The wilderness life is a call to a life of faith. And that's why this wilderness life is exemplary of the life of a Christian. The life of each and every one that as a disciple of the Lord Jesus, we are not calling this world our home any longer. We have turned our back upon the world. We are pilgrims. We are bound for glory. And therefore, we have a different attitude and a different approach to the things of this world. But that is a wilderness. And that means there are going to be many challenges. It's not a resort. It's a wilderness. In the opening verse of chapter 16, it tells us that they came to this wilderness of Zin, or Sin, which is between Elam and Sinai. And if you can imagine the terrain, you can imagine the region, in the desert place. It wasn't merely a desert like the Sahara Desert, very, very different. If you were to go on Google Earth and zoom in on these areas, you will get a bird's eye view at least of the terrain. It is exceeding steep mountains, granite rock, volcanic rock, and barrenness all around. Mount Sinai is 2,200 meters high, and I assure you there's no snow on the top. It is an arid, dry, burning wilderness. I resort to Easton's Dictionary to give us a little bit of a bigger picture of this. It is, of course, called the Sinaitic Peninsula, and it is generally described as the wilderness of the wanderings. And that certainly applies to Israel, but there are many that live the nomadic life, and with great difficulty, they are able to eke out a living there. Mr. Easton, in his dictionary, said that this entire region is in the form of a triangle, and its extent from north to south is 250 miles at its widest point, and is about 150 miles broad. And throughout this vast region of 1,500 square miles, there is not one river. That tells you the dryness, the barrenness of this region. Now Moses knew the wilderness of Sinai well. He had spent 40 years in the land of Midian. had been a shepherd. He had taken his father-in-law's flocks and sought to care for them in these very areas. Now Moses knew, if no one else thought, that it was impossible by natural resources to supply the need of two million people in this burning, arid, vicious wilderness without an ongoing miracle of God's supply. And so it was absolutely no surprise that 30 days after crossing the Red Sea that they ran out of food, they could not find food along the way, they already had a crisis of water, and now on the 30th day, They were murmuring, complaining to Moses, why did we not stay in Egypt? And they began to hanker and long for that provision that they had been so used to. Now, God's plan all along in leading these people out into the wilderness, he knew that they were not going to find food along the way. They couldn't hunt for food. They couldn't just pick berries or forage along the way. They were going to need a divine supply. And as soon as the people complained to Moses, and Moses cried to the Lord, we're told here in verse 4 that God announced his plan. He said, This was God's amazing provision. Six days per week, Every year, for 40 years, he was going to give to his people a daily supply. Now, the tonnage of this bread is staggering. I read up, someone tried to calculate just how many tons of food that amounted to, to feed two million people every day, supplying them six days a week, double supply on Saturdays, or on Fridays in that case, and for 40 years. It just boggles the mind. the amount of food that was supplied to them. Now, it was called angels' food. If you read Psalm 78, it is referred to there as angels' food, because of its heavenly nature and because of its sufficiency in the diet. It was able to sustain the people and to supply their need on a regular basis, and it was bred from heaven. Can you think of someone else that was called the bread of heaven? Of course, the Lord Jesus. In John chapter 6, he says, I am the bread of life. And indeed, in John 6, the whole discussion began about that manna that God sent from heaven. And from the manna that God sent from heaven, it came to the Lord Jesus saying, I am the bread of life. He that believeth in me shall never hunger. And so this manna is a picture and a type of the Lord Jesus himself. And he who is that bread of life for the souls of his people is shadowed and pictured in this 40-year miracle of feeding his people with the manna. Now, as you go down just a number of points on the likenesses, parallels between the manna and our Lord Jesus, you'll find them very easily. This manna came from heaven, so did the Lord Jesus. He was the Son of God who came down from heaven. This manna at first was unrecognized. They asked, what is it? In fact, that's the very meaning of its name, manna. What is it? It was unrecognized. It was something absolutely unique. They had never seen the like of it before. When the Lord Jesus came into this world, he was as a root out of a dry ground, he was unrecognized by many, and his claims to be the Son of God were rejected, but he was the unique Son of God. Also, this manna was pure white, and our Lord Jesus was the sinless, pure, perfect Son of God. The only man who walked this world in the flesh, you could say, that there is no sin in me. Another parallel is that this manna was a gift of the goodness of God. In spite of their murmurings, in spite of their blasphemy, would to God that we had died in Egypt. What was God's answer? He didn't slay the people because of their rebellion and murmuring. He sent them bread from heaven. This was a gift of God's goodness. And