Bread in the Wilderness

[0:00] your Bible to Exodus chapter 16. We are continuing in our series through this wonderful book about the God who saves. Exodus 16, we're looking at the whole chapter this morning, but I'll begin by reading verses 1 through 12.

[0:24] They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim 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 had 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?

[1:03] 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.

[2:08] 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. Let's pray. Father, we pray that as we look into this passage this morning that we would know that you are the Lord our God. We pray that we would see you as the God who saves and sustains. And we pray that you would strengthen our faith and hope in you that we may trust you.

[2:46] In Jesus' name, amen. Have you ever found yourself facing a wilderness? A wilderness is an unwelcoming place, a harsh and barren landscape, seemingly no protection from the heat of the day, and the shivering cold of the night. Maybe you've faced, or maybe you're facing a literal wilderness, hunger, thirst, homelessness. You don't know where your next meal is coming from.

[3:19] Maybe you've lived in a wilderness of loneliness, isolation, grief, uncertainty. Rejection. Maybe you've come to New Haven from somewhere far away where you felt at home and where you were flourishing, and you've come here and you haven't quite found it to be a city that opens its arms to you. And you wonder, can I really find a place here? Can I flourish here? Will I ever feel at home? The motto of the state of Connecticut is qui transtulat sustenet, which means he who transplanted still sustains. And if you look at the seal of the state of Connecticut, it has the motto along with three grape vines. It actually goes all the way back to 1639 when Connecticut was a British colony. And one historian wrote, the vine symbolized the colony brought over and planted here in the wilderness. And the motto expresses our belief that he who brought over the vine continues to sustain it.

[4:30] Those God saves, he also sustains. That's the idea behind the motto of our state, and that's also the main idea of this section in Exodus chapter 16, 17, and 18. We've seen how God saved the Israelites.

[4:45] He brought them out of slavery in Egypt. He brought them through the Red Sea waters, and they sang a song of victory. But now they face a wilderness ahead. Today we're looking at how God supplies bread for their hunger. Next week we'll look at how God supplies water for their thirst. Two weeks from now we'll look at how God gives them help when they're facing conflicts within and without.

[5:15] And in all these episodes we'll see that the same God who saves is also the God who sustains. Now today I want to look at this passage in two parts. I want to look at the people's grumbling, and I want to look at the Lord's provision.

[5:31] So first the people's grumbling. Did you notice how often that word grumbling appeared in those first 12 verses? I counted at least eight times. But I want you to notice three things about the people's grumbling. First notice how quickly the people started grumbling. Verse 1 says that it was on the 15th day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt.

[6:03] In other words, it was only one month after the Exodus because the Exodus, the Passover, was the 14th day of the first month, and now it's the 15th day of the second month. And think about all that God had done for the Israelites during that one month. He had delivered them from centuries of cruel bondage under Pharaoh. He had spared them from the judgment on the firstborn in their households. He had accompanied them with a pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. He had parted the Red Sea and saved them from the Egyptian army that was pursuing them and wanted to kill them. And then after a journey into the desert, God led them to a place called Elim where there were 12 springs of water and 70 palm trees. Sounds like a pretty nice oasis in the desert.

[6:54] But what are the people doing? They're grumbling, whining, complaining. Now, they weren't just lamenting some legitimately hard circumstances, and that's not wrong. They weren't turning to the Lord and crying out to Him for help. That would have been a good thing. They quickly became angry and bitter and hopeless, and they said, we wish we had died back in the land of Egypt. Now, do they really mean that? I don't know. Do you really mean what you say when you're angry and bitter and hopeless and you say all kinds of things? The Israelites were a little bit like toddlers. If you've ever spent time with young children, you know that you can go from spending the whole day at the beach and you have hot dogs or a picnic lunch and you get ice cream from the ice cream truck, and then you finally say it's time to go home and there's a complete meltdown. Right? You've just had this great day.

[8:05] I mean, don't you remember all the things that happened to us today? In Deuteronomy, Moses describes that wilderness period as the time of Israel's infancy or sort of toddlerhood.

