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.”

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. 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.’”

In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. 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?” 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. 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, according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.’” 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. And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over till the morning.” But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.—Exodus 16:1–21

Personal Introduction

I am very glad to be with you all this morning. As Pastor Steven said in the announcements, my name is Tom Boyer. I am a former Washingtonian turned Minnesotan church planter. My family moved to Minnesota for seminary four years ago. At that time, we did not anticipate staying here nor did we anticipate church planting. But here we are church planting in Minnesota. And I am thrilled about that. God has already answered so many prayers in this church planting process, and the most encouraging answered prayer is the team of people that he has started to bring together to form our core team. It is very exciting to see what God is already doing this early in the process. I would love share more about the church plant with all of you, and I invite you to stick around after service and attend our informational meeting this afternoon. This meeting is really for everyone—not just people interested in joining the church plant. Come and hear our vision, hear about what God is already doing, and learn how you can pray and partner with us moving forward. My hope is that this church will be encouraged to keep planting churches! 

Sermon Introduction

I want to now shift our focus to our sermon text for this morning. Many of you here are probably familiar with the Exodus narrative. You’ve heard it in Bible studies, seen it in movies, or talked about in Sunday school. The story is memorable and captivating. The Exodus is monumental that it referenced regularly throughout the entire Bible in both the Old and New Testaments. It is a well-known story, because it is a uniquely important story.

For everyone’s sake, and for the sake of our imaginations, I want to briefly walk through Exodus 1–15. I want to spark some tension for chapter 16. So even if you are already familiar with the story, don’t tune out. The drama of the Exodus is important.

Exodus begins with God’s people in slavery. These people that God has promised blessing and land and expansion are now slaves. But they aren’t just slaves, they are slaves under the greatest world power—the Egyptians. The situation is significantly more bleak than our sanitized Sunday schools lessons portray. God’s people are in trouble. And they know it! They have no plans of rebellion, because they have no hope of success. All they can do is cry out for a redeemer. 

But there is one thing God’s people have going for them. Fertility. God’s people are rapidly growing in number. Now, that should have been a good thing. But the Egyptians have taken God’s blessing of birth, and they have turned it into a liability. Becoming pregnant now puts your womb in danger. What should have brought joy while in slavery, actually brought further tears. Why? Because Egypt has installed a plan to kill these babies before they can become a threat to the kingdom of Egypt. The blessing of birth has now become a burden. 

But still, God’s people have one thing going for them. Faithfulness. There are faithful midwives who risk their own lives in order to save these babies. But more than just these midwives, a faithful God of the universe still hears the cries and the groans of his people. These faithful midwives have the power to save lives. But this faithful God—he has the power to save nations. This faithful God has the power to resurrect nations from their own graves.

And that is exactly what he does.

Through awesome and awful events, God resurrects a nation. More than that, he destroys and even humiliates the all-powerful enemy of Egypt. God saves his people and gives them freedom again. He saves them from Egypt and sets them on a path toward a rich land flowing with milk and honey.

If this were a Hollywood movie, this is the moment the credits would roll. If this were a fairy tale, this is where you’d hear, “and everyone lived happily ever after.” God’s people are liberated! They are free! Nothing more needs to be said!

But the story takes a surprising turn. And that’s where we pick up today.

For Our Instruction: 1 Corinthians 10

This morning our sermon text focuses on the people of Israel in the wilderness. But our main focus won’t be on the people of Israel. Our main focus must be self-reflection. And I mean that literally, it must be self-reflective. Why? In 1 Corinthians 10, the Apostle Paul recollects the events of Israel in the wilderness. Then do you know what he says? Verse 6, “Now these things [the events in the wilderness] took place as an example for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.” He continues, verse 11, “Now these things happened to them [Israel] as an example, but they were written down for our instruction.” What is Paul saying? He’s saying that if I preach a mere history lesson, then I miss the entire point of Exodus 16. The entire point! What happened in Exodus 16 is for our instruction, so that we might not make the same mistakes that they did.

Our sermon this morning has two main parts. First, we will consider the actions of Israel. Primarily the disposition of their hearts. Second, we’ll consider God’s action—specifically, we’ll consider how God graciously provides for his people. We’ll keep our eyes on the text of Exodus 16, but again, we’ll do so for our own instruction.

Israel’s Inner-Disposition

Let’s consider Israel’s situation. In chapter 14, God utterly destroys the Egyptian warriors as they try to re-conquer the Israelites. After that scene, Israel is entirely safe from pursuers. But they have other problems. They don’t have enough food, and they are growing hungry.

Now, I believe that this was a real problem. Israel was truly beginning to starve. I’ve heard sermons preached on this passage that minimize this fact. Some people want to say that Israel had plenty of food, but they were just whiners. “Nothing to worry about, just buck up, Israel.” I don’t think that’s the case. I believe the circumstances were probably dire. Think about it, you have a massive population in the middle of the dessert with minimal agricultural infrastructure. Where is the food coming from? I believe the passage is telling us that the situation is rough. Now in our passage, Exodus 16:2, we see “the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled” about the situation. Note that: “the whole congregation.” Thus far in Exodus, there has been some isolated grumbling. But here, everyone is affected! That’s a detail we should notice. Further, Moses never says, “Calm down, you’re fine.”

