“Manna from Heaven” – Exodus 16:1-8

Dennis Prager is a conservative radio talk show host and every Tuesday he has what he calls the “Ultimate Issues Hour” where he talks about the things that are really and truly important to us and the things that affect us most; not usually politics. I always like that and I want to do something similar this morning by asking you a question that is one of the most-asked and most important questions ever asked but also one that continues to baffle people. That question is, why do bad things happen to good people?

It is a question that definitely has some right answers but we will never know all the answers completely until we get to Heaven. So, help me out this morning. What are some of the reasons that bad things happen? Why is there so much suffering in this world? If God is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-loving then why is there so much pain in this world?

The book of Job deals with the issue of why God allows bad things to happen to good people. Job was a righteous man (Job 1:1), yet he suffered in ways that are almost beyond belief. God allowed Satan to do everything he wanted to Job except kill him, and Satan did his worst. What was Job’s reaction? “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him” (Job 13:15). “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised” (Job 1:21). Job did not understand why God had allowed the things He did, but he knew God was good and therefore continued to trust in Him. Ultimately, that should be our reaction as well.

Why do bad things happen to good people? As hard as it is to acknowledge, we must remember that there are no “good” people, in the absolute sense of the word. All of us are tainted by and infected with sin (Ecclesiastes 7:20; Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8). As Jesus said, “No one is good—except God alone” (Luke 18:19). All of us feel the effects of sin in one way or another. Sometimes it’s our own personal sin; other times, it’s the sins of others. We live in a fallen world, and we experience the effects of the fall. One of those effects is injustice and seemingly senseless suffering. (GotQuestions.org)

There are actually any number of reasons why bad things happen to us but I want to show you one more in the book of Exodus this morning. If you will turn in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 16, we will see that one of the reasons there is suffering is because it is a test from God. That’s the bad news. The good news is that if we pass the test, there will be great blessings of protection and provision.

The Israelites found this out right after the big, huge, crazy impressive miracle God did when He parted the Red Sea and allowed them to leave Egypt. You remember that, right? It was kind of a big deal. Charlton Heston told Yul Brenner to let my people go! Wait, hang on…well, sort of. Anyway, it was a big deal. They left Egypt after 430 years with lots of people, lots of supplies and high hopes. They worshiped God as the One, True God and gave Him all the glory and it changed their lives…for about a month.

Let’s pick up the story a month after they left Egypt in Exodus 16:1-8. And before you get on your little high horse and start bad-mouthing their lack of faith and looking down on them for how they reacted, just remember that this was written down so that thousands of years later, we would see ourselves and hopefully make the changes God wants us to make. Let’s read Exodus 16:1-8.

The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. 2In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death." 4Then the LORD said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days." 6So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, "In the evening you will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of Egypt, 7and in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?" 8Moses also said, "You will know that it was the LORD when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the LORD."

I’ll remind you that our purpose in going through Exodus has been to learn more about who God is and how He works and we will definitely see something good here in a minute but I have to give props to ol’ Moses real quick. He didn’t want this job. He didn’t ask for it. God chose him and, at this point, it’s a pretty thankless job. Oh, sure, a month ago everybody was patting him on the back and saying, “Way to go, Mo!” but that was four whole weeks ago. The people are hungry now. Their supplies are running low and there is nothing in this desert to eat and they are blaming Moses.

But if you look closely at this passage you will see that until God spoke to Moses, Moses didn’t respond to the people. He didn’t try to defend himself or set the story straight or complain back. His first response was no response. That is so hard. Our first instinct is often to lash out and set people straight. They are wrong and here is why!

If you are doing what God called you to do, you can be sure that somebody is going to complain. Somebody is going to think it needs to be done differently and somebody is going to get their feelings hurt and they are usually going to get hurt loudly, which is a shame. But unless you hear God clearly telling you what to say or how to respond, it is always best to just be quiet. It’s a lesson I’m trying to learn.