[8:23] He says, in the wilderness, the Lord your God carried you as a man carries his son. God was patient in bearing with his children's tendency to quickly grumble and rebel and complain.

[8:38] That's the first thing about their grumbling. Notice how quickly it happened. But second, notice how their perspective became distorted in the process. Their memory of the past, their perspective on the present, and on the future.

[8:51] You know, last week we looked at that great song of praise that they sang to the Lord when they stood on the other side of the Red Sea and they sang the song of joy and victory.

[9:06] You know, it seems like they stopped singing that song pretty quickly. They started singing a different song. They started singing about those happy golden years back in Egypt when we sat by the meat pots and ate all the bread we wanted. That's an interesting way to remember the land of slavery.

[9:32] Now, the Israelites probably ate meat sometimes in Egypt. They owned livestock after all. But that was a pretty distorted memory of the past.

[9:44] They only remember a tiny fraction of what it really was. And then, they say to Moses and Aaron, you have brought us into the wilderness to kill us and starve us to death.

[10:00] Even though in the wilderness, they had actually come closer to God than ever before. They had seen his power and seen his glory and experienced his saving grace in more powerful ways than they ever had in their entire life.

[10:14] And they were on their way to the promised land. They were closer to their final destination than ever before. And yet, they look around. And they say, you've brought us here to kill us.

[10:26] Now, it's not even clear whether they had run out of food yet. Next week, we're going to look at the water passages.

[10:37] And there, it actually says they had no water or the water was bitter. They were thirsty. Here, it doesn't even say they ran out of food. It just says they started grumbling. Psalm 78 says they tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved.

[10:58] You know, the Bible distinguishes between good desires and sinful cravings. As human beings, we have good desires, right?

[11:10] You get hungry, you need food. You get thirsty, you need water. You get tired, you need rest. Those are legitimate desires.

[11:23] But sometimes, a legitimate desire becomes a sinful craving. And a sinful craving has a bottomless pit like the pit of hell. It's never satisfied. It's never satisfied because it's a space that can only be filled with God himself.

[11:40] And when you're trying to fill that space with anything else, it'll never fill the hole. And so, the Bible says we have to put sinful cravings to death because they're idolatries.

[11:58] They're pursuing something else as if it's going to satisfy us like only God can. And it says we need to bring to God our legitimate desires and ask him for help and for what we need.

[12:12] You know, it's very easy for Acts, in the book of Acts, chapter 7, it says this. It says, That's an interesting way to put it.

[12:27] They were facing the wilderness, but in their hearts, they turned back to Egypt. You see, God had gotten them out of Egypt. And we've just seen that. But in some ways, that was the easy part because he still had to get Egypt out of them.

[12:39] Now, it's very easy for our perspective on the past, present, and future to become distorted in the midst of trying circumstances when we're in the middle of a wilderness.

[12:55] Several years ago, some family researchers conducted a study of several hundred unhappily married people. They started with a representative sample from a larger nationwide survey.

[13:07] They then followed up with him five years later. Here are some of their conclusions. Unhappily married adults who divorced were no happier five years after the divorce than were equally unhappy couples who remained together.

[13:28] And two-thirds of unhappily married people who remained married reported marriages that were happy five years later. Many of these had endured serious problems, including alcoholism, infidelity, verbal abuse, emotional neglect, depression, illness, and work and money troubles.

[13:52] Unhappy spouses who divorced had no greater sense of overall happiness, no greater sense of personal mastery, no less hostility, no higher sense of purpose in life, and no more self-acceptance or self-esteem than unhappily married people who stuck with their marriages.

[14:11] They had slightly more depressive symptoms, and they reported a good deal more alcohol consumption. The only situation where divorce generally increased psychological well-being was when the marriage had been characterized by ongoing physical violence.

[14:30] Now, these are generalizations, and there's much more that could be said from the Bible about marriage and divorce in specific cases. But this isn't a sermon on marriage and divorce.

[14:41] I'm simply trying to make a general point. When we're in the wilderness, our perspective can easily become distorted. We say the grass always seems greener on the other side.

[14:57] One husband who was quoted in that study said, you just have to remember that the greener grass is actually just astroturf. So they grumbled quickly.

