Ok, if you open with me in your Bibles
to Exodus 16.
I'm not going to read it beforehand.
We're just going to make comments
as we go,
and bring out points there as we go.
The title of this sermons is,
"Grumbling is Contagious
and the Remedy For It."
We've been going through Exodus
back home in Manchester.
And every sermon's about
grumbling and murmuring now
because once they leave Egypt,
that's all they ever do
on the way to the Promised Land.
So, let's pray.
Our Father,
we ask that You should show us
wonderous things from Your law,
from Your Word this morning.
That this text would be real to us
and helpful to us to live
for Your glory.
Search our hearts.
Help us, we ask.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.
Ok, so, in v. 1 then of Exodus 16,
we read, "They..." that is the Israelites,
of course, "...set out from Elim,
and all the congregation of the people
of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin,
which is between Elim and Sinai..."
And this wilderness of Sin
where they are now,
it has nothing to do
with the English word "sin,"
although as we'll see in a moment,
they do a lot of sinning
while they're here.
But it's simply called this
because they're in the Sinai region.
"On the fifteenth day of the second month
after they had departed
from the land of Egypt..."
We're simply being told this
because they left on the 15th day
of the first month,
so what we're being told in that detail
is this happens now exactly one month
since they left Egypt
since they were delivered from the slavery
and bondage there
going through the Red Sea, of course.
And v. 2 continues,
"...the whole congregation of the people of Israel
grumbled against Moses and Aaron
in the wilderness."
And so the wording here
with the whole congregation grumbling
against Moses and Aaron,
it's highlighting a contrast
between in the previous chapter,
we saw it said the people grumbled
against the leadership of Moses and Aaron.
That time, an angry mob of people
in the congregation -
in the midst, were grumbling
when they went through the trial there
of not having any water
that the murmuring that was at Marah.
Whereas this time,
now it's the whole congregation -
or at least the majority of them
are now grumbling, murmuring
against Moses and Aaron.
So now what we have is
a full-blown rebellion.
And so, the first application -
the first point I want you to take note of
here and learn from in this passage
is that grumbling and murmuring
is contagious.
Grumbling and murmuring
is like a disease
that if you're around it long enough,
then you're going to catch it.
You know, people think of this murmuring
and grumbling and being divisive there
as just being a little thing,
but in Proverbs 6 it's
one of the six things the Lord hates;
the seven that are an abomination to Him -
he who sows discord among the brethren.
You see, when you murmur and grumble
in a bad way like these are doing here,
what happens is you sow discord -
you plant a seed in others.
And so when you're around
whiners and murmurers long enough
they will plant the seed in us.
And another point worth noting here
is that the last time they were grumbling
when it was just less of them,
they faced a much bigger trial
of having no water.
And it was just a large mob
of murmurers among the congregation
in this faithless state of rebellion.
And last time,
the rebellious grumblers -
they were shown to be wrong
in what happened there
in the events of Marah.
But when the next trial comes along,
even though as we'll see in a moment,
this is nothing compared to
the previous trial they've had.
You see, the seed of discord
has already been planted in them.
And so now the whole congregation
are murmuring against Moses and Aaron.
Yet, the people here, no doubt,
being led by a few chief grumblers
amongst them, stirring things up,
in there,
starting to complain.
Moses and Aaron -
and this is what you get;
you get a theme of this
as they're on the way to the Promised Land.
Moses and Aaron,
if you were really leading us
in the correct way,
before the Lord,
then we wouldn't be facing another trial.
I mean, this is just too many times now,
Moses and Aaron.
They're saying, look, Moses,
I'm the expert on how to do things
around here.
And if you don't change the way
you're doing things to what I say,
then we're going to face another trial.
We've had no water.
And then, we've had the lack of food
and the different trials.
There's one trial after another.
But the thing is,
Moses and Aaron are taking them the way
that God has told them.
And trials are guaranteed
on the Christian's journey
through the wilderness of this life.
