God’s provision

The book of Exodus 16:1 and we're going to begin together verse number one
They ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan today saints, I want to talk to you
for a little while under the subject the doctrine of provision the doctrine of provision let us
pray together today

What became clear is that if you don't understand the doctrine of provision you'll never be
able to appreciate the doctrine of the sabbath because if you haven't learned how to trust
God on Tuesday Wednesday or Thursday then you'll never be able to have true rest when
the sabbath comes and it is critical that we develop some strong beliefs about how God
provides in fact our primary tension of faith has to do with how we're going to make it from
one month to the next in fact it is the tension around provision that taxes the newest member
of the church and it goes over even unto the most seasoned believer in the body of Christ
and the fact is that there are some of us that can't even pray with focus because we're
worried about the bills that might come there are some that can't practice stewardship
because we can't see how God is going to make up the difference.

Sometimes we cannot celebrate provision for today because our minds have wondered to
the future and attached itself to worries that are yet to come and therefore Romans 15:4
Speaks that everything written in the past was for our learning so that through endurance
of the scriptures we might find encouragement and therefore have hope. In other words
brethren, the things that happen to Abraham and Noah and Moses, those things happened
for a reason in other words, the things that happened to test them were done for us so that
we might know how to have faith when we encounter moments of trial and adversity.
It's imperative that we do this because some of us are trying to figure out whether God can
be trusted in real time. You see too many of us are trying to figure out the experience
of faith through trial and error.

At times think the scripture is about great men and great women that did great things for God
but you realize that the bible is not about great men or great women that did great things the
bible is about a great God that does great things even for undeserving people. The
scriptures teach us or reveal to us a God who is faithful, the bible teaches me about a God
who always comes through and therefore the bible teaches that faith cometh by, hearing and
hearing by the word of God. Your faith will never be established by what you read but your
faith is going to be stabilized by what you experience

As such the scripture is God's divine CV and the bible is a library that tells me precedence
cases of the mighty acts and miracles of God. If I want to know how faithful God is, I don't
look at my circumstance I just got to search in His Word. If you're worried about the bills you
need to look up Ezekiel 12:25 where God, says that, “if I say it it's going to come to pass if I
speak it it'll be performed without delay”. Sometimes we need to look up Jeremiah 37:25
where God says, “I am the God of all flesh, is there anything too hard for me”

Let's go back to Exodus 16:2-3 there's some good news in this word for us today, the bible
Says that in the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron the
Israelite said unto them if only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt there we sat around
pots of meat and we ate all the food we wanted but you have brought us out into this desert
to starve the entire assembly to death”. There are about four principles we will learn and the
first is that we can't worry about future problems before they get arrive now. When you read
this text you can think at first that their grumbling was justified. At the surface it looks like
their complaint is a result of their current hunger but it is not until you look at it in its larger
context that becomes clear is that Israel a little over 30 days outside of the land of Egypt.
When they left Israel they took about 40 days of provision and so you now realize that they
begin their complaining before their food runs out, so, there is food all ready to eat while
they're forecasting about a lot that has not even showed up.
The thing that has heightened this level of panic is the journey they're about to take you read
there in verse number one that they've left the valley of Elam and have travelled into the
desert now. When you go back to chapter 15 Elam is described as having 12 springs of
water and there Elum has 70 palm trees there the vegetation is plenteous so between the
water and the vegetation along with what they have in storage Elim is a place of some
security but now they have moved out of Elam and the scenery has radically shifted in
desert. The sources of water are scarce the vegetation being hard to come by and their
storage is about to be depleted and so with this combination of many imaginations and lack
of water and declining supply they get to a place where it's hard for them to hold on to their
faith. The fact remains, they're not complaining about hunger experienced, the murmuring
does not emerge from a deficit, their complaint is not because they already have a lack, their
complaint is because they're addressing problems that have not even arisen yet. Have you
left Elam into the desert.
In Patriarchs and Prophets, page 293, a comment on the matter says, “They had not yet
suffered from hunger are their present wants were supplied but they feared for the future
they could not understand how these vast multitudes were to subsist in their travels through
the wilderness and in their imagination they saw their children famishing they we’re unwilling
to trust the Lord any further than they could witness continual evidence of his power. Before
you judge them, she says to us, “… many of us look back on the Israelites and marvel
at their unbelief and murmuring feeling that they themselves would not have been so
ungrateful but when them faith is tested even by little trials they manifest no more faith or
patience than did ancient Israel when brought into straight places they murmur at the
process chosen by God to purify them through them though their present needs are supplied
many are unwilling to trust God for the
This is not a call to irresponsibility this is not a call to indifference this is not to say I don't
have a vision for the future but to give somebody permission to have peace about the
present. Some of us are so mentored by worry that we think to have peace means to be
irresponsible but a call away from obsessing and ruminating over things that you
cannot control.

The second thing that story teaches us is that you got to make God your contingency plan.
It's interesting that God gave specific directions about how the miracle of the manna was
supposed to be handled. God said about the manna is that when I give you the portion for
the day that you're not supposed to try to keep any for the next day. God is says to Israel it is
your declining storage that caused you to panic and murmur, I am not going to let you have
no leftovers. You going to have to come to my hand every day of your life to be fed by me,
you will remember even in the Lord’s prayer the message is repeated, Give us this day our
daily bread. God is so specific in this instruction that they reached a point that by the time
the sun came out guess what the manner that was left over would be melted away and even
with those who were in disobedience that tried to keep a portion for the next day when they
woke up it was filled with maggots and it began to rot.

