Exodus Chapter 16 Verse 1

• They had now been out of Egypt for one month. They’ve left Elim and are now arriving at the Wilderness of Sin.  Now there is no connection or meaning of this to be   The actual Hebrew word is “Ciyn” and since it’s a proper noun it is transliterated into English as “Sin.” This place is not very pleasant.  They’ve just left Elim.  Do you remember what was there?  Pleasant, right?  Why did they leave?  Because the presence of God moved…we can’t forget that.  They’re not so much wandering in the wilderness…they’re following.  It’s really their hearts that are wandering and truly that’s why they’re on their 40-year death march. 
• I think about, what if they had of repented?  Given their lives and their hearts completely over to God…would He then have taken them straight to the Promised Land?  The truth is…we definitely don’t know.  What I do know is what God has promised.  Jeremiah 17:5-8, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord.  For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited.  Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord.  For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.’”
• They simply cannot enter into the full measure of the promise of God while yet their hearts were not dealt with. So instead of leading them straight north right then, where the land was there…it was available, it was promised…and it was waiting for them…instead of taking them directly there, God led them south.  Before He can build in you a glorious heart, the heart of flesh must be taken down…they’re one month in…479 to go and the generation will die before making it.  But perhaps…it didn’t have to be that way…it certainly doesn’t have to be that way with you.

Exodus Chapter 16 Verses 2 – 3

• You know, there’s no indication here that they had killed any (and definitely not all) of their livestock. They left Egypt with mostly all of the livestock that was left alive after the plagues…and we haven’t read that they’ve run out…I would submit to you that instead of giving up their own wealth and possessions they’re complaining against Moses, why?  Because it’s easier.  So often we have the means to deal with our own issues but it’s just easier to cast blame and make our personally solvable problems someone else’s…
• So they begin to reminisce of the breads and the meats of Egypt…our memories are so selective, aren’t they!? I remember April said something to me or a friend, I can’t completely recall, but it was very early on after I met her and I’ll never forget it because it was so striking and true…someone talking to her about a breakup or something and how they missed him or her and she said, “Remember, an ex is an ex for a reason.”  Those words have stuck with me and reverberated through so many different applications as I think about the past and how things have changed and we’ve moved on…houses, jobs, relationships, even states for us…why? 
• Because we tend to remember incorrectly. I don’t even trust my own memory!  HA!  Egypt was horrible…and yet they mourn for it…  Big ups to Moses too…  I mean what does this do to him?  He must be hands in the air crazy when they say stuff like this…  When folks complain the worst intention is selected.  Moses had no intention whatsoever to kill the people!  If he had he would have asked God to drop the water a little sooner, if you know what I mean!?  But here they are, complaining and saying this ridiculous thing of Moses…but he keeps his composure and points them to the Lord.  Remember that though, if you’re complaining or having bad blood against someone, you have dismissed pure intention and I think that is all the time wrong.

Exodus Chapter 16 Verses 4 – 5

• One man out of millions, one man calls out to the Lord while everyone else does their own thing…one man calls out to the Lord, the Lord supplies for the millions. Your prayers are not wasted.  Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking…not seeing answers?  Are you looking for what you expect or are you trusting God and leaving it to Him?  Bread doesn’t come down like rain.  That’s not how it works.  Remember God is able to provide from unexpected resources…things we may have never even thought about…so don’t get discouraged…God is not slack.

Exodus Chapter 16 Verses 6 – 8

• Was Moses a perfect leader? Absolutely not.  Did he have a clear vision, plan, path, did he even know what he was doing?  Absolutely not!  Then what qualified him to lead the people?  His dependence on God.  And so Moses calls it here…their complaints although no doubt piercing him all the way to his heart…were not against him…who is he?  He’s just following God…hanging on to every syllable God gives him…and so even though no doubt every complaint completely trashed him personally, he sent them to God…because that’s truly who they are complaining against.
• Now with that, check this out…God sends them meat and bread, when? When they stopped complaining?    Isn’t that just the goodness of God?  His glory on display?  I’m not like that at all.  Stop your complaining and then I’ll feed you.  HA!  God is so good and His ways are so merciful!

Exodus Chapter 16 Verses 9 – 15

• God provides abundantly for them. Why?  Because they are seeking Him with their whole hearts.  Worshipping Him with purity and humility.  I think something in me truly wishes that were so…then in some way I can earn God’s favor.  The truth is that God provides abundantly for them because He is love…and they are in need.  The Manna and the heart behind the provision point directly to the Person of Jesus Christ.  We’ll talk more about this next time but I want to just begin the conversation tonight…
• The Manna was sent from heaven. It was small, it was round, fine as frost on the surface of the earth.  Later we will read in verse 31 that its taste was like honey, sweet and pure.  Turn over to John Chapter 6 and look with me at verses 28 – 35.  The Manna that God sent was small…just as Jesus was sent to earth not as a muscular man from Asgard…or a superman from Krypton…but a baby, small and fragile, as fine as frost.
• To not only become salvation for all mankind but also to walk amongst His people. To know them, know their hungers, their thirsts, understand their needs first hand…approachable and unalarming. 
• The Manna was small and it was round. A circle is an amazing idea.  Never-ending.  No end and no beginning.  And it, in and of itself, whether small or huge is   Jesus is the one Thing, the one Person who is able to make you and to make me complete.  No longer lacking and longing and thirsting in our souls for something more.  Colossians 4:8-10, “Don’t let this world cheat you into becoming its slave, for in Jesus, in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him…”
• Jesus said to the crowds in John 6 not are you good, are you worthy, are you faithful, are you educated…His call was are you hungry…are you thirsty…are you in need…
• Like the fine frost on the ground at dawn Jesus was among us and then gone…taken by the hate of the people and the weight of the sin of the world.
• And just as the Manna was sweet as honey…Jesus was never anything but sweet for those and to those who were with Him.
• Have you yet received the Bread from Heaven? It’s ok if you’re a complainer, a whiner, a hater, a faker, a poser, a coward…believe it or not, these things that we try so desperately to hide are exactly what qualifies us to be a Christian…deep down, we’re just hungry and being hungry too long makes you weak.  Look at John 6:48-51 as we close.  He wasn’t talking cannibalism, He was talking kinship…flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone…it was a welcome from Him to you into His family.  Why did God provide for them in the wilderness…because they were His.