I'd like to invite you to turn with me to Exodus 16. Exodus 16, as I told you last week, Spurgeon called this section of Exodus Wilderness University. And today we're continuing our mini trilogy, these three brief events that happened in the wilderness and that span chapters 15, 16, and 17. Last time, the Israelites complained about their lack of water. Today we're gonna see them complain about their lack of food, and then the next time, they're gonna complain about lack of water again, if there's a pattern here, right? So I'm gonna ask you, if you would, to stand, and I'm going to read this passage. This is Exodus chapter 16. And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sinai, which is between Elam and Sinai on the 15th day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt. Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Then the Lord said to Moses, behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. Then Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, at evening you shall know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt. And in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, for he hears your complaints against the Lord. But what are we that you complain against us? Also Moses said, this shall be seen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and in the morning bread to the full, for the Lord hears your complaints which you make against him. And what are we? Your complaints are not against us, but against the Lord. Then Moses spoke to Aaron, say to all the congregation of the children of Israel, come near before the Lord, for he has heard your complaints. Now it came to pass as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord spake to Moses, saying, I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, at twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God. So it was that quail came up at evening and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp. And when the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a small round substance. as fine as frost on the ground. So when the children 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, this is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. This is the thing which the Lord has commanded. Let every man gather it according to each one's need. One omer for each person according to the number of persons. Let every man take for those who are in his tent. Then the children of Israel did so and gathered some more, some less. So when they measured it by omers, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. Every man had gathered according to each one's need, and Moses said, let no one leave any of it till morning. Notwithstanding, they did not heed Moses, but some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank, and Moses was angry with them. So they gathered it every morning, every man according to his need, and when the sun became hot, it melted. And so it was on the sixth day that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one, and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. Then he said to them, this is what the Lord has said, tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil, and lay up for yourselves all that remains to be kept until morning. So they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded. And it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it. Then Moses said, eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord. Today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none. Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none. And the Lord said to Moses, how long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for the Lord has given you the Sabbath. Therefore he gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place. Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day. And the house of Israel called its name manna. And it was like white coriander seed. And the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. Then Moses said, this is the thing which the Lord has commanded. Fill an omer with it to be kept for your generations that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt. And Moses said to Aaron, take a pot, put an omer of manna in it, and lay it up before the Lord to be kept for your generations. As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the testimony to be kept. And the children of Israel ate manna 40 years until they came into an inhabited land. They ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. Now an omer is one-tenth of an ephah. Let's pray together please. Our Lord we thank you for your word. We thank you that it has what we need. And Lord as we come to it again today we ask for your help. A natural man does not understand the things of God. their foolishness. And yet those of us who are in Christ have the Holy Spirit to guide us, to teach us, to lead us into truth, and we pray that would happen again today. Lord, I ask for your Holy Spirit to anoint me, to speak your word, that I would be accurate, that I would be clear, that I would know what to say and what not to say. That this passage would be clear in what it says, what it means, and how it applies to us. Give us ears to hear. Give us hearts that are pliable, that are flexible, that are ready to change in the ways you show us. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. I have one key word for today. And you all can probably guess what it is. It is bread. We're gonna talk about bread. We're gonna talk about more than bread. And when I say bread, I'm not just talking about physical bread. I'm not talking about a loaf of bread you picked up from the grocery store. There is a physical component to this today, and there's a spiritual component to this today, and we're gonna explore both of those things. I have three main points for you, and if you're taking notes, leave yourself some space off to the side or underneath each of these points, because I'm gonna give you two words to go with each of the main points, but here they are. Number one, God provides for his people physically. We're gonna see that in chapter 16, verses one through 21. Second, God provides for his people spiritually. We're gonna see that in verses 22 to 31. And then God provides for his people, number three, perpetually, verses 32 to 36. And there is, of course, some overlap among these. We're gonna start then with that first point, and we'll come to each one, they'll be on the screen again. But the first point for this morning is God provides for his people physically. And here are the two words I'm gonna put with that. Daily resources. Daily resources. Back in verse one. And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the 15th day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt. Let's talk for a minute about the wilderness of Sin. And there are even some translations in English that put a Z in front of it. And I'm saying it that way on purpose because we read that as the wilderness of Sin. Isn't that what it looks like to you? Okay, but it doesn't have anything to do with our English word Sin. It is probably related to, and we anglicize this too, Sinai is how you say it, right? Well, Sinai is what I looked up. I don't know Hebrew, but that's what it said. And you can see that there's probably a relationship between Sin and Sinai. And there are actually four wilderness areas that are mentioned in this section of Exodus. We start off with the wilderness of the Red Sea back in chapter 13, the wilderness of Shur in chapter 15, now the wilderness of Sin and then we'll see in chapter 19, the wilderness of Sinai. Where are we in time? When did this happen? It says the 15th day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt. So as I look at that, I believe that a month has passed by. God gave them a new calendar. and they left seemingly on the 15th of their first month. So however long it had been, I believe it had been a month, whatever provisions they brought would have been depleted. They're out of food. Whatever snacks they had packed away in their bags, they've eaten them, the kids have eaten them, there's nothing. They're running out of food. That's what seems to be happening. Verse two, then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, and when we ate bread to the full. For you have brought us out into the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. The whole congregation complained about Moses and Aaron. We're talking about hundreds of thousands of people, probably. Could be as many as two million, and it says the whole congregation complained. What did that sound like? If that's really what happened, if this is literal, that would have been deafening. But there's some irony in their statement because they acknowledge in their statement the hand of the Lord that had freed them from slavery, that had brought them on dry ground through the Red Sea, that had drowned their enemies. They acknowledge the hand of the Lord, but then they say, it would have been better for the hand of the Lord to strike us dead back in Egypt while we were slaves. Because at least we had food to eat. That's what they're saying. And there's a statement here, we sat by the pots of meat. Now we're in a modern age where there's fact-checking all over the place. Do you really think they were sitting around in Egypt? I don't think that slaves of Pharaoh were sitting around very much, just dipping into that pot and eating whatever they want to. That is not the way it worked. John Corson wrote, these ex-slaves replaced memories of baking bricks under the blistering Egyptian sun with fantasies of croissants and filet mignon. Whether or not their memories were accurate, they remembered eating well in Egypt. A similar episode occurs in Numbers 11. I'll read you one verse there. We remember the fish, which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. Oh, it just sounds so good when we look back on it. That's what our memory does, folks, isn't it? Those of you, especially any of you who were saved as adults, there are times you may attempt to look back and say, oh yeah, that was pretty good, that was nice, I kinda missed that. Our memories are lying to us. It wasn't the good old days back in Egypt when they were slaves, making bricks, eventually without straw. Complaining, which is what they're doing, complaining in the present reveals my incorrect view of the past and the future. Complaining means I've temporarily forgotten God's faithfulness in the past and his promises in the future. What are they saying is going to happen? What are they complaining about? What are they saying is about to happen to kill this whole assembly with hunger? David Guzik suggested that this starvation was more anticipated than experienced. In other words, they did not live through weeks and weeks of famine, nor did they see their family and friends die of malnutrition, or even have to start killing all the livestock for food. Instead, they're hungry. and they start to imagine, they start to anticipate starving. How many of you have ever said, I'm starving to death? I've said that before. But in reality, most of us have never experienced anything like that. We just mean that we're very hungry. Verse four, then the Lord said to Moses, behold, I will reign And if we had been God, probably would have rained fire on these people who keep complaining, right? But what does God do? Our gracious, merciful God says, behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. What is God doing with this bread he's going to rain from heaven? He's gonna come through for them yet again, but he's also going to test them again. It says, the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day. And there are more details that we're gonna get to when we get to verse 16. That I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not. God tested his people because he was training them to obey him. He was also exposing their hearts, not to him, but to them. We talked about that last week, and I'd like to take a moment this week to show you where I got that idea. This is Deuteronomy 8, so the fifth book of the Bible. Deuteronomy 8, I'm gonna read five