My point in saying all of that is this is that we should assume the situation is very bleak. If nothing happens, people will starve. Israel needs another miracle or else their liberation from the slavery of Egypt will be for naught. 

That’s the situation. Here’s what’s interesting: The food shortage is not the primary problem. It’s Israel’s response. Hear that again. If nothing changes, Israel will starve to death. But the starvation is not the main problem. Israel’s response is the problem.

Let me explain why …

While Israel was held in bondage, they cried out to God. God heard their cry and brought them safely out of slavery. As Israel was fleeing from Egyptian chariots, they thought they were trapped. Yet again, God saved them. In Exodus 15, when Israel thought they were going to die of thirst, God provided water.

Here’s what Israel should have been learning by now: God provides in dire situations. God provides when all seems lost. God provides in miraculous ways.

So yes, the people are truly hungry in the wilderness, but they should remember who is watching over them. They should have had hopeful expectation that the God who saved them before would save them again. Yet, they didn’t.

How should this passage instruct us? I want to consider the disposition of Israel’s heart as we see it described in this passage. Or to say it another way, I want us to look at Israel’s character flaws and learn from them.

1. Prone to Grumble

In response to their situation, we see in verse 2, that “the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.” The word grumble is not used in a positive light in the Bible. Grumbling is straightforward complaining. We see groaning in Scripture as a positive way of crying out to God for help.

Grumbling is the disposition of someone who is not satisfied.
Groaning is the disposition of someone hurting and needing help. 

Grumbling says, “God is harsh.”
Groaning says, “God, I am suffering, please help me.”

We grumble when we are pessimistic about our situation.
We groan when we are desperately seeking help in our situation.

Do you see the difference? In this situation, Israel should have groaned and begged God to save them. But their hearts were wrongly ordered. Their first instinct was not one of faithful crying out to God. Their instinct was faithless complaining.

2. Prone to Twist Reality

Not only was Israel prone to grumble, but we see something very interesting in verse 3. Here Israel says to Moses, “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 …”

Israel has just claimed that when they were in Egypt that were chowing down on their slow-cooked meat and all-you-can-eat breadsticks. Yes, the Israelites were “afflicted with heavy burdens.” Yes, those same Israelites had “bitter” lives of “hard service.” These Israelites are now trying to claim that life was actually pretty good in Egypt? … I’m not buying it! 

Israel is acting delusional! They are falsely romanticizing the past in order to complain about their present circumstances.

Israel was a slave nation subjected to bitter labor. They were not a feasting nation subjected to savory culinary masterpieces.

No, in Israel’s hunger, their memories become fanciful. They twist facts and history to fit their false narrative. Under hard circumstances, Israel becomes prone to twist reality.

3. Prone to Point Fingers

We see that Israel grumbles “against Moses and Aaron.” At one moment, Moses is the liberator of a nation. The king of the wilderness. The leader of Israel.

But when things turn sour, he’s the scapegoat of the people. He’s the instigator of problems. He’s the reason we are in this mess.

At one moment, Israel is crying out for liberation. Once they are liberated, they are crying out against their liberator.

Israel thinks they are grumbling against Moses and Aaron, but Moses says that their grumbling is not a treasonous act against Moses and Aaron but a grumbling against God himself. God is the one who heard the cries of Israel and liberated them. God is the one who freed Israel to the wilderness.

The soar hearts of Israel are quick to point the finger at the easiest target. But ultimately, their finger-pointing is against God himself. 

Israel is prone to grumble, prone to romanticize the past, and prone to point their fingers. When hardship comes, their hearts are wired to hopelessness, falsehoods, and blame-shifting.

4. Prone to Faithlessness

The last observation about Israel’s actions almost summarizes our first three observations. Israel is prone to faithlessness.

After Israel has sinfully responded to this situation of hunger, God responds with gifts of food. He provides in miraculous ways. He provides them with a sweet and flaky-type of flat bread called manna.

Imagine waking up and seeing the ground covered with pie crusts for everyone to eat. That’s kind of what we have going on here. But God doesn’t just feed them, he also puts some parameters in place. Israel was called to collect the manna daily and leave no left-overs aside. However, we see immediately, that people disregard God’s command. In verse 20, we read that “they did not listen to Moses. Some left parts of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank.”

Israel was prone to faithlessness. They didn’t trust God to provide the day to day. So they hoarded up their manna for a rainy day. Internally, they were filled with greed. They wanted and they wanted without risk. The result to such faithlessness is decay. We read that the hoarded up manna “bred worms and stank.” Their faithlessness amounted to nothing but infestation.

Israel and Us

Israel was prone to grumble, prone to twist reality, prone to finger-pointing, and prone to a deep faithlessness.

Like Paul, the author of Hebrews says that the Israelites in the wilderness had “evil, unbelieving hearts.” We see those hearts in action in Exodus 16. Now if this passage is written for our instruction, we must ask ourselves—what is the disposition of my heart? 

What is your initial reaction when hardship comes your way?

