Sermon – Exodus 16:9-15 Bread The Lord Has Given You

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

First Presbyterian Church of Ocean City

Sermon – Exodus 16:9-15 Bread The Lord Has Given You

August 2, 2015

            I want you to continue thinking about a basket of summer vegetables.  It's overflowing with beautiful colors.  It's smell takes you back to childhood.  It's flavor is what makes summer on the eastern shore so special.  Keep thinking about how God has blessed you with sweet corn and vine ripe tomatoes. 

            Last week we heard an important biblical truth.  All the food we enjoy comes to us as a gift of God's grace.  We developed from this truth the biblical principle that we should be thankful for the food we receive from God.  And this led us to two important biblical practices.  First, we are to pray every morning and evening thanking God for the day he has given us and before each meal thanking God for our food.  And second, we are to bring as our first fruits a tithe, 10%, of what God has given us to the church as a way of thanking God for all of our blessings.

            Today we will affirm this biblical truth.   All we eat comes from God.  We will also develop another biblical principle and biblical practices.  We will get to this, but first let's pray.

            May the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.

            Around 3500 years ago at the end bronze age the people of God were slaves in Egypt.  Life was very hard.  We are told in the Bible that the Hebrews were to make bricks for Egyptian construction projects, but the Egyptians refused to supply them with straw.  The Hebrew had to fend for themselves.  But God freed them from their slavery in Egypt with a spectacular display of parting the Red Sea,  Now the people of God are free.  But after a month and a half in the wilderness they are running out of food and beginning to panic.  We are told that they grumbled to Moses.  Here is how Moses responded

Exodus 16: 9 Then Moses told Aaron, “Say to the entire Israelite community, ‘Come before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.’”

10 While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud.

11 The Lord said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. 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.’”

13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. 

            God didn't intend for his people to die of starvation in the wilderness.  He has made a world of abundance.  And God's plan all along was to bless his people with an abundance of food.  And so their grumbling was out of line.   They grumbled because of their fear that they wouldn't have enough.  But God wanted them not to fear but to be satisfied.  This is an important biblical principle for us.  We should be satisfied with the blessings God gives us.  So what can we do to calm our fears of not having enough and be satisfied with the blessings we receive? Let's go back to the Book of Exodus.

Exodus 16 4 Then 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. 5 On 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.”

            God provided for his people two practices which helped them to lose their fear of not having enough and be satisfied with what they had.  The first practice was to gather only enough food for the day.  If they gathered any more than that it would be filled with worms on the second day.  This was to teach them not to hoard food.

            The first thing we do when we fear that we won't have enough is to hoard what we have.  We buy an extra freezer.  We hide money in mattresses or maybe retirement accounts.   We build walk-in closets for all our clothes.   We have multiple garages for all our cars.  Storing far more than you need is hoarding.  And the reason we hoard is our fear of not having enough.

            This leads us to our first biblical practice.  We are to share what we have with others.   Sharing is the opposite of hoarding.  Jesus told us that the we are to pray for our “daily bread.”  All that we need are sufficient blessings of food from God for today.  That's all we need to ask for.  Anything more than that must either be stored or thrown out, unless we share it with others.   Our fear will motivate us to store it.  Our love will motivate us to share it.  Which do you think your God wants you to do?  Of course God wants you to love your neighbor and that means you should share what you have.       

            This was a difficult concept for me to understand.  In Pocomoke, Grace would get donations of chicken for her ministry in Princess Anne.  Large boxes of chicken would fill our freezer.  And I naturally thought that the chicken should remain in the freezer until it was needed.  But Grace showed me that this was incorrect.  It was important to give the chicken away as fast as we could to have room in the freezer for the next gift from God.  You see that faster you give God's blessings away to other people that faster God will bless you.  So we would deliver chicken to families all over the area in order to empty our freezer, and then sure enough the freezer was filled once again.

            This is exactly what the ancient Hebrews found out in the desert.  They couldn't store food.  So it was either share it or waste it.  And since God blessed them every day, sharing became what they did.  So I urge you to share what you have.  Give it away as fast as you can.  And God will bless you again tomorrow.  And when you do this your fear of not having enough becomes satisfaction with what God has given you.  So our first biblical practice is to share what we have because this makes us satisfied with the blessings we receive.

            The second biblical practice is to keep a Sabbath rest.  God provided his people with food for six days.  On the sixth day they were to collect a double share.  God gave his people a day of rest.  This idea of a Sabbath rest came from the fact that God rested on the seventh day of creation.  And if God rested on the seventh day  so should we.  This practice of a Sabbath rest was later made law in the Ten Commandments.  But why would a Sabbath rest remove our fear of not having enough and help us to be satisfied with the blessings we receive?

            It works like this.  Whenever we fear that we won't have enough we start to work harder.  We think that through hard work we can provide for ourselves the blessings we need.  When our well-being is tied to hard work it is difficult to rest.  Fear of not having enough causes you to work long days and seven days a week.  But our blessings come not from our hard work.  Rather all blessings come from God.  And God wants us to rest on the seventh day.  Therefore we should take a Sabbath rest each Sunday in order to be content with what we have rather than fearful that we won't have enough.

            Jesus spoke to his disciples about being satisfied with the blessings of food we receive from God.  Here is what he said.

John 6:31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

            As we gather around this table today we will enjoy the feast Jesus has prepared for us.  For all who believe in him the bread on this table is the bread from heaven.  All who believe in Jesus and eat at this table will never be hungry and thirsty.  You will be satisfied with the blessings you receive from God.  

            We come to church each Sunday to be reminded of the biblical truth that everything we have comes to us as a gift of God's grace.  We remind ourselves to be thankful with prayers of thanksgiving and generous offerings.  We learn how to be satisfied with what we have by sharing with others and keeping a Sabbath rest.  There is no place other than church were you will learn this important truth and engage in these biblical practices.  Only in church can you learn how to be satisfied with the blessings you receive from God.

            We are reminded of all of this by a basket of summer vegetables.  This image reminds us that the bounty we enjoy comes not from hard work, but as a gift from our God.   Every time we see it we are reminded to thank God for the blessings we receive, to express our gratefulness with our tithes to the church, to share what we have with others, and take a rest on the seventh day.  Let's pray.

            Dear Father, give us this day our daily bread.  Help us to be thankful and share this bread with others.   Remind us to give to the church and take a Sabbath rest.   Help us to be satisfied with the blessing we receive from you.  This we pray in the name of your Son, the bread from heaven.  Amen.