Gather It Every Morning

Exodus 16 tells us that they took their journey from Elam, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came into the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elam and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after departing out of the land of Egypt. The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.

Let's pray. God, as we take time this evening to open Your Word, would You again open our hearts, Lord, and speak to us? It is through Your Word that You desire to reveal Yourself to all of mankind. We thank You that You have preserved Your Word and that You have given it to us in our own language, Lord, so that we can stand together as the family of God and read Your written Word to us. I pray that tonight You would speak to us, Lord, that You would reveal Yourself to us in the pages of this chapter here in Exodus chapter 16. Help us to make application from it, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. You can be seated.

We read that the children of Israel took their journey from the place of Elam. You may remember that just a couple of weeks ago, we looked at the children of Israel at Marah, as they came out of Egypt and crossed over the Red Sea. They were three days in the wilderness without water, and then the Lord brought them to that place called Marah, where the waters were bitter. At Marah, the Lord showed Moses a tree, and when he cast it into the waters, the bitter waters were made sweet.

They journeyed on from there to Elam, to that place where there were seventy palm trees and twelve wells of water, a great place of blessing. The children of Israel camped there at Elam, and we left them there. Many times, we might consider that it would be a good place for us to camp, a good place for us to stop—an oasis in the wilderness. I think God is so gracious to give us those oasis times in the wilderness. As we walk with Him, we find ourselves in desolate places where everything seems deserted, and there are just rocks. There is nothing out there but rocks and hot sun.

Yet the Lord, in the midst of that, provided for His people, providing that oasis for the children of Israel—a place with water, the twelve wells of water. There were twelve tribes of Israel, and so each tribe was given a well, along with seventy palm trees. There, they were able to eat of the dates and the land in the wilderness. The Lord was providing for His people. It says here that in the second month, on the fifteenth day of the month, after they had left Egypt, they decided that it was now time to leave.

I don't know about you guys, but oftentimes I find in my life that when I come to those oasis times where the Lord seems to just be pouring out blessings, there’s water and food in the Lord spiritually. You just want to bed down and stick around; you don't want to leave that place. The children of Israel had been there for probably a good two months, and they didn't want to leave. Yet one morning, as they opened their eyes and came out of their tents, they saw that the cloud that covered them, the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day, was now beginning to move from that place of Elam. They knew that this was the sign that they were to pack up camp and begin to move, following the Lord into another place, out into the wilderness, into a place unknown to them, a place where they didn't really know where they were going.

Sometimes you and I feel that way when the Lord begins to move us in a new direction. We say, "Lord, I don't exactly know what You're doing, and I don't know if this is quite the best idea." Have you ever had that conversation with the Lord? I know I have many, many times. You begin to see the Lord moving things and just getting the ball rolling. I'm sure Gabby and Chris sensed that call from the Lord to go into the mission field. Chris has a great job here in the States as a teacher, and it would be easy for her to say that this is Elam for me—a place to stay with twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees. Everything's comfortable; I have my own apartment, a car, and my family isn't too far away. This is the place for me to bed down.

Then the Lord's cloud begins to move. You say, "Lord, I just don't know if this is such a good idea. I don't know if You quite know what You're doing because from what I see, this is a good place for us to camp." But you see, the Lord doesn't want us to stay in those oasis places. He wants us to continue on with Him. He wants us to go on with Him.

Maybe you'll remember several months ago when we went through the book of Luke, chapter 24. We looked at the two disciples who were on the road to Emmaus after Jesus was crucified and after He had risen from the dead. These two disciples said, "Well, we're going to go away from Jerusalem and head towards Emmaus." They hadn't heard the gospel; they hadn't heard the good news yet that Jesus had risen from the dead, and they were a little discouraged and despondent. So they started to walk away from Jerusalem toward Emmaus.

As they were on the road, a man came and started to walk with them. He asked, "Why is your countenance down? Why are you guys so downcast today?" They replied, "Are you a stranger in Israel? Don't you know what's been going on in Israel these last few days? How there was one we had believed was the Messiah, and just a few days ago..."

He was crucified on a Roman cross, and now what are we going to do? This was Jesus who was walking with them, but they knew Him not. They didn't see that it was Him. He began to open the Scriptures to them and declare throughout the Old Testament, the prophets and the law, how the Christ was to come, how He was to suffer, and how He was to be raised from the dead. As they heard this, their hearts burned within them.

In Luke chapter 24, verse 28, they came to the city, to the village they were going to, which was Emmaus. They started to stop there at that place of Emmaus. Emmaus can be translated as "warm baths," a place of comfort, a nice little oasis out in the wilderness where we just want to bed down for the night. However, the Scripture says in Luke 24, verse 28, that Jesus made as though He would have gone further with them.

I believe that in my walk with the Lord, and in your walk as well, as we're walking along this path—sometimes in the wilderness—we come to those places that seem like a great place for us to bed down. But the Lord makes it seem like He wants to go further. Let's keep going. The disciples there in Luke 24 said to this man, whom they didn't know was Jesus at the time, "Why don't you come and tarry with us here tonight?"

