You know, it seems to me that almost everybody knows the story about how God led the Israelites through the Red Sea, and then how God drowned the chariots of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, but for most people, that's where it ends.
Well, this is what we're going to be looking at over the next few months here at McLean Bible Church. We're going to be looking at what happened after the Red Sea, as narrated by the books of Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Now, the Bible tells us that Moses led a huge group of people from the Red Sea into the desert. As a matter of fact, 600,000 men, to be exact, plus women and children, therefore a total of somewhere between two and three million people is the crowd that Moses was leading. I read an article by the quartermaster general of the United States Army, and he figured out that Moses would have needed every day to supply this mob, these people. They would have needed 1,500 tons of food every day to feed them, 4,000 tons of wood every day to cook the food, and 11 million gallons of water every day to supply their drinking needs. Now, for us as human beings, providing for such a crowd is an overwhelming thought, but you know, not for God. For God, providing for these people was a piece of cake.
No pun intended there. Anyway, this is what we want to talk about today. We want to talk about how God provided for two to three million people in the desert. So if you brought a Bible today, I want you to open it with me to Exodus chapter 16. Exodus chapter 16, and if you did not bring a Bible, reach right under the armrest there next to you, and you'll find a copy of the Bible. We're going to be on page 51. Page 51 in our copy, Exodus 16 in your copy.
Now, a little bit of background. After the Israelites left the Red Sea, they headed south towards Marah. Let me show you a map. This is where God turned the bitter water into sweet water. Then they went from there to Elam where they camped for almost a month. And after that, verse one of this chapter says, then the Israelites set out from Elam and they came into the wilderness of Zin, which is between Elam and Mount Sinai.
Again, let's show you the map. Verse two. And once again, the Israelites began to grumble against Moses and Aaron. They said, if only we had died by the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt, there we sat around pots of meat and we ate it.
We ate all the food we wanted. But now you have brought us out here into this desert to starve us to death. Remember, the Israelites had been living off the provisions that they brought out of Egypt with them.
But these provisions obviously are just about gone and they're worried they're going to starve to death out there in the wilderness. And so, folks, they begin to turn on Moses and to turn on Aaron and grumble and complain. Now, let me show you a slide of what it looks like out here in the Sinai wilderness.
It's a pretty barren, bleak and desolate place. And so they looked around and said, where in the world are we going to get any food from? Verse four. Then the Lord said to Moses, behold, I will rain down bread from heaven for you. Skip down to verse 13. And in the morning, there was a layer of dew around the camp.
When this dew evaporated on the surface of the ground, thin flakes like frost covered the desert floor. Verse 15. Then Moses said to the Israelites, this is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. Now, let's talk for a moment about this bread from heaven, shall we?
The Bible tells us four important things about it. Number one, verse 14 says, it was like pieces of frozen dew, like frozen frost all over the ground. Number two, verse 31 tells us that it was white like coriander seed. So this gives us a good mental picture of what it looked like. You say, right, Lon, I see coriander seed every day.
In fact, I asked for it with my coffee at Starbucks every morning. I have no idea what coriander seed looks like. Well, let's show you a picture.
Here's what it looks like. And now you got an idea. Number three, the Bible tells us, verse 31, that it tasted like wafers made with honey.
Not bad, not bad. And numbers 11 finally tells us that this stuff could be ground into flour. It could be baked in pans and it could be made into loaves of bread. You say, Solon, what kind of bread do you think this flour made? Well, in light of the race of people we're dealing with here, I figure it was either rye or pumpernickel. I don't care who you are. That's funny.
All right. Now, when the Israelites saw it, verse 15, look, when the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, what is it? And this is how the stuff got its name, my friends. In verse 31, then the Israelites called it manna. Manna in Hebrew literally means, what is it? And that's what they named it. What is it? Seriously.
All right. Now, you know, God gave the Israelites some very specific instructions about collecting and gathering this manna. Verse 16 tells us that God allowed them to gather as much as they need to feed every person in their family up to two dry quarts per person per day. Verse 19 tells us the Israelites were not allowed to gather more than they needed for that given day. Verse 20 says if they tried to do that, if they tried to hoard manna, if they tried to store it up, the manna would putrefy, it would rot and it would stink. In other words, everybody had to gather fresh manna every day. And finally, verse 22 says that the only exception to this was on Friday, where the Israelites on Friday were allowed to gather two days worth of manna so that on the Sabbath, Saturday, they would not have to go out and gather. As a matter of fact, the Bible says on Saturdays, no manna fell at all. Verse 35, and the Israelites ate manna for 40 years. They ate manna until they came to the border of the promised land.
Now imagine for a moment what a great deal this was for the Israelites. They never had to go to the grocery store. They never had to stand in long checkout lines. They never had to deal with inflation or prices going up.