You see, the grumbling will only continue
unless these people's hearts are changed
and they learn from this,
which is what I want us to do today.
You know, recently, it wasn't too long ago
was it?
They had the Zika virus in Brazil.
And history is filled, isn't it,
with highly contagious diseases
like the bubonic plague,
the Black Death there.
Well, you see, when you put your arms around
and you give air to constant grumbling
and the hypercritical spirit -
always hypercritical of everything -
you know the person who's always
tearing everything down,
it's like putting your arm around someone
with the bubonic plague.
Or putting your arm around someone
with the Zika virus there
and saying let's go for a walk together
among these mosquitos.
So, number one, the point here
in this enlarging
is grumbling -
this hypercritical spirit is contagious.
You know, in these days we live in,
there's all these Internet ministries -
not a good one like you have here,
but there are these really bad ones
out there aren't they,
with these hypercritical teachers?
It's normally some guy
and he's sat in his bedroom there,
giving Bible studies.
They don't have a church
because they've kind of already upset
every single person in the world.
And it's so-called discernment ministries.
But what is the fruit of these things?
The fruit of their disciples who watch them
is they also become professional grumblers
and professionals with a hypercritical spirit also.
So number one, the first warning
about grumbling here is it's
a highly contagious disease.
So beware.
It may go down like a tasty trifle
as the Proverbs says,
but don't trifle with it.
Number two though,
this really comes out in this text.
Grumbling and a murmuring spirit
distorts the past.
We can see this in v. 3 here, can't we?
"And the people of Israel said to them,
(to Moses and Aaron)
'Would that we had died
by the hand of the Lord
in the land of Egypt
when we sat by the meat pots
and ate bread to the full.'"
Notice here, it's been one month.
One month. That's all,
since they left Egypt.
And in their grumbling spirit,
they've already forgotten
about their heavy labor there
where they had to make the bricks
and they even had to gather
their own straw
to make the bricks with.
They've forgotten about the whips
upon their backs
and the chains in Egypt.
Just after a month.
And now they're saying here,
"... in the land of Egypt
when we sat by the meat pots
and ate bread to the full."
You see, in their distorted reality
they now hold of the past -
which grumbling paints -
they now have this false picture
in their mind of when they're in Egypt.
You know, as if they were sat down
in comfort each day.
Like, darling, would you pass me
another burger from the barby, please?
Would you like some chicken with that?
And they say here,
"would that we had died
by the hand of the Lord
in the land of Egypt."
In other words,
we could have continued
a happy and a comfortable life
until we died of old age,
of natural causes there.
But what really happened?
You see how distorted the picture
of the past that grumbling paints.
I mean, what really happened
when they were back in Egypt?
We get told earlier
that what happened was the people groaned.
They groaned because of their slavery there,
and they cried out for help.
And their cry for rescue
came up to the Lord.
So, as well as being contagious,
the second danger of
a grumbling, hypercritical spirit here
we learn in this passage is
grumbling and murmuring distorts
the past.
It has to to carry on.
Kevin DeYoung said on this -
I think this is a good quote -
he said,
"We tend to remember a golden age
that didn't really exist.
The good old days weren't always so good.
Listen, if you tend to complain
about everything now,
chances are that you complained
about everything back then
whenever it was."
You see, for grumbling and murmuring
to continue, it relies upon
a distortion of past reality.
But number three,
another thing we learn about this
from this passage is
grumbling and murmuring exaggerates
the present and the future woes.
We see this in the next part of v. 3
here when they accuse Moses and Aaron.
"For you have brought us out
into the wilderness to kill
this whole assembly with hunger."
Ahhh, they say.
You've brought us all to kill us now.
We're all going to die.
Brethren, you know, aside from the fact
they have just seen
the Lord's provision in providing them
the water.
In fact, aside from the fact
that they've just seen
the Lord's faithfulness many, many times.
And so they have no reason to panic
in this here.
But, I want you to consider
how exaggerated this trial is here.
Because when they left Egypt,
did they not leave with all their livestock?
Their flocks and their animals there.
Could they not get some milk and cheese
from their cows?
If they're that desperate for meat,
could they not slaughter an animal
and roast it?
You see, the point is that grumblers
exaggerate their misery.
And it's very easy to see, isn't it?
I mean, you just think,
in our own lives,
when we've fallen into this sinful state
of grumbling or murmuring,
when you think back now,
was it as bad as you made out back then?
Was all the panic really worth it?
And the fourth thing we can learn
about this though -
this state of murmuring from this passage,
is that it's really murmuring against God.
We see this in v. 7 when Moses
replies to them after God spoke to him:
"And in the morning, you shall see
the glory of the Lord
because He has heard your grumbling
against the Lord."
You see, these people,
they were kidding themselves
that their constant grumbling
and their whining was against Moses and Aaron
and their leadership there.
But ultimately,
their murmuring was against God.
It is God Who was the One
they had the problem with.
As Moses continues to say there in v. 7,
"...for what are we that you grumble
against us?"
For what are we that you grumble
against us? Moses says.
In other words, Moses tells
these people here,
don't shoot the messenger.
I'm only telling you what
the Word of the Lord has said -
what the Bible says.
If you've got a problem with this,
then your problem's not with me,
it's with God.
And then in v. 8,
Moses said, "the Lord gives you
in the evening meat to eat
and in the morning, bread to the full
because the Lord has heard
your grumbling that you grumble against Him.
What are we?
Your grumbling is not against us,
but against the Lord."
You see in grumbling against Moses,
their pastor here -
when he's only trying to do right
before the Lord.
They're grumbling against the Lord.
He's just the messenger leading
as the Lord has told him to do.
You see,
when these people are murmuring here,
and saying Moses and Aaron -
they don't really care about us
or the leadership is harsh,
or whatever they're saying -
many different things you can put in here.
But what they really believe
is God is harsh.
Or God is guilty of whatever.
And He's the One Who doesn't care,
because it's His Word Moses and Aaron
are following here, you see.
So, those are the dangers then
of a grumbling spirit in this passage.
It's contagious.
It distorts the past.
It exaggerates the future woes.
And it has to depend on those things.
But now for the remedy,
also in this passage.
If you want to sum it up though,
it's basically this.
This is the remedy for grumbling
and murmuring.
Repent and trust the Lord.
You know, when you go to see a doctor,
he or she will normally
write out for you a prescription
that tells you what you need to do
in order to get better.
You need to take this "x" number of times
a day and so forth.
Refrain from doing this.
You see, this is God's prescription
for the disease of a murmuring
or hypercritical spirit here.
Repent and trust the Lord.
From v. 4, it says,
"Then the Lord said to Moses,
'Behold, I am about to rain
bread from heaven for you,
and the people shall go out
and gather a day's portion every day
that I may test them
whether they walk in My law or not.
On the sixth day,
when they prepare what they bring in,
it will be twice as much as they gather daily.'
So Moses and Aaron said
to all the people of Israel,
'At evening, you shall know
that it was the Lord Who brought you out
of the land of Egypt.'"
I want you to notice that phrase there
in God providing the provision for them.
He says so that you shall know
Who He is.
You shall know Who is the Lord.
You see, that's the remedy.
We know Who the Lord is.
You see, when someone falls into
a state of murmuring and grumbling like this,
they've either forgotten
or they never knew in the first place
Who God is.
And then in v. 9-12, we read,
"Moses said to Aaron,
'say to the whole congregation,
the people of Israel,
'Come near before the Lord,
for He has heard your grumbling,'
and as soon as Aaron spoke
to the whole congregation
of the people of Israel,
they looked toward the wilderness
and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared
in the cloud,
and the Lord said to Moses,
'I have heard the grumbling of the people
of Israel. Say to them
at twilight, you shall eat meat.
And in the morning, you shall
be filled with bread.
Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.'"
You see, God provides their need here
in order that you shall know Who God is.
You shall know what God is like.
