Have Some Manna to Improve Your View

Transcription

1 Pastor Stan Johnson Flagstaff Christian Fellowship 123 S. Beaver Street Flagstaff, AZ Have Some Manna to Improve Your View Exodus 16 By Stan Johnson July 6, 2014 Stan Johnson, 2014 For access to previous sermons or to subscribe to weekly Sermons via got to: Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition The Lockman Foundation

2 Have Some Manna to Improve Your View Exodus 16 I remember one of the highlights of growing up was working hard through the first part of the summer in the peaches and grapes and then all eight of us piling in my folks station wagon and heading to the coast. We were going to have a whole week of fun at my Grandparent s cabin in Mission Springs, a Christian campground in the mountains above Santa Cruz. We knew we were getting close, when, just past Watsonville we caught our first glimpse of the ocean. For a while, we would only see fleeting views of the pacific, but soon we would pull into the boardwalk area of Santa Cruz and drive out on the wharf to pick up some fresh Salmon at one of its fish markets. The Santa Cruz wharf was a great place to look out at the ocean, because nothing blocked your view. You could see the rocky coast going north, with guys and gals trying to surf. Your gaze would wander south and on a non-foggy day could see all of Monterey bay and the peninsula where Monterey and Carmel sat. An unobstructed view is wonderful. When there is something beautiful or amazing or grand, we want to see it without anything blocking our view. Anything in the way takes away from the view and the experience and often means we miss some of what s there. Visiting the Grand Canyon, you just have to stop at each overview and see what it presents. Can you imagine advertisers building ten to twelve billboards at each overview, just to get our attention and sell their product? We wouldn t stand for it. Yet when it comes to our clearly viewing God, fixing our gaze towards Him, we are bombarded with all kinds of distractions and obstructions. Our view is not always clear. 1

3 In Exodus, the children of Israel were distracted from looking at God, by what they had in Egypt. Even though they were slaves, busy serving the Egyptian people, they saw only what gave them some security and had lost almost all their view of God. God provided several opportunities to help get their eyes back on Him. One of those opportunities was the occasion where He provided daily manna to provide for the people of Israel and to show them that God is their provider. God provided manna to the children of Israel, to help them daily look to Him and trust Him as their provider and Lord. We are given this historical account to grow in the same way. We read about the giving of manna in Exodus 16. I would like to review the story, beginning in Exodus 7, and set the stage for Exodus 16. Exodus 7-11 chronicles Moses coming before Pharaoh and entreating God to bring 10 plagues upon Egypt. God had raised up Moses to lead His people out of Egypt and into the land of Canaan which He had promised to Abraham and his descendants. The final plague especially devastated Egypt as God s angel killed the first born of all who did not initiate the practice of the Passover. God instructed His people to sacrifice a lamb and take some of its blood and put it on the two doorposts of their homes. He established this to remind them of His taking care of them. In Exodus 12:14 we read, Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance. Later, in that chapter, in verses 26 and 27 we read, And it will come about when your children will say to you, What does this rite mean to you? that you shall say, It is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but 2

4 spared our homes. And the people bowed low and worshiped. Through all this, God brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt. Moses used this occasion to exhort the people in Exodus 13:3, Remember this day in which you went out from Egypt, from the house of slavery; for by a powerful hand the Lord brought you out from this place. Moses went on to tell them more things about God, but as we read this account, we see the people did not believe or did not hear him. As they traveled from Egypt we read that the Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light. (Ex. 13:21) As they approached the sea, the complaining began. Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? (14:11) The people of Israel complain here, and yet God delivers them by dividing the sea, allowing them to cross on dry land, and then drowning all of Pharaoh s army. After a three days march following this spectacular miracle, they grumble again when the water they get to is bitter and undrinkable. God provides by having Moses turn the water sweet. Over and over God has done something to provide for Israel, to not only provide for them but also to show them something about Him, who He is. We now come to Exodus 16, where the people are grumbling for lack of food. Then they set out from Elim, and all 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 3

