new testament writers said i want you to look at them and here should be the effect it should stop up the mouth of everyone in their own righteousness this is the summary it should stop up everyone i want to keep us and keep that verse in front of us as we're going through because after paul said it should stop up everyone he said he put them the lord put them under the law he put them under the law the goal that the mouth of the whole world would be stopped and that we would understand that no flesh could ever based on anything that it does will ever be justified in His sight based on the law. By the law is the knowledge of sin. Now when God comes in verse 4 and He says, I'm testing them to see whether they will walk in my law or not and you have the entire record of the revelation of how this went and the New Testament telling us that they did not walk in the law, what conclusion should you say? They weren't obedient to God's law. Before it even started, it was evident. And I say this respectfully, did God not know this? God knew it. Before it even started, it was already a mess. But Israel didn't know it. That's why I said Israel was in spiritual infancy. They didn't know how to relate to this God. Could they just treat this God like they treated Pharaoh in that kind of hatred? What was the real problem with Israel? Well, to properly understand this, we have to dive into this test a bit this morning and understand exactly what the Lord is doing for us and how he's helping us to understand the whole story. In chapter 16, we see that their complaints against the Lord are growing. And as their rebellion, which is how the Psalms characterize Israel's behavior, as their rebellion grows in this period before Sinai, the Lord's tests are growing. In other words, as they step up the complaining, he steps up the tests. And that should tell us that all of this is leading to something. That should tell us that all of this has a breaking point. It can't continue to go like that. All of this is leading us to the definitive moment when Israel will be confronted like they had never been confronted before with who God is in His glory. It's leading us, as we know, to Sinai. This is all preparation for Sinai. And in the midst of these growing complaints are growing tests to take us to the ultimate test. But I want you to notice one more thing. In the midst of their growing complaints, in the midst of the growing tests, is a growing provision. Is a growing provision. And that's how I want you to see this today. Their growing complaint, the growing test, and the growing provision. Last week, the first scene after the Red Sea, things started out roughly. There wasn't much information about it. Moses was intentionally brief, you remember. We only read that they came to Marah and they found out that the waters of Marah were bitter and they complained against the Lord. We didn't get a lot. It was a bad moment, at least as the rest of the Bible characterizes it, of awful distrust in the Lord as if he didn't know what he was doing and how he was leading them. But it was a test. He said, clearly there I'm going to test them whether they will walk in my commandments. Would they trust the Lord? We were somewhat perplexed about the complaint, weren't we, last time? Because it wasn't so unreasonable. No one should ever complain, don't get me wrong. But it wasn't so unreasonable. How could they survive without water? Three days in the wilderness. It's not something anyone can do any longer. People would start dying. They were thirsty. And upon complaining, remember what Moses did? He hurled a log into the water and it became sweet. And then he took them to Elam, this place of 12 wells of water and 70 palm trees where they had a real period in the wilderness of refreshment. There was real refreshment and real delight and real joy in the wilderness. What a beautiful thing. The Lord refreshed them. You're going to have to do that. He refreshed them. In the midst of the test and in the midst of their failure, He gave them a time period of refreshing. That's, of course, what God does for you all the time, by the way. You know life is hard. You know there are many tests. You know there are many trials that come upon us. And you also know that there are moments of great joy and there are moments of great release. And the Lord loves to give that. In fact, if you want the true place of that, He gives it to you every Sunday. That should be the goal. That he loves to refresh you out of your hard weeks. He loves to lift you up out of your weeks. He knows you're out in the wilderness during the week. And this should be a place where you're lifted up and encouraged and strengthened to know that he loves you, that he cares for you, that there's gospel for you, there's good news for you, and that he's not going to abandon you in all of your hardship and in all of your trials. That's Elam. You have an Elam. I could preach on Elam, and some pastors have done it for months. but we got to move on because the wilderness journey does go forward doesn't it you got to get out monday don't you and you got to go back to it well as they head out in verse 45 the lord has given them this time of refreshment but now as they continue the journey we read that they came to the wilderness of sin that is between elam and sinai the wilderness was probably named after after the mesopotamian god moon god whose name was sin the whole region here uh and the picture theologically if you're looking at it which we'll look at tonight from mark's gospel is a fallen realm of the wilderness cursed here that they are in from adam as you know the ground had been cursed and now they're into the wilderness the children of israel are passing through the wilderness onto the promised land but moses so soon after elam has now entered the next scene and we find something shocking in verse 2 we read then the congregation of israel complained grumbled against moses and aaron in the wilderness and the people said to them would that we have died by the hand of the lord in the land of egypt when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full for you brought us out in