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Good morning friends, it’s Monday and a new week begins for all of us, scattered around the country, each facing different challenges and opportunities. Today I’m writing and recording this in Wisconsin, in the home office of a dear friend who is now in heaven with Jesus. The license plate on his car simply had two letters…RA…and in this little town that’s how everyone knew him. A very special friend who never tired of helping and serving others, in Jesus’ name.
May I invite us all this morning to take a moment, right at the start, and pray, lifting up before God the entire group of about 200 of us who are on this “Waking With Jesus” journey together? God knows each person very well and everything each of us is facing this Monday. What a privilege to pray for each other…go ahead, take a moment right now and pray.
Today we are reading Exodus 16…“The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin which is between Elim and Sinai, on the 15th day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt.”
No, I can’t tell you exactly which part of the desert they are in as chapter 16 opens, but I can tell you it’s a desert. As far as they can see in any direction, nothing but barren land. Rocks and sand. Nothing green, no lakes or rivers, just barren. Does it sometimes feel like that for you, when you look out across the landscape of your life…barren? Take hope my friends, the Glory of God can be found in the barren desert, as we will see today in Exodus 16.
It had been 45 days since their exciting Passover night rush out of Egypt. More than a month since the Red Sea miracle. The euphoria and excitement of deliverance from slavery had turned into the drudgery of a refugee camp in the desert. The purpose for these nearly 2 million people, each day was simple… look up to see if the cloud by day and pillar of fire by night was moving? If YES, then pack up and follow the cloud. If NO, then sit tight and wait. But waiting in the desert is drudgery, or worse.
Go ahead friends, put yourself in this refugee camp and ask some of the very basic questions. What do you eat day after day in the desert? Where do you find water for 2 million people,and all their animals, in the desert? What about sewage…and carrying for the sick, and burying the dead, and giving birth to babies, in the desert? The real stuff of life…but among fleeing refugees in the desert, none of whom has any idea where this huge city of people is going or what each day will bring?
So it shouldn’t surprise us that grumbling was growing as the harshness of this existence was getting old. Even though the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day assured them God was there with them, still… the harshness of life was affecting attitudes. How about you and me this Monday? What are the things affecting our attitudes? What is bubbling up out of our hearts and minds today and what will likely spill out of our mouths today? And how will that affect the people we meet today? Consider this powerful verse: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” That’s found in Paul’s letter to the Christians in the city of Ephesus, chapter 4, verse 29. We’ll be there later this summer, but it sure fits right here, in the desert, in Exodus 16, and maybe in your life today, where-ever you are this Monday July 15.
Do we recognize the Presence of God with us, in whatever our personal circumstances are today? Do we remember the remarkable miracles each of us has experienced in our lives, and are we thankful? Do we believe God understands our situation in life far better than we do, and He is involving us, even this Monday, in His bigger purposes around the world, in some way?
You see my friends, we choose our attitudes don’t we. Regardless of the circumstances any of us is facing today, we each choose our attitudes. We can focus on the problem and pain and nurse a grumbling, sour, critical attitude…and we all know what that feels like in ourselves and sounds like in others.
OR…we can focus on the miracles of our life, the Majesty and wonder of Almighty God, and the assurance of His Presence with us, and that whatever our circumstances, they can be used of God as part of His larger Purpose and Plan…and we can choose to live worship & praise of our great God today, and watch contentment fill our hearts and minds, and flows out from our mouths today.
Which will it be for you and me today my friends? And how will it… whatever spills out from us…, affect the people around us today?
In Exodus 16 the harsh reality of the journey from Egyptian slavery, was real and irritating and frustrating to many people, and the rumble of grumbling could be heard. Their attitudes started to spill out the junk that all too easily can start to build up in our hearts, right? The contagious cancer of grumbling was spreading through the refugee city like wildfire.
“If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and at all the food we wanted…” (16:3). Do you hear the despair? Was it true? We’ve all been there, haven’t we? In our painful life circumstances, we look back to better times and we complain with a distorted perspective. And we too quickly start blaming God. Have you found that we expect life to be comfortable, enjoyable, more or less pain free, all the time? But have you learned that, it is in the challenging, stretch times of life, that we experience the Presence and Power of God, and we learn really important life lessons? And that shapes the wisdom that we can pass on to our children and grandchildren and other people we care deeply about?