They never had to pay sales tax. They never had to worry about some cashier smooshing their bread and putting it on the bottom of the bag every morning. Instead of going out to get the paper like you and I do today, the Israelites went out every morning to get their food delivered right to their front door.
Folks, this was like having divine peapod service every morning. Now as you can imagine, critics of the Bible have tried to come up with every kind of way imaginable to explain this manna in naturalistic terms, to take away the supernatural component of what the Bible is talking about here. The most common theory they've come up with is that manna was really nothing more than the sap droppings from the tamarisk tree. Now let me show you a picture of a tamarisk tree. These things are prolific all over the southern Sinai desert and these trees often drop sap onto the desert floor that freezes in the cold overnight temperatures and can then be picked up and collected the next day.
In fact, the better one to this day. Consider these droppings to be a great delicacy and they serve them to their most honored guests. And according to this theory, all this manna really was were the secretions of these tamarisk trees. Now there is a problem with this theory.
As a matter of fact, there are five problems with this theory. Problem number one is that these trees only drop sap in June and July, not all year round the way the Bible describes. Number two, problem number two is that these trees only secrete this stuff in very small quantities, not in the 1500 tons a day that it took to feed the Israelites. Problem number three is that tamarisk trees are found only in the southern part of the Sinai desert, not all over the Sinai where the Israelites wandered during 40 years. Problem number four is that the droppings from these trees cannot be ground into flour.
And problem number five is that these trees secrete on Saturday like every other day. And so listen, God says that God is very clear in the Bible that this manna came directly from his supernatural hand. Verse four, remember what he said? He said, I will rain down bread from heaven for you. In Psalm 78, David said, God gave the Israelites grain from heaven.
Men ate the bread of angels. And so the Bible is clear here, friends, that manna was a marvelous miracle that God did to prove to the Israelites that he could meet their needs out in the barren desert all by himself, unaided by his supernatural power alone. Now, we could stop right here this morning. We could end our lesson. We could end it by marveling at the magnificent power of God. We could end our lesson by marveling at the gracious provision of God for his people. We could do that, except for the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ specifically talked about this manna in the New Testament. He used it to teach a very important spiritual lesson in the New Testament.
And so if we're going to get everything out of this manna that God put in the Bible for us to know about, we need to go into the New Testament and we need to see how the Lord Jesus used this manna to teach us some important truth. So I want you to flip over to the Gospel of John Chapter 6. If you're in our Bible, it's page 755. Page 755 in our copy, John Chapter 6 in your copy. And remember, here in John Chapter 6, the Lord Jesus has just fed 5000 people with two fish and five loaves of bread. And so the crowd comes to see him the next day looking for more food.
Here's what he said. Chapter 6, verse 26. Jesus said, Truly, you are looking for me, not because of the miraculous sign you saw, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Verse 27, Do not work for food that spoils, Jesus said, but work for food that endures to eternal life, which I, the Son of Man, will give you. Now, verse 28, the people said to Jesus, Well, Lord, what must we do to perform this work? What do we have to do to get eternal life?
What kind of work is necessary? Jesus said, verse 29, To them the work of God is this, to believe on the one whom God has sent, namely the Lord Jesus himself. Notice, if you would, the key word in this verse is the word believe.
Jesus said, If you want eternal life, what you need to do is you need to believe in me. Now, in response, the people said to Jesus, verse 30, What miraculous sign then will you give us that we may see it and believe you? You want us to believe? Show us a miracle, Lord. Our forefathers ate manna.
Oh, there we are. Ate manna in the desert, as it is written, God gave them bread from heaven to eat. God gave them a miracle so they believe, Lord, you give us one. Now watch what Jesus said. Verse 32, Jesus said to them, It is not Moses who has given you bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the true bread of God from heaven is he who came down from heaven to give life to the world. Unless there be any confusion about who Jesus is talking about, he goes on to say, verse 35, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never thirst. Jesus said, Hey, you want to see a miracle? Well, let me tell you something.
Just look at me. I am the greatest miracle you could ever see or God could ever do. I am the living manna, the living bread of life come down from heaven.
I am the living manna that will give you eternal life. And so let me say to you again, Jesus says, verse 47, truly, truly, he who believes in me has eternal life. Now, folks, this all raises a question in the minds of these people and in our minds, and that is namely, what exactly does it mean to believe in Jesus? What does that mean practically?
What are the mechanics? How do we make sure we do it properly and correctly enough that we activate Jesus's promise of eternal life? Well, watch now as Jesus uses their reference to the manna in the Old Testament and uses it to teach these Israelites and us what it means to believe properly. Watch this verse 48. I am the bread of life, Jesus said. Your fathers ate manna in the desert and they died. But I am the living manna. I am the living bread.