this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger do i need to rehearse everything that they've seen so far that is just that is just something isn't it he doesn't have the ability to provide are you kidding you you want to say that now you've just seen a log thrown in the wall i mean that's that was really nothing in comparison to what he did to egypt you really want to do that they had just left elam it's kind of the beach scene again they're up here and all of a sudden he's provided this amazing miracle at the waters of mara and he's turned them from being bitter into sweet this was good water was vitamin water but then something happened israel gets worse and you stop and you say wait wait wait wait this is really perplexing how could you get worse after this in the last section we read some of the people complained there's no water now the emphasis notice real strongly is on the whole congregation you got two million moaners now that's a hard church to pastor, by the way. Two million out in the wilderness. Moses said it gets so bad in the next section, he complains to the Lord, they're ready to stone me. They're going to kill me out here. So it started with some of them. And now the rebellion, the whole nation is now murmuring against Moses and Aaron. They are now united against their leadership. And it's perplexing for me because if the wilderness life is supposed to represent sanctification this is a real bad start of sanctification every new testament writer everyone i've ever read views the wilderness life is the life of sanctification this is not going very well it gets worse oh that we died by the hand of the lord in the land of egypt when we sat by the pots of meat and ate bread to the full and you say what what in the world is that there's no indication they're starving at least in the last scene you get the sense that they were really thirsty but in this scene they're looking back to the pots of meat flesh pots of meat in egypt and saying you know it's not so good out here meat's not real good out here did they not have food well i i mean there's no indication There's no indication that they didn't have food. I'm sure they had plundered Egypt and taken out a lot of stuff, a lot of cattle. What are they complaining about? Psalm 78 tells you. He led them with the cloud, and all night, with the light of fire, he split the rocks in the wilderness. He gave them drink in abundance like the depths. He brought streams out of the rock, cause waters to run down like rivers, but they sinned even more. Notice how strong Psalm 78 is. They sinned. By rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness, and they tested God in their heart. So we'll look at that next time. By asking for food. No, no, no, no, that's not what it says. That's not what it says. By asking for the food of their delight. We don't like the food you're giving us. You haven't given us the food of our fancy. You haven't given us the prime rib. So the Israelites weren't complaining because they weren't fed. Now they just weren't getting the best steak. That sounds like Americans, doesn't it? And then they do something worse. You killers, Moses and Aaron, you've brought us out here to die. You want to kill us out here, don't you? You know, from Moses and Aaron, You think we want to attempt your genocide? What a terrible thing. God had raised up these men. God had sent them to be servants. And that's their response, to complain, to grumble. And the word's a strong word. The word is not just a little murmur. The word is an open act, a mouth of rebellion against God. Boy, it was so much better back in Egypt. Remember the good old days? It's really astonishing because if you were looking at it from Christ's words, he who ever puts his hand on the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom. They just ax themselves off if that's the case. You know, they are hating where the Lord has brought them. And then have they forgotten everything that Egypt represented or everything that Egypt was? The past was not better. Listen, the past was never as good as you thought it was. It just isn't. It is never as good as you've romanticized it to be. And this tells you that it could have been the worst past ever and in your present circumstances, you'll still look back to that and say, that's where I'd rather be. Living in the past is a great sin in the Scriptures because it doesn't really trust the Lord who is leading us forward to glory, who's leading us home through the wilderness. We get out in the wilderness and the Lord is leading us to the promised land. And what are typically our complaints? Are we really satisfied with where He has us? To be honest, with your own hearts. Are you really satisfied with where He has you? Typical complaints are we're not really too much satisfied with much of anything. I mean, I go down the cereal aisle. How many cereals do I have to pick from? And my kids still tell me they're tired of the same cereal. This and that, this and that. Daily bread has everything to do with every allotment in life and where you are right now. We're never really happy with the Lord's leadership with us in the wilderness. We're never really accepting of it. We're endless moaners. I mean, and then you come to the church, we want, where do I start what I've seen? We want the messages of our fancy. We want the music of our fancy. We want the church that accommodates us to our fancy so long as it's not very requiring of us. and every other situation looks better over there every other past situation or even present situation it looks so much better than where god has us right now you ever thought he's the one who placed you here right now and to go and run and do your own will is disastrous when you run away from it with this kind of complaining bitter heart disastrous because the bitterness grows worse the situation doesn't change the heart it doesn't you think we're better if we go back to Egypt you think your former life is better if we look at our lives the heart of our complaint is that we're not getting the food that we crave and I could put a million things under that little category that our lives are discontent