verses. Every commandment which I command you today, you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which the Lord swear to your fathers. And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness. Here it is. Number one, to humble you. And number two, to test you. Number three, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. So he humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Your garment should not wear out, nor did your foot swell these 40 years. You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. That's Deuteronomy. Hopefully one of those verses sounded familiar from our scripture reading in Matthew. That's the verse Jesus was quoting. What was God doing here? Tony Morita said God was not just filling their bellies. He was trying to shepherd their hearts. There was a lesson in this hunger. There was a lesson in this provision of manna. There was a lesson in the test of how they got the manna each day. I told you at the beginning that we're talking about physical and spiritual bread. So let me explain what I mean. Where do we, Speaking of us in this room, New Testament church context, where do we find spiritual food? In the Word of God, that's correct. I'm gonna talk about that. In Christ himself, right? I encourage you to read John 6 this week on your own. In that chapter, God's people ask Jesus about manna, and he declares that he is the bread of life. Here's some highlights from that chapter. This is John chapter six, starting in verse 28. Then they said to him, what shall we do that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he sent. Who's that? Jesus. Verse 30, therefore they said to him, what sign will you perform then that we may see it and believe you? What work will you do? Our fathers ate, here it is, the manna in the desert. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Side note, when God or Jesus is talking about what came from heaven, it's almost always, not always, but almost always, more often than not, called bread of heaven, bread from heaven, bread of God. And we'll see in a minute, what do they call it? They call it manna, what is it? Anyway, he gave them bread from heaven to eat, verse 32. Then Jesus said to them, most assuredly I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Then they said to him, Lord, give us this bread always. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. Now this is classic. Do you know how they reacted to him saying, I am the bread of life? Verse 41, the Jews then complained about him. Does this sound familiar? It's a pattern here. We tend to complain, and that's exactly what they did here. They complained about him because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven, and they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he says, I have come down from heaven? Jesus continued to explain that everyone who believes in him has everlasting life. He again described himself as the source of life. Those who eat of him figuratively and spiritually will have eternal life. Skip down to verse 47. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. And when we observe the Lord's Supper, and as we've studied this in other passages, we understand what he's talking about. This isn't cannibalism, we're not eating his flesh, but that his flesh, his body, was going to be sacrificed on our behalf by dying on the cross. And by believing in that, the one and only provision for the salvation of my soul and of your soul, the only provision for the forgiveness of sins, we believe that we receive eternal life. and figuratively we are eating of his flesh. And that's what he's talking about here. So how can we receive spiritual food today? From our relationship with Christ that begins when we believe on him as savior and from reading God's word and prayer. How often do we need physical food? How often do you eat per day? We have children and teenagers in here that eat multiple times. Some of you have gotten seconds since you came in this morning, back there. We eat multiple times a day, why? Because we need food to live, and some of us enjoy eating. Most of us probably enjoy eating, and that's okay. But how often do we need spiritual food? What is a spiritual food? Reading the Bible, praying. And we need it every day, absolutely. Sometimes more than once a day, huh? In our scripture reading in Matthew, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8.3. Physical bread is necessary, but it's not enough. Not for a child of God. We need spiritual food as well on a regular basis. And why did God design his word that way? Why did he design the world that way? So that we would depend on him. So that we would remember to depend on him. As long as I think I have all the answers, As long as I think I can make it on my own, as long as I think I can do it myself, my pride keeps me from seeing what God wants me to see and learning what God wants me to learn. So he humbles me. That's what we read. that he humbled them, we read that in Deuteronomy. He reminds me that I can't provide for my physical needs on my own, I can't make myself holy or spiritual on my own, and those difficult circumstances, those trials train me. They train my heart to know that I need him. Jesus said, blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. How do you know when you need to eat something or when you need to drink something? You're hungry, you're thirsty, right? That's a natural process God built in to make sure that we would eat, that we would drink water. For children of God who are in a relationship with him, there should be a natural, or spiritual I should say, hunger and thirst, an automatic brought on by the spirit The idea that I need him, I need more of him, I need time with him, I need to pursue that relationship with him. Why did he allow his people to become hungry? So that they would recognize their dependence on him. What did God want them to see? His glory. Verse six. Then Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, at evening you shall know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord. For he hears