God is gracious and patient with us. He'll bed down in those places, those little warm baths, those comfortable areas for us. But He wants us to go on. He wants us to step up and keep following Him because He doesn't want us to remain in the wilderness. He doesn't want us to wander in the wilderness throughout our entire lives. He wants us to come into the fullness of the blessing that He's called us to—the full life, the more abundant life that Jesus spoke of in John chapter 10. He said that the thief has come to steal, to kill, and to destroy, but I have come that you may have life and that more abundantly.

The Lord desires that each one of us would go on and take hold of that life more abundantly. Sometimes it means a move—a move that we look at and say, "I don't know that I really want to go in this direction." But God says, "I want you to go further with Me. I want you to see Me in a new way, in a new light, and it's not going to happen here in Elam."

It's easy to get comfortable in Elam, yet the Lord says it's time to move on. After a couple of months of camping there, the children of Israel would wake up and see in the distance that the cloud was moving from its place, and they began to follow. They began to pack up. But immediately, they came out of Elam and into the wilderness of what? What does it say there? The wilderness of sin. How many of you have found yourselves before in that place—the wilderness of sin? Sin can be translated as thorns, that wilderness of thorns, that place where you...

Just find yourself in all the briars and thorns, and they begin to stick into you. You go along, and it's just a painful place—a place that's so dry and so desolate. You immediately begin to think, why did I leave Elam? Why did I remove myself from that place of blessing?

I just want to encourage Chris and Gabby that when you get over to Scotland, you may find yourselves in a wilderness of sin for a period of time. You may find that those thorns seem to be clinging on to you, but the Lord has you there for a purpose. He's taking you there for a purpose. God always brings us out of those comfortable places for a purpose.

The purpose for the children of Israel was that they were going on towards the Promised Land. They had a date with the Lord at Mount Sinai that was coming up very quickly, where they were going to actually meet with God, and He was going to come and dwell with them in the tabernacle that they were to build. However, they had to leave the place of blessing that they thought was where they should be, where they should camp. The Lord said, no, this isn't it.

So the cloud began to move, and the children of Israel found themselves there—a huge army, two, maybe three million people in the wilderness of sin. Every single one of us has been in that place before, and we wondered, Lord, why have you brought us out? What are you doing here?

The whole congregation of the children of Israel, in verse 2, murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. They said unto them, would to God that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the flesh pots and ate bread to our full. They complained, saying, you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill the whole assembly with hunger.

As the children of Israel left that place of blessing, that comfortable place in Elam with the seventy palm trees and the twelve wells of water, just a few days later, as they were in that thorny wilderness, they cried out against Moses and Aaron. They asked, what are you doing? Why have you brought us out into this place? We used to be back in Egypt with the flesh pots and the bread to our full, and now you've brought us out here, and we have no food. We're going to die of hunger. Why have you done this?

I don't know about you, but I often find, as I've been studying through the Old Testament, that the children of Israel were a bunch of failures and complainers. As I look through the pages of the Old Testament and read the testimonies of what they were saying, I think, these guys are a bunch of failures. What's wrong with them? They are a bunch of complainers.

But you know what else I've found as I've studied the Old Testament and the Word of God? I'm no different. I'm no different than they are. In fact, I think sometimes I'm a little bit worse. Any of you who know me and have spent any time with me know that I can complain with the best of them. And the Lord brings me...

Through those places, sometimes, it just seems like that wilderness of sin, where you've got thorns stuck into you the whole way. You start to cry out to the Lord and say, "Lord, why have you brought us out here? I really liked the flesh pots in Egypt." I think that's interesting. The King James Version is the only one that renders it as "flesh pots."

So many times, I've found in my life that I look back to the old life and think about the way things were. I look back and think, "Lord, it was so much better back there in Egypt. It was so much better back there in the world when I could just do anything I wanted. I had the flesh pots right there, and I had bread to my full. Now you brought me out here into the wilderness of sin, and it's a thorny place. I don't quite understand what you're doing. Why have you brought us out here? Have you brought us out here to die of hunger?"

I think of Abraham when God called him in Genesis chapter 12. I've brought this up to you many times. God called this man Abram out of his home, out of his house, and out of his family, away from his kindred. He was living in an area called Ur, modern-day Mesopotamia, which is actually modern-day Iraq. The Lord said, "I want you to come and follow me." He went into the land of Canaan, this new promised land that the Lord was giving to him and to his descendants. The Lord promises it to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12.

Just a few verses later, at the end of Genesis 12, it says there was a famine in the land. Abraham went down south towards Egypt. There in Egypt, he found a woman by the name of Hagar, who would end up causing him a lot of problems when they came back into the land. Notice that when there was a lack, when there was a famine, where was the first place Abraham turned? Back to Egypt, back to the world. This is the father of faith, the guy we all look up to and say, "Man, he was the guy when it came to faith." Yet, when Abraham experienced a lack in his life, he thought, "Maybe we should go down to Egypt. It seems like they have what we need down there."

A lot of us, too, when we find ourselves in the wilderness and we're lacking something, immediately think that we need to go back down to Egypt, back to the world. There in the world, we had the flesh pots and food to our full; we had bread all the time. Now we come out here into the wilderness, and what do we have? We have nothing. "Lord, why have you brought us here?"