[15:10] Their perspective was distorted. And third, notice to whom their grumbling was directed. The people did not bring their complaints to the Lord. In fact, they don't talk to God at all.

[15:24] They grumbled against their spiritual leaders. Psychologists call this displacement. You're angry about one thing, but you take it out on somebody else who might be completely unrelated or only tangentially relevant to the situation.

[15:42] So here, they grumble against Moses and Aaron. And Moses says, Moses calls their bluff. Moses says, why us? Your beef is with the Lord.

[15:54] Let's be honest here. God has heard your grumbling, and God is going to answer you. Now, every so often, people have an issue with one of the pastors or with the elders.

[16:11] And you know what? As pastors, we sometimes fall short. And sometimes we need you, and we need each other.

[16:23] That's why we have a team of elders here. Sometimes we need other people to lovingly correct us and to sharpen us and challenge us and broaden our perspective.

[16:35] We should never be above receiving constructive criticism. Now, it's not always easy for us to do, so it's helpful if you can be both gentle and clear if you have a concern.

[16:53] But you know, sometimes people don't just give constructive criticism and thoughtful concerns. Sometimes people grumble against one spiritual leader and then another spiritual leader.

[17:07] Sometimes they go from one church to another church to another church, and they always have a beef with whoever's in charge. And the issue is not actually about whoever's in charge.

[17:22] The issue is with the Lord. And if that's you, if you acknowledge that you tend to be discontented and fault-finding and bitter toward your spiritual leaders or toward your spouse or toward your boss, whoever they may be, the question is, is there really an issue between you and God?

[17:50] And you need to deal with that with God. You need to acknowledge what the issue is, and you also need to acknowledge that you have no right to hold on to a beef with God.

[18:06] You did not create the universe, and you do not hold it together. And you don't have the right to carry around your beef with God and spew it out on everyone else who represents God's authority over you or who comes close to love you.

[18:25] But you know what? There's good news. Look at how God responds to the people's grumbling. He doesn't pay them back as they deserve.

[18:36] The good news is that in Jesus Christ, you have a heavenly father. Not just a boss, not just an authority figure way up there. You have a heavenly father in Jesus Christ.

[18:48] And he knows your needs. And he hears your grumbling. And he loves you anyway. Like a parent loves their kid no matter how many times they grumble. You just can't stop loving them.

[19:04] And God is committed to you. And you can approach, he says, that through his son, Jesus Christ, you can approach his throne of grace and you can ask him and help in your time of need.

[19:16] Not because you deserve it, but because he's merciful and gracious. And Jesus says, if you ask your father in heaven for bread, he won't give you a stone. Isn't that what we see here with the Israelites?

[19:31] We see not just the people's sinful grumbling, we also see the Lord's sustaining and gracious provision. That's the second half of this passage. I mean, the amazing thing about this episode and really the whole wilderness experience is God doesn't give the people what they deserve.

[19:52] He doesn't repay them tit for tat. He doesn't say, okay, you're complaining against me, I'll leave you alone. You fend for yourself and you see how that turns out. No, he doesn't.

[20:06] He doesn't say, okay, I'll give you starvation rations. I'll keep you barely alive, but I'll give you half-rotten, low-quality food.

[20:19] Fit for grumblers. No. Look at what he does. Verse 13, in the evening, quail came up and covered the camp. And in the morning, dew lay around the camp.

[20:29] And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, what is it?

[20:40] 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. So they got quail in the evening.

[20:53] Quail was considered a delicacy in ancient Egypt. Every spring, the quail would fly north from Egypt to the Sinai Peninsula. Sometimes, because of flying such a long way and because of the wind currents, they'd flop on the ground.

[21:06] They'd be all over the place. And it seems like the Lord providentially arranged that and to provide a filling meal for the Israelites that very evening. But the quail isn't the main point of the story.

[21:19] That didn't happen every day. It seemed to be just an occasional thing. The main point or the main provision here is the miraculous manna. the bread from heaven that came every morning.

