Word of Salvation – Vol.06 No.44 – October 1960

 

The Bread-Question For The Lord’s People

 

Sermon by Rev. A. Ni jhuis on Exodus 16:15b

Scripture Reading: Exodus 16:1-18

Hymn 118; 48:3 (after the law),
…or 412:1,2,3 (after confession of faith);
218:1-5; 300; 468 (After the blessing)

Text: “This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat.” (Exod.16:15b)

 

Translated by John Westendorp (with some help from Google J).

Translator’s note: early editions of ‘Word of Salvation’ still had some sermons in Dutch for the migrant communities that then made up the Reformed Churches of Australia.

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Many words are spent on the bread question.  And a large part of our existence is filled with the solution to this problem.  Our hearts are often full of it and that is why many conversations are about this theme.  We never get tired of talking about our work and our worries and our plans and our expectations and what we hope our children will become.  It is a subject we never stop talking about.  There is always new material for conversation.  We cannot keep quiet about it.

Fortunately, this or that person may say, we have Sunday for other things.  Then we can switch to another track and put all that other stuff aside.  Then we will concentrate, as far as possible, on “spiritual” things.  Then we will talk about faith and everything that is connected with it.  We try to close the curtain for the things of everyday life and we try to open the window with the view of another world.  Does it have to be like this, brothers and sisters?  Six days of the week for the so-called “material” needs and one – Sunday – for the other, the “spiritual” things.  With an “iron curtain” in between, that does not allow contact between the two worlds?  Are the relative proportions really like that?  Is that the right situation?  Have I drawn the lines clearly Biblically?  Or is it perhaps different , even completely different?

Today we listen together to the Word of the Lord, the Exodus 16:15 ending, which is about: “The bread question for the people of the LORD”.

1)  The text, brothers and sisters, that was read to you, Exodus 16:15, is in the context of the history of the redemption of the LORD’s people.

God has delivered His people from the power of Egypt.  There in Egypt those people were crushed to death.  It had to literally work itself to death there.  When that did not offer sufficient prospect of success – thanks to the Lord – a more effective measure was taken: all newborn boys had to be drowned in the waters of the Nile.

From that grave, Egypt, Israel was freed by the Lord.  Miraculously , it was released from the strangling and mighty fist of Pharaoh.  Every Sunday morning we are reminded of that wonderful act of redemption of God: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”

That is hammered into us, as it were: that God am I, the God of the deliverance of My people.  We never understand that enough.  At least – we live far too little with that.  But this is our wealth and our comfort and our everything.  That God is my God, is our God, my God of every day.  Well, this God has made His people Israel escape from the grip of Pharaoh.  It was led right through the Red Sea.  In Exodus 15 the joyful song of that miraculous crossing resounds.

From the Red Sea the people then travel further under God’s guidance via Marah and Elim and then end up in the desert of Sin, between Elim and Sinai.  There in that desert the entire people of Israel begin to grumble against Moses and Aaron.  Again the people express the desire that they would have been better off dying in Egypt by the hand of the Lord, when they sat by the pots of meat and ate plenty of bread.  For now they must die of hunger in the desert.

There you have raised for us the question of bread in the life of the people of Israel in the desert.

We can talk about it at length, but the bread question is there; it is here before us in all seriousness.  The people have nothing to eat and they are in the middle of the desert, where nothing can be found.  They see hunger creeping up on them and there is no way out.

Don’t say that this isn’t a problem.  It’s life-size there.  It’s not good when the lunch box is empty and there’s no prospect of any food.  Maybe some of us still have some memories of the last winter of the war-years in the Netherlands, when a large part of the population suffered from hunger and who knows how many died for lack of sufficient food.

That was a question of the highest order at the time: how can we still get something edible; how can we still get something for our children, so that they can survive?

We must not underestimate that need, that need of Israel in the desert.  We are human beings and as such we depend on bread, food and drink and so many other necessities of life.  We cannot do without them.

That question is there today for each of us, although not to such an urgent degree.  As long as there have been people, there has been that question, the question of our bread, the question of our physical needs, the question “what shall we eat and what shall we drink and with what shall we be clothed?”

