Exodus- “The story of God’s presence’
Part 10
“ Manna – The bread of life”
Exodus 16
Philippians 4:19
John 6:22-58
I had an old friend named Shorty
I am not really sure why he was called Shorty
I never asked
But
It was a funny name
Because Shorty was about 6 ‘1 or 2
He had been the Forman on the Flat Creek division of ANLACO
For many years
And had retired shortly before I took over in that position
Even though he was retired
Shorty would work for us when we were busy
And he had a real knack for blowing up beaver dams and beaver houses and we would use him nearly every summer to help us get the water off the bottom land and open up valuable grazing land
Shorty was always full of good advice and homespun wisdom
And one of the best lessons he taught me
Other than making your dynamite fuses longer than you think you might need
Was about money
Specifically wants verses needs
Shorty would often tell me and the other hands at Flat Creek
That anytime you thought you wanted to buy something
Ask yourself
Is this a want or a need?
He said if it is a need
Open your wallet and pay for it
If it is a want
Close your wallet and put it back in your pocket
And before you know it you will need to go to the bank to offload all the money in your wallet
I will tell you all of Shorty’s needs were met
And I will also tell you
That man had more money in his overstuffed wallet than anyone I have ever met
He had mastered the wants verses needs issue that many of us struggle with
I wish I could say that I learned the lesson that Shorty taught so well
But
I often still struggle with wants and needs
Today we are going to continue our study of Exodus
But first open your bibles to Philippians 4:19
A well known verse
That like Shorty’s good advice
If taken to heart
Can change the way we look at things
Philippians 4:19
19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.
Paul is writing to the Church at Philippi
Thanking them for supporting his ministry and assuring them that God will also meet their needs
This verse in this context gives us this assurance as well
That
God will supply our needs
Please focus on that word
Circle it in your bible
Needs
God will supply our needs
Not our wants
This verse says nothing about our wants
Sometimes he gives us our wants
But it is our needs he is most concerned with
I pray as we study Exodus this verse will begin to enlighten us on this subject
Let me recap just a bit
Then we can dig back in
The Israelites
God’s chosen people
Have been delivered by God from 400 years of bondage
God led them though the desert
Provided for them
Protected them
God parted the red sea for them
He changed the bitter water at Marah to sweet for them
Took them to a place of rest at Elim
And God did all of this in spite of their
Ingratitude
In spite of their grumbling and complaining
He did all of this in spite of their lack of trust
Why
Because God loved them
He provides for us because he loves us
Once again in today’s passage we see
The Israelites griping and complaining
They had left Egypt in a hurry
Under the cover of darkness
They had packed for a trip
They thought it would be a short trip
But now they were running out of food
Water had been an issue and we saw two weeks ago that God made that huge issue into a non issue
You would think that they would start to get it
But they did not
Please open your copy of God’s word to Exodus 16
Let’s read verses 1-3
Then the whole community of Israel set out from Elim and journeyed into the wilderness of Sin,[a] between Elim and Mount Sinai. They arrived there on the fifteenth day of the second month, one month after leaving the land of Egypt.[b] 2 There, too, the whole community of Israel complained about Moses and Aaron.
3 “If only the LORD had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.”
Remember I told you 2 weeks ago that the road we as Christians must travel is often rough
Filled with obstacles and hard times
Sometimes God takes us to a place of rest
But
We usually don’t get to stay there long
We need rest
We must rest
But in order to get to where we are going we must move
So God moves us out of that place
This is where we pick up today
God had just provide a place of rest for the Hebrews
A place of plenty of good water
A place of shade
And now it was time to get moving again
They were burning daylight
So they headed back out on the trail
And this time as they traveled
They complained once again
This time not about water
But about the lack of food
Here are a few facts that I know to be true
Complainers will always find something to complain about
We often look for the easy way out
We tend to forget the bad and see the good when things get hot
The grass is always greener on the other side syndrome
Let’s read verse 3 again to show these facts
“If only the LORD had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.”
I can just hear the whining in their voices
They had seen God’s power, over and over again
He had provided for them, over and over again
But they preferred to complain
They distorted their image of where they had been
They looked for an easy way out
Their memory is clouded
Who in the world would want to return to bondage?
Who in the world would willingly allow themselves to become slaves again?