[21:33] And this bread wasn't low quality. It wasn't just the cheap stuff. It says it was a fine flake-like thing as fine as frost on the ground. Verse 31 says it tasted like wafers made with honey.

[21:44] Now, I have never made wafers, but I'm told that they take a lot of time to make. And so people didn't make them back then because they were sort of like a delicacy.

[21:55] You'd only get them in the king's court. You just would make ordinary bread. But here God gives them wafers that taste like honey.

[22:06] Now, honey, there were no beekeepers back then. You had to go into the wild to get honey. You were lucky if you found honey. Honey was, again, sort of a special kind of food.

[22:20] And so God says to them, you know, if back then they heard that it tasted like wafers made with honey, people would say, ooh, that's delicious. Mmm.

[22:32] That's good. It was miraculous and providential. It was tasty and nutritious and it was sufficient and sustaining. Now, I want to focus on three aspects of the sufficiency of God's provision for the rest of our time this morning.

[22:50] First, there was enough for every one. Verse 16, this is what the Lord has commanded. Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer, that's about a half gallon, according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.

[23:07] 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.

[23:19] Now, there's two things that are clear. One is, some gathered more than others. The second thing is, in the end, everyone had just enough.

[23:34] What it doesn't explain is, how did that happen? Some gathered more than others, but in the end, everyone had just enough. Now, it's possible that God directly ensured that no matter how much you gather, when you put it in the measuring vessel, it comes out to exactly half a gallon.

[23:58] But it's also possible that the people had a hand in sharing with one another. Verse 16 says, take an omer according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.

[24:11] In other words, each tent that would be like an extended family or perhaps even a larger clan was responsible to see that everyone in the tent got fed.

[24:23] And so, if there were young children, they might not gather as much and they also might not eat as much. If there were elderly people who had trouble getting around, right, they might not gather so much.

[24:37] Able-bodied people might gather more. But within the tent, they all find a way to share. Now, it doesn't say that here, but the Apostle Paul quotes verse 18 in a very interesting context that goes along with that.

[24:57] He quotes it in 2 Corinthians 8 verse 14. And it's a chapter where Paul is encouraging Christians who have an abundance to share with Christians who have a need.

[25:10] So he says, your abundance at the present time should supply their need so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness or equality. As it is written, whoever gathered much had nothing left over and whoever gathered little had no lack.

[25:28] Paul says, just like with the manna, some gather more than others but in the end everyone gets just enough within the tent. that's how God's grace is supposed to work within the church.

[25:44] When God blesses you with abundance, share generously with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Maybe that's financial abundance. Maybe that's a house that you can welcome someone into.

[25:56] Maybe that's relational abundance that you can help people who are alone or lonely make connections. Maybe it's spiritual growth and things that you're learning that you can teach to others.

[26:11] On the other hand, if you find yourself in need, gather what you can. Everybody has a part to do. Nobody just sat around and did nothing. But look to your brothers and sisters in Christ for help.

[26:28] And this should happen on all kinds of levels. It should happen within Christian families. From one brother or sister to another, within local churches, between local churches, and even between churches in different parts of the world.

[26:42] Because that's what Paul is talking about in 2 Corinthians 8, is one church in one part of the world that has an abundance helps another church in another part of the world that has a lack. And there's an exchange back and forth of both financial and spiritual blessings and care.

[27:03] many years ago this church fell on hard times. At that time we barely had enough money to pay our pastor and to pay the rent on the building that we were renting.

[27:14] We weren't here. We didn't own a building. And another church from a different part of the country helped us. They sent us several thousand dollars each year for two years to help us get our feet on the ground.

[27:28] world. Now that was so long ago that hardly any of us were here. There's a few people who are here who can probably remember that. But thank God for that church from far away who knew about our need and helped us.

[27:49] And thank God that we're now in a place where we can be generous. last year we gave 20% of our annual church budget to local and global missions including two church plants Shoreline in New London and the Ethiopian and Eritrean ministry that meets right here.

[28:09] And God has blessed us as a church in many ways so that we can help others get on their feet and grow and be strong. I don't know what that looks like for you.

[28:22] Right? We need to be doing that for one another here as well. Right? Maybe you have a financial need. We have a deacon's benevolence fund where the deacons try to use discernment to help people with needs as best we can.

[28:37] And to see that everybody's doing their part and doing their responsibility. Paul said there was enough for everyone.

[28:48] Second, there was also enough for every day. verse 19, Moses said to them, let no one leave any of it over till the morning. Now this was in some ways the first test.

[29:03] If you look back at verse four, God had said, the people need to gather one day's portion every day that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not.

[29:14] God did not explain every detail of his plan for the Israelites in advance. He did not lay out their entire itinerary through the wilderness and then say to them, here's all my reasons for doing all these things, do you accept?

[29:35] No. He was teaching the people to trust him one day at a time. Because trusting God doesn't just mean following him when you understand all his reasons and can see all of his ways.

[29:53] Trusting God means trusting him when you're afraid and when you feel desperate and when you feel tempted. As a parent, I have to teach my kids to trust me even when I can't explain all my reasons to them.

[30:13] To trust me because I love them and at least for now, I'm wiser than them. And how much more so with God? He is our ultimate provider.

[30:28] He doesn't always give us what we want. He won't always give you what you expect, but he will always provide what we need. That's one of the lessons the Lord was drilling into the head of his people over and over.

[30:43] For 40 years, they ate the manna until they came to the promised land. At the end of their journey across the wilderness, Moses said, remember the whole way the Lord your God has led you these 40 years.

[30:56] that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart. He humbled you, he let you hunger, and he fed you with manna, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

[31:14] Lord. You see, every day the manna was a test. Would the people trust God or not? Every morning, they had to get out of bed.

[31:28] Say, if you wait till the afternoon, if you wait till the sun is hot, the manna melts, and you're hungry. God's teaching them some principles about working diligently.

[31:41] Get up out of bed and do something. But every night, God wanted them also to go to sleep in peace and trust that the next morning, the manna would be there all over again.

[31:58] Now, of course, the Israelites didn't all, some of them failed this test, right? Verse 20. They did not listen to Moses.

[32:09] Some left part of the manna till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. But you see, every day, the manna was a sign.

[32:25] God saying to his people, you can trust me. I'm here again and again and again and again. I'm your father in heaven.

[32:37] I see you. I'm providing for you. I haven't left you, and I won't forsake you. Now, what's the lesson for us here from this daily provision of manna?

[32:49] Some people have attempted to apply this principle directly. They say, I will trust God day by day. Therefore, I won't save.

[33:01] whatever money I get, I will spend, maybe give a little bit. I won't bother planning for the future because God provides for his people day by day.

[33:17] Now, the problem with that attitude is that you are not an Israelite in the wilderness. wilderness. The manna happened for 40 years, and then they got to the promised land and it stopped, and it has never started again.

[33:32] And when they got to the promised land, they were responsible to cultivate the land and to store up their crops. And in the book of Proverbs, it says, he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.

[33:47] It even says, look at the ants. The ants store up their provisions in the winter or in the summer, so they have provisions in the winter. In the same way, there's wisdom in saving.

[34:02] So the lesson here is not don't save and don't plan for the future. Sometimes we don't plan for the future because we're too afraid and we're trying to avoid looking into the future because we're too overwhelmed and afraid.

[34:17] And if that's how you feel, then that's where you need to pray. And that's where you need to find a brother or sister in Christ and say, I need some help. I don't just need some money, but I also need someone to help me make a good plan about how I can go forward.

[34:37] So the lesson of the manna is not that we shouldn't plan, it's not that we shouldn't save, but that it's every day to depend on the Lord and to give thanks to him.

[34:50] To wake up every morning and pray like Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord's prayer, give us each day our daily bread. God. You know, you can't grow and thrive by eating spiritual leftovers, by relying on yesterday's spiritual provision.

[35:12] Every day we need to wake up and commit our day to the Lord in prayer. And every evening we can lay down and say, thank you, Lord.

[35:23] As I go to sleep, I trust you, because you're the God who neither slumbers nor sleeps, and you'll be there for me in the morning. There is enough for everyone, there's enough for every day.