There was a reason God cursed the leftovers, it was because of what the leftovers
represented, Israel tried to keep some extra was so that they could secure themselves if
God didn't come through the next day. In other words, the reason I want to keep some in
storage is if just in case God forget or just in case God changes his mind I’ll still be covered.
The attempt to bring some excess was an open demonstration that we don't really believe
that God will do what he said he is going to do. But God came through for them, not just a
few days but 40 years. God never misses a day except when he gave double on the sixth
day so they must rest on the seventh day. The reason God set up this situation is so that all
Israel would know that if you walk with me you will never need a backup plan.
The reason God temporarily suspends their ability to store is that for 40 years He doesn't
want them to have any access to any storage he wants them to have the experience of
knowing that every day you come to me every day I’m going to come through for you. see I
need to know that that God help me holy spirit God is doing something for them because see
I understand it happened to them but guess what it happened for us in other words he was
trying to teach us something about faith so that every day when they woke up and the
manna was there what God was doing was building up them reservoir of faith God was
building up them history with him and on the front end it looked like a bad deal but after 40
years of seeing God come through every morning and every evening they've come to the
conclusion that in God I don't need a backup plan and I just need to know is there anybody
that has been walking with God long enough to testify that every time there was a need
every time there was a lack my God came through right on time and I’ve had enough
of an experience to know that God will show up

Third thing that this story teaches us is that even in provision though we get divine provision
it still requires human collaboration/effort. God provided the manna but guess what they still
had to go and gather the manna. The gathering process was still work so much so that God
says, I don't want you gathering on the seventh day Sabbath, so, I’m going to give you a
double portion on the sixth day so that you don't even have to do this work on the seventh
day. Even though God provided the manna from heaven God did not send angels to spoon
feed it to them, they still had to sweat to gather it. They still had to work to prepare the
evening quail Gathering and preparation is still part of divine provision. Now the reason this
is important is there are two issues to address here:
1. Some of us have this mythical faith we have this mythical faith that says if God is
going to provide it doesn't require any effort on my behalf, we have this faulty
Idea that if God is going to do it, I am not going to have to labour I am not going to
have to sweat I’m not going to have to persevere
Work is not a curse work was one of the institutions that God put in place before sin
even entered into the equation so, you realize that before sin before Adam and eve
ate the fruit you had three institutions you had marriage you had work and you had
the sabbath the only thing that sin did was it made work cumbersome and toilsome?
Some say God is not providing and my question to some did God not provide or have you
chosen not to gather? Did God come short on his word or are you coming short on activity?
Is God not providing or are you refusing to prepare what it is that God has made available
2. The other issue that we confuse is us roles so that sometimes we think that because
I work we think I was provide do you realize that even though the men of Israel would
go out and gather it was God who was the one that provided. It so even though they
had to sweat while picking it up and even though they had to work their fingers hard
while preparing the quail you realize that their effort would have been of non-effect if
God didn't provide. Psalm 76:6 “ at your rebuke the God of Jacob both of horse and
chariot lie still but he goes on to say that permission promotion does not come from
the east or the west but promotion comes from the Lord
Deuteronomy 8 :18 “but remember the Lord your God for it is he that gives you the
ability to produce worth and so, convert wealth and so confirms his covenant which
he swore to you by your ancestors as it is today
I need you to know beloved that even if you've made it and you've done well for yourself and
God has allowed you to experience some affluence, we cannot pat ourselves on the back
or say look at what we have done but to acknowledge that it was God that supplied he just
put us in a position to go and gather

Exodus 16:18. “ when they measured it by omer, listen to this, the one who gathered much
did not have much and the one who gathered little did not have too little and everyone
gathered just as much as they needed the last thing this story teaches us beloved is that
you'll never be fed by somebody else's portion you'll never be fed by somebody else's
portion now. So, God does something miraculous in the distribution process now, I don't
know exactly how God does this, I’m not clear on how God brings it to pass
but he sets it up in such a way that if somebody goes out with a greedy spirit and tries to
take more than the designated owner by the time they get it to the house it's been whittled
down so, they have just what they need and even if somebody comes out late and they only
get the leftovers or the little guess what God multiplies their little so that they wind up
suffering no kind of lack. I need you to see what God is doing, God is not going to allow the
strong to go out and have dominance over the weak. God refuses to allow the strong to have
a manna empire because they had more strength and more resources to gather in other
words, He is not going to allow an Israel to be like our community where a few have a whole
lot and the many have a whole little. God sets it up such that everybody has the adequate
amount to meet their needs, so once I get my portion I’m not going to be starving once I get
my portion I’m not going to be lacking. Have you ever wondered how all of us make to end of
the month with needs met yet the salaries and incomes vary. Each has responsibilities to
corresponding to what He provides.
Exodus chapter 16:9
Now this amazes me but not just because of what happened but what didn't happen
so, verse 9 bible says then Moses told Aaron, “… say to the Israelite community come
before the Lord for he has heard your gum grumbling and Aaron was speaking to the whole
Israelite community and they looked toward the desert and there was the glory of the Lord
appearing in the cloud and the Lord said to Moses I have heard the grumbling of the
Israelites so tells them at twilight you will eat meat and, in the morning, you'll be filled with
bread oh” The bible says that they complained against God but do you notice that before
he provides manna before, he provides quail he provides, the best and most important thing
he provides his amazing grace that buffers them from the punishment that they deserve.
God does not wipe them from the face of the earth, He did not deal with them according to
their sin but God dealt with them according to the multitude of his tender mercies

Is there anybody that is wise enough to say I’m going to stop complaining because I didn't
get what I deserve because God didn't give you what you deserved when you did not believe
when you grumbled and complained, when you sinned against God guess what he didn't
stop blessing you but he kept on feeding you and he kept on supplying and he kept doing
taking care of us. Do we realize that even when I’m undeserving God still shows up
you see the bible is not about great men that does great things for God it's about a great
God that does great things even for people that don't deserve it let the undeserving say