In the first chapter of the Bible these things are already mentioned.  And that theme runs through the whole Bible.  It comes up constantly.  I know that man will not live by bread alone, but no one will dare to deny that God generally provides for our life by means of bread.  And since sin came into the world there has been the struggle to obtain what is necessary, the laborious struggle for existence.

It is even included in the short prayer that the Saviour taught us.  In it, not only is God’s Name and His Kingdom and His will spoken of, but also our daily bread.  That is a reality that is not denied or forgotten by the Lord Jesus.  It is specifically mentioned: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

We need that for ourselves and for our children, every day again.  And our life is set up for that.  We work for that, a very large part of our life is even dedicated to that.  Just think about how much time is given for that.  If necessary, we give up our night’s rest for that.  Sometimes even our Sunday.

Shouldn’t we eat, shouldn’t we have shelter, shouldn’t we provide for the future?

Once again: the bread question is in every family, without exception.  No one can do without it.  Everyone has to deal with it, even if it is not in the form in which the people of Israel had to deal with it in the desert of Sin, on the way to Canaan,

But it is there, even if it is not the only issue and not the most important and all-encompassing.  That becomes clear to us just by listening to the Saviour’s prayer.  There are quite different things that come to the fore.  Bread is not the first thing asked for there.  The entire prayer is not filled with that.  There is so much else and so much that has priority.  But on the other hand: it is there anyway.  And that says a lot.  It is also an issue for a Christian, for people who know Christ as their Saviour and who want to be led by His hand in their lives.

2)  The bread question, brothers and sisters, also asks for a solution every day.  We have to eat to be able to live.  And there are so many other needs that ask for fulfillment.  It is not a theoretical question, about which we can occasionally have a pleasant and interesting chat and that is it.

This is evident in the reactions of the people of Israel when they see no solution.  They complain and grumble and are rebellious and they now consider all that deliverance by God as nothing and they wish that they had never left Egypt.  However bad things may have been for them there, at least they had something to eat.  They think back with nostalgia to the pots of meat and the abundance of bread.  And all the misery of that time is promptly forgotten.

It was also dark for Israel.  Imagine that.  That huge army of people in a desert and without food.  What was to come of it?  Anything other than one big debacle.  This had to be a disaster.  The end of an adventurous undertaking.  Whoever surveys the situation says: hopeless..!

But listen, into that hopeless condition comes the Word of the Lord!  “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you.”

Bread, in our understanding, does not come from above, but from below.  The grain must grow on the earth and then it must be worked and then bread can be baked from it.  That is the way things are.  That is how God usually does it.  And we hardly see God’s hand in it anymore .  Because God is so faithful in His care.

In this case the Lord does it in another way, by another route.  Directly from heaven.  That is, it is not hopeless for God.  It is not impossible for Him.  He who can make it grow on the earth can just as well make it rain from heaven.  In both cases there is the wonder of His faithfulness and of His care.

In the desert of Sin it begins to rain in the early morning.  And from that day on it rains every day in the camp of the Israelites until it settles in the Promised Land when God makes it grow again for His people.

What a sensation that must have been for those Israelite men and women, for the boys and girls.  Perhaps they got up very early to see what was going to happen.  Possibly with very mixed feelings.  Many with great doubt in their hearts: would it really happen?  The children possibly full of expectation or in childlike trust: now it IS going to happen, because the Lord Himself has said it and what the Lord says, of course comes to pass.  That’s how children are.

And then the miracle happened: the bread CAME from heaven: They could not have believed their eyes.  There it was!  Moses gave them the explanation: “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.”

No, it really was not hopeless.  Not even in a desert, where not a blade of grass would grow.  Just look, look here and look there.  Bread, bread from heaven.  Bread from the Lord.  For His people.  Not because the people were so religious or because they expected so much from the Lord.  Or because they had been so rebellious, but because they will see the glory of the Lord in the bread, which they may enjoy as a gift from Him, so that His name will be glorified in the care of His own.

But that care is not limited to that particular time and to that particular people.  It extends to all the people of the Lord and over every age – I may say that every time the Lord provides food and drink, food and shelter.  In all that is His hand and His faithfulness and the fulfillment of His promises.  In this His glory shines over our existence.  Despite our worries and despite our complaints and despite our grumbling and our unthankfulness and our blindness to His hand.