Unfortunately we also do as they did
When the pressure is on in our spiritual life
We complain
We look back at our old lives with distorted vision
We think our old life was easier
More fun
Guys
They really did not want to go back
They were just looking for an easy way out
Often times when the hardships come
When the wrecks
The dry times
The time in the desert comes
The pressure builds
And that pressure causes us to look for the quick way out
The easy way out
There is a worldly concept that is gaining popularity
Many in the world believe that the only way to overcome temptation is to surrender to that temptation
I don’t know what genius came up with that idea
Surrendering to temptation always leads to bad results
We overcome temptation by resisting temptation
When the pressure builds
And it will
We must focus on God and his power and his wisdom
When we want to complain
We need to focus on thanking God for what we have
Thanking him for filling our needs
When we look at our old lives we need to do so with eyes wide open
You see
We need to remember
Or more correctly
We need to be reminded
How bad the old life was
Realizing that this life is so much better than the old life
Life with Manna is much, much better than
Life without Manna
And we must trust in him
And stand firmly in him
And resist the urge to go back to the gate- back to our old lives
Our old habits
Old sins
So here we are again
The water gets hot
The pressure builds
The Israelites forget what God has already done for them
And they begin complaining
Doubting
This once again shows me God’s mercy
I believe I would have just zapped them and been done with it
Had I had that power
Talk about ungrateful
The Israelites are a picture of ungratefulness
Unfortunately we often are as well
And our God
Provides their needs anyway
The people needed food
And God sent Manna
The bread of heaven
This was all they needed
The perfect food
The Manna would meet their needs completely
But
He also provided a want this time
Meat this time
Remember from verse 3
“There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted.
A want
They did not need the quail
They wanted the quail and God in spite of their griping provided this as well
Two years later in the book of Numbers
We will see a return to this idea of entitlement
They demanded
God give us meat
And he did
The outcome that time was not what they wanted or expected
Showing that we should be careful what we pray for
Because sometimes God will give it to us
Back to our Manna
God in another miraculous show of power
In another miraculous show of mercy and grace
Provides
“Bread from heaven”
For 40 years
He provided it
All they had to do was to go out and pick it up
They did not work to grow it
They did not do anything to produce it
They needed food and God provided
Their part was to gather it
Then they were to consume it
In order for the Manna to nourish them they had to take it into their bodies
They were learning to depend on God
To supply their needs
Better yet
They were learning to rejoice in their needs
Trust in God to provide for their needs
40 years late the Manna stopped
And God provided some of their wants
In the Promised Land
A land flowing with milk and honey
And great bounty
But they had to wait patiently for those wants
You may be asking
Preacher
I get it
They were hungry
God provided
But
How does this relate to me?
The Manna satisfied the Israelites need
It provided their need for nourishment
We have needs as well
Few of us are hungry
I mean really hungry
Physically
I can tell you
I have been where people are hungry
We have no idea what that means here in the USA
But
While we are fed physically
Everyone needs Spiritual nourishment
Everyone needs spiritual Manna
And God provides
Please open your bible with me to John 6
Verse 22-58
In this context Jesus has just fed the 5000 and they are following him
Desiring Jesus to meet their wants
They followed him because they wanted more food
Jesus explains to them their needs instead
2 The next day the crowd that had stayed on the far shore saw that the disciples had taken the only boat, and they realized Jesus had not gone with them. 23 Several boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the Lord had blessed the bread and the people had eaten. 24 So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went across to Capernaum to look for him. 25 They found him on the other side of the lake and asked, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. 27 But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man[f] can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.”
28 They replied, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”
29 Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”
30 They answered, “Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do? 31 After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat.’[g]”
32 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. 33 The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.”
35 Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. 37 However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. 38 For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. 39 And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. 40 For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.”
41 Then the people[h] began to murmur in disagreement because he had said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know his father and mother. How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
43 But Jesus replied, “Stop complaining about what I said. 44 For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up. 45 As it is written in the Scriptures,[i] ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46 (Not that anyone has ever seen the Father; only I, who was sent from God, have seen him.)
47 “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. 48 Yes, I am the bread of life! 49 Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. 50 Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh.”
52 Then the people began arguing with each other about what he meant. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they asked.
53 So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. 54 But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 I live because of the living Father who sent me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 I am the true bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die as your ancestors did (even though they ate the manna) but will live forever.”
Does God still provide Manna?
You bet
His Name is Jesus Christ
John 1
Says in the beginning was the Word- The word already existed
Then John says
In 1:14
The word became flesh—Human
And lived among us
The living breathing word of God
The bread of heaven
God provided for our needs
Our need for spiritual nourishment
God provided
All we need for salvation
All we need for spiritual growth
All we need for sanctification
All we need for Justification
All we need for glorification
All we need Has been provided !!!
Hang with me here
God has provided for all of our spiritual needs
But
We like the Israelites
Must pick it up
That means we must first accept it
And Exodus says
Some picked up a lot
Some a little
But everyone who picked it up had just enough
The Manna would have provided nothing had it not been accepted
Then
We must consume it
The Manna would not have sustained life or given nourishment
Had it not been eaten
We must take it into our souls daily
Your Manna
God’s word
In the written form
And in the living word Jesus Christ
Is
All you need spiritually
If the only need that was met by Jesus was salvation
Not getting what we deserve
That would be enough
But he has also provided
All you need for a relationship with him
He has provided all we need for mercy
All we need for grace
Here is a cool part
When we trust in God
For our needs
He often gives us our wants also
We want peace
In Jesus we find it
We want joy
In Christ we find it
More things we want like
Comfort
Compassion
Mercy
Forgiveness
A new start
Wants that can be filled only by allowing the “bread of life” to meet our needs
Do you know Jesus?
Have your spiritual needs been met?
Let’s talk about needs
Then we can talk about wants
Close from the heart
Pray