Whether you are like Abraham, who physically went back to the world, or like Israel in our story, who in their hearts started to long for the things of the world, it's a grievous thing to God when we begin to think and do that. He would say through the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 43, verse 18, "Remember not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing."

Now it shall spring forth. Shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The Lord speaks to us and speaks to the children of Israel through the prophet Isaiah. He says, "Don't consider, don't remember all that stuff back there in Egypt." They might say, "Oh, we had the flesh pots, and we had bread to our full." But the Lord says, "Don't consider that stuff. Behold, I want to do a new work."

The Lord wants to do a new work in your life and in mine tonight. Maybe you find yourself in that place where you say, "Lord, why have you brought me out here?" Perhaps you think, "Why have you brought me to Calvary Chapel on Saturday night? I don't understand it." Yet the Lord says, "Behold, I will do a new work. I'm desiring to do a new work."

Don't think about all the old things, like back in Egypt or back in the world. You might remember that you had this and that, but now that you've come to the Lord and have been following Him, it feels like all you experience is trial and tribulation, Mara and Baca. You might wonder, "What am I doing out here, Lord? Why have you brought me here?" The Lord responds, "Behold, I will do a new work. I am the one who is able to make a way in the wilderness and to make rivers in the desert. God is the only one who can do that."

He wants us to go on with Him. In Luke 24:28, it is written that the Lord made as though He would go further. He says, "Let's go. Don't stay on the sides there at those warm baths. Don't stay in that lukewarm condition. I want you to come on and let's go." God says it is time to move. The cloud was on the move, but now the children of Israel find themselves out in the wilderness. They begin to cry out to the Lord and against Moses and Aaron. They murmur and complain, asking, "Why have you brought us out here? We're going to die. We had the flesh pots and bread to our full, and yet now you have brought us out here to kill the whole assembly with hunger."

Yet the Lord, in His grace, speaks to Moses in verse 4. He says, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day that I may prove them whether they will walk in my way and in my law or not." While these people are crying out to Him—three million people murmuring against Moses and complaining against Aaron, saying, "You guys are a bunch of goons for bringing us out here into the wilderness"—the Lord speaks to Moses in His wonderfully awesome and gracious way. He says, "You know what? I'm going to rain down bread from heaven, and the people are going to go out and gather at a certain rate every day."

Why? That I may prove them. That I may test them. In Genesis chapter 22, that word "prove" is used when the Lord did tempt Abraham. The Lord did test Abraham. The Lord did prove Abraham and said unto him, "Get thee into the land of Moriah and offer your son there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell thee of."

The Lord brought the children of Israel to Marah, as we saw just a couple of weeks ago. It was there at Marah that the Lord did prove them; He did test and tempt them to see if they would follow Him, to see if they would do what He was calling them to. Again, here in chapter 16, the Lord says, "I'm going to give them this bread from heaven. I'm going to rain it down upon them, and they are going to go out and glean and gather every single day a certain rate so that I can prove them." He wants to see whether or not they'll walk in His law, whether or not they're going to keep His commandments.

Now, God is completely powerful and He is completely able. He could have said to Moses, "Tomorrow morning, when the children of Israel wake up, there's going to be a big old mountain of bread inside each one of their tents." God could have said, "I'm just going to fill all their little storehouses. I'm going to fill every little clay pot that they have in their house, and when they wake up tomorrow, bread—miracle of miracles—just there it is, right in front of them."

But the Lord says, "No, I want to put it just outside their tent. It's very accessible. All they have to do is walk outside." The Lord says, "I want to test them. I want to see if they're going to follow Me." So, He puts this bread right outside the door of their tent. All they have to do is get up in the morning and go out and gather a certain rate every single day.

The Lord says, "I'm going to prove them in this. I'm going to test them in this. I want to see if they're going to follow Me, if they're going to trust Me." He had all the ability and all the power in the world and in the universe to just say, "Boom! There's bread in your living room. Just go out in the living room." But the Lord said, "No, I want you to go outside your tent. I want you to get up every single morning and take a step of faith outside that door."

The Lord calls you and me to the very same thing. He says, "I want you to take a step of faith." You may say, "There's no provision. We're not going to be able to make the house payment. We're not going to be able to make the car payment. We're not going to be able to make the MasterCard, Visa card, Discover card, American Express card payment this month. What are we going to do?"

And the Lord says, "I want you to take a step of faith. I want you to step outside and follow Me. I'm going to prove you in this. I want to see if you're going to do what I've called you to. I want to see if you're going to follow Me at My word and trust Me."

And it shall come to pass on the sixth day, verse 5, that they shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. Moses and Aaron said to the children of Israel that evening, "You shall know..."

That the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt. In the morning, underline this: in the morning, you shall see the glory of the Lord. The Lord says through Moses and Aaron to the children of Israel, "In the evening, you're going to see that the Lord is the one who's brought you out of the land of Egypt. He's going to show you, and in the morning, you shall see the glory of the Lord." I have that underlined in my Bible because it stands out to me. It's so important in verse 7 that in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord.

