Be satisfied by God - Exodus 16
This is a sermon by Peter Birnie from the Riverside Church service on 25th August 2024.
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Exodus 16 “Be satisfied by God”
Intro:
(Slide 1) Manna in a jar to help God’s people trust God! “As the LORD commanded Moses, Aaron put the Manna with the tablets of the covenant law, that it might be preserved.” The big message today is that Jesus is the bread of life and that when we are tempted to grumble we should instead look at him and be satisfied. Have you got anything in your house that you keep just to remind you of something or someone? On our mantlepiece we have a little brass statue of the 3 wise monkeys (See, hear, speak no evil) (Slide 2). I love this little trinket because it used to belong to my Grandparents (sat on their fireplace) and every time I look at it I think of my Grandad in particular. And more than just reminding me of my Grandad, it reminds me of how he lived and what he would tell us when we were young – that living for the Lord matters, that avoiding filling your life with rubbish matters, and that gratitude rather than grumbling really matters.
(Slide 3) So when I got to Exodus 16 v34 where God tells Moses to put Manna in a jar and keep it for generations to come I was really struck by just how important this chapter must be for the hearts of God’s people. God wants the Manna in the desert to be a core memory for his people, this Manna in a jar is to stir up the people of God to a right attitude towards God. For generations to come, the rescued and redeemed people of God are to look at the bread God provided and they are to remember. Remember their grumbling hearts. Remember the goodness of God. Remember how satisfying God is.
1) Look at the bread and refuse to grumble (v1-8)
(Slide 4) In verses 1-8 God’s people must look at the bread and refuse to grumble. Despite God’s incredible rescue of the people from Egypt, followed up by his equally incredible rescue of them through the Red Sea, the people are still so quick to turn against Moses (and in reality to turn against God). Just before this account, in chapter 15, with victory songs still ringing in their ears, the people had grumbled about being thirsty and God had made bitter water sweet for them. They grumbled and God responded with grace and provision instead of punishment – that is the God we worship, he is so kind to his wayward children.
And yet, in no time they are at it again, v2; “In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron … If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt!” There are 2 things that particularly strike me here – i) this grumbling is so widespread, “the whole community”. Can you imagine what that must have been like? A whole nation of people rescued by God in an extraordinary way, grumbling and wishing that God hadn’t bothered and instead had let them die in Egypt. ii) And secondly, this grumbling is just so unbelievably selfish and ungrateful. In Egypt their baby boys were being drowned and they were being oppressed and beaten. Pharaoh had treated them as enemies and slaves, God had stepped in and rescued them and their response is “we wish he hadn’t bothered, we wish we had died.”
(Slide 5) If a child behaved this way what would your advice to a parent be? (Verucca Salt Wonka) PUNISHMENT!!! Unleash lethal force! What is the Holy God’s response to such selfish grumbling? (Slide 6) V4 “Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you.” This is so hard to accept because it is not how man-made gods work, it is not how the rules of religion work, it is not how human morality works. They all work on the rule of transaction – do good stuff get good stuff in return. Do bad stuff get bad stuff in return. False gods, human morality, dead religion, they are all the creation of creatures – they are dust, they have no transforming power, no way of bringing life. But the one true God we are learning about in Exodus is different. He does not work on the rule of transaction. He is the creator not a creature. He has life to offer, he has infinite resources, he is the God of love, he pours grace and mercy on his children.
Listen to how Moses explains it to the people, v6 then v8 (Slide 7); “In the evening you will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of Egypt, and in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your grumbling against him…Who are we? You are not grumbling against us but against the LORD.” This morning, be amazed again that God is merciful and kind towards you. If you belong to Jesus then let these verses do 2 things, firstly, let them fill you with confidence in your relationship to God. God is kind to his people when they don’t deserve it. Is that not at the very centre of the gospel? (Slide 8) We are to take great confidence from the faithfulness of God even when we do grumble.
But then secondly, allow this grace and kindness to so change you so that while confident you are not casual – so that you hate the thought of grumbling against such a loving God. The pot of Manna was to do this job for God’s people in generations to come. They were to look at that pot and remember. The cross of Christ is to do that for us now in the fullest possible way. Jesus is the bread of life, Jesus is God’s sufficient provision, Jesus is God’s grace and mercy poured out upon us. We are to look at the bread, remember his body has been broken for us, we are to realise just how good God is, and we are to refuse to grumble – we have nothing to grumble about; there is a song I listen to at the moment which should be all of our songs and the lyrics go like this (Slide 9); “All my life you have been faithful, all my life you have been so so good. With every breath that I am able, I will sing of the goodness of God.”
2) Look at the bread and be stirred up to trust (v9-20)
Of course people who have been rescued by such a glorious God should not be grumblers – but the reality is this will only come as we trust God more and more. And so cue another 40 year course in trust coming up in the book of Exodus, but this time not just for Moses but for all the people. (Slide 10) They are to look at the bread, leave grumbles behind, and be stirred up to steady trust in God (v9-20).