we who were sinners and who rebelled against God, what has God done for us? He didn't come to condemn us, but he sent his Son to be our Savior. He is the gift of God's goodness. This manna fell all around the camp. When they awoke in the morning, in the cool of the morning, there it was, all around them in their very midst, in the very vicinity of the camp where they pitched. The Lord Jesus has been given into the midst of his church. He walks in the midst of his candlestick. He is easy to find. He is near to his people. And in this wilderness of this world, the Lord draws near and he nourishes our hearts. One more point, and that was that this manna was to be eaten to be enjoyed. It was sweet to taste. It was like wafers with honey. It was enjoyable food. Now while at first they didn't recognize it and they didn't even know what to do with it, but soon they began to see this is angel's food. And if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus tonight, you know that the Lord Jesus is sweet to the soul. He is to be enjoyed. Now, the worldly man can't understand that. The unregenerate, hardened of heart cannot understand how a Christian can appreciate and enjoy the Savior. To them, the name of Jesus spells fear and prejudice. To the Christian, the name of Jesus spells faith and delight. He is the fairest of ten thousand to our souls. And so, this manna was given. Now we come to the whole message tonight. And if you look at verse 4, toward the end of the verse, he says, 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." This manna was a gift, but it was also a proving of the people. And I have to say tonight that Israel failed the test. In every way you look at it, when the Lord was proving His people, they failed. They didn't do very well. And as we read down this chapter, we find that they field in so many ways. Firstly, they field in believing in God's providence. What is providence? Providence is the work of God to take care of his people in this world. That's what his providence is. If you remember, I don't know, I saw this, I think it was on video, of Dr. Pinozzi, and he was talking with one of the reformers, and he talked about providence comes from the Latin word provideo, which means to video in advance. Now, we know what a surveillance camera is to capture something as it's happening right at this moment. You can install a surveillance camera to watch a monitor and see what's going on in the parking lot. I hope your car is safe, by the way. I hope there's no one snooping around. wondering which car has been left open. Oh boy, I've blown your ability to listen to the sermon now. You're going to be thinking car instead of manna here tonight. So you can have a camera to capture the present. You can have a recorder that will capture the past, so that events that have taken place, you can play them over again. But pro-video is to play the act in advance. That's what God is doing, because he knows the end from the beginning. He is the designer, and he is the architect, and he led these children of Israel out by the cloud, and he knew what he was doing. and he was going to provide for them all along the way. And so in verse 3, these murmurings of the children of Israel was terrible unbelief. The children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots. Now, The blasphemy of this is that they weren't really targeting Moses, they were targeting Jehovah. Verse 8 says that. Moses reasoned with the people, and he says, For that the LORD heareth your murmurings, which ye murmur against him. Moses was only God's messenger. He went where the cloud went, and God was leading his people. And all their murmurings and their complainings was really against the Lord. And so we see here that they failed the test. They did not accept that the God who had brought them out of Egypt and who already had provided them water in a miraculous way, that he would provide for them all along the way. We learned something from this tonight, that as a Christian, it's one thing to trust the Lord for your salvation, but it's another thing to trust him for his provisions in this world. There are many people who are safely and they are assured of their salvation, but they're worry warts about the things of this life. They fear and tremble, and they fail to trust God for his daily provision. Now it was due to this spirit of unbelief that gripped their hearts that so many of God's professing people need the comfort, the assurances of the Scriptures. Scriptures like Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, or John chapter 10, where it talks about, I give to my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish. That we are held in the Savior's hand and in the Father's hand, like a little child in between parents, walking, both hands firmly held through life. And so the emphasis is on the care, the provision of the Lord. As we come back to this miracle of the manna, the manna was given right through to the promised land. It was God's provision, God's providence. Of course, that's a picture of the miracle of grace. When God saves you, He's going to bring you home to heaven. He's not going to feed you partway and drop you and leave you to your own defamish. Now, we can complain of the wilderness, we can complain of the heat, we can say, I'm not used to this, and we can get weary and tired, but God will not fail. Can you say that tonight? I get weary and tired, but God will not feel. Now, what about us? Do we ever murmur? Is there ever a murmuring