By Rev. Dr. Brent Russett – Asbury Free Methodist
July 9, 2023 Exodus 16
We are midway through a series on Exodus. This morning I want to look at “When God Provides.” I have seen God provide in so many ways. In my first year of ministry, I was struggling and questioning whether I should be in ministry. A little old lady in the church came up to me and said, “God laid it on my heart to give you this gift.” She gave me $100. It was a sign for me at that time that God wasn’t finished with me. God provided.
There was a time when I needed care for my kids. God provided. There was a time when I needed encouragement. God provided. There were many times when I needed perspective. Time after time, God provided either people or space to help me see his perspective. God provided. There were so many times that we needed money for different ministries. God provided.
I know many of you can say the same thing. I have heard over the years how God has provided jobs, or money, or groceries, or wisdom. God provides.
In fact, one of the names for God is Jehovah Jireh – The God who provides. I know that about God. Many of you know that about God. I have experienced this aspect of God time after time – and yet sometimes I am still prone to ask whether or not he will come through. My guess is that many of you have experienced that same worry. In those times, it is helpful to know the ways of God.
Come with me to Exodus 16. In it, I hope you will see how God provides for the Israelites and how he will provide for you.
When we come to this story, you need to know that when God’s people lived in Egypt, they were agriculturally based. If you read the text closely, you can see that they had their own animals and their own land. Yes, they were slaves and built monuments for the Pharaohs of Egypt, but they were also farmers.
But now God has led them into the wilderness. They are continually on the move. They didn’t have access to their gardens anymore.
As we get to Exodus 16, verse one tells us that the Israelites have been on their journey in the wilderness for a month. The reserves that they had brought from Egypt were gone, and they were really hungry.
Exodus 16:2–3 (NLT)
2 … the whole community of Israel complained about Moses and Aaron.
3 “If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.”
These people were camping in the middle of the wilderness, and they were not happy campers. It would have been better to die in Egypt, they said. Moses and Aaron, it’s your fault, they said.
Remember, for the last month, God has led them with a pilar of fire by night and a cloud by day. God has brought them to where they are. Even though God has led them, they still run out of provision. The lack of provision is not necessarily a sign that you have missed God’s leading. It could be a sign that he is calling you to deeper faith.
When trouble hits – the Israelites did what we often do. It’s a leadership problem, they said.
Exodus 16:8b (NIV)
8 … He (The Lord) has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.”
Moses tells the people. God is going to provide. He has heard your grumbling. I know you were grumbling about me. But it is God who has led us here. Really you are grumbling against God.
I find it interesting that God does not chastise them for grumbling in this story. Moses scolds them, but God does not. Later, God will chastise them for grumbling. But here, the people are just getting to know the ways of God. They have seen God make a way through the Red Sea. They have seen him lead with a cloud. But they have not seen him provide.
Here is the thing. The longer you journey with God, the more he is going to call you to stop grumbling and trust him to provide.
If you have been journeying with Jesus for a short while, He is going to teach you that he provides. If you have been journeying with Jesus for a long time, his expectation is that you will skip the grumbling stage.
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We read the story, and many of you know the story. God is going to provide for his people by sending them mana. The word Mana means “what is that” because that is what the Israelites said when they saw it on the ground. Moses called it bread from heaven. Mana is a bread-like substance that they will collect off the ground.
But here is what I want you to note. The people of God had been on the road for a month before the manna started.
God’s provision doesn’t start until his people are all out of their own provisions. It wasn’t until the people came to the end of their own resources that they were able to access the resources of God.
I have noticed that God seems to do this in our lives as well. Often it is not until we get to the point where God is all we have that we find that God is all we need. Often, he comes through in the most unexpected ways.
There is nothing wrong with an agricultural lifestyle where you store up for a time in the future. Jesus was careful to explain that your faith should not rest in what you have stored up, and he was careful to point out that if you sacrifice your soul, to always be getting more and more, then you have a problem – But handled properly, there is nothing wrong with storing for the future. And in some ways, what you have stored up is God’s provision for you.
But sometimes life happens. Sometimes we get on the road of life, and things don’t turn out like we expected they would. It is not until you come to the end of your resources that you will experience the supernatural provision of God.
