Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20090920.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Exodus: God's Forming The Nation Israel For His Abrahamic Covenant
Part II: God's Training Israel To Heed Him, Exodus 15:22-40:38
B. God's Training To Obey Him Consistently
(Exodus 16:1-36)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    A great need exists for us as a people and as individuals to function uprightly with consistency:

    (1) Consistent upright function in government and business can seem impossible. AP business writer Stevenson Jacobs in his article, "Wall Street wild again 1 year after crisis" in the September 14, 2009 Republican-American, p. 3A noted: "A year after the financial system nearly collapsed, the nations' biggest banks are bigger and regaining their appetite for risk," and warned: "There have been no significant changes to the federal rules governing their behavior . . .", implying unless the government intervenes, we are set for another crisis! (Ibid.)

    On the other hand, the editorial "Lessons Unlearned" in the September 15, 2009 issue of Investor's Business Daily, p. A10, though admitting abuses in the banking industry, critiqued the government's failure to correct the loose lending practices in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac programs that precipitated the whole financial meltdown.

    However, beyond just failing to correct such risky practices, last Wednesday, the House Committee on Financial Services held hearings on legislation that was supported by the current administration to bring lending institutions under the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, "placing new demands on these groups and opening them up to protests and pressure tactics" to lend to the financially less-qualified! (Steven Malanga, "Act From Which An Acorn Grew, And An Economy Died, Lives On," September 17, 2009 IBD, p. A11)

    Incredibly, Malanga's article notes it was similar pressures on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to relax their "strictly by-the-book" interpretation of laws under this 1977 Act that had led to the subprime mortgage mess that precipitated last year's financial meltdown! (Ibid.)

    Thus, consistent upright functioning in our nation's business and government institutions appears to be only an elusive dream!

    (2) Nevertheless, we face the challenge of consistently functioning rightly even at the personal level: even we believers can be frustrated at our own failures consistently to avoid eating "junk" food or consistently not to accelerate through a yellow traffic light to beat the red or consistently not to get upset at financial crises when we "know" we are "supposed" to be "trusting the Lord" in it all!

    Need: "What is God's PRACTICAL SOLUTION for shifting from unrighteous habits to CONSISTENCY in UPRIGHT living?!"

  1. After Israel left Elim for the wilderness, she ran out of food, and charged Moses with leading her to die there of hunger, Ex. 16:1-3.
  2. This complaint was unjustified in view of God's past help of Israel:
    1. The Lord had exhibited great power in the ten plagues to get Egypt to let Israel go (Exodus 5-12), He had awesomely rescued Israel from Pharaoh's chariots at the Red Sea (Exodus 14) and He had healed the bitter water at Marah so Israel could drink (Exodus 15:22-27) all the while guiding and protecting the nation from Pharaoh's chariots with His presence in the cloud, Exodus 13:21-22 with Exodus 14:19-20.
    2. Thus, Israel was without excuse in implying that God was about to let her die of hunger after He had performed all these works to help her!
  3. However, Israel had HABITUALLY MURMURED in UNBELIEF:
    1. After God had sent ten great plagues on Egypt to spur the Egyptians to release her, Israel and Moses had complained to God when Pharaoh's chariots had cornered them at the Red Sea, Exodus 14:11-15.
    2. Israel had then murmured about the bitter water at Marah three days after God's great deliverance at the Red Sea, Exodus 15:22-24.
    3. The people of Israel had murmured again about the lack of food in the wilderness, saying it would have been better to have died in Egypt where they at least had ample meat and bread to eat, Exodus 16:1-3!
  4. Thus, God implemented a PROGRAM for Israel to overcome her HABIT of faithless murmuring -- FORCED, RELENTLESS, HUMBLING OBEDIENCE for Israel just to EAT to STAY ALIVE :
    1. God's provision of Israel's food was made with His stated intent of PROVING Israel to see if she would heed His Word, Ex. 16:4a,b.
    2. The WAY God provided showed His work to pressure Israel into humble, repetitive obedience to His Word just to avoid starving:
      1. God planned to supply manna for each day, giving a double portion every sixth day so Israel could rest on the Sabbath, Exodus 16:4-7.
      2. Now, to prove this was just a TEST and NOT that GOD was UNABLE to PROVIDE anything BETTER, the Lord supplied meat that evening (Ex. 16:8a), and Exodus 16:13a reveals this meat was quail, a delicacy (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978 ed., ftn. to Ex. 16:13)! God thus showed He could have given more than just the food her complainers had lusted (Exodus 16:3) -- even delicacies!
      3. Yet, the way He supplied His manna forced Israel into relentless, humbling obedience to Him just to avoid starving:
        1. The manna appeared as paper-thin wafers the size of sesame seeds all over the surface of the ground that had to be gathered by careful, laborious sweeping, Exodus 16:14, 31.
        2. This activity was humbling: one had to stoop to sweep up his food, and clean it before preparing it! (Deuteronomy 8:3)
        3. On regular days, the manna was edible only the day God gave it except when He gave a double portion before the Sabbath so Israel could rest from labor on the Sabbath, Ex. 16:19, 22-23.
        4. When some folk tried to "fudge" heeding God's Word, saving some manna for the next regular day, it bred worms and smelled (Exodus 16:20 KJV, ESV), and when they failed to save His extra supply the day before the Sabbath, they went hungry on the Sabbath (Exodus 16:27-28); either way, they precisely and consistently had to heed God's Word in order to EAT!
        5. When the sun rose high in the sky, the manna would melt, so Israel had to get up early to gather it to eat, Exodus 16:14, 21!
        6. Israel had to heed this program for 40 years to live, Ex. 16:35!
        7. God wanted the lesson of this manna to be observed even after the people had reached Canaan and could live off of its produce: He told Moses to collect an omer of manna, one person's daily ration (Exodus 16:18), to be kept in a pot in the tabernacle as a memorial throughout Israel's history, Exodus 16:33-34.
    3. This WAY, God signaled the need for all believers down through history to HEED His Word PRECISELY and CONSISTENTLY versus faithlessly complaining if they desired to be blessed in life!
Application: If bound in a godless habit, (1) may we trust in Christ as Savior from sin to receive eternal life, John 5:24, and be indwelt by God's enabling Holy Spirit, Galatians 5:16-22. (2) Then, (a) as GOD allows trials to arise that FORCE us into HUMBLE, CONSISTENT OBEDIENCE to His WORD just to FUNCTION, (b) VIEW it as GOD'S way of getting us CONSISTENTLY to HEED His WORD for BLESSING, and COMPLY with His wishes!