5 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. 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, whether or not they will walk in My instruction. God gave them further instructions through Moses, telling them to not save any manna overnight and looking again each day for God s provision of manna, or bread in the morning and quail in the evening. As to the Sabbath, they could gather twice as much on the sixth day and it would last through the seventh day, or Sabbath day. Even this instruction, they had a hard time following, as we see in Exodus 16: Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none. It came about on the seventh day that some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. Then the Lord said to Moses, How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My instructions? See, the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you bread for two days on the sixth day. Remain every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day. The house of Israel named it manna, and it was like coriander seed, white, and its taste was like wafers with honey. Then Moses said, This is what the Lord has commanded, Let an omerful of it be kept throughout your generations, that they may see the bread that I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt. I find a fascinating note at the end of this chapter, in verse 35, The sons of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate the manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. 4

6 Recognizing that I am really no different than the children of Israel and I am an equally slow learner, I see four lessons from the story of the manna I can grow in to improve my view. #1. The people of Israel grumbled because they did not know God. Remember, in Exodus 16:3 they said, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Wait a minute, that is not what God was doing, in fact, that is not who God is! Now, they were addressing Moses and Aaron, but they knew that Moses was being directed by God and that it was God who had performed the miracles to release them. Their grumbling clearly related to their understanding of God, because it specifically addressed God through Moses and Him bringing them out into this wilderness. But the same is true of me anytime I grumble. I can t so easily escape or excuse myself. The Bible teaches that God s hand is in all the circumstances of my life, and Paul is very clear in Philippians 3:21 that all things are subject to Christ. Who (Christ) will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself. Therefore, if I grumble or complain I reveal that I do not know God and what He is like. #2. God trained His people to fix their eyes on Him. God gives us object lessons and tasks to draw our gaze toward Him. Why did God not allow the manna to last several days? Why did He give them something that would only last one day? I think it was to help the people develop the habit of daily looking to God to provide for them. In their daily need for food, God took care of that need consistently and regularly for 40 years. During that time of learning to daily look to God the people of Israel learned to know and trust in God. When it came time to enter the promised land of Canaan, they did what God asked them to do. Compare the 5

7 people of Israel in Exodus with those in Joshua and you see two very different people. That would be a good study. I find that I need God s help to daily come to Him. I tend to get busy with life and can go a week and give God only casual glances. In His grace He causes daily needs in my life to help me daily look to Him. This has been a constant thought as I have wanted to grow in fixing my eyes on Christ this year. In the same way that God used a physical need of hunger to get the attention of His people back in Exodus, He uses physical needs we are faced with every day to get our attention. The difficulties you and I face each day are His gift to motivate us to come to Him for help. Now it s hard to always recognize this or remember this, but if all things are subject to Him and He has our good in mind then those circumstances are for our good and possibly the best good is to get us to spend a lot of time looking to God and getting to know Him better. A New Testament equivalent to this is found in Romans 8:28, And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. God uses our pets sometimes to show us some of these lessons. Whenever I open our silver ware drawer in the morning or evening, our dog Zoey is almost instantly sitting there waiting for her treat. She just doesn t know it s got her medicine in it. She has learned because of a need on her part, that I regularly meet, to look to me at least 2 times every day. Also, God provided instructions that they needed to follow so that they would listen to Him. God s instructions and commands are for our good. This comes from His very nature. God providing manna and quail also showed His people His grace for 40 years and helped to not only draw their attention but also their hearts. In the midst of their grumbling, He could have ignored them. Many of us would have. #3. The key to their faith (and ours) is their view of God. 6

8 What I mean by this is first of all view as a noun, what they knew and believed about God. As children of God we have the opportunity to continually grow in our understanding of who God is and what He is like. A verse that contains an amazing promise is John 14:21, He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him. God will reveal more of Himself to me as I follow and obey Him. So here I m talking about content. I want to spend time every day to learn more about God. I want Him to show me what He is thinking and what He is like. Secondly, I m speaking of view as a verb, of an action we are involved in. What were the children of Israel looking at and thinking about? They were thinking back about their comfortable lives in Egypt. They were not looking at what God was showing them, His deliverance, His care, His provision, even to a hope in the future. They were also not looking at a growing relationship with God that was before them. They had little faith in God because He was not in their viewfinder. Thirdly, I m speaking of an undistracted view. None of us wants anything to block a beautiful view in nature. None of us should want anything to block a clear view of our creator. When I fill my thoughts and attention with everything but God and all the media we have available, I lose my view of God. So, how s your view? #4. Ultimately the manna points us to Christ. As good as the manna may have tasted, and it is described here as tasting like wafers with honey, the point was to look beyond the manna to God who provided. The children of Israel had their temporary needs satisfied with the manna as food. But they had much greater needs taken care of as they learned to look to God to provide all their needs and ultimately provide a savior for them. 7