Back in verse 5 God had said “I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.” We hear ‘test’ as a very negative word, God doesn’t - God uses tests to help his people trust him, to help his children leave their fears and worries and take courage and confidence in him. (Scott and his sword) Here is the test (Slide 11) – the people get to see God’s glory, then flocks of quail settle on the camp at night, then in the morning this manna (“What is it?”) covers the ground, and God gives the people a very simple instruction – gather the right amount per person and don’t keep any for tomorrow! Why is that such a brilliant test designed to foster trust in God? Because our natural reaction to seeing this food all around would be to gather as much of it as we can and then stockpile it up so we and our family have enough for the months ahead.
Because we can’t see God with our eyes, we must take him at his word. We must believe him when he promises to always supply all of our needs. This is so difficult to do for people battling sin in a broken world. Constantly we want to make ourselves secure, we find it easier to trust in our strength and our understanding rather than in the faithful God’s promises and wisdom (the people don’t follow the instructions v20). God tests us to produce trust and belief and peace in our relationship with him. But this takes a lifetime. So every day for 40 years God’s people in Exodus would have to deal with the question “Will God give us enough? Will we still have food tomorrow?” Day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year, they are learning again and again and again to take God at his word.
(Slide 12) God is doing the same thing in the lives of his people today, in the lives of every believer in this place, God is working to produce a peace that will last for eternity, he is working to prepare us for glory. The key for us is to keep looking at the cross, to keep our eyes on the bread of life who was broken for us.
The circumstances God currently has you in are no accident – there may be many things God wants to achieve through your current trials, but here is one for certain, God wants to keep teaching you to trust him, to believe him, to depend on him for today and learn not to worry about tomorrow. The world works the way the maker designed it to work – quail at sunset? No problem. Manna in the morning? No problem. God has promised to provide for all of our needs (remember he links his “I will’s” to his “I AM” – he cannot fail to keep his promises). So let us keep learning to trust the one who loves us this much. Look at the bread and realise that whatever he has for us is right, whatever the future may hold, he will give us what we need day by day by day.
3) Look at the bread and be satisfied by God (v21-36)
One major barrier for us in this area though, is that our whole culture screams at us that we need far more than we actually need to have a happy life(consume, consume, consume). And stupidly we begin to believe them. (Slide 13) My kids have mentioned a couple of times recently the Monday soup of gratitude that I put into place for a while in our house. Delicious, wholesome, cheap, potato filled soup. Moaned.
(Slide 14) In verses 21-36, the Manna and Quail, and the regulations for the Sabbath are to help God’s people to move past grumbling and to go even deeper than simple trusting God, so that they end up being fully satisfied in the fully satisfying God. It is a measure of just how big the impact of sin is that we need to learn this – it should be so obvious that God is the one who fulfils, that Jesus is right when he says he offers life to the full. A close relationship with God is more satisfying than anything else in creation and that is simply because God has designed it that way. It is a fact, an unbreakable truth. There is no other way to real fulfilment, to deep satisfaction.
Every morning the people had to get up and gather the manna before the Sun melted it away. And every week they had to prepare for a day of rest, a day where very deliberately God takes all of their focus. These are key patterns for creatures to take note of, and to simply obey – they are key patterns and rhythms that will give you deeper satisfaction than anything else this world offers. I think this is such a wonderful, hopeful truth for us today. Because right now, many of us are far less satisfied and full up than God intends us to be. (Slide 15) Jesus offers life to the full and that satisfying life is absolutely connected with him. So every day we are to get up and feed on him, read God’s word, pray, be nourished and built up by God’s great promises and revelation of himself. Every week we are to gather together and together find our rest in Jesus, the bread of life, who himself is our sabbath rest. This is so hopeful because it is so simple. And it is right there for us, it is not far away or unachievable. Daily and weekly rhythms for nourishment and fulfilment and satisfaction.
A 40 year course of treatment is actually not enough. Do you know that if you put your trust in Jesus then you will spend eternity growing in your delight in him? CS Lewis put it like this; “further up and further in!” (Piper and his exhortation to the seminary students – “Learn to love him now.”) Let us look at Jesus, the bread of life, and learn more and more to be satisfied by him, to see our tastes change as his Spirit takes his word and sanctifies us, changes us from glory to into glory. This is going to take a lifetime and more – but God is in it for the long-haul. Let’s pray.
Today’s sermon: Exodus 16 “Be Satisfied by God”
Intro: The 3 monkeys statue – Manna in a jar.
1) Look at the bread and refuse to grumble (v1-8)
“In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron … If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt!”
- Grumbling so widespread (the whole community)
- Grumbling so selfish and ungrateful
- Yet God’s response is so graceful; “Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you.”
The gospel is not transactional – God pours his grace upon his people and we are to be changed by this, we are to respond with confidence and thanks.
2) Look at the bread and be stirred up to trust (v9-20)
“I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.”
- Gather the right amount for each person
- Don’t store any for tomorrow
God is teaching his people that HE will always be enough for them – because we can’t see God with our eyes, we must take him at his word.
3) Look at the bread and be satisfied by God (v21-36)
A big barrier to being satisfied in God – our culture screams loudly that we need so much stuff to be happy, but;
- God gives us rhythms and patterns to bring us into close relationship with him
- Every morning feed on the bread of life (spend time in God’s word close to Jesus)
- Every week we are to leave the cares of this world and especially gather together near our saviour
Let us learn to love our God more and more – he is eternally satisfying.
Memory verse: Exodus 16v33
“Take a jar and put an omer of manna in it. Then place it before the LORD to be kept for generations to come.”
Questions to chew on:
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