We must repeat this again and again: this is the bread that the Lord has given us to eat.  Even though it does not come directly from heaven every morning.  Even though it costs us our labor and effort.  The miracle is there no less… in that His care for us shines.  In this way He solves the bread question for us and provides us with what we need.  Do we see that?  Do we have an eye for that?  Do we discover His hand in our daily bread?

Or are we worried and do not trust the Lord?  Do we not dare to deal with Him, with His promises, with His Word?

Do we seek to secure ourselves in life apart from the Lord?  Do we know better than He?  Can we handle the question of our daily bread without Him?  Can we do without the Lord in the solution of this problem?

Is what the Bible presents to us only a matter of Sunday and church, but not of my work and my bread?  Is the Gospel of Jesus Christ solely and exclusively a matter of my soul and not of my body?  Did Christ come only to lead people into heaven when they die?  And is He not a Savior of my life and with promises for this life?

Christ is the bread of life.  But He is the bread for life in all its fullness, with all its needs, with all its questions.  Through Him, God is my Father, my Father for every day, Who also provides my bread and my work.  The God and Father of my entire life.  My God and Father in the kitchen and in the workshop, in the fields and at school.  That is my salvation, my everything…!  He encompasses my entire existence every day anew.  He redeems my entire life.

That is why a so-called ‘neutral approach’ to the bread question is never possible.  We are in danger of forgetting that in Australia.  Bread is bread, the unions say here, and work is work.  Religion is outside of that.  And who can say how often our thoughts and practices move in the same direction?  Meanwhile: “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.”  That puts the bread question in a completely different light.  The Lord is not outside of it, but He has everything to do with it.  Ultimately, the solution is also His, although that does not exclude the involvement of human activities, but INCLUDES it.

3)  That is even the case, brothers and sisters, here in the wilderness of Sin.  Certainly, the Lord gives this bread from heaven, but He makes His instructions heard.  Only in obedience to Him will His people be allowed to gather this bread and enjoy it.  Every morning they will have to collect it from the place where God has let it come down, according to the need of each individual, an omer for each person.  And when the Israelites do that, it turns out that one has indeed gathered more from the other.  But when they measure it in an omer, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered less did not have too little.  The Lord gives to His people what each one needs.

Moreover, no one is to leave anything over until the next day.  If some, disobeying the Lord , do keep it, it becomes unpalatable; it has become spoiled.

The Lord teaches His people to trust Him alone for their daily bread, He provides for them every day anew in His divine faithfulness.  Every morning there is a new miracle, in which His glory clearly shines forth.

Only on the Sabbath is the bread from heaven not found.  But even then God’s care is not lacking.  The Lord gives so much on the sixth day, a double portion, so that there is also enough to eat for the seventh.

“Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, there shall be none,” was the instruction.

And when some go to gather it on the seventh day, they find none.

Therefore the LORD said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?”

Our time and circumstances may be different, but we find here a clear indication to listen to the Lord also in the acquisition of our daily bread, to be obedient to His commandments, to put our trust in Him alone and not to be led by our wisdom.  Only in His way may we count on His blessing.  Thus we may be assured of life in all its glory.

The New Testament, by the way, does not let us hear any other sound.  Who, at this point, does not think of those well-known words of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 6 verse 33: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”

And by “all these things” we mean: food and drink and clothing and everything we need.

If we walk in the ways of the Lord, if we heed His Word and His law, we shall not need to worry.  God, who cares for the birds and the flowers, will care much more for His children who look to Him.

“He who did not spare his own Son, how will he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Rom.8:32).

Here we are shown the right path with our bread question, the path to the Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom God is again our Father, Who cares for His children more than a father.

The question of our bread is also a question of faith in Him and of trust in Him and of obedience to Him.  Only with the Lord is our life safe, today and tomorrow and for all eternity.

No precious gift will He withhold
from those belonging to His fold;
He honours all whose walk is blameless.
How happy those who trust the Lord,
who live according to His word! (Ps.84)

Amen.