We will come back to that in a few minutes, but notice what it goes on to say: "For He hears your murmurings against the Lord. And what are we that you murmur against us?" Moses said, "This shall be when the Lord shall give you at evening flesh to eat and in the morning bread to the full. For the Lord hears your murmurings which you murmur against Him. And what are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but they're against the Lord."

If you find yourself like some who have talked to me before, saying, "I'm going to this church, but I never get fed. I'm not getting any bread," and you start murmuring against the leaders that the Lord has set up, know for sure that you're not murmuring against the leaders; you're murmuring against the Lord. You're saying, "Oh, I'm not getting anything," and I submit to you that maybe you're not stepping outside the tent and gathering the word that the Lord has set down in front of you.

So be careful when you rise up and murmur against those whom the Lord has set over you. You say, "I'm not getting fed here. I'm not getting anything. I'm not full. I need the flesh pots. I need some bread to my full, but I'm not getting it here." The Lord says, "I've heard your murmurings. You're not murmuring against them; you're murmuring against Me." It might just be that you haven't stepped out and begun to gather and glean for yourself.

Just a little side note—I don't know where that came from, but anyway. The Lord says, "You're not murmuring against Moses and Aaron." Moses and Aaron tell the children of Israel, "You think you're murmuring against us, but in reality, you're murmuring against the Lord. You're complaining against Him, the one who delivered you, the one who has poured out for you, the one who wants to provide for you."

You stand here in the wilderness and say, "Oh, we wish we had the flesh pots in Egypt and we had bread to our full back there. Now you brought us out here into this wilderness to kill us with hunger." The Lord says, "No, I want to provide for you, but I'm going to test you in this. I'm going to give you bread; it's going to rain down there in the land right around you, but I want you to go out."

And I want you to gather it. Also, I'm going to give you flesh to eat in the evening. You're going to receive this flesh; these quails are going to come in. Moses spoke unto Aaron in verse 9, saying unto the congregation of the children of Israel, "Come near before the Lord, for He has heard your murmurings."

It came to pass, as Aaron spoke unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness. Behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. As Aaron stood to speak to the children of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness. How many of you look towards the wilderness that God set before you? Most of us turn and say, "I don't want to go into that."

But I assure you, as you set yourself and say, "Lord, I'm going to follow You through this valley. I'm going to go through this wilderness," and as you do, you make that determination in your heart, as Daniel did in Daniel chapter 1. You say, "Lord, I'll follow You in the midst of this. I'll go with You into the valley if that's what You want me to do."

It's at that point in time, when you look towards the wilderness, that the glory of the Lord appears in the cloud. The Lord manifests His glory to you and shows Himself in an awesome and powerful way. I know every single one of you in this room has maybe experienced it in little bits here and there, but the Lord wants to show you with certainty that as you follow Him, you'll see His glory. Whether it's in the wilderness or on a high mountaintop somewhere, as you're with the Lord, following the Lord, you will see the glorious works of the Lord. God will do awesome things in your midst.

Every single one of you in this room who have suffered with the Lord through anything and found yourself in a wilderness knows this to be true. If you want testimony of this and you want to see the Lord doing this, talk with Tom Gorman. He'll tell you how, in the wilderness that he's been going through, God has shown Himself faithful. As he set himself to walk through the wilderness, yes, with the body of Christ around him, fellowshipping with him, he has seen the glory of the Lord in the wilderness.

You can ask Rachel and Chet Asman, or I'm sorry, Todd, and they'll tell you how, when they went through the wilderness, the Lord showed Himself faithful and powerful around them. It was in the glory, in the wilderness, that they looked toward Him, and the Lord revealed Himself. He will do that in your life, and He has done that in mine.

But He brings us to that place where we finally say, "Lord, I'm looking forward to what You're going to do, whether it be in the wilderness or on a mountaintop. I'm going to follow You, and I'll go through the valley if You want me to." And so the Lord...

The Lord appeared in the cloud and spoke unto Moses, saying, "I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak unto them, saying, 'At evening, you shall eat flesh, and in the morning, you shall be filled with bread, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God.'"

Why does the Lord take us through the wilderness? Why does He bring us into these places where we just don't seem to think that the Lord can get us out of this? I don't think that He can bring me through this. But God wants to show Himself to be your God. He wants to prove you, but He also wants to prove Himself to you. You shall know that I am the Lord your God. Underline that. At evening, I'm going to give you flesh to eat, and in the morning, I'm going to give you bread to your full. That you will know that I am the one who provides for you, that you will know that I am the one who's gone before you, that you will know that I am the Lord your God.

But notice how many times it is mentioned that they murmured. You can count it later on, but if you go through those first twelve verses, you will read over and over again that it says they murmured. They murmured, and God said, "I've heard your murmurings." Moses said, "You haven't murmured against us; you murmured against the Lord." Murmur, murmur, murmur, murmur. Yet in the midst of their murmuring, God is still gracious. In the midst of them crying out and complaining, "Lord, you've left us in the wilderness," God is still pouring out and gracious to His people.