And so, the first thing God gives them
in this passage is a remedy, if you like.
In the remedy, to trust Him,
the Lord teaches them about His character.
In order that they my trust the Lord,
He teaches them about His character here -
what He's like.
And the first thing He teaches them
in providing is His patience,
isn't it, brethren?
I mean, notice the expected response
from the Lord here to their grumbling.
After all, you see them one time
after another just shove
His mercy in the Lord's face, so to speak,
and despise it and carry on grumbling
one time after another.
The kind of natural response you'd expect
is the Lord to rain down fire from heaven
upon these people.
Saying look, I've had enough of you this time.
But here we see, the first thing
God teaches them is His patience.
That He is long suffering towards them.
That He is slow to anger.
When you realize these things about the Lord,
it's going to help you to trust Him, isn't it?
But the second thing
that God teaches them here about Himself
in a remedy, if you like, to grumbling
so they can learn to trust Him
is that He cares for them
and He provides for their needs.
You see, the grumbling and murmuring spirit
thinks God doesn't care enough for them
and won't provide.
So they think they have to be anxious
about the future,
exaggerating present woes
of what might be.
From v. 13, look at
the Lord's care and provision here.
It says, "In the evening,
quail came upon and covered the camp.
And in the morning, dew lay around the camp."
The Lord provided them meat to eat
there in the quail.
V. 14, "And when the dew had gone up,
there was on the face of the wilderness
a fine flake-like thing,
fine as frost on the ground.
When the people of Israel saw it,
they said to one another,
'what is it?'
They did not know what it was.
And Moses said to them,
'It is the bread that the Lord
has given you to eat.'"
So the Lord - He gives them this manna,
this bread
which miraculously appears on the ground.
In the original, it's a play on words here.
They named this bread that God
miraculously provided: manna.
The word manna means "what is it?"
And so they named this bread "manna"
because when they first saw it
on the ground,
they said, "what is it?"
And so they called it, "what is it?"
You can imagine their conversations
in the houses, the tents, can't you?
You know, mom, what are we having for tea tonight?
Well, you don't say tea,
is it supper down here? Or dinner?
What are we having?
We're having "what is it?"
No, what is it?
Yeah, that's what I'm asking you.
What is it?
But look here, look at
the Lord's provision and care.
From v. 16, it continues,
Then as the Lord commanded them,
"Gather of it each one of you
as much as he can eat.
You shall take an omer..."
There's a bit of debate about the size,
but I believe it's about two liters.
"...according to the number of persons
that each of you have in his tent."
So, they're all living in tents
as I said.
When I preached on this at home,
we have a church camping holiday,
and there was a lot of protest.
We don't want a camping holiday.
We don't like camping.
So I said, look, if you don't like camping,
you're not biblical.
But v. 17 though,
"And the people of Israel did so.
They gathered, some more, some less.
But when they measured it
with an omer,
whoever gathered much had nothing left over,
and whoever gathered little had no lack.
Each of them gathered as much as he could eat.
And Moses said to them,
'let no one leave any over until the morning,'
but they did not listen to Moses.
Some left part of it till the morning,
and it bred worms and stank,
and Moses was angry with them.
Morning by morning they gathered it,
each as much as he could eat,
but when the sun grew hot, it melted."
So they had to gather this manna early
before the sunrise or it stank.
And God is teaching there -
as Calvin said -
number one, a work ethic.
If they'd been left all day
to gather it, they could have been
casual about it.
But also, I think much more than that,
in that it stank there
for those who did not listen
to the command of God.
The teaching there is if you're gathering
the manna of God's Word,
but not doing it,
then you stink.
If we're hearing or reading
the Word of God,
but not doing it,
or learning it and not doing it,
then that's the testimony, isn't it,
it leaves before others.
It stinks.
But above all that,
the Lord is teaching us here
that we can depend on Him
day by day.
This is the teaching here.
You see, this text here,
I think it's what our Lord
likely had in mind
when He said in the Sermon on the Mount;
when He taught us to pray there:
Give us this day our daily bread.