and we got a lot of leaders to blame for that truth be told there may be bad leadership decisions being made in a country, but when a country had the food of its fancy for so many years and it starts losing that, that's going to be what people are really going after. They've lost the good years, lost what it was. Hebrews says a principle about leadership is you have to be really careful in how you treat your leaders because you see they are going to watch out for your souls as those who must give an account, but you should let them do it with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. If your leaders constantly feel assaulted and they can't do and love you with joy, it's going to be really tough and it's going to make your life really hard. Look at your lives and see if that's true. This is horrible. We're kind of astonished. How could they act like that? How does that make you feel? My goal was to really beat you up right now? How did I do? I don't know. Maybe I didn't do real well, but it should have done something. My goal was to beat you up sufficiently through Israel so that your heart just got opened up. That was my goal in the first part of this sermon. And I know it was a long first part. And that's leading us to what God is doing. As their complaint worsens, Moses here emphasizes is that God's test grows in the same proportion. It's a startling statement that comes down from the Lord. I'm going to rain down bread from heaven for them. We'll come back to that in a moment. But the people shall go out, and I want them to collect a quota every day that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not. To which you say, does God know? Of course he knows. God knows. It's a test case for the world. It's a test case for future generations to read this and say, oh my, they don't have a ghost of a chance if this is how they're behaving before the law. Now, I'm going to test them whether they'll walk in my law. In verse 7, the Lord says, in the morning you are going to see my glory, which everyone should stop and start to say, uh-oh, uh-oh. That glory is growing in front of their eyes. Immediately after, the people for the first time, I want you to think about here, this glory is getting more dangerous and it's leading us somewhere, it's leading us somewhere, it's leading us to Sinai because right after Sinai, right at Sinai, they have a theophanic revelation of the glory and he comes down on the mountain, the whole thing's black the whole thing is lighting up the whole thing's in smoke there is a fire display put on in front of them and what is the response of the people sinai was not an exciting event sinai was a death event they are scared to death hebrews tells us that they didn't even want to come near when that glory appeared they couldn't come near they were moses said i was exceedingly afraid and and that's what happens they are panicked after the law is handed to them and the people for the first time first time fear god and the lord says i've come down to test you the ultimate test that my fear may be before you there's been no sin reference here it is that you may not sin the sin word has been deliberately not used until sinai the test has come the ultimate test has come how's israel going to do well they're not even moses is coming down with the tablets and they're holding up what a calf they broke it did israel walk according to god's law or not the golden calf tells you they failed the test and you're standing there saying they should have all been consumed they should have all been consumed they should have been wiped out praise God for the covenant of grace praise God for Abraham that the Lord made him sleep and the Lord passed through those pieces alone they swore to keep the law in Exodus 19 they busted it they broke it this is what Paul was after when he says if we relate to God merely on the basis of the law what does the law bring? wrath wrath after sinai that's what you see the lord teaching us paul says plainly by the laws and knowledge of sin and now you see the great problem they are intensifying in their sin god in this entire period until sinai is putting them under the test to lead them to the ultimate test if this were it the relationship were do this and live it's done it's done you should say that he is holy and we are miserable complainers what that ends up in endless gossip that's how we function and if our entrance into the land is based upon our obedience then i don't have a ghost of a chance look at the bitterness now what do you expect from the Lord? I'm going to rain down, stop. Last time we heard that was fire and brimstone on Sodom. Actually, last time we heard that was Exodus 9. And the Lord rained down hail on Egypt. I'm going to rain down bread from heaven. When they speak of being full with the pots of meat from Egypt, God says, I'm going to fill you with my heavenly bread and give you meat. How patient, how long-suffering, how loving, how kind, how compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness, and we do this to him all the time. But it's not just an ability to provide that he's testing them with. It's not just tests that are merely to prepare us for glory. The design of the test, did you see it? is to lead us to who he is sending down from heaven. Through all of this complaining, the Lord does something else. And the Lord spoke to Moses, verse 12. I've heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Our God is just wonderful, beloved. I mean, I would expect judgment right here. Say to them, at twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God. So it was, in the evening, quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp, and when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine flake-like thing, finest frost on the ground. When the people of Israel saw it, they said, they'd never seen this before. What is this? What is that? They did not know what it was. Moses said to them, it's the bread the Lord has given you to eat. And this is what the Lord has commanded. Gather at each of you as much as he can. She'll take an omer according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent. And