I'll be honest with you; sometimes I don't understand the way that the Lord does these things. He's still gracious to us in the midst of this. The only thing that I can come up with is that in Matthew chapter 5, verse 45, it tells us that He shines the sun upon the just and the unjust. He gives rain upon those that are evil and those that are good. The good gifts that you receive from the Lord are not because you're super special; it's because He's a good God.

The book of James tells us that every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights. Every good and perfect gift comes down from Him. There's no shadow of turning with Him, and yet He still blesses people when they're murmuring against Him, when they're complaining. He causes the sun to shine on the just and the unjust, the rain to fall on the evil and the good. It's not that Israel was some super special group of people. As Jeff talked about last week, it was just by the grace of God that He would pour out on these people. That's what grace is all about—unmerited, undeserved favor. It's not something that you won, that the Lord looked on you and said, "You know what? You, Russ Deal, are really a good guy, and because of that..."

I'm going to pour my grace out upon you. No, it's because the Lord looked upon me and He looked upon you. He said, "You guys are completely gone and you need help." Because of that, because I'm a good God, I'm going to pour out upon you. We never deserved any of it; we still don't deserve it.

If you ever come to a point in your life where you think, "Yeah, I really think I've worked pretty hard. I deserve this or that from the Lord," think not that you deserve anything from the Lord. James goes on to speak of that. We're just a bunch of wicked people, and the sooner you realize that and come to grips with it, really believe that, then I believe you'll begin to see the Lord a little bit more in the wilderness. You'll begin to understand why the Lord has brought you out into that place.

It came to pass that evening that quails came up in verse 13 of Exodus chapter 16, and they covered the camp. In the morning, the dew lay round about the host, and when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness, there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. When the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, "It is manna." Actually, they looked and literally said, "What is it?" What is that stuff? That's what manna means: "What is it?"

So they looked down and they said, "It's manna," for they wist not what it was. Moses said unto them, "This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat." They went outside and looked around, asking, "What is this stuff on the ground?" When they woke up the next morning, there was like this frost on the ground, and as the frost lifted, there was this little white circular thing there on the ground. They went outside and looked at one another, saying, "What is this stuff on the ground?"

Moses stood up and said, "This is the bread which has come down from heaven. This is the bread that the Lord has sent to you." What is that bread that the Lord has sent down to us? Well, in John chapter 6, verse 31, it says, "Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat." Then Jesus said unto them, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He which comes down from heaven and gives life unto the world." Then they said unto Him, "Lord, evermore give us this bread."

I am the bread of life. As Jesus was speaking in John chapter 6, He said that the bread your fathers ate in the wilderness, that manna, did not come from Moses. He wasn't some special guy who went out there in the morning and scattered it on the ground for you. That bread came from the Father, from my Father in heaven. He has sent a new bread, another bread, and I am that bread.

Jesus is the bread. Interestingly enough, what city was Jesus born in? Bethlehem, which means the house of bread. Jesus, the bread of life, was born in Bethlehem, the house of bread—the bread that every single one of us needs to eat of. He goes on to talk about this in John chapter 6, and a whole bunch of people who were following Him thought it was kind of weird, so they split. It was a hard teaching that He gave to them that day.

But you see, the Lord says, "I am the bread which came down from heaven." John chapter 1, verse 1 tells us that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Then in verse 14, it says, "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

So, who is the bread of life? Jesus. And who is the Word? Jesus. How do we taste and see that the Lord is good? How do we taste of that bread? Through the Word—the Word of God, the bread of life that was given to us, full of grace and truth. We too could gather and glean from what the Lord has given to you and me, that we would eat of it, that we would take it in.

The Scriptures tell us in Psalm chapter 19 that it is sweeter than the honeycomb. It is good—the bread of life, the bread from heaven, the Word of God. The Lord gave to the children of Israel, as they were out in the wilderness of Sin, this little small round thing called manna. They wondered and said, "What is this stuff?" Moses said, "This is the bread which the Lord has sent down from heaven for you. He has given it to you to eat."

In verse 16 of Exodus 16, which the Lord has commanded, it says, "Gather it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man according to the number of your persons, and take every man for them which are in his tents." So Moses tells the children of Israel, "This is what God has commanded you. I want you to go out and gather this bread."

Gather this food for your whole family. Men go out every single morning, and you are to gather an omer for each person in your tent, for each person in your household. You are to bring it in there in the morning.

The spiritual principle for you and me is that the bread of life, the Word of God, the only bread that can truly sustain us, is what the Lord would tell us: that man cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. Every single one of us needs to gather and glean from the Word of God, just like the children of Israel were commanded by God in Exodus chapter 16 as they wandered through the wilderness of Sin, through that thorny place, just as every single one of us is in this world. The Lord says we need to gather and glean from the Word of God.

As we go on in verse 17, it says, "And the children of Israel did so; they gathered some more and some less." When they measured it out as an omer, he that gathered much had nothing left over, and he that gathered little had no lack. They gathered every one according to his eating.

Now, I don't know about you, but in the place that I've been, I've had many people come to me and tell me, "I read 17 chapters today," or "I read 36 chapters yesterday," or "I read 25 chapters a day," boasting about how much they've taken in of the Word of God. Then I've had other people come to me, discouraged and despondent, saying, "Man, I only got to read 5 verses today," while that guy over there was telling me he read 25 chapters, and that other guy said he read 19 chapters in Leviticus. That guy seems really special.