If anyone eats of this bread, they will live forever. Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves and said, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Jesus said, verse 53, Therefore, Jesus said to them, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, meaning himself, and drink his blood, you will have no eternal life in you. But he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. Now, folks, what is the Lord Jesus talking about here?
You say, Well, Lon, I know what he's talking about. He's talking about communion. You know, when we eat the wafer, we're eating his flesh. And when we drink the cup, we're drinking his blood. No, sorry, that's not what he's talking about.
You say, How can you be so sure of that, Lon? I can because communion didn't exist yet. Communion wasn't established until the Last Supper and the Last Supper is two years away from John chapter six. You say, Well, maybe he was looking forward to communion and knew it was coming. So that's what he was talking about.
Nope, I'm sorry. Whatever Jesus was talking about here in John six, my friends, it's clear that the people standing right in front of him could do it right then and there. He's not talking about communion. You say, Well, he's not talking about communion.
Then what in the world is he talking about? Well, remember here, the main thing that's under discussion is what? Believing in Jesus, believing in him correctly enough that we activate his promise of eternal life.
That is the issue that we're talking about. And Jesus knew that people could easily interpret the word believe to mean just an intellectual head belief. Yeah, I believe Jesus was the son of God. Yeah, I believe he died on the cross.
Yeah, I believe he's the savior of the world. In my head, I believe all that. But you see, that isn't the kind of believing Jesus is talking about. That isn't the kind of believing to which Jesus promises to grant eternal life. That is not the kind of believing that results in saving faith. The kind of believing that results in saving faith and eternal life, Jesus says, is the kind of believing that's like eating. Say, Well, what does that mean?
Well, let me explain. When we eat food, what do we do, folks? Well, we ingest it, right? We take it in not just into our heads. We take it into our whole being, right?
We break it down. We assimilate it. It becomes an inseparable part of us.
It gets distributed to every cell in our body. It nourishes and gives life to every cell in our body. And our relationship with food is not an intellectual relationship.
Our relationship with food is an experiential relationship. Does everybody understand that? I think you do. I understand it because I love food.
I do. As a matter of fact, you know, I had ballooned up to 215 pounds a few years ago and I lost 30 pounds. You say, Really, Lon? I mean, you do look buff and tough up there, son.
Well, God bless you for saying that. But, you know, I work really, really hard to keep my weight down because I love food too much. And I've tried every kind of diet remedy known to man, friends. I even tried those slim fast shakes. You know those things? And they're not bad, actually. They go really well with nachos, to be frank with you. And then I even tried, you know, those diets where you like eat one meal a day and you starve yourself all day long? Those diets. And people said to me, Don't worry about it. After a couple of days, you won't even notice you're hungry.
Really. After a couple of days, folks, I was hallucinating. We had a girl scout come to the front door selling cookies during that period.
And I opened the door and said to her, Oh, I said, I think you're going to win the trip to New York. Now, why do I why did my weight go up to 215 pounds? Why do I struggle so much to keep my weight down? Let me tell you why. It's because I do not have an intellectual relationship with food. I have a very experiential relationship with food. And friends, who wants an intellectual relationship with food? I mean, we can purchase food, prepare food, smell food, look at food, touch food, cook food, sit at the table with the food in front of us and still starve to death. Food's no good to us unless we do what? Got to eat it. You got to take it in. And Jesus says to these people and to us, don't miss this now.
This is exactly how it is with me. I am not a theological theory to be debated in classrooms. I am a personal savior to be spiritually ingested into every part of your being so that I can nourish every cell in your body so that I can nurture every cranny of your soul. We have to make it that personal, my friends. We have to make it that experiential. This is what it means to believe in Jesus in the way that brings eternal life to each one of us.
It's got to be that personal. Now, this is as far as we're going to go in John six, because it's time to ask our most important question. And you thought I was going to forget. I didn't forget. So are you ready? Are you ready? Here we go. Nice and loud.
One, two, three. Yeah. You say, Lon, so what? Say, what do I care if you lost 30 pounds? What difference does this make to me or anybody else here? Well, friends, let's talk about that for a second. Not long ago, I was meeting in my office with a gentleman and we were talking about believing in Christ. And at the end of the conversation, I turned to him and called him by name. And I said, sir, you know, you are 18 inches away from going to heaven.
He said, I don't understand what are you talking about? I said, you got it all up here in your head. You understand everything about Jesus up here. But, friend, it needs to get to your heart 18 inches away from your head. And until you move it from your head and you put it in your heart, you're not going to heaven.
The kind of believing you got is not the kind of believing that activates eternal life. You're 18 inches away from that, my friend. And, you know, I would be shocked in an audience like this if there weren't people who, just like this man in my office, were 18 inches away from going to heaven.
You got it all up here, my friend. You can quote Bible verses. You know it all in your head, but you have never ingested Jesus Christ into your life.