Not tomorrow's mercies in advance.
But you see, we can trust the Lord each day
is the teaching.
As He said there,
but if God so clothes the grass of the field,
which today is alive
and tomorrow is thrown into the oven,
will He not much more clothe you,
O ye of little faith?
Therefore do not be anxious,
saying what shall we eat
or what shall we drink
or what shall we wear?
For the Gentiles (the unconverted)
seek after these things,
and your heavenly Father knows
you have need of them all.
But seek first the Kingdom of God
and His righteousness,
and all these things will be added to you.
Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow.
For tomorrow will be anxious for itself.
Sufficient for today is its own trouble.
You see, grumbling tends to exaggerate
the woes and the trials of the future
as does anxiety.
But we are being taught in this
that we can trust the Lord day by day.
Not being told a month in advance
or a year in advance.
You see, worry and anxiety,
it's basically living out the future
before it comes.
(Incomplete thought)
The devil can really use this
and get you to exaggerate the woes.
The result of it is it causes people
to distrust the Lord in the present
and do things wrong there.
But we're taught here about how
we can trust the Lord day by day.
And then from v. 22 to the end
of the chapter.
We get this about the Sabbath here.
"On the sixth day, they gathered
twice as much bread,
two omers each.
And when all the leaders of the congregation
came and told Moses,
he said to them,
'this is what the Lord has commanded.
Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest;
a holy Sabbath to the Lord.
Bake what you will bake
and boil what you will boil,
All that is left over and lay aside
to be kept till the morning.'
So they laid it aside till the morning
as Moses had commanded them,
and it did not stink
and there were no worms in it."
Now, that's a test of faith
and obedience, isn't it?
Because in the previous days,
if they left some over,
it stunk.
That's what they'd see.
But then, they were rather
asked to gather two days worth
before the Sabbath.
And it did not stink.
V. 25, "Moses said, 'eat it 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,
which is a Sabbath,
there will be none.'"
I want you to think here
about the link -
what is the link
in the midst of a passage
about grumbling -
and he gives us much in the way
God deals with them
or a remedy for grumbling.
Why does he suddenly start talking
about the Sabbath day?
What is the link here?
I think the Lord is teaching us here, brethren,
you can trust the Lord enough to rest.
You know, the world won't stop revolving
if you stop worrying for just one second,
believe it or not.
You know, it's easy for parents, isn't it,
that when you go through a trial
and you spend scheduled time
with your children
or some other family member
you're supposed to be spending time with,
you can be spending time with them -
your children - but you're not really there
because you're thinking about
whatever trial there is on your mind.
But I've kind of learned after time,
God can cope without me worrying
about something for a few seconds
and to spend that time with them.
You know, as a pastor at home
I have a kind of Monday off, if you like,
where basically I don't do any counseling
on a Monday,
or the normal churchy things on a Monday
that I do on other days.
And it's been a hard lesson for me to learn.
At first, I was like,
Lord, are You sure You can manage
without me and run the church for a day?
And you know, it's like the Lord says,
well, let Me think about that one.
You know, I made the world in six days
at the command of My voice.
I placed the stars in orbit.
I parted the Red Sea.
Yeah, I think I can just about manage
for a little bit without you.
But you see, brethren,
in that illustration how ridiculous we get
when we don't think we can rest.
What a distrust of the Lord it is, really.
You know, it's funny though,
when, at least in my experience,
when I do have the Monday off,
normally it's the more grumbly,
hypercritical spirit who are the ones
who are always trying to intrude upon that.
Desperate for me to sort out whatever.
It's like I don't care what day it is.
If I say, "jump,"
I expect my pastor to say, "how high?"
But anyway, then in v. 27-28,
we see the Sabbath breakers.
From v. 26, once again,
"Six days you shall gather it,
but on the seventh day
which is a Sabbath,
there will be none.
On the seventh day,
some of the people went out
to gather but they found none.
And the Lord said to Moses,
'how long will you refuse to keep
My commandments and My laws?'"
And I think there's application
for the Lord's Day here.
Just as these Israelites,
they prepared before the Sabbath
by gathering what they needed
the day before there.
I think it's good, isn't it,
to prepare for the Lord's Day?
If you can.
As in make sure you're not overly tired
to come in and be with the people.
That you've done things
so you're not rushing around like crazy.
I'm not saying you can't go to the shop
for some milk or something
if you've run out or anything like that.
But from v. 29,
"See the Lord has given you the Sabbath.
Therefore, on the sixth day,
He gives you bread for two days.
Remain each in his place.
Let no one go out of his place
on the seventh day.
So the people rested on the seventh day."
Notice that lastly.
The people rested on the seventh day.
Once again, Sabbath,
and that principle there of rest.
What's your idea of Sabbath rest?
Or the Lord's Day?
Is it a long list of burdensome rules?
You know, our Lord Jesus said,
didn't He, the thing you must know
about the Sabbath is it was made for man.
That is, can you trust Me
enough to rest?
And the thing He most wants us to learn
most of all though
is that you can trust in Him
and rest in what He's done for salvation.
In that picture of the Gospel rest
which it ultimately points to there.
I think I've used this illustration before here.
My wife always tells me off
for using the same illustrations.
So forgive me if I have.
She always says when you use an illustration
you've given before,
I just switch off.
But you have that picture, don't you,
in Genesis of God making the world.
There was an evening and a morning -
the first day.
An evening and a morning, the second day.
An evening, a morning, a third day.
Until you get to the Sabbath day.
And there's no evening and morning.
It's just a continual day.
When God rested on the Sabbath day there,
it's not that He rested and then He carried on
on the following day.
But He rested from it
because it's finished.
The work is all done.
So He entered into His rest.
And you see, that's the picture
of what Christ would do on the cross
there when He said, "It is finished."
He's done everything needed
for salvation.
And you see, that is where
salvation comes, doesn't it?
Resting in what Christ has done for you.
And so, to really finish then,
from v. 31-36,
we're told how some of the manna
was stored, just so later,
it would be one of the items
in the ark of the covenant there.
He tells them to take a jar of it and so forth,
but in John 6,
people came to Jesus and they said to Him,
"What must we do
to be doing the works of God?"
What must we do to be doing the works,
the miracles of God?
They asked Jesus there in John 6.
You see, these people,
they had just seen Jesus feed the 5,000
with five loaves and two fishes.
So they were asking Him,
what must we do?
So we can do a miracle like this.
As Jesus had just said to them,
you are seeking Me for the wrong reasons.
You see, in the miracle of the feeding
of the 5,000, they didn't come to realize
Who He was.
And so they wanted to do miracles, these people,
rather than seeking Him.
Well, Jesus answered them,
"This is the work of God:
that you believe in Him Whom He has sent.
So they said to Him,
'then what sign do you do
that we may see Him and believe You,
and what work You may perform?
Our fathers ate the manna
in the wilderness.
As it is written,
'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'
Jesus said to them,
'Truly, truly, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave 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.
They said to Him,
'Sir, give us this bread always.'
Jesus said to them,
'I am the bread of life.
Whoever comes to Me shall not hunger.
Whoever comes to Me shall not thirst.'"
You see, He is the true Manna.
Christ is not some temporary provision
that lasted forty years, in other words,
but everlasting.
You see, Jesus is the One
you must come to to rest in,
and feed from Him for everlasting life.
You see, just as this manna
sustained in the wilderness,
Christ is the One
Who must sustain you before the judgment,
Who we are to feed upon there.
So that's what I have to say.
Let's pray.
Our Father, I just pray that these words
would be helpful to the brothers and sisters,
for the unity of the church here,
to knit hearts together as David and Jonathan.
Keep us from evil, we ask.
Keep us from a grumbling spirit.
Keep us from temptation.
Help us to feed on You.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.