But I want you to note that some gathered more and some gathered less. He that gathered much had nothing left over, and he that gathered little had no lack. Every man according to his eating gathered. The point is that they did it every day, every single morning. Some gathered much, some gathered little, but they had no leftovers and they had no lack.

You see, I don't care if you read 15 chapters or the entire book of Genesis tomorrow morning, or if you get up and read Psalm 1:1. I believe what the Lord is concerned about is the heart behind it.

Are you doing it every single morning? Are you seeking Him, reading His Word, taking in the bread of God, and hiding His Word in your heart that you might not sin against Him? Are you tasting and seeing that He is truly good, living by the bread of life, by the Word of God? Or are you saying, "Yeah, last September 2002, I read the entire book of Ruth, all four chapters, and I've just been living on it ever since. It's great! I read Philemon in January." For those of you who don't know, Philemon is one chapter. Maybe you even say, "I read the book of Isaiah, 66 chapters, back in 1982."

The Lord says, "No, I want you to gather either much or maybe just a little every single morning." As we already saw in verse 7, "In the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord." You shall see the glory of the Lord there in the morning. I encourage you that maybe you've gone through that for the last couple of weeks, where you wake up every morning and you're only able to get in a few verses here and there. All day long, the enemy comes and condemns you, saying, "You should have read more." The amount that fills you may not be the same amount that fills me, or fills Pat, or fills Pastor Chuck, or fills Dave Jensen. Whatever it may be, are you doing the right thing? Are you doing it every single day, every single morning?

Verse 19 says, "Moses said, 'Let no man leave it till morning.'" Notwithstanding, they hearkened not unto Moses, but some of them left it until morning, and it bred worms and stank. Moses was wroth, or angry with them. Maybe you are like that person I mentioned a little while ago, who back in 1982 read through the entire Bible and has been living on that ever since. I don't know; maybe you've experienced this. I know I have. Someone comes up to you and starts talking about the Word of God and how the Lord has been speaking to them. They say, "The Lord really just showed me this awesome verse this morning in Philippians chapter 4, verse 19. It says, 'But God will supply all my need.' God's going to supply all my need."

Then two weeks go by, and they come up again, saying, "You know, the Lord really shared this awesome verse with me: 'God will supply all my need.' I'm sorry, Philippians 4:19." It's like, "Oh, that's great! I think you shared that with me last week."

Then they come up two months later and say, "The Lord's just been really grinding me with this verse: God will supply all your need." After a while, you start to wonder, do you have any other verses? Is that the only thing the Lord's speaking to you? I know that the Lord has shared certain verses with me over and over again, but those aren't the only things we are to hold on to.

You can't live on the women's retreat from last year. Men, you can't live on the men's Bible study that ended at the beginning of the summer. We need to be living on the Word of the Lord every single day. If you're living on what you read yesterday or two days ago, it breeds worms and it stinks. You know that if you've been walking with the Lord for any length of time. I know that about myself and my own life.

There were those who said, "I think I'm going to gather a little bit more today and keep it until tomorrow, so I'm not going to wake up early in the morning tomorrow and go gather." The next morning, they wake up, open their little clay pot, and oh my goodness, what is that? They look inside, and there are little worms inside.

The spiritual principle for you and me is that each of us needs to gather every morning. Some of you say, "Well, that sounds really good, but I don't really like to do my devotions in the morning." You might say, "I really like to do my devotions in the evening or right before I go to bed." You know what? Amen, that's good. I'm glad to hear that. But I'd encourage you to add to that the morning.

You might say, "Oh, but why? I don't like to wake up in the morning." I've told you many times before, I don't like to wake up in the morning either. You know that about me. But notice what verse 21 says: "And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating." When the sun waxed hot, it melted. They gathered it every morning, and when the sun came up and it was hot, it melted. The manna that was on the ground under the frost melted as the sun came up.

Why is it so important for you and me to gather the Word of God in the morning? If you would turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 13, I think we can look at this a little bit and understand why. In Matthew chapter 13, every single one of you who have been a part of this church for any length of time...

You've heard of the parable of the sower. In Matthew chapter 13, verse 3, Jesus spoke a parable to the people and said, "A sower went out to sow seed." When he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside, and in verse 4, fowls came and devoured them up. Some fell in stony places, where there was not much earth. Forthwith, they sprang up because they had no depth of ground. When the sun was up, they were scorched because they had no root, and they withered away.

The sower went out to sow seed, and as he scattered this seed, some fell around the stony ground. There was a little bit of dirt there, but right underneath the surface were rocks and stones. The seed took root very quickly and grew up. However, when the sun came up, it burned out, and they withered away and died. Jesus goes on to explain this in verse 20. In Matthew chapter 13, verse 20, He says, "But he that received the seed in stony places, the same as he that hears the word of God. He hears the word of the Lord and receives it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself, and he endures for a little while. But when tribulation and persecution arise because of the word, by and by he is offended."