Lesson: God gave Israel the REPETITIVE, HUMBLING, HARD task of gathering her food to FORCE her to OBEY Him CONSISTENTLY that she might REPLACE faithless complaining with consistent obedience! This lesson was meant to be TIMELESS for believers throughout history!

Accordingly, we may ask, "What is the PRACTICAL ANSWER to gaining CONSISTENCY in upright BEHAVIOR?!" Conclusion:

 (1) Last Wednesday morning while feeling restless about the initial closing illustration I had written for this sermon, two calls about ten minutes apart came in from two evangelical groups in our area.

Both callers wanted us to get involved in large groups or programs they offered that were marked by surface ministries.

In both cases, I had suddenly begun to feel dreadfully uncomfortable that I could hardly wait to reply, "No thank you, we are just not interested" before hanging up the receiver as fast as possible!

(2) Wondering why I had just received two calls of the same nature, and why I had felt so very uncomfortable about them, I realized God might be trying to reveal something in the experience, and that led to recalling a phone call I had had the previous evening. A believer had then told of her unease over the growing institutionalization of her Church! I had replied God wants the Church to disciple individuals long-term as in a family, not keeping people spiritually weak by supplying surface programs that merely feed the institutional growth of the Church at the price of real discipling! She had agreed!

(3) Recalling this call had in turn led to recalling another event, one that occurred in our last Sunday evening service: one of our members had then testified, "It's wonderful to know this evening service is always available for us!" In the less-attended evening ministry, I had realized this as God's emphasis once again on His call that we focus on discipling individuals for the long-term!

(4) That led to recalling how God had earlier and repeatedly led me and others in our body to realize the importance of focusing on faithful in ministry to individuals! We had been repeatedly "hit" with this emphasis in our personal experience and even through a periodical that had arrived in the Church's mail from Africa Inland Mission!

So, applying this sermon, God used UNCOMFORTABLE, REPEAT interactions by phone to DRIVE me and us AGAIN to value HIS focus on a LONG-TERM ministry to INDIVIDUALS! It may be the opposite of what many others do, but it's His will!!

Thus, if we face UNCOMFORTABLE, REPEAT trials, know GOD is using them to make us CONSISTENTLY HEED Him in some way! Relying on the Holy Spirit, then, may we FAITHFULLY heed His revealed will for His richest blessing!