spirit that creeps into our hearts? This word murmur means obstinacy. It means to harden and sort of put up obstacles. It's a sign of hardness of heart. And how wicked it was of these people to be bitter against God. Would to God we had died in Egypt. First of all, it was taking the Lord's name in vain. They took the Lord's name in vain. Would to God. And Moses pointed out that their anger was against Jehovah himself. And they said that all they remembered was the flesh pots of Egypt. They bred to the full, which I'm not sure was absolutely true. You know, sometimes when you're going through difficult things in life, you look away back to the past with a faint imagination, and you sort of see it in an exaggerated form. I'm not sure these slaves in Egypt were as well-fed as we're told here. And why were they well-fed? if they were better fed. It was what they might work as slaves for Pharaoh. Now, our religion is not to gratify the flesh. If all you're interested in tonight is what feels good, what fills your tummy, our religion is not to be in our belly. We are pilgrims bound for the promised land. And so we see that the children of Israel failed in the test of God's providence. Something else they failed in. They failed the test of believing in God's daily provision, each and every day. Now, It's one thing to believe in God's providence as a doctrine or general provisions, but will it come today? Here is my pressing need. Will God meet this as I need it? Now, note the instructions in chapter 16, verse 16. It was said, This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons. Take ye every man for them which are in his tents. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less. And when they did meet it with an omer, he that gathered more had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according to his eating. And Moses said, let no man leave of it until the morning. In other words, enjoy it today. Notwithstanding, they hearkened not to Moses, but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms and stank. Now you can see the carnal nature reasoning here. I've got food today, but can you be sure it'll come tomorrow? Can you be sure that the same supply that we're enjoying today will come again tomorrow? Let's put a little bit aside. Let's not enjoy it all in case tomorrow's delivery doesn't come." And so, in their unbelief, they disobeyed the command through Moses, they stored some up, and it stank. They could not preserve it and keep it over to the next day. The tendency was to either gather more than enough or to store some up for the next day. And that was a great challenge to their faith. And again, they failed. They failed the test. It's this daily test that drives us to the core. All of us are great hoarders. We're pack rats. If it's not one thing, it's another. We say, well, I need that again. And we hoard it up. Something like the rich fool. The rich fool who said he was going to build bigger barns, fill them with grain, let's eat, drink, and marry, for tomorrow we die. He would build bigger barns, and God visited him and said, thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee. What did the Lord say to his people? Take no thought of the morrow, for the morrow shall take care of itself. And he talked about the ravens and the sparrows and the lilies of the field. Now, does that mean that God's people should be wasters? No. Should it be that we never plan or be frugal? But the word, take no thought, means don't be over-anxious, over-anxious, to the point where you're fretting about the next supply, the next delivery. The Apostle Paul emphasized this again in Philippians 4. I'd like you to take this verse. It's a very important verse, that you might lean upon this in times of need. And it says in Philippians 4, verse 6, Be careful for nothing. You don't have to disobey God to plan for the future. Be careful for nothing, which means be over-anxious for nothing. But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. Here is a lesson that every one of us need to learn tonight. to take our basic needs and lay them before the Lord and trust him to provide along the way. I've been reading this week a little about the early Christians, first, second, third century Christians, and there's just so much to learn in the era and the attitudes of God's people at that time. Many were servants, many were slaves. Paul said that there were not many noble, not many mighty were called. Among the early Christians, the vast majority were the poor, poor people of the Roman Empire. They had to live by faith. They had no great resources. They had no insurance policies. They had no investment plans for the future. They lived literally hand-to-mouth, and they were trusting God for the next supply of food for their tables. And then as you think of the Christians in the catacombs in the underground Rome, They were totally dependent upon the scraps, the remainders that people sometimes would leave for these Christians, so that after darkness, these scavengers would come out from under cover of the catacombs and roam through the streets of Rome, and they would gather their supply along the way. Talk about a life of faith, a life of trusting, a life of depending on the daily provision of the Lord. You know, in our culture, we hardly know what it is to live on a daily basis with God. We are told today that if you don't retire with a minimum $1 million, you're not going to have enough. The Bible teaches frugality, and God blesses the fruit