When the sun comes up, it represents tribulation and persecution in Scripture. When the trial comes, when the hot sun shines, the one who fell upon the stony ground withers away. In Exodus chapter 16, when the sun came up and the heat of the day was present, what happened to the manna? It melted. Amen, it melted.

This has happened so many times in my life. I wake up in the morning and I'm running a little bit late. You can ask Richard; this happens a lot, and he knows about it. I'm running a little bit late, and I run out the door, forgetting to take some time to spend with the Lord because I have to get to church or work. I get down here, and immediately the hot trial comes up. The sun is fully in the sky, and the trial begins early in the day. It feels like I'm just melting; I'm withering away, and I can't seem to get a hold on what's going on.

Finally, around 2 o'clock in the afternoon, I sit down and say, "Oh Lord, I just need to spend some time in the Word." I open the Word to where I've been reading, and lo and behold, everything that I just went through from 7 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon...

It is right there in the pages of the Word. The Lord says, "In the morning, gather it before the hot sun." The trial comes up and melts it away, and you're not ready. You're not prepared for what you needed to be prepared for.

For those of you who read the Word in the afternoon, keep doing it. For those of you who read the Word in the evening before you go to bed, I encourage you and exhort you to keep on doing that. However, in the morning, you shall see the glory of the Lord. It is in the morning that the Lord prepares you for the heat of the day, for the trial that will come. You won't be prepared if you don't go out and gather the Word of God in the morning because it doesn't melt away.

It came to pass, in verse 22, on the sixth day that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for every man. All the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. The children of Israel, on the sixth day, went out and started to gather more manna than they normally would. They got two omers instead of one omer, as the Lord had commanded. The leaders in Israel came to Moses and said, "Hey, what are these guys doing? They're gathering too much."

Moses responded to them in verse 23, "This is that which the Lord has said: Tomorrow is the day of rest, a holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Bake that which you will bake and seethe that which you will seethe. That which remains left over, lay it up to be kept until morning." In verse 24, they laid it up till morning, as Moses had said, and it did not stink, nor were there any worms therein. Moses said, "Eat that today, for today is the Sabbath unto the Lord. Today you shall not find any in the field. Six days shall you gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, there shall be none."

What is this provision? The Lord had said that you are to gather every single morning. If you laid it overnight, when you woke up, it would breed worms and stink. But you were supposed to go out in the morning. The trial came up and melted it away. On the sixth day, the Lord said, "Now I want you to gather twice as much and keep it overnight." They were probably thinking, "Yeah, but it's going to breed worms and stink." The Lord assured them, "No, because I'm making a provision for you."

What is that provision? I wholeheartedly believe that God wants us to sleep in on Saturday, and boy, do I love to do so. The Scripture says in Psalm 127, verse 2, "The Lord gives sleep to His beloved." And you know what?

The Lord just loves me so much. I know He does. I love to sleep. Does anyone else in here love to sleep? Then you read those verses like, "Thou sluggard, rise up early, consider the end." But here, the Lord says, "I want you to rest on that seventh day." He makes a provision: He wants you to gather more on the sixth day. Then, on the seventh day, He doesn't want you to wake up early and go out to gather. He just wants you to sleep and rest in Him. Take that Sabbath day's rest and meditate upon all that you've heard throughout the week. Chew a little bit more on what you received from the Lord the day before. Meditate day and night, but take that day of rest.

There will be those who say to me and say to you, "Well, the Lord in the New Testament never said anything about the Sabbath." All the other Ten Commandments that God gave Jesus, He talked about those in the New Testament, but He didn't talk about the Sabbath. So, they argue, we don't need to take a Sabbath. However, you know what? He observed the Sabbath. If we're Christians, we're to be Christ-like. I believe that the Lord has given us the Sabbath. The scripture says that He gave the Sabbath for man. He gave it to us as a day of rest.

Up until this point, as we study other civilizations, no other civilization had ever taken a day off. They worked all the time, all week long, all seven days. Yet the Lord came to His people and said, "I want you to take a day of rest." To the mind of man, we might think, "Oh, but we can make so much more money if I work seven days. We can gather so much more manna if we work that seventh day." There were those who thought that. In verse 27, it says, "And it came to pass that there went out some people on the seventh day to gather, and they found none." The Lord said unto Moses, "How long refuse you to keep my commandments and my laws? See that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore, He gives you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Abide every man in his place. Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day." So, the people rested on the seventh day.

If you're one of those men who think, "I can just make so much more money. I can get so many more deals done if I just work that seventh day," I don't think that will be the case. The Lord says you're not going to find any more on that day. Maybe you need to take that step of faith and just say, "Lord, I'm going to give You this one day in seven. For You, I'm going to rest in You and take that time."

Just to meditate upon the Word that you've been speaking to me all week long, I'm going to spend that time worshiping You, just sitting at Your feet and hearing from You. The Lord will bless that. The Lord says in Matthew chapter 11, verse 28, "Come to Me, all of you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." The Lord desires so much to give every single one of us that rest that only He can give. Yet, so many times we're striving to try and get more, whatever it may be. Even if it's spiritual things, we may say, "But man, it's a spiritual thing. I just want more." The Lord says, "I just want you to take a day and rest with Me."

