Exodus Going With God: Going In God’s Providence - Exodus 16
Three Texans and Providence
Three Texans go across the Rio Grande to Mexico one night,
get knee-walking drunk, now I don’t know exactly what that means but it sounds
pretty drunk. They wake up in jail the next morning...only to learn that they
are to be executed that same day, but of the Texans can remember what they had did
the night before to deserve execution in an electric chair.
The 1st Texan is strapped into the electric chair, and asked
if he has any last words? He says,
"Yes, sir. I am a graduate of the Baylor University School of Divinity, and
though I have backslidden far, I still believe in the providence of almighty
God on behalf of the innocent." They throw the switch, and nothing
happens, so the Mexican officials figure God must not want this man to die, and
they set him free.
The second Texan is strapped-in, and in response to the same
question replies, "I am a graduate of the University of Texas School of
Law, and I believe that justice will prevail." Again, they throw the
switch, and again nothing happens. The
jailers figure that the law is on this guy's side, so they let him go too.
The third guy is strapped-in, and he says, "Well, I am
a Texas Aggie Electrical Engineer, and I'll tell y'all right now ...ain't
nobody going to electrocute nobody if you don't reconnect them two little wires
right there."
Now that pretty bad story, of providence which is the
subject of our sermon this morning. Bad example but a great doctrine. Our
modern age doesn’t really talk about the providence of God anymore. We are the fast
food, microwave, 10 second attention span, Tik-Tok video generation. When it
comes to spirituality, we want signs and miracles now not trust and faith for
eternity. And yet the vast majority of time covered in the Bible contains no
sign or miracles but only the people of God trusting in the providence of God. So,
what is providence exactly and what does it have to do with Exodus 16 and the bread
God rained from heaven? Let’s turn there and find out.
Providence and Need - Exodus 16:1-12
And they took their journey from Elim, and all the
congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is
between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their
departing out of the land of Egypt.
Hebrew’s Need Met By God’s Provision
At this point in the Exodus narrative, the Hebrews have been
on the road for 2 months. The supplies they had brough with them are running
out and hunger is becoming a serious problem. There is no place to forage, hunt
or fish. Even if they could do those things the logistics of hunting for over 2
million people would be impossible.
To feed 2.5 million people just two pounds of food and four
pints of water per day would require around 2250 tons of food, and around 1.25
million gallons of water, per day! This does not take into account the fodder
and water for their herds of sheep, goats, and cattle.
Over the forty years of the Exodus, it would have required
at least 33 million tons of food and 18,000 million gallons of water just to
sustain the people. In comparison, the miracle of parting the Red Sea doesn’t
seem like that big a deal.
The Hebrews have not yet learned to put their full faith in
God. They haven’t learned to be patient and wait on the Lord, but instead try
to force their own will upon Him through Moses, to get what they need. They
sound a lot like this generation.
Vs. 3 And the whole congregation of the children of Israel
murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness: And the children of Israel said unto them,
Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we
sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought
us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
They missed their fleshpots the Bible says. We would say
they missed their crockpots and their instapots. The call out, complaining and wish
that God had killed them back in Egypt, at least they would have died with a
full belly. They fondly remember their slave food, but they conveniently forget
their slave sorrow.
The LORD, despite their complaining, meets their need by
sending bread from heaven in the morning and quails or partridges in the
evening. Yet there is a condition, they must collect only as much as they can
eat that day, except on Friday when they must collect twice the normal amount
and most importantly they must not look for any manna on the Sabbath day. This
is a test, God says, to see if the people will obey Him. Exodus 16:4 Behold, I
will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a
certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my
law, or no. vss. 11–12 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, I have heard the
murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall
eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know
that I am the LORD your God.
The bread from heaven and the quails from the wind that God
sent was not a last-minute solution to an unforeseen crisis but was always what
God had planned for the Hebrews as they traveled across the wilderness. The
manna and quail was to be the daily proof of God’s providence for His own
people according to His plan.
Blessings In Our Need
Today we also have needs as important as those of the
Hebrews, needs in our family, our church, our finances, our health, or our
future. We need to understand that God meets our needs according to His
providence and that His providence today is as sufficient for us as it was in
wilderness when He rained bread and blew in the quails.
