This exposition of Exodus 16:1-30 by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday morning, November 18, 2018.
Intro:
What is your understanding of the Christian life? Do you think it is just a matter of believing a set of truths? That you check the boxes and as long as you believe the right things you’re okay? Do you think if you are a Christian life is all sunshine and roses? That faith in the Lord Jesus is kind of a “good luck” charm that keeps bad things away?
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If you became a Christian because someone told you, “Just trust Jesus and life will be great,” you should probably go find them and punch them in the nose! Yes, faith in the Lord Jesus changes everything. It means you have passed from death to life. You are no longer in bondage to sin. Rather than the object of His righteous wrath you are the object of His grace and mercy. You are bound for heaven and eternal glory. Heaven is you ultimate destiny. In the meantime you still live in this rotten world. You are saved, you are a child of God but you are a stranger here. What will become increasingly clear over time is that this world is not your home. You will experience an increasing dissatisfaction with this world and an increased longing for the world to come. When you come to faith in Christ you start down the pilgrim path. You begin a journey into sanctification or growing in Christlikeness as you live out your salvation. God, in grace and mercy will from time to time lead you to places of refreshment. There will be the occasional oasis through your wilderness journey but such times seem few and far between. Eventually you will head back out into the wilderness for a time of testing and spiritual growth.
The children of Israel camped by the springs of Elim for several weeks. Lingering under the palm trees and enjoying long drinks from the cool, refreshing waters but it was time to move on. The cloud began to move so they packed up their belongings and headed south east, deeper into the wilderness until they came to the wilderness of sin. Given the time reference found in the our text, they are about 6 weeks out of Egypt. They are tired and hungry so, they complained. Given further evidence that this was a Baptist group! Our text this morning is found in Exodus chapter 16 beginning with the first verse.
Text: Exodus 16:1-19
God heard the cries of His people as they languished in bondage.
After 430 years He came to them in the person of Moses and He led them out.
It wasn’t easy.
There was the back and forth with Pharaoh - agreeing and then changing his mind.
There were those plagues, ending with the 10th and terrifying plague.
Death reigned throughout Egypt.
Only those covered by the blood were spared.
At last they were free and having “plundered” the Egyptians Israel marched out.
Only to be trapped between Pharaoh and the Red Sea.
Again, God miraculously delivered His people.
The people sang and danced for joy - but joy was replaced with bitterness at Marah.
We are left wondering, why did they go south into the wilderness when going north would have quickly taken them to the Land of Promise? God could have made things a lot easier but He didn’t. Why this long arduous path? Why the struggles, the hardships, the trials? They were not ready for the Promise Land. God, who always works for our good and His glory, led them through the wilderness not because it was necessary for their salvation but because it was essential for their sanctification. God did not save us to make us happy but to make us holy. He is working in us not for today or tomorrow but for eternity.
He knows what He is doing and He is always right.
The wilderness becomes our training ground.
The wilderness is the place of testing and spiritual growth or development.
With that in mind look with me at our text…
Working through our text we find that…
Thesis: Traveling the pilgrim path reminds us that our faith grows as we learn to trust God’s gracious provision of our every need, one day at a time.
We will note as we continue our journey through the book of Exodus how often the text says, “God tested them” or “this was done to test them.”
To test means to allow difficulty in order to determine the genuineness or reality of something.
This testing is to reveal the true nature of the Israelites and or their faith.
The test was not to reveal the truth to God (He knows) but reveal the truth to Israel.
As we learned last time the test was for them to trust and obey.
To trust in the character of God, His person, His power, His goodness.
To obey His word, His statutes, His rules.
There are three things I want us to take note of in our text.
- The pilgrim path reveals the frailty and immaturity of our developing faith. (16:1-3)
- The pilgrim path requires that we trust God’s character and word while we grow to trust his daily provision of our every need. (16:4-18)
- The pilgrim path demands we learn to trust God to supply our need tomorrow the same as we trusted him for today. (16:19-20)
Conclusion:
This is the key to the Christ life. How are we saved? By trusting in the grace and mercy of God. By giving ourselves wholly unto him. This is why when ask why I’m certain of my salvation, my answer is not, “Because as an 8 year-old boy I gave my heart to Jesus” that’s important, I did that but my answer is, “Because I’m trusting in the Lord Jesus today just as I did yesterday and as I will tomorrow!
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