your complaints against the Lord. What are we that you complain against us? At evening you shall know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt. The provision of quail would be a powerful reminder that God had delivered them from Egypt. In the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord. This phrase, glory of the Lord, is repeated in verse 10. What is God's glory? It's kind of hard to define. I used a few different sources, and this is what I came up with, combining some of those ideas. Glory is the physical appearance, or at least an indication of God's presence. So when you see glory in the Bible, think God's presence. Not that humans can look on God's glory, but there's a manifestation of it. might be a glow, might be smoke that fills the temple, depends on where we are in the scripture. This glory, this physical appearance of God's presence fills us with awe and leads us to worship. Now what did Moses say about God in their complaining? He hears your complaints against the Lord. There are four statements in these group of verses that reinforce the fact that God hears us when we complain. And in reality, our complaints against authorities, human authorities that God has put in place are complaints against God. Verse seven, he hears your complaints against the Lord. Verse eight, the Lord hears your complaints which you make against him. Verse nine, he has heard your complaints. Verse 12, I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Continuing with verse eight, also Moses said, this shall be seen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and in the morning, bread to the full. You catch that repeated phrase? They were longing for those flesh pots. When we got to sit around the flesh pots in Egypt and eat bread to the full, God's saying, I'm gonna give you bread to the full. For the Lord hears your complaints which you make against him. And Moses goes on, and what are we? Your complaints are not against us, but against the Lord. This meat in the evening, as we'll read in the next verses, it was the form of quail, birds. And God provided quail only two times that we know of, only two times recorded in scripture. The other one's in Numbers chapter 11. Now in the morning, bread to the full, God provided bread from heaven six days a week for 40 years. So I did a little math, because some of us are more visual and we like to see in a different form. So here it is. The meat was quail, and it came two times. The bread, we commonly call manna, 12,480 times. Six days a week, I did times 52, times 40. That's a lot. God was providing it every day, six days a week. Verse nine, then Moses spoke to Aaron, say to all the congregation of the children of Israel, come near before the Lord. He has heard your complaints. Now it came to pass as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel that they looked toward the wilderness and behold, here it is, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. an indication of God's presence. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, at twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. There it is one more time. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God. Does that statement sound familiar? You shall know that I am the Lord your God. We recognize that. We've read that many times so far in Exodus. God was using this process of gathering food every day to show his people that they were dependent on him every day. Verse 13, so it was that quail came up at evening and covered the camp. In the morning, the dew lay all around the camp. Quail, the description I found of these quail, short-winged, bullet-headed little birds that are easily caught when exhausted from flight, and they were considered a delicacy in Egypt. This is fancy food, this is more like steak and lobster kind of stuff to them. I also read that in the fall, this small game bird, similar to a pheasant or a grouse, migrates from Palestine and Arabia to Central Africa, and in the spring it returns. So we understand chickens, peacocks, those kind of things can fly, but they can't fly very far. Well, apparently these could fly far enough to migrate, but they were just worn out. And when that happened, when they were exhausted, you could just pick them up, throw them on the fire, however you're gonna prepare it, and there you go, you have your dinner. Verse 14, so when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, what is it? For they did not know what it was. Manna, what is it? That's what manna means. What is it? I'm not sure how to pronounce this, but I'm gonna try. Hebrew is manhu, and that's how we end up with manna. It means what is it? Do y'all remember, or have you had the candy bar, whatchamacallit? That's always what I think of with manna. That helps me remember what manna means, whatchamacallit. One of my study Bibles said that this substance appeared on the ground each day as thin flakes like frost, and the people gathered it, ground it into grain, and made it into honey-tasting pancakes. That sounds good to me. Another source said that they were flaky. It was a flaky granular substance that would be used in the place of wheat or barley. Continuing in verse 16, So it's by household, similar to what we had with the Passover. Each household was supposed to have a lamb, and if it's too much, then you're gonna combine and share. Well, for each household, they were gonna get enough of this bread from heaven, verse 17. Then the children of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less. So when they measured it by omers, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. Every man had gathered according to each one's need. Now all these phrases, they seem to have shared what they collected so that everyone ended up with enough. It could have been another miracle that God did that every person ended up with just enough, but I think probably, okay, the family goes, okay, there's this enough, okay, and we're gonna share, and it was enough, it was right. Part of this, one commentator said, this lesson was about contentment. By giving everyone the same rations, God was teaching this people to be satisfied with their daily provision. How much is enough? We live in a culture of accumulation where enough is never enough. We always want a little bit more, but all we really need is our daily bread, which God has promised to provide. We are called to live in daily dependence upon his providence," Rikon said. But some people weren't satisfied. They didn't want to trust God to provide bread for tomorrow. They were greedy. They hoarded extra manna, and it got them nowhere. Verse 19, and Moses said, let no one leave any of it till morning. Notwithstanding, they did not heed Moses, but some of them left part of it until morning. And it didn't go well. What happened? It bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. So they gathered it every morning, every man according to his need, and when the sun became hot, it melted. God wanted his people to go out early in the morning, six days a week, to gather the bread he had provided. He was teaching them two important ideas. Number one, that they needed him daily, And number two, that he expected them to work for their food every day. That is, every day but one. So the idea of going out first thing in the morning, because it melted. This is very much a supernatural substance. It was there, and then it wasn't. So if they slept in, not only do you not get breakfast, you don't get lunch or supper either. So somebody in the family had to go collect this manna every day. God was providing it every day. Why? So that they would know, so that they would remember that they were dependent on him. All right, if you're scared, my other points aren't nearly as long as the first one. But I do have two more points. The second one is that God provides for his people spiritually. And here are my two words for that one. Weakly rest. So we have daily resources, number one, and number two, weekly rest, verse 22. And so it was on the sixth day that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one, and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. Then he said to them, this is what the Lord has commanded. This is what the Lord has said. Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. You're gonna see that statement again as well. Bake what you will bake today and boil what you will boil and lay up for yourselves all that remains to be kept until morning. This is the first time that the word Sabbath appears in the Bible. By changing up the instructions on one day of the week, God was training his people to work for their food six days a week and rest from work one day of the week. But catch this, both working and resting required faith and dependence on God. When you go out six days a week to get that manna, it is with the expectation, with the hope, with the faith, there's gonna be food there. And when you collect double, he's gonna provide double on the sixth day and I won't have to go out because there's not gonna be any on the seventh day. All of this requires faith and obedience. Where it says a holy Sabbath to the Lord, don't miss that phrase, to the Lord. It appears again in verse 25. That was the point. This day was set apart to the Lord. The Sabbath was about rest, but it wasn't only about rest. God wanted his people to have one day set aside for rest and worship. And obviously we're gonna talk about this a whole lot more when we get to the fourth commandment in chapter 20. So I'm not gonna belabor it right now, but understand that God wants his people to rest and he built it in, even before he commanded them, he built it into their schedule of eating, into their daily bread. Verse 24, so they laid it up till morning as Moses commanded, and here it is, it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it. Then Moses said, eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord. Today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none. Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none. And the Lord said to Moses, how long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for the Lord has given you the Sabbath. Therefore he gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place. Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day. I won't take much time with this, but I noticed as I studied it, this statement, the Lord gives you. He said he would give them bread to the full. And now he's saying, I will give you rest. These are gifts from the Lord that they have food to eat each day. They have extra food so that they don't have to go out and gather it on their seventh day, the Sabbath. And for any of you who aren't going to be here in a few weeks when we get to it, I'll just say, the Sabbath, it was Saturday. It was the seventh day of the week. It's not the day that we worship. We are not tied down to the laws that they were. But Jesus said, that the Sabbath was made for people, not people made for the Sabbath. So we as New Testament believers, we are not prescripted in the same way they are that you can do this and you can't do that. You need this whole list of things you can and can't do on Sunday because that's the day we worship. That's the day that theoretically those of us who are able to, most of us, rest and worship It's not so much a list of do's and don'ts as I am going to exercise faith by setting aside, we're all busy, right? We all have work, we have family, sometimes have kids with sports, sometimes have different obligations, and then you have church, and then you have the, I didn't even mention hobbies. and we're exhausted and we don't have time, and part of the reason, I'm talking to myself here, some of you, we've had conversations about this, I'm talking to myself too, we have to make that time for rest. And for me, that's not going to happen on Sunday, but for many of you, it is. And making the time, making the priority, I'm going to rest and I'm gonna worship, because that's what they were doing on that day. And I believe that carries over to us in the New Testament. There needs to be a day of rest and worship, and for us, it may not even be the same day. but that God intends for us to follow that as well. Before we get to the last point, we're gonna talk just a little bit more about manna in verse 31. And the house of Israel called its name manna, and it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. Numbers 11, seven adds that its color was like the color of bdellium. That help you out? That didn't help me either. So imagine the color of pearl, a little bit off white. That's the idea. Like a coriander seed, again, Is it a coriander seed? Is it a coriander seed? Think maybe a sesame seed, that size is what they were picking up. And like wafers made with honey, I learned this week that in the ancient world, the only way to sweeten foods was to add some sort of fruit substance to it or to add honey. And honey was much sweeter than adding fruit. Few Israelites had ever tasted wafers, and when we read wafers, think thin cookies, So describing the manna as being like wafers made with honey was like saying it was the most delicious food imaginable. So here are some possibilities. I'm just gonna throw out here, maybe one of these will connect with you. Those of you who like cereal, honey nut Cheerios. Okay, that's a little crunchy, but that's kind of the idea. There's some sweetness there, some grain, or golden grams if you prefer that one, or graham crackers, or maybe you've been to Bernie's around here, you've had a cronut. Okay, we're talking about a sweet pastry kind of deal. Okay, that would work, or, They have to be hot, hot honey glazed donuts. Or occasionally go to restaurants. There's there's one back in Greenville. There's one down the road in Myrtle Beach. They have an as an appetizer. Honey croissants. You had those? That's what I think of for this that that to me that is a sweet pastry kind of taste. So whatever it was, it was really good and they liked it. Now. What is God's word supposed to be like to us? It's supposed to be sweet like honey. Jeremiah 15, 16. Your words were found and I ate them and your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. Psalm 19. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold? Yea, than much fine gold. Here it is, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. So let's finish our section here with the third point. God provides for his people perpetually. and these are constant reminders. So daily resources, weekly rest, and constant reminders. Verse 32, then Moses said, this is the thing which the Lord has commanded, fill an omer with it to be kept that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt. And Moses said to Aaron, take a pot and put an omer of manna in it and lay it up before the Lord to be kept for your generations. For your generations. God wanted future generations to understand and remember his faithful provision to his people. This daily bread. Verse 34, and the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the testimony to be kept. The testimony refers to the two tables of the law. Well, that hasn't happened yet. And it says, Aaron laid it up before the testimony. Verse 35, and the children of Israel ate manna for 40 years. Well, that hadn't happened yet either. So it seems like Moses went back and added this later, or perhaps Joshua added this little detail. They ate manna 40 years until they came to an inhabited land. They ate manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan. And just in case we weren't clear yet, verse 36 tells us, an omer is one-tenth of an ephah. And some of you were laughing when I read that earlier. Everybody know now? You have it clear in your mind? I don't either. So that approximately two quarts, and we just don't know, is an imprecise measurement, but something less than a gallon, I heard as small as a pint and up to more than two quarts. So somewhere in that general vicinity, it is a unit of measure. And it was important to them because it meant that they had enough each day. So there are our three ideas. God provides for his people physically with daily resources, God provides for his people spiritually with weekly rest, and God provides for his people perpetually by giving them constant reminders. So here are my closing questions. Have you come to Jesus for spiritual rest? I'm looking around the room, most of the adults for sure here, most of you have shared with me your faith in Christ. But if not, you can come to him, he has invited you to come to him. Matthew 11 says, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest. for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And that doesn't just mean you get to go take a nap now. That means you can stop striving to try to be good enough to go to heaven, to try to be acceptable to God. Instead, rest in what Jesus has already done. Believers, are you trusting God to provide for you daily, weekly, throughout your life? I looked this up, in 1990, Kellogg's Corn Flakes launched an ad campaign, and it was, taste them again for the first time. That's what they wanted everybody to do. Well, there's a verse similar to that. It's Psalm 34, it says, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him. What are we supposed to do there? We're supposed to taste, we're supposed to experience. how good God is, his blessings, and then what are we supposed to do based on that? We're supposed to trust and we're supposed to taste and we're supposed to trust. Are you doing that this morning? Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Father, you know the needs of each person here, and there are probably many, and there are many that I don't know, but you do. You know and you care. Lord, you care enough about your children to provide for our daily needs. You've promised to do that. You've promised to take care of us. We thank you. Lord, you've given us rest, spiritually, that we don't have to strive. But Lord, you've given us the expectation of physical rest as well. I pray that we would be obedient in that. Lord, whatever you are leading each person to do, I pray that we would obey, that by your grace we would be changed to be more like Jesus, in whose name we pray, amen.