[35:36] Finally, verse 22 to 30 teach us that there was enough for every Sabbath, every day of rest. On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, verse 22, two omers each.

[35:51] When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, he said to them, this is what the Lord has commanded, tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake, and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.

[36:06] So they lay it aside till the morning as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. Moses said, eat it today. For today is a Sabbath to the Lord. Today you won't find it in the field.

[36:18] Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none. Not surprisingly, verse 27, on the seventh day, some of the people nevertheless went out to gather, but they found none.

[36:33] What's God teaching the people here? He's giving them a gift. He's giving them one day every week where they can rest and receive and rejoice.

[36:44] Now, some of the people didn't want that, right? First they tried to hoard and keep manna overnight, and now they try to overwork and keep working every day and never, ever stop.

[37:00] One person said, a grumbling heart under deprivation becomes a greedy heart under abundance. But God says, six days you shall work.

[37:12] Work hard, but one day you shall rest. Why? The reason is because you're not slaves anymore. When the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt, they had no days off.

[37:24] There was no such thing as a weekend in ancient Egypt, especially if you were a slave. Pharaoh never gave them days off. And God wants the Israelites to know, I am not a harsh task master like Pharaoh.

[37:39] I want you to work hard in my kingdom, but I also want you to rest with peace and joy. I want to give you a day to celebrate and a day to receive and a day to know that I'm your creator and you're just a creature and you can let go.

[38:03] Now, how does this one apply to us? Well, Christians have debated whether the Sabbath is also, continues to be a commandment under the new covenant in Christ. But regardless of whether you think it's a commandment in the same way as it was in the Old Testament or a different way, the Sabbath is written into the pattern of creation.

[38:25] And Jesus himself said the Sabbath was made for man, for human beings, for our blessing, for our benefit. Even if it's not a law, why would we reject a good gift from God?

[38:42] That's meant for our sustaining provision. Now, I don't know what the details will look like for you. You might need to reorganize your schedule during the rest of the week.

[38:53] The Israelites did some extra cooking on the sixth day so they could rest on the seventh day. Maybe you'll do Sunday. That's the traditional Christian day of rest. Maybe you'll do Saturday dinner to Sunday dinner, like the evening and morning thing.

[39:08] Maybe you have to work on Sunday, so maybe you try to take a different day. I think there's some Christian freedom in how we work out the details. But can you receive the Sabbath as a gift from the God who has saved you and the God who continues to sustain you?

[39:27] It's part of how God sustains us. It's by giving us rest and giving us joy. So there's enough for everyone, there was enough for every day, and there was enough for every Sabbath because those God saves, he also sustains.

[39:43] The end of the passage tells us that the people of Israel kept one omer of manna, one half gallon, one day's serving of manna in the Ark of the Covenant before the testimony.

[39:55] It was a perpetual reminder of God's faithfulness to the people in the wilderness. Now, we don't have that anymore. It's gone, disappeared somewhere through the ages.

[40:06] But you know what? We have something even better. We have a reminder of an even greater provision than the manna. Jesus Christ said, the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

[40:23] He says, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. I am the bread of life. Jesus Christ came into the world not just to sustain us physically, but to rescue us and sustain us spiritually.

[40:40] And as we take the Lord's supper, which is what we're going to do in just a minute, the bread that we pass out is not the bread of life. Jesus himself is the bread of life, but it's an enduring testimony.

[40:55] It's a regular reminder that Jesus is faithful, that God is faithful to all his promises, that we can trust him and he will sustain us. When we feed on him by faith with thanksgiving, that just as he brought the Israelites through the wilderness, he will walk with us and sustain us through whatever the wilderness we face today.

[41:21] The same God who saves us will continue to sustain us. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your provision for the Israelites in the wilderness.

[41:35] We thank you for your kindness to them, for not repaying them as their grumbling deserved. We thank you for your faithfulness to us.

[41:52] Lord, we thank you above all that while we were still sinners, your son Jesus Christ died for us. And Lord, that is our hope. That is our confidence.

[42:08] We pray that we would trust you, that you are enough. And you are our provider. In Jesus' name we pray.

[42:19] Amen.