Consider all the things that I've given to you all week long. Christina and I have this joke about the word "Selah" throughout the Psalms. That pause. She tells me that I need to take a Selah. She tells me that quite a bit: push the Selah button, the pause button. Just stop for a second. Every single one of us needs to do that. We need to take that time just to pause with the Lord and consider, "Lord, what are You speaking to me? What are You showing me?" The Lord wants to do that.

So the people rested on the seventh day. In verse 30, the house of Israel called the name thereof manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. Psalm 19, as I already mentioned to you, says that His Word is better than gold, yea, fine gold, and sweeter than the honey in the honeycomb. What are you seeking? What are you seeking after today? Maybe it is gold, fine gold. The Lord says, "You're only going to find it in My Word." The true gold, the riches that will go on into eternity.

Maybe you're seeking after food. The Lord says, "Why? Why do you go striving after all that stuff?" In Isaiah chapter 55, verse 1, it says, "Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters and drink. He who has no money, come ye buy and eat." He goes on to say there in Isaiah chapter 55, "Why do you labor for that which is not bread? Why do you go after all these things trying to find satisfaction in them? Wherefore do you spend your money on that which is not bread? And you labor for that which satisfies not. Hearken diligently to Me and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness."

Let your soul delight itself in the fatness that only God can give. As you're wandering through the wilderness of sin, the Lord leads us through those thorny places. He takes us out into those places where we just say, "Lord, I'd rather just stay at Elam. There are seventy palm trees and twelve wells of water here. Why do You want me to go out into this place, this wilderness of sin?"

I see the cloud is moving, but why? Why are you doing this? I don't understand why you want me to go out here. The Lord says, "I want to show you that I'm faithful, that I'm able to give you all that you need to satisfy you. I want you to come and delight yourself in the fatness that can only be found in me. So come, all you who labor, come. Those who are heavy laden, come. I want to give you rest. I want to pour out upon you."

Don't be like Lazarus, where people walk by you and say, "Lord, he stinketh. He's been just eating word from ten years ago." The Lord says, "I want you to glean and gather every single day in the morning because I want to reveal myself to you. I want to show you my glory there in the morning."

There are times as we wander through the wilderness and find ourselves in those places between Piah, Hiroth, and Migdal, with the Red Sea in front of us and the Egyptian army closing in behind. The Lord says, "Why do you cry unto me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. Take your staff and stretch it out over the water, and I will part the waters." The children of Israel crossed over on dry ground, and then they began to praise and worship the Lord in Exodus chapter 15, thanking Him for all that He had done, all He was doing, and all that He was going to do.

But their praise ended too quickly, and they found themselves three days in the wilderness looking for water, but all they found was bitterness. All they found was bitterness. You and I come to those waters sometimes, trying to figure things out on our own, using our own minds and wisdom to solve problems. The Lord says, "No, you can't. You need to cast the tree into the waters to make it sweet." When you bring the Lord into that situation, He is able to make it sweet.

Then immediately, the Lord brings you into that place of blessing, but He doesn't want you to always stay at that oasis. He wants you to keep going on. He made as though He would go on further with them. Don't stay in that place of Emmaus. Don't find yourself just sitting in the warm bath, saying, "Gosh, I like this place." There are a lot of people at Myriad of Hot Springs who are just sitting in the baths, going, "I like this place." The Lord is saying, "Let's go. The cloud's moving."

As the cloud moves, we do find ourselves in the wilderness of sin. But it's there in the wilderness of sin that the Lord shows Himself faithful, saying, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds out of my mouth, and I will feed you." I'm not just going to shove it in your heart when you come to me, and there your tent is filled with bread. I want you to go out in the morning, every morning.

And gather it. It's just outside your door. It's very accessible. He hasn't made it some faraway place, high up on a hilltop. He said, "It's right there. Just take a step outside your tent, and you will see what I've provided for you." The Lord will fill you. Some will gather much, and some will gather little, but they'll have no leftovers as there'll be no lack. "Come buy bread without money," the Lord says. "Why are you laboring for that which satisfies not? Come and taste and see that the Lord is good."

Then the wilderness will not be so thorny anymore. You'll find that the grace of God is powerful there. God is good. Amen? God is good.

Let's pray. Father, I do thank you for your word, this bread of life, Lord, that truly does sustain us. Without your word, I can't even imagine where we'd be. I can't even begin to imagine. You are the bread of life. You are the Word of God. Lord, I pray that you'd help us to taste and see that you're good.

We can do nothing. You are the air that we breathe. You're our daily bread. Lord, we need you. Without you, we're lost, wandering in the wilderness. But behold, you desire to do a new thing. You've made paths; you made a way in the wilderness, and you've put rivers in the desert. We can only find those blessings as we go out into that stony, hard place. God, guide us and direct us. We thank you that you are so good.

I pray that you'd bless my brothers and sisters this week, that you would just fill their lives to overflowing with your word. Fill them up with your living water, as you would tell us in John that you are the bread of life in John chapter 6. You are that water in John chapter 7. Lord, we need you. Thank you, Father, for making it so accessible. Bless your church, we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen.