A Diet For Eternity Series

Exodus Part 16: A Diet for Eternity

Prayer

Joke?

Review/Intro:

We are on our journey through the wilderness along with 1.5 million or more Jews fleeing Egypt. They are entering the land of Midian, a vast desert where water and food are in short supply.

It was a major challenge to feed 125 of you last Sunday, right Twila and Dorothy?

Imagine doing that for 1.5 million folks every day in the middle of the desert without running water or a refrigerator or a crock pot!

The reason the Exodus is so amazing is that it is exactly that. Amazing! It is a shining example of God’s provision and care for a nation.

Now some of you are involved in the “First Place” diet.

You are trying to lose weight.

I have a new diet to tell you about too.

It’s called the “Bread of Life” diet?

I hope that by the end of the day, you will try it!

Thirst

Exodus 15:22-25 Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore it was named Marah. So the people grumbled at Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?" Then he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet.

Water in the wilderness – we are all thirsty. We all seek to quench our thirst. But we find the waters that the world gives us does not satisfy.

Water is the universal need of life. None survives without it.

Three days without water must have been excruciating.

And then to find water but not be able to drink it (bitter – poisonous?) would have been even worse.

I imagine some tried. Some probably got sick.

We try to drink the water of the world but it is bitter.

It does not satisfy.

The water of the world is what the world offers.

It offers us many things to satisfy our thirst. (woman at the well).

But what we need is water that is purified by the tree.

The tree is symbolic of the cross.

Only the cross, death to ourselves, can bring us life.

Hunger

Exodus 16:1-3 Then they set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt. The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The sons of Israel said to them, "Would that we had died by the LORD’S hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."

V4-7 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Behold, I will 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 (it seems more like training than testing), whether or not they will walk in My instruction. 5 "On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily."

6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the sons of Israel, "At evening you will know that the LORD has brought you out of the land of Egypt; 7 and in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, for He hears your grumblings against the LORD; and what are we, that you grumble against us?"

v8-12 Moses said, "This will happen when the LORD gives you meat to eat in the evening, and bread to the full in the morning; for the LORD hears your grumblings which you grumble against Him. And what are we? Your grumblings are not against us but against the LORD." 9 Then Moses said to Aaron, "Say to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, `Come near before the LORD, for He has heard your grumblings.’ " 10 It came about as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the sons of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud. WOW! 11 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 12 "I have heard the grumblings of the sons of Israel; speak to them, saying, `At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God.’ "