Definition for Providence: We need a good definition of
providence as a work of God.
It comes from the Latin, “Pro” means “before” and “video”
means “to see” (did you know you were speaking Latin every time you say “Lets
watch a vi-de-o on You-tu-beo. Rodeo, btw, in Latin means “watch where you
step.” Google it when you get home.)
Providence, “to see before” in our relationship to God means
He sees before the need and He plans to meet the need according to what He sees.
According to Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann, providence
is "the hidden, patient, sovereign enactment of God’s overriding purpose
beyond the will and choice of human agents."
Theological Definition- Henry Thiessan “Lectures in
Systematic Theology”
The Doctrine of Providence - The Christian view affirms that God has not merely created
the universe, together with all its properties and powers, and that He is
preserving all that He has created, but that as a holy, benevolent, wise and
omnipotent being, He also exercises sovereign control over it. This sovereign
control is called providence.
Etymologically, the word “providence” means foreseeing. From
this basic idea has developed the meaning of providing for the future. But in
theology the word has received a more specialized meaning. In this field,
“providence” means that continuous activity of God whereby he makes all the
events of the physical, mental, and moral realms work out His purpose, and this
purpose is nothing short of the original design of God in creation. To be sure,
evil has entered the universe, but it is not allowed to thwart God’s original,
benevolent, wise and holy purpose.”
As you can see from that definition, trusting in God for our
daily bread is but a small part of providence, though it may be the part that
impacts me the most as it did the Hebrews. Hey, I also want and need my bread
and quail, or tortillas and beef, today whatever the case may be. Even cornbread
and armadillo as we found out last night.
But, we need a larger perspective of this great doctrine, we
need to expand our faith by understanding it better. Yes, providence is
trusting God for my needs today but even more importantly it is trusting God in
His providence not just for me today but for all His people for all time and for
all of eternity.
Trusting God through the death of my friend
Larry Jones.
Let me give you an example of the need to trust God’s
providence. I have spoken many times about the death of my good friend pastor
and missionary Larry Jones. He served the Lord faithfully for over 40 years. He
was been devoted to the Lord’s work, the Lord’s church, His family and at the
end of his life, the Amazing Grace Orphanage in Mexico City. And he was such a
great friend to me, when I needed a friend the most. Now he gone.
I cannot comprehend why God didn’t allow him to be healed. If
anyone deserved and needed a miracle it should have been him. I will never know
why, but I do know that God’s providence met the needs of Larry as he moved
closer and closer to His God. God had foreseen Larry’s death as He has foreseen
the death of countless saints and servants before Larry and He has and He always
will provide. I trust in that providence. I trust that God’s Will shall be done
even in death and loss. I don’t have to understand how. I just have to believe
that it will. That is how providence works in the people of God.
I wasn’t there when Bro. Larry preached his last few
messages, but in one of them, he shared this. "When we first glimpse the
light of the eternal day, the disease which was our intractable enemy and
finally slew us here will become our great friend. The friend who hurried us to
this place. This wonderful unspeakably beautiful place."-- Pastor Larry
Jones. That is God’s providence, that is God giving to Larry something that you
and I have not yet fully understood, that is a small but vital part of
providence.
Lets go on and look closer at God’s will as it
works through providence.
Providence and Faith - Exodus 16:13-21
And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up,
and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.
And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the
wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the
ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another,
It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is
the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat. This is the thing which the LORD
hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for
every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them
which are in his tents. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered,
some more, some less. And when they did mete (measure) it with an omer,
he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no
lack; they gathered every man according to his eating. And Moses said, Let no
man leave of it till the morning. Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto
Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and
stank: and Moses was wroth with them. And they gathered it every morning,
every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.
God’s Will Reveals His Providence
The Hebrews are told how to handle God’s blessing of bread
from heaven, the manna. Which means, “what is it?”
They were to gather it every morning early with the dew. They
were to gather an omer (which in case you’re not up on your ancient OT dry
measurements and omer is1/10 of an ephah, is that clear? Well what if we say about
2 liters, or 2 quarts). They were to gather about 2 quarts of manna for each
person and take it home. They were told not to gather more than they needed nor
try to store it for later use.
And yet, and yet, many ignored God’s word and tried to hoard
as much as they could. I bet they regretted that the next day when their tents
spelled like a rancid chicken carcass and maggots were crawling all over the
place.