9 Later in the New Testament Christ teaches that the ultimate lesson to be learned from the manna is that Christ is the bread of life. We ve looked at some lessons we can learn from the story of God providing manna to the children of Israel in Exodus 16. God has taken a daily, physical need and used it to help His people change their view and learn to daily look to Him. As we read in John 6:28-40 and Christ s interchange with the Jewish crowd, they remembered well how God had provided manna to their ancestors. In this exchange, they learn God s ultimate lesson from the manna. Therefore they said to Him, What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent. So they said to Him, What then do You do for a sign, so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, He gave them bread out of heaven to eat. Jesus then said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world. Then they said to Him, Lord, always give us this bread. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day. God had given the children of Israel manna so that they would look to Him every day to provide for them, but also as a preview of 8

10 how they would eventually look to Christ as the bread of life. As Christ shares in the above verses, they needed to behold Him and then believe in Him. What He means here is for them to see Him clearly, to look to Him in need, spiritually as Israel looked to God for daily physical needs in Exodus. To believe in Christ meant that they believed in what He said about Himself, that He was sent from His Father and that believing in Him would give them eternal life. Are you clearly seeing Christ, are you viewing Him clearly? If you have never trusted Him as your savior, then behold Him and believe in Him today. One way to behold Him is to read the gospel of John and especially Christ s own words. If you know Him as your savior, then look to Him every day. Let Him fill your view. Get rid of anything obstructing your view. Recognize that the needs in your life are God s provision to direct your eyes toward Him. I don t like the frustrations in my life, but every one of them is given from God to help direct my eyes to Him. By way of application let me give you a few simple suggestions: Pick a good time to meet with the Lord every day. When are you the most alert? When can you make a regular appointment? As you read or study the Bible ask God to show Himself to you. David s desire is my prayer request as I meet with the Lord each morning. One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple. (Ps. 27:4) Reinforce this, make a pot of coffee and find a comfortable, quiet place. Prepare a place and prepare your heart to have a wonderful appointment with the Lord to talk with Him and listen to Him. Conclusion God provided manna for the children of Israel and He did it in such a way to draw their attention to Him every day. He changed their view by providing a daily need. As you and I look at the 9

11 needs in our lives, remember that they are from God and as you go to Him to take care of them you will improve your view. I have a purpose statement for my life. To Know Christ and to Make Him Known. My number one goal in life is to see Christ more clearly and to help others see Christ. I want others to have a clear view of Christ. When I was probably in Junior High, my dad pulled me aside one morning to show me something. I don t remember all the circumstances, but I remember him taking me to our front yard and pointing east to the Sierra Mountain range. He probably started to the right of a huge cottonwood tree and told me to look at all the snow up in the high Sierras. As I following his directions, he pointed out a large black spot in the middle of the snow covered peaks, in the shape of a thumb. Do you know what that is? he asked me. I didn t know. That s half dome in Yosemite, he replied. I still look for that view, whenever I visit my folks and it is clear. If anyone is with me I point out half dome to them too and they are amazed. When you see Christ in a clear way you will point Him out to others so they can have a clear view. Application Questions: 1. What are some of the circumstances in your life you have grumbled about? How can they motivate you to spend time with the Lord? 2. What could you change in your schedule or daily routines to reinforce a daily appointment with the Lord? 3. What are some of the things in your life that are obstructing your view of Christ? How can you clear the view? 4. What is something you have learned about Christ over the past few months? Pick someone and share that with them. 10