Do you grumble and think, I deserved better? Do you pin blame on others and take none for yourself? 

I don’t know your answers. And I am not making any assumptions. But I urge you to take Paul’s words seriously. This passage was written for our instruction. Don’t turn the book of Exodus into mere history. It is timeless history that is meant to pierce our hearts in the present. 

God Provides

We learn from the actions of Israel. But we also learn about the ways that God graciously provides for his people. 

Although Israel grumbles and complains and blames God for the situation, we see that God provides manna and meat to the Israelites. God does not liberate Israel, in order to starve them to death. No, he truly is bringing them to the land flowing with milk and honey. Even though Israel has this mini rebellion, God graciously provides for their needs. And he does so abundantly. We read that everyone gathered “as much as they could eat.” And this went on for 40 years, until Israel reached the Promised Land. Their daily provisions were provided for day after day after day, without fail.

Hardship comes. God’s people are unfaithful. Yet God is faithful—over and over again.

It is fair to point out that God could have simply fed Israel before making them so hungry. That seems like a logical thing to point out. Well, there was a purpose to the hunger. We read in Deuteronomy 8:3, “[God] humbled you [Israel] and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

So why did God delay on giving the manna? Because he wanted his people to see their absolute need of him, both physically and spiritually. 

Yes, physical sustenance is needed for physical life. But as liberated Christians, we need more than just physical sustenance. We need both physical and spiritual food. Man does not live by bread alone. We need the word of God, in the same way that Israel needed the word of God. We need to eat this food that God provides us, because you are what you eat! And if it is the word of God that we consume, then we will have a greater resemblance to God.

The manna was God’s provision both to physically feed Israel and to spiritually grow Israel. But God had a bread greater than manna saved to feed his people with. 

Manna to the Bread of Life

In John 6, Jesus Christ miraculously feeds 5,000 people—the story is very reminiscent to the giving of the manna. And it is here that we strong claims of Jesus’s divinity. In the same way that God the Father fed his people in the wilderness, Jesus, the divine Son of God, feeds his people. 

Later in John 6, after Jesus has fed the 5,000, these people come to him again. This time Jesus does not offer physical bread, but he offers himself. He says, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).

Jesus is the true bread from heaven. Jesus is true spiritual food. And he invites us to come and believe in him—“whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

Jesus continues in John 6:58, he says, “This [talking about himself] is the bread that came down from heaven not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

Now you are not going to believe how the Jews of Jesus’s time responded to him. John 6:41, “So the Jews grumbled about him.”

The human propensity to grumble continues. And the faithful manner of God to provide continues.

God is faithful to his people. And in the midst of their faithlessness, he still provides them food. 

He Provides the Church 

But God does not provide the food without a side dish. He also provides his people with the church. 

The author of Hebrews does something amazing, unexpected, and maybe even offensive—he connects God’s people today with the people of Israel in the wilderness. 

Israel was liberated from slavery to Egypt, yet they were still longing for their new home. Their promised land.

Christians today are liberated from their past lives of sin, yet we are still longing for our greater home. Our promised rest.

And the author of Hebrews warns all Christians today, to not harden our hearts like the Israelites did in the wilderness. The Israelites ate “the bread of the angels,” yet due to their unbelief and hardness of heart, they did not enter the Promised Land. They were liberated, yet they failed to see their longings fulfilled.

But in God’s great provision, he does not abandon us to our inevitable self-destruction. No, he provides us with the church. The author of Hebrews calls Christians to “strive [together] to enter that [promised] rest.”

We, like Israel, are liberated yet still longing for the promised rest. But unlike Israel, we have the church, which has been established by the Bread of Life—Jesus Christ. So we together strive forward to enter that rest.

Concluding Thoughts 

As I said earlier today, I believe that Israel was truly starving in the wilderness. They had serious and immediate needs. And God provided manna.

In the same way, we as Christians today have serious needs. And God has provided. He has given us the Bread of Life—Jesus Christ—and all who come to him and believe in him will be given true life. 

And God has also given us the church. Because in our own wilderness walkings, we will stumble. We will grumble. We will point the finger at other people in the church. We will point our finger at God. Our hearts will become hard. But God provides the church to help us in the moments and in these seasons of weakness. We need the church. We need each other. Praise God, he has graciously given us the church. 

If your tendency is to hide from others in the church, then I’d say, stop it! Don’t run from your brothers and sister. You need them and they need you. 

That is one reason I feel so compelled to plant a church—because the church is a gift of God, not some secondary institution. The church is vital for your spiritual health and well being. And the people of the church are called to be personal allies in our wilderness wanderings. I want to be part of a church that blesses and encourages others in White Bear Lake to not harden their heart—as the Israelites did in the wilderness—but to encourage others to eat the bread of life and to walk in his paths. I have a big vision for the church, because I believe God has a big vision for the church. And thus, I love this church, and I cannot wait to be part of another life-giving church in White Bear Lake.

I leave you with this—we are all wandering in the wilderness, waiting for what is to come next. As you wander in the wilderness, seek Christ—he is the true bread of life—and do so in the context of the church—because the church is a gift God that is meant to feed you with the Word of Life.