This was probably they way they acted while slaves back in
Egypt. Grab all you can when you can and hoard it. You know exactly what that
is like because we went through the great toilet paper hoarding of 2020.
But God wants them to realize they are no longer slaves and
they need to quit acting like they still are. When they ignored the warning,
when they disregarded God’s revealed will, then the manna they had hoarded bred
worms and it stank. (Some words sound just like what they are. Stank needs no
description.)
So, after that first morning they gathered only as much as
they needed except on Friday when they gathered enough for the Sabbath day, a
miracle within a miracle. And the Bible tells us that when the sun rose high in
the sky, the manna, just like the dew evaporated. Incredible.
Blessings In God’s Will
There are some wonderful principles about God’s will in this
passage which we can apply to all of God’s provision and blessing in our life.
First, Go to God, early to gather His blessings.
Second, take as much as you need for the day and trust Him
for the rest.
Third, God’s blessings, like manna, are poured out daily,
you can’t hoard them.
Fourth, Ignoring God’s will results in busted blessings.
The purpose of the manna was not just to feed the people but
also show them God’s will, it was to teach them to trust and obey him and it
was to test his people so that through that test, they could be blessed by
their obedience.
Those purposes have not changed, God still tells His Will
through His word and then pours His blessing upon us so that we may learn to
trust Him. And yes part of that process is that we will be tested in the way in
which we will handle those blessings, the way in which we follow God’s will.
With each blessing, be it in faith, family or finances, God
has given principles that will sustain and multiply the blessings. Just like
manna from heaven. If we ignore His revealed will, if we think we can receive the
blessings of God without obedience, without submission, without repentance, then
that blessing is diminished or even removed. Just like the Children of Israel instead
of sweet manna we will wake up to worms and rot.
Let me give you an example in something we all experience,
the family.
God’s blessing of the family turns to a curse
if we don’t follow His will.
God provides the family to be a blessing. It is our place of
shelter, safety and security. If we follow God’s will for the family, if we
apply His rules for how the family should be run then it is one of the greatest
blessings we will ever experience in this life.
God says in Psalms 127: 3 Lo, children are an heritage of
the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so
are children of the youth.5 Happy is the
man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they
shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
That is a blessing, children are God’s heritage, they make a
family strong.
But notice what the Bible says in Ephesians 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to
wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
There is a warning in Ephesians 6:4 that if we are not
careful as parents we can provoke our children and drive them to wrath. With
the blessing of family, God sends the principles to handle that blessing. If we
ignore the guidelines then the blessing can turn to wrath for our us and our children.
We have all seen it, time and time again.
So, don’t lose God’s blessings in your life by ignoring
God’s will. God’s providence is the outworking of His will and it includes both
the blessings and the curses. It is up to us to choose the blessings.
Let’s look at the final aspect of God’s
providence in this chapter.
Providence and Rest - Exodus 16:22-31
And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they
gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the
congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the
LORD hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that
which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which
remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid
it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there
any worm therein. And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a
sabbath unto the LORD: to day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days
ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there
shall be none. And it came to pass, that there went out some of the
people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the LORD
said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?
See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth
you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye 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. And the house of Israel called the name thereof
Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like
wafers made with honey. (Mmm, mmm, good)
God Provides Rest
God in his providence and the gift of manna, also
established the Sabbath day rest for the people of the Exodus. They probably
had not been allowed to practice this in captivity. There are no days off for slaves,
but as we have said, God’s people were no longer slaves. Now God, their creator
says, you need a full day of rest. God knew, they needed manna and quails, God
knew they would need two days worth on Friday because God knew what was needed
for the entire journey to the promised Land and beyond. In His providence He
would provide, and the Hebrews needed to realize, by these things, to trust Him
more.
So, on the sixth day, they would gather twice the amount of manna
and the seventh day, the Sabbath of the Lord, they would be blessed in the rest
that God had provided. God made provision on that day that the manna would not rot
but would remain until the following day. (miracle within a miracle, isn’t God
amazing.)
Well what do you think happened? Did they all take the
morning off? Take time to just worship the Lord, and enjoy a fellowship meal
that didn’t have to go out and? Not really, some of those same people are unable
to trust Him fully. They get up, gather their baskets and go outside looking
for manna on the Sabbath day. They didn’t trust God for the days when there
would be no bread from heaven.
Blessing In God’s Rest
I wonder, if we had been there with the Hebrews on that
first Sabbath Day or rest, would we have been with those resting in our Lord
provision or would we have been seen outside our tents scrounging for manna
that wasn’t ever going to be there? I’d like to think I would be kicking back
fully assured of God’s word and enjoy time with my family and getting read to
worship the Lord. That’s what I’d like to think, but I’m almost afraid that
though I wouldn’t grab a basket and run out to look for manna, I might have
still crept to the tent flap and peeked out to make sure there was no manna.
That’s just me, I’m sure none of you would have your eye to the tent flap.
I need this lesson and so do you. I need to understand that
God in his providence has given us rest. There is much more that God wants to
give to us than just what we think we need. The Israelites needed rest, but
they didn’t know it, they didn’t ask for it. All they could see was empty
stewpots but they needed more than food. God knew they needed rest and they
needed to learn how to rest in God’s promises.
We may think that we just need to bring our list of
necessities to God and faith begins and ends with the asking and the waiting
for His answer, but true faith goes far beyond what we can see and know in the
here and now. This is the doctrine of Providence and it leads us to true faith.
True faith realizes that God is eternal and that He sees
beyond today and tomorrow and right on into eternity. That He sees and knows
all things that pertain to us and beyond us. True faith realizes that trust is
based upon knowing God not just knowing His blessings. True faith learns to
rest upon the Lord and finds that eternity begins even before we die. True faith
looks for and longs for the rest that God will provide though Jesus Christ,
here and now and throughout eternity.
Listen to the way Paul taught this in Hebrews 4:1-11 Let us therefore fear, lest, a
promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come
short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the
word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that
heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have
sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were
finished from the foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain place of
the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his
works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. Seeing
therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was
first preached entered not in because of unbelief: Again, he limiteth a certain
day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye
will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest,
then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth
therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he
also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour
therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief.
Oh how I want to move from simple dependence on God for my
needs today to true faith in My Lord for all days and all things. I want to
move from faith to faith. I want to move from expectation to complete trust. I
want to move into the reality of the “rest” of God. I want to truly live and
act according to my understanding of the Providence of God.
I think the song, Dwelling in Beulah Land is
about the rest and providence of God. It describes an attitude of faith and
overcoming based up God and his provision for us.
Far away the noise of strife upon my ear is falling.
Then I know the sins of earth beset on every hand.
Doubt and fear and things of earth in vain to me are calling.
None of these shall move me from Beulah Land.
Viewing here the works of God, I sink in contemplation.
Hearing now His blessèd voice, I see the way He planned.
Dwelling in the Spirit here I learn of full salvation.
Gladly will I tarry in Beulah Land.
Refrain: I’m living on the mountain, underneath a cloudless
sky.
I’m drinking at the fountain that never shall run dry.
O yes! I’m feasting on the manna from a bountiful supply,
For I am dwelling in Beulah Land.
Conclusion
Are You Able To Trust in the Providence of God this morning?
This is not just a stale theological definition. It is not
just a label we use for the good things in our life. This trust is the path
that leads to a greater experiencing and knowledge of God in our lives!
Listen to what David says in Psalms
139?
Psalms 139:3-5 Thou compassest my path and my lying down,
and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but,
lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.
Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
That’s providence! This morning, do you trust that God has
provided for you?
Do you trust Him to provide what is needed in the
circumstances of your life now and what you will need for eternity?
I can’t leave this subject without telling you of God’s greatest
act of providence. Listen to what Jesus said in John 6:51 I am the living bread
which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for
ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the
life of the world.
God’s providence didn’t stop with the miracle of the Exodus,
He provided salvation through His own Son, Jesus, is the Bread of Life. Your
need for a savior has been met in Him. Will you put your faith trust in Jesus
Christ to provide for your eternal life? This is the greatest test of all time
and eternity.
God in His providence knows your need and has made provision
for it, but you must step outside your tent of fear and in faith gather the
manna. You must act, you must make the choice to trust that God has provided
today, tomorrow and for eternity.
