Exodus Chapter 16 Verse 16

• Every person had the responsibility to go out and gather according to their own need. Moses wasn’t supposed to do it for them.  He wasn’t supposed to put together a group to go out and do it for the people.  They were to all do it for themselves.  You can get a lot out of my Bible studies but I want you to know, it’s not enough.  You can learn a lot from listening to teachings in your car on your way to work or through your air-pods as you are working…but let me just tell you, it’s not enough.
• When the hunger sets in…when tough times come…when important decisions arise, even when opportunities are right there…many times they will be missed, the tough times will overwhelm you, the important decisions will be dreaded and sometimes even the wrong decisions made, why? It’s the difference between watching someone change your tire and actually doing it yourself.  (I was going to say hooking up your VCR but that would date me!!)
• You can have someone walk you through changing a tire, even standing there with that person watching them do the whole thing…but until you turn those lugs yourself you’ll never know the amount of strength they take to loosen. Until you lift that flat tire off the car yourself, you’ll never know the weight of the rim.  Until you tighten the lugs on the spare and lower the car off the jack, you’ll never experience what it’s really like…and the same goes for discovering the truth and strength and weight of God’s Word for yourself!
• I know its God’s Word and I know you trust the Holy Spirit to teach through me…but in a time of great difficulty if you bring to remembrance something I said in a sermon then in some odd and perhaps miniscule way, you’re believing me along with God. How much better to just you, one-on-one, believe God!?
• Proverbs 30:5-6 says, “Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.” Here are some of the major questions you will come across in your life.  What is the purpose of life?  What am I?  What’s after this life?  Why do bad things happen to good people?  Why do I struggle so much?  What do I look for in a wife/husband?  How can I have a successful life, marriage, career, ministry?  How can I be a good friend while they go through this?  How can I be a good parent?  What does my kid need from me?  How can I change?  What really matters in my tomorrow?  All of these questions, the answers are written in the Bible and they are all pure and right.  And no conglomerate of sermons stacked in your memory will serve you as those questions arise.  You need to go and gather for yourself.
• And notice this, in doing so you will also provide for all who are in your tent. The word in the Hebrew is “habitation.”  Have you ever been around someone who has the answers to those questions?  The ones we just discussed?  What are they to you?    Teacher.  Dad.  Mom.  At the very least…beacon.  What are you to those in your habitation?  Perhaps you need to get to gathering…

Exodus Chapter 16 Verses 17 – 20

• He’s just furious with them! I mean his eyes must be completely rolled back into his head!  In the smallest of directives some of them just simply will not comply.  What a mess!  What does that say?  One that they do not respect Moses and two that they do not believe God and three that they can most certainly not be trusted with anything important!  This is the mountain top of frustration for Moses no doubt!  Why?  Because the command was clear.  Clearly heard and clearly understood but for some reason they felt that they did not have to comply.  What was the result?  Their sustenance bred worms and stank.  They should have had to eat it anyway!  HA!!

Exodus Chapter 16 Verse 21

• Understand that this is God’s providential provision in their lives. They are in need and God meets that need and He meets that need each day.  But, notice the conditions that are present.  First, understand this, there are no conditions set on the fact that they are His people and there are no conditions set on the fact of His love for them.  But for them to be well, for them to receive what He has for them, they are to trust Him over themselves.  They are to obey Him.
• It just makes sense to gather as much as possible and store up for themselves leftovers. Makes good sense.  But God sets a condition upon His promise and says, “I will provide for you each day…and if you don’t trust me, your home will be wormed up…and it will wreak.”  We must approach and apply God’s Word in direct compliance with God’s Word!  Seems so silly to even have to say that…but if we do not, the result will wreak.
• And similarly, He introduces the condition that if the sun becomes hot on the Manna, then it’s going to melt away. (Get after it early)  The sun is a representation of the gods of men.  And the message in the Manna for them and for us is simple…that we ought to exalt and worship God alone…because it is as Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, “No man can serve two masters; you will end up with your back to one of them.”  And if you do not serve the Lord with your life then what God has for you, His providential provision, will melt away…  Deuteronomy 4:19 says, “Take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them…”

Exodus Chapter 16 Verses 22 – 30

• (First time “Sabbath” is mentioned in the Bible) A couple of things are going on here.  First, it’s hard for me, in my self-righteousness, to understand why the people after proving God already would once again test God.  But man, how I am the exact same way!  But why would they go out on the seventh day?  Because they did not do what God commanded them to do on the sixth.  It’s an interesting and fail-safe truth…that if I do not have the faith and truly the spiritual intelligence to obey God today, that means my tomorrow will be filled with work.  I will be forced to do what I either a) don’t want to do (I’d rather hang out and not go to work) or b) wasteful work…as simply obedience the day before would have made for an easy Saturday.  (Notice, the work is futile and they go hungry.)
• Some folks, if I’m honest, some folks like me, just have to learn sometimes by going hungry. And I have to be ok with that…and give the grace to others that I so need myself.  And sometimes that grace is enabled by hunger.  All of the people rested on the seventh day…but…some rested hungry.  We have to be ok sometimes with letting folks learn and loving them through it…by allowing them to go through it.  No record here of anyone sharing any Manna.  Each stored up for themselves exactly what was needed…

Exodus Chapter 16 Verses 31 – 36

• There was a period of Manna and then there comes a period of biscuit baking for yourself. They came to Jesus who was sitting by a well speaking to a lost daughter, a lost soul…they had just traveled a long way on foot and no doubt Jesus was hungry.  The disciples had gone to get something to eat…hit a drive thru or something…and they said to Him, John Chapter 4:31-34, “Rabbi, eat.”  But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.  My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to finish His work.”
• God will provide Manna for you as you grow in knowledge and in truth…but there will come a day when you know enough…it’s time for you to go and find out what God has for you. You’ve learned enough…now enter into His promise.  Things were confusing, new, complex…not so anymore…now they’re clear, your understanding is clear…don’t be like so many that stay in the wilderness…  Mannaholics…go on…move forward, follow Joshua and find the food that so strengthened even Jesus…finish the work of God in your life! 
• How? Simply do His will…there are those that follow commands…servants…children…but the adult, something different…you no longer have to say the trivial commands of brush your teeth, take out the trash…at some point an adult just does what they ought to do…my how the church would surge with strength if it were to be filled with adults…