of our labors. But when you live in a fallen world, there's always uncertainty. With global issues, global banks, stock market crashes, what uncertainty there is in this world. And we must trust in the daily provisions, that manna of the Lord. What did the Lord Jesus teach his disciples to pray in the Lord's Prayer? Give us our daily bread. That's faith. That's trusting God for each day. And God may not give us resources for the future, we may have to learn to trust Him for each and every day, every phase of life as we go along. And He has promised, as thy days, so shall thy strength be. In the very situation where we're in, He promised us to supply the need. Now there's one more area that these Israelites field in, and that was in the test of honoring the Sabbath day. If you move down to verse 27, you will read here that it came to pass that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather. they found none. Now, you know the history that God said that he would supply a double supply on the day before the Sabbath. They should gather twice as much, and he promised that it would not corrupt. Verse 24, And they led it up till the morning, as Moses bade, and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. So this was the miracle again. God providing for his people a double supply before the Sabbath. And he said, Let there be no gathering on the Sabbath. But they failed the test. And on the Sabbath day they ran out, verse 27, at least some of the people on the seventh day, for to gather, and they found none. Verse 28, And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my law? Keeping the Christian Sabbath is one of the very first disciplines of the Christian life. If a young Christian asks me, how can I get my life in order to change from the foolish ways of the world to live the Christian life, I say this is number one. Keep the Lord's Day as the number one thing in your life. It puts everything else in balance and order. It guards against secularism. It guards the time we need for physical rest. It guards the time that we need to be a part of the Lord's church and the Lord's ministry and to enjoy the fellowship of the saints. It puts a difference between the redeemed and the worldly. It shows that we are God's people. In simple things like, my lawnmower is silent on Sundays. I could hardly believe it this afternoon. In weather like this, lawnmowers going in the area. Doesn't seem to matter whether it's sun shining or rain. For many people, the day to mow the grass is Sunday. But the Christian has a testimony to keep and has a lifestyle to live, to be disciplined, to serve the Lord. Now you'll notice in verse 28 that this for the Israelites was not an option. The Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? For this God made a very special provision that he would give twice as much on the day before the Sabbath. And let me tell you tonight, If you keep the Lord's day, unless you're involved in some works of necessity or emergency, if you keep the Lord's day, God will never be your debtor. He will never owe you, but rather He will bless you and will provide for you. When I was reading about those first century Christians, in the Roman Empire, the Sunday was not already established as a national day of religious worship. There were so many pagan gods and so many religions, there was no specific day. And the early Christians had to absolutely stand up, and sometimes with the risk of life, defend their faith to worship on the Lord's Day. Now early Christians, in those first three centuries, they had to pay the price. Let me ask you, what does it cost you to keep the Lord's day? It might cost you a few dollars, yes, I can see that. Sometimes there's double pay for working Sunday in situations. Sometimes it's a way to job promotion. The Lord calls us, and this is a test, to keep his day holy. It's a matter of faith, it's a matter of conviction, and we have to trust the Lord that he will provide double for those things that we might lose out. Many people don't like the Christian Sabbath. They don't even like the term Christian Sabbath. They get upset when you emphasize that it is one day in seven, and that it is a continuation of the commandment, one of the ten commandments, and that we're to keep that in the New Testament. Some people murmur against it. And I want you to think tonight about this murmuring of the children of Israel in Exodus 16. How do we be delivered from a spirit of murmuring? Well, we need to repent of past murmurings. It's a sin against God. It's not just against the preacher. It's not against the church. It's against the Lord. We need to rehearse the mighty provisions of God to his people. And here we have it again, 40 years supplying their need each and every day. And then learn to cast your need upon your heavenly Father, casting all your care upon Him. for he careth for you." Did you notice in Philippians 4, 6, it said, Be careful for nothing, but with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. That's the answer to the spirit of murmuring, with thanksgiving. And when the cupboard is bare, when the storehouse is empty, we must not lose the faith and the spirit of thanksgiving to trust him that he will supply the need. Lessons from the manna, and again, it is a type of our Lord Jesus that God has provided for us. He will not fail, and right through to that eternal day, he will supply our every spiritual need. He'll keep our hearts, he'll fill us full of faith, and nourish our souls right to the end.