But that’s part of the test. Do you see it? Look at verse four again. 4Then the LORD said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.” God said He allowed this as a test. Don’t you hate tests? The problem with tests is that you can pass them…or fail them.

I always hated tests. The only test I ever got an A+ on was my blood test. I guess you could say God made sure I would pass that test. But the real problem with God’s tests is that Satan always butts in and wants to make it into a temptation. Have you ever noticed that? It’s important that we know the difference between a test and a temptation and who is bringing what. But it’s interesting that the original Greek word for “test” is the same as “tempt.” That word is “peirazo,” and it can mean test or tempt depending on the usage and context.

For our study today, just know that God will never tempt you and Satan will always want to tempt you. For God, the outcome of a passed test means blessings and for Satan, the outcome of a failed temptation is sin! And both consider their outcomes a win.

In Hebrews 11:17 we read that “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.” Abraham passed the test, and God knew beforehand that he would. This test wasn’t to determine whether or not Abraham would pass or fail. It was to prove what Abraham was made of. Satan tempts us to prove that we are not who God says we are, and God tests us to prove that we are exactly who He says we are. The main difference between a “test” and a “temptation” is the one who is doing it.

Go back to verse two and look what Satan puts in the heads of the Israelites. "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."

This is such a lie! Look at it closely. First, they use the name LORD like they are all pious and wonderful but they are griping the whole time and, as Moses points out, they are griping against God Himself. God chose Moses. God told them where to go and when to go. Moses is just being obedient. But that’s not even the worst of it. They reminisce about all the good times and all the good food they had back in Egypt like they just left their favorite camping spot.

They were slaves in Egypt! I guarantee they rarely had enough to eat but Satan always wants to make us remember the good times of where we used to be. Does he do that to you? If God has taken you out of something or somewhere; if God has taken something away from you or taken you away from something; if God has delivered you from a habit or a place or a person or a thing, Satan wants you to remember it like it was the best of times.

Years ago, God delivered me from a lifestyle that was not pleasing to Him. I am glad y’all don’t know and will hopefully never know all the gory details. Like Billy says it was blah, blah, blah – not necessary to repeat. And sometimes I remember those old times and Satan will come and whisper in my ear, “Hey, let’s go do that stuff we used to do! That was fun, right?”

And I remember that, yes, I did have some fun back in those days but I also remember that it was during those times that I would lay in bed at night so miserable that I would wish I was dead! I don’t want to go back to any of that old lifestyle that God delivered me from. But Satan wants nothing more than for me to remember the laughs and the fun but not the pain and the hurt and the heartache.

If God has delivered you from alcohol, drugs, smoking, cussing, immorality, being Methodist, 😊 whatever it is then don’t allow the father of lies to convince you to go back! God has delivered you from that and for some people it was an overnight change and for some it was a long process but either way, don’t let Satan convince you to go back. That’s not you anymore. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

That’s one way to fail the test that God allows you to go through. Another way to fail is to not recognize the glory of God and you do that by grumbling and murmuring like the Israelites were doing. Look closely at verses 6-7. So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, "In the evening you will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of Egypt, 7and in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?"

There are a couple of things in tension here. First, if you choose to see the glory of God, you won’t be complaining about your circumstances. Secondly, Moses rightfully says here, “Why are you complaining about me. I don’t have any glory. I’m just a guy just like you.”

So, what does it mean to choose to see the glory of God? I looked that word up to see exactly what “glory” means and the Hebrew word is “kabod” and it literally means a heavy weight of goodness; a whole bunch of power and majesty and honor and reputation. And the only way you can miss it is if you want to miss it. You have to try to not see God’s glory.

That’s just what happens when we start complaining about the circumstances we are in. We overlook all the heavy goodness and power of Almighty Jehova God. We close our eyes to all that God has done and is doing and we concentrate on what there is bad in our lives. When you focus on your problems, your problems eclipse God’s glory but when you focus on God’s glory, your problems are eclipsed.