Now I recognize that when we talk about God providing, our minds usually turn to money. And I know that there are some of you who need God to come through for you in the area of finances. I trust that you will find that God is all that you need.
The church in other parts of the world seems to learn this lesson a lot faster than we do. I have travelled to parts of the world where there is no social safety net. People come to the end of themselves faster. There is a reason why faith is often bigger in poor countries. When God is all you have, you have no other choice but to depend on him. We don’t come to the end of ourselves so quickly.
But in my experience is that there are things other than finances where we need the provision of God. We live in a world where many people experience loneliness. We live in a world where people experience extreme grief. We live in a world where people go through trauma. We live in a world where people get bad news from doctors. We live in a world where people experience relational pain and hurt. We live in a world where anxiety and fear are huge. All of those places are places where we need God to provide. In all those places, we need God to come through.
But often, God does not provide until we run out of provisions. He lets us go our own way, try our own thing, do all that we can, and then when we reach the end of ourselves, he does what we cannot do.
I wish it were different. I wish God didn’t wait until the last minute. But it seems to be his way. Part of the spiritual journey is to learn to put our faith in his provision rather than our own ingenuity. Often God does not provide until we run out of provisions.
Back to the text
Exodus 16:4–5 (NLT)
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they will gather food, and when they prepare it, there will be twice as much as usual.”
So, God tells Moses, I am going to provide for my people, but there is going to be a test built into the provision.
Now in our world, a test is given so that the instructor knows how much the student knows. But what if the instructor already knows how much the student knows – then what is the purpose of a test? In that case, a test is given so the student knows how much the student knows.
God knows everything. He knows the level of faith, the level of trust of his people – but he puts them to this test – so that they know how much they know.
God says I am going to give them each day enough food for that day. It is kind of like going to a buffet. You can take all that you can eat, but you can’t take any home.
Now remember, these people are farmers. They are used to storing up now for what they will need in the future. To live from day to day is really stressful when your security has always been in what you have in your barns or what you have in your cupboards, or what you have in your bank account.
At least it is stressful until you learn to trust the person who is providing every day. God’s purpose in developing trust is that our trust turns into knowing who God is.
If you read ahead in Exodus, you are going to find that the Israelites wandered around in the desert for another couple of years. Each day in those next couple of years, they would collect mana.
Do you think after a year or two in the wilderness that they are stressed out about whether is going to be mana the next day? Of course not. After a while, they will learn that God provides. But the process of learning – that is sometimes stressful. But after you experience it for a while, you know that God is going to come through.
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God says to them gather what you need for each day, and before the Sabbath day, gather twice as much so that you can rest on the Sabbath.
Exodus 16:16–18 (NLT)
16 These are the Lord’s instructions: Each household should gather as much as it needs. Pick up two quarts* for each person in your tent.”
17 So the people of Israel did as they were told. Some gathered a lot, some only a little. 18 But when they measured it out,* everyone had just enough. Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough. Each family had just what it needed.
There are seasons in life where God allows you to get all of what you need but no more than you need. That doesn’t happen in every season of life, but there are sometimes – when it doesn’t matter how hard you try, you just can’t get ahead. You must trust God for today, and he is only going to give you enough for today.
It was not God’s intention to leave his people in the wilderness all their lives. They took the long way around. It took them three years. But in three years, God led them to the border of the promised land. When they entered the promised land, they would no longer need mana. They could go back to agriculture. But in this period, he was helping his people to trust him day by day.
There are times in our journey when God wants to teach us a specific lesson. It is important that we understand the lesson. Because if we don’t get it, we tend to have to learn the same lesson repeatedly.
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If you know the story of Exodus, you know that the people of God get to the edge of the promised land, but even though God tells them to go in and possess the land, they refuse. They thought the opposition was too strong. They didn’t really learn the lesson that God was trying to teach them now. God will provide what you need when you need it. God would provide the strength to meet their enemies. God would provide victory. But they hadn’t learned the lesson that God would provide.
Because they didn’t learn the lesson they needed to learn, most of them lived their whole lives living hand to mouth rather than trusting God with the risk he was telling them to take.
The idea that God will provide what you need when you need it is not just an Old Testament idea. How did Jesus teach us to pray? “Give us this day our daily bread.” This lesson from the mana was so important that Jesus included it in the prayer that his church often repeats.
Jesus taught us to trust God for today. There are often times when that is all you can do – trust God for today. There are often times when God only provides for tomorrow, tomorrow. He provides for today, today. Give us this day our daily bread.
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Well, God gave his people a test. Collect what you need only for today – but don’t store up anything for tomorrow. The test was given to show them their own hearts.
Exodus 16:19–20 (NLT)
19 Then Moses told them, “Do not keep any of it until morning.” 20 But some of them didn’t listen and kept some of it until morning. But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell. Moses was very angry with them.
There were some who couldn’t overcome their tendency to store up things. So, they tried to store up Manna. It didn’t work. It went bad. It smelled. It really smelled.
The Lord was trying to teach his people to trust him daily. He was also trying to teach them to follow what he says.
There were some people who tried to take things into their own hands, and it didn’t work. Here is the thing, when God is trying to teach you something, it is really helpful to learn what he is trying to teach you. The only way to do that is to obedient to what you know to do. They knew that they were to gather enough for today but not for tomorrow.
Moses was really angry with the people who tried to store up manna for the next day. It doesn’t say anything about God’s emotions. Moses’ emotions and God’s emotions are not the same thing.
I think God was quite satisfied with the natural consequence of their actions. God is a teacher. He is patient – except it seems with stubbornness.
Exodus 16:21–27 (NLT)
21 After this the people gathered the food morning by morning, each family according to its need. And as the sun became hot, the flakes they had not picked up melted and disappeared. 22 On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much as usual—four quarts* for each person instead of two. Then all the leaders of the community came and asked Moses for an explanation. 23 He told them, “This is what the Lord commanded: Tomorrow will be a day of complete rest, a holy Sabbath day set apart for the Lord. So bake or boil as much as you want today, and set aside what is left for tomorrow.”
24 So they put some aside until morning, just as Moses had commanded. And in the morning the leftover food was wholesome and good, without maggots or odor. 25 Moses said, “Eat this food today, for today is a Sabbath day dedicated to the Lord. There will be no food on the ground today. 26 You may gather the food for six days, but the seventh day is the Sabbath. There will be no food on the ground that day.” 27 Some of the people went out anyway on the seventh day, but they found no food.
Lessons of God’s provision are almost always accompanied by learning God’s ways to live. Here he is teaching them about the Sabbath.
Now remember this story comes before the people were given the 10 commandments. The Sabbath is not enshrined in Law. It is not some rule to be obeyed, other than it wired into creation. You were built in such a way that you work best if you have a day off. Even if you have to work harder the day before to get a day off, it is healthier for you. As verse 29 says, the Sabbath is God’s gift to you.
Here is what I have noticed, if you are in one of those seasons when God is giving you just what you need but no more than you need, there is almost always a parallel lesson that he wants to teach you.
Some of you are learning that God will provide, but you also have to learn to manage your money. Some of you have learned that God gives you enough time to do what he has called you to do, but he is teaching you about managing your time and your energy and only doing what you are called to do. Some of you have learned that God will provide the peace that you need, but you also need to find a rhythm in life to live well in this world. Almost every time God teaches you about provision, he will teach you about something else as well.
There are some of you who are here today that God wants to teach you about trusting his provision. I know it is nerve-racking. It is at least until you learn to trust. If you learn to trust him now, next year won’t be nearly as nerve-racking.
There are some of us who have learned to trust him with some parts of your lives but not others. God wants to teach us to trust him in all parts.
There are some of you who feel that you are being tested. This is not about what God needs to know. It is about what you need to know about yourself. Learn about yourself, and then turn that over to God.
I think you will find that God is going to lead us, a church, into a place of trust over the next couple of years. The question is, will we trust him together?
How about you? What are the challenges you are facing today? What provision do you need from God today? God Provides.
The lack of provision isn’t necessarily a sign that you have missed God’s leading. It is probably a sign that he is calling you to a deeper faith.
The longer you journey with him, the more he will call you to stop grumbling and trust him to provide.
But his provisions don’t often start until yours come to an end. Often what you are going through is a season where he tests you so that you know who you are and who he is.
In addition to teaching you about his provision, he is probably wanting to teach you about something else.
If you need provision from God, know that he has your best interest in mind. He is calling you to trust.