What do you do my friends, when you hear the cancer of grumbling spreading among your friends, your family, or even your church? Do you add fuel to the fire with your words, your bad attitude, and it spreads even faster, damaging people along the way? Or are you a firewall, are you a fire hose dousing the flames?
I don’t know exactly what they saw, but there’s a nugget of gold to be found in Exodus 16:9.10. “Then Moses told Aaron, ‘say to the entire Israelite community, ‘Come before the LORD, for He has heard your grumbling.’ Oh my!…do you hear a spanking coming here? But watch what happens… “While Aaron was speaking the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert and there was the glory of the LORD appearing in the cloud.” What did they see? I don’t know, but what I do know is this: they knew God was there, with them, in the desert, in their grumbling, and it greatly encouraged them.
Then God spoke to Moses… “Tell them, ‘at twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord YOUR God.” (Ex. 16:11) Wow, what a wonderful, loving, understanding, generous God we have. Then it says “That evening quail came and covered the camp…” A fresh meat delivery in the desert, and I suspect that night they sat around fires and ate fresh roasted quail! Remember the last time that happened for you my friends? God heard your cries in your pain, He may have even heard your grumbling and He met your need in a special way?
As you read Exodus 16 today, watch the attitudes of the people, the response of Moses, and the response of God. Do you see Moses was learning this huge traveling city was not his personal responsibility. They were God’s responsibility. His job was to represent God among them. Keep them focused on God’s Presence, help them remember God’s great works in the past, keep them trusting that God has not changed and is still doing the things only God can do, keep them following the cloud when it moved…and Moses was to bring to God whatever problems he faced, in leading this huge crowd of people. There with God, Moses would hear his instructions and then return to leading the people in following God. Now let’s pause here just a second…is that a good description of what your life and mine should be? How well do you and I take the burdens of life to God and then after hearing His perspective, return to facing the challenges of our lives in the confidence of His Presence, His power, and His guidance?
So listen to Moses…“In the evening you will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of Egypt and in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD because He has heard your grumbling against Him… 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..” (16:6,7) Wow! Have you found God to be so very patient with you? Rather than punishment for the grumbling, there is the loving response of God who understands their hunger, their frustration, and supplies for them in the desert what neither they nor the Pharaoh could have possibly supplied…meat and bread for 2 million people!
This is the Manna chapter! A daily bread delivery from heaven. Dew on the ground that turned to flakes, which could be gathered up and cooked and tasted like honey flakes. Please notice something really important. God didn’t drop down freshly baked loaves of bread, rather, He dropped an ample supply of the necessary ingredients for bread, and the people then gathered and cooked it. God did what only God could do, but God invited and expected the people to do what they could do…it was a partnership for living. If they each did their part, there would be fresh baked bread daily!
Now let’s take a moment and look at our lives… what is God doing EACH DAY that only God can do to supply you with what you need for that day. . .and what is He expecting you to do, to partner with Him, in both BEING who He enables you to be today, and DOING what He wants you to accomplish today...and both for HIS great glory and your good and the good of the people your life touches! Now you may need to read that again. . .
As you read this chapter you’ll see that, then in that refugee camp, as now in your family, your friends, your church, your neighborhood, there are people who get this partnership with God right and it works well, and there are those who want to live their lives according to their rules, on their timetable, in pursuit of their own agenda…and God’s ways frustrate them, and they find themselves so often stuck with maggots in their manna!
Finally, notice one more time God’s challenge to the people to remember. Do you see that even though the manna each day was only good for that day, Moses instructed Aaron “This is what the LORD has commanded. Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the dessert…” (Ex. 16:32) There it is again. . .”Miracle Debris”, a jar of manna, that would keep for decades, and never grow maggots! So they would never forget remarkable story of living dependent on a daily, miraculous bread delivery from heaven. Do you hear it. . .”Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name…give us this day our daily bread…”
Oh God, thank You. . .
I think it’s time to take a few moments right now, right where we each are, and look up to heaven and start thanking God for the Manna He has provided you. . .and let’s do an attitude check today. Grumbling or Gratitude? Exodus 16:3 or Ephesians 4:29?
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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