the people of Israel did so. They gathered some more. What a scene. Look at the implications. First was quail, the Egyptian delicacy. The quails came to feed two million people. He rained down meat on them, says Psalm 78, like dust. Feathered fowl like the sand of the seas. He let them fall in the midst of their camp all around their dwellings. The meat fell on their doorsteps. Where does it even buy a drone? Right out of the clouds. They ate and they were filled. He gave them their own desire. two million people and then in the morning this layer of dew is there little round cakes they were um they had never seen it they look at these little flat round cakes on the ground they were to take an omer for every man man the omer is six pints that means that each day was 12 million pints of not or nine million pounds were gathered daily in the wilderness or 4 500 tons of this white round bread for 40 years they collected this millions and millions of tons of bread and it sustained them all the way to the land. So when the children of Israel saw it, they said, what is this? This is the bread the Lord has given you. You almost get a sense of real joy in the Lord's part here to tell them about this bread. Let me tell you about what I'm going to give you. You know, you come to verse 35 and it says, the end of this, and the children of Israel ate manna 40 years until they inhabited the land. They ate manna until they came to the border of Canaan. And that food sustained them in the wilderness. Let me put this together for you this morning. In the last section, he gave them water that sustained them. Now bread from heaven that sustains them. They've never seen this bread before. It's a growing provision that's getting better and better. All the way to the promised land. This bread sustained them. Jesus, after he had come out of Egypt in the Gospels himself, out of Egypt I've called my son, where did he go? Into the wilderness to be tempted and tested. What's the first thing the devil tested him with? And Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights afterward, he was hungry. Now when the tempter came to him, he said, if you're the Son of God, command these stones become bread. But he answered and said, it's written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Nemo, he passed the test. You didn't. He did. And then he told everyone, I'm the bread. Remember John 6, the whole scene is reenacted of Exodus 16? Matthew 15. Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude? Jesus with a few loaves can handle that and feed 5,000. And then in John 6, he does that. and says to the people, don't labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, I'll give it to you. Because God the Father has set a seal on him. Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven. My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger and he who believes in me shall never thirst. So you better eat and drink me. I'm the manna, he says. I'm it. i fulfilled the test and i'm your manna he who believes in me has everlasting life your fathers ate the man in the wilderness and are dead this is the true bread which comes down from heaven that one may eat of it and not die i'm the living bread which comes down from heaven if anyone eats this bread he will live forever and the bread that i give is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world. Guess what happened right after he said that? Then they complained against him. Unbelievable, right? I will test them if they will walk in my law or not. They didn't. In the midst of that, the Lord holds out another way. God was preaching the gospel to them in the wilderness, raining the gospel on their doorsteps. And it was Jesus who said of the water, whosoever will come to me will never thirst, and out of his heart will flow living water. Whoever eats me, he said, will never hunger. Whoever drinks me will never thirst. until you have him this morning. And I close with this. You will be a miserable, complaining person. Hating God in all of your circumstances. And when the law tests you, things will get worse. That's why you need Jesus. Who, when he went into the wilderness for you, was put under the same test and overcame so he says if you believe in him he'll give you his life that's what the gospel is whoever eats this bread will live forever do you eat this bread once you have him then we can talk about how we can best go forward in contentment godliness with contentment is great gain then we could talk about how all of our sufficiency is in him and i no longer need to complain right i close with these words come everyone who thirsts isaiah 55 come to the waters and he who has no money you don't even have to buy come buy and eat come buy and eat come buy wine and milk without money and without price why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy listen diligently to me and eat what is good and delight yourselves in rich food christ incline your ear and come to me and hear that your soul may live we need that again stirred up in our hearts don't we let's pray gracious heavenly father you are so faithful and so long-suffering and we see what you're doing here we are so thankful that the works of the law will never set never ultimately be the basis upon which we will enter or can satisfy your great wrath only the true bread from heaven can do that fix our eyes on him let our faith and trust be in him and then we know you'll take these bitter complaining hearts and we'll be able to say with paul in whatever circumstance we are in we will rejoice again we will say rejoice because you're leading us and we have confidence that you will lead us all the way through forgive us for complaining bitter spirits forgive us for forgive us for the way that we treat you we trash you and it's shown in how we treat leaders, change our hearts and give us a new life, convert us. And may the same gospel season of refreshing that hit when John the Baptist preached, hit the Escondido URC, and the whole church of Jesus Christ today, wherever the gospels faithfully preach, may they come to the true bread from heaven. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.