That’s why God decides to just show them a glimpse of His glory by giving them manna and quail. Now, again, some people want to minimize God’s miracles here. They say that the flight path of the quail would naturally bring them to this area in the spring and after flying over the Red Sea they are exhausted and easy to catch. Really? Every day for forty straight years? C’mon.

Oh, and the manna was the residue from certain trees that grow over there and would just naturally fall to the ground. Is that right? Well, I looked up the Sinai Peninsula and from the pictures I saw, you can count the number of trees in the whole place on one hand so don’t give me that. I read a commentary that said it would take about 12 tons of manna to fall every day to feed that many people. It was a miracle of provision and protection by God. And that’s what happens when you pass the test. God protects and provides.

God gets the glory and His people are blessed. God tests us, not because He wants us to fail, but just the opposite, He wants us to pass so He can bless us. That is what all-creative, all-powerful and all-loving God does. He makes up excuses to bless His kids.

Most of you know Michael and Liz got some good news this week. And we give God all the glory for it. He answered our prayers and proved once again that He is able to do more than we could ever ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20). I believe Michael and Liz passed God’s test and I believe this church passed God’s test in this and were rewarded by God’s protection and provision.

So, obviously, all you have to do is be obedient to God and God will answer all your prayers just like you ask Him to, right? I mean, isn’t that the lesson we are to learn here? The only problem is that we all know that’s not true. How many times have you prayed for something and done what God told you to do and you had no unforgiven sin in your life and things just went from bad to worse? We have all been there.

Ask the Apostle Paul. Even he didn’t always get his prayers answered like he wanted. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul says he prayed three times for God to heal him. Three times! The Apostle Paul, Mr. Obedience. Mr. Faith. And nothing. Well, not exactly nothing because he said that God answered his prayer by telling him, “My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness.”

My grace! My power! My presence! My glory! Is enough! My heavy glory that is obvious if you will look, God says, I have made more obvious. This life is not about being more comfortable. It’s not about having our prayers answered as we want. It’s not about having no needs. It is about – this whole life for us believers – is about knowing God better.

Moses said later in Exodus, “God, I want to see your glory.” And God showed him. That’s a prayer we ought to all pray when we have needs. “God, here is my need. I know you to be heavy with glory. I see it in all of creation. I see it in the Old Testament, the New Testament and I see it in my life and all around me and as the One who has the glory, I want you to be revealed and made known and made famous in this struggle.”

Bless me or don’t bless me. Heal me or don’t heal me. I want you to get the glory in my life whether I am happy or sad, in poverty or in a mansion, sick or healthy. This life is not about me. I want it to be about you. You are the One who provides and protects and you always have been. We see it in our passage today and we see it in our own lives.

One of God's faithful missionaries, Allen Gardiner, experienced many physical difficulties and hardships throughout his service to the Savior. Despite his troubles, he said, "While God gives me strength, failure will not daunt me." In 1851, at the age of 57, he died of disease and starvation while serving on Picton Island at the southern tip of South America. When his body was found, his diary lay nearby. It bore the record of hunger, thirst, wounds, and loneliness. The last entry in his little book showed the struggle of his shaking hand as he tried to write legibly. It read, "I am overwhelmed with a sense of the goodness of God." (sermonillustrations.com)

If you are here today and you don’t have a relationship with God through His Son Jesus and you don’t understand that kind of thinking, don’t be surprised. Unbelievers can’t understand that. 1 Corinthians 2:14 says, “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”

When you accept Jesus as your Lord and as your Savior then God’s Spirit comes to live inside your life guiding you and helping you and allowing you to understand that kind of thing. If you would like that then don’t even wait until the music starts playing. Come down here right now and I want to pray with you and explain what scripture says about how to be saved; how to have peace and joy in this life even in the hard times but also how to have eternal life with Jesus in Heaven as co-heirs with Jesus to all the good things Heaven has to offer. It’s a free gift but it’s not cheap. Jesus paid the price with His life so you don’t have to. All you have to do is accept it. Do it right now as the music plays.