You have never eaten him spiritually and made him an inseparable part of your being. And, friends, it's not enough for us to say Jesus is the savior. We've got to make it personal enough that we can say Jesus is my savior because I have ingested him into my life. It's not good enough today to say that Jesus died for the world's sins. I've got to be able to say Jesus died for my sins because I've ingested him and made it personal in my life. It's not enough for us to say Jesus belongs to the world. We have to be able to say Jesus belongs to me because I have ingested him into my life and made him my personal savior. Unless we have ingested Jesus into our life like we do food and unless we've allowed him to permeate every part of our being, unless we've allowed him to become our personal Lord and savior and provider and defender and everything else, friends, we have not yet believed in Jesus the way he says we must in order to activate his promise of eternal life.
That's the point of John chapter six. I am the living manna, Jesus said. You eat me. You ingest me. You allow me to move into you and infuse myself through every part of you and I'll give you eternal life as part of that.
Now, friend, if you don't fully understand what I'm talking about, I have a suggestion for you. I want you to go out right after we're done and sign up for Christianity 101. We begin right after the holidays and in six weeks in a non-threatening environment, we'll explain to you what it means to ingest Jesus Christ into your life and we'll help you do it if you want us to. Folks, you dare not, you dare not limit your relationship to Jesus Christ simply to a head knowledge. Jesus said that won't work.
That won't work. Folks, we've got to ingest him just like we do manna, just like the Israelites did manna. Now, you say, well, that's wonderful. But you know what? I'm already a follower of Christ here today.
I've already done this. So what's here for me today? Well, I got something for you. Hey, did you notice in the story of the manna in the Old Testament in Exodus 16, did you notice that God demanded that the Israelites gather fresh manna every day? Did you notice that? Did you notice that God would not allow the Israelites to gather more than they needed and try to store it up? Now, did you ever think about why that was?
You say, yeah, I did. And my opinion is it's because God was trying to conserve manna. No, God had all the manna in the world, friends.
He wasn't trying to conserve manna. He was trying to teach you and me a spiritual lesson. He was trying to teach us that as followers of Christ, we cannot run on yesterday's manna. He was trying to teach us, friends, that we need a fresh touch from God. We need to eat manna fresh every single day in our walk with Jesus Christ. And yet I'm amazed at how many Christians try to run on yesterday's manna.
But remember what Jesus said in the Lord's Prayer. Give us this day our what? Daily bread.
Not weekly, not monthly, not quarterly. Our daily bread. Friends, as followers of Christ, we need a fresh supply of living manna every day. We need a fresh touch by the Lord Jesus himself every day. We need a fresh filling by the Holy Spirit every day. We need a fresh experience with the living God every day. If we are going to have the strength we need to love our spouses, love our children, live biblically, act righteously, hate sin, love righteousness, pursue personal holiness.
Folks, it won't happen eating quarterly. You know, I think of this guy Samson in the Old Testament. You remember him? This was a guy who every once in a while would have a good spiritual meal. But in between he tried to run on fumes and his life showed the kind of instability, the kind of inconsistency and the kind of sinful behavior that comes from eating spiritual food on a quarterly basis. Friends, I'm here to call on you not to be disciples of Samson. I'm here to call on you. Don't be a slim, fast Christian. I'm here to call on you to get into the word of God every day and feed yourself like a glutton on the word of God. I'm here to call on you to get on your knees with God every day, to confess your sins and stay clean with God every day, to ask the Holy Spirit to fill you every day, to spend quality time with the living Lord Jesus every day, to go out there and exercise the spiritual disciplines that are necessary for us to be able to eat fresh manna every day. Folks, we cannot run on yesterday's manna.
And if you and I try, our lives will show the inconsistency and the instability that Samson's did. But you feed yourself fresh every day on the living manna and you will have a consistency to your life, a stability to your life and a godly component to your life that will be outstanding and people will see it. Fresh manna every day.
That's the way the Lord designed you and me to live. And if you're a follower of Christ here today, that's your message. And I hope you'll take it to heart and exercise the disciplines necessary to eat fresh manna every day. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thanks for talking to us today about manna.
Literally, what is it? And Lord, thanks for reminding us that as followers of Christ, just like the Israelites, we have to eat fresh spiritual manna every day from you. Lord, help us as followers of Christ not try to run on fumes.
Don't let us be disciples of Samson. Lord, let us be men and women who gorge ourselves every day on the living manna so our lives may be stable and consistent and Christ-like. And for those of us here, Lord, who've been carrying everything about you in our head, help us to ingest you and move it 18 inches, Lord, and activate the promise of God for eternal life that comes when we eat you, when we ingest you into every part of our being. So, Lord, for every one of us here, there's a spiritual lesson. Apply it to our lives and change the way we live for Jesus' sake. And we pray this in His name. And God's people said, Amen. Amen.
