Proper 13 B
“Undeserved Manna”
Exodus 16:2-15
2 August 2016 – Redeemer
It is hard to find an illustration comparable to the children of Israel grumbling in the wilderness. You’ve witnessed your own children throwing a tantrum over a bag of skittles at Coborns. You’ve endured the “whines” from the back seat on a trip – are we there yet? I’m hungry. Bruce is sitting on my part of the seat. Lori touched me. You’ve even seen grown adults act like this on coach tours and in airplanes. But none of it compares, because the Israelites are complaining in the midst of freedom. Their worst enemy in the world has been drowned in the Red Sea – Pharoah and his army are literally sunk. In chapter 15 of Exodus Moses records the great hymn of praise the people sang for the Lord’s victory over their enemy.
And what did they complain about? Their bellies. How much longer? I’m hungry? When are we going to eat? Really. You are going to grumble about food at a time like this. This is the culmination of the Lord’s promise to Abraham. The Lord has kept his Word – even though Abraham and Sarah doubted and laughed at him, even though Jacob tricked Isaac and robbed Esau, even though the brothers sold Joseph into slavery and Judah slept with his daughter-in-law. The Lord God kept them alive for hundreds of years in slavery, heard their pleas, and sent Moses down to deliver them. And now they were on their way to the land promised to Abraham and his descendents. They were free. They were saved. They were delivered, but they wanted none of it. They wished they had never left Egypt. They wished the last plague that gave them freedom would have killed them. They wished the Lord had killed them in Egypt instead of setting them free – death and slavery was more appealing to them than life and freedom.
How can that be you ask? Well, I think you know, because you and I are no different than the Israelites. How could the Israelites grumble against the Lord after all He had done for them? Well, how could you grumble? God chose you to be His own child before the foundation in the world. Long before you were even born, because of His love for you, He set in motion the sure and certain plan of your salvation. He sent the new and greater Moses to deliver you – concieved by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. The Son of God became man and then took on everything that enslaves you. He broke the fetters of sin, death, hell, and Satan. He set prostitutes and tax collectors free by absolving them. He set the dead free by raising them. He set the sick free by healing them. He set the broken and battered, the least and lowest free by restoring them to Himself and the communion of saints.
He beat Satan on every battlefield, including the final field where it looked like Christ lost and Satan won – the cross. It was like Jesus grabbed everyone of your enemies in His arms and then dove down into the depths of hell and death to drown them there. Three days later, He alone emerged. Enemies dead. Christ alive. You free – forgiven, alive, and destined for the promised land – a new heavens and a new earth. Saint Paul describes your life in today’s Epistle, “There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” When you’ve got all that going for you, how can you complain?
Because, like the Israelites, you have been deceived by the enemy of God. Unseen in this text from Exodus is the same unseen enemy at work in our lives constantly. Satan turned the eyes of Israel away from the Lord and toward their bellies. Do you know what’s interesting? The Israelites probably weren’t hungry or starving when they made these complaints. They had just left Egypt. They took all the plunder of the Egyptians with them – they were travelling with goats, and chickens, and cows, and sheep. They likely were still eating meat and had plenty of other flat bread and preserved foods. But it didn’t matter because that’s how Satan works. He got the Israelites thinking ahead – they were going to run out of meat. They had a long trip ahead of them and there were a couple million folks in their group. They were heading into the wilderness – what would they eat? Where would they drink? Soon the devil had them so worried about what they could not see or figure out, that they wished for their own deaths.
Often on my way home from work I listen to Dave Ramsey – the financial expert. Whenever anyone asks Dave how he is doing his answer is, “Better than I deserve.” Dave Ramsey makes that statement because he is a Christian. I grumble about health insurance. You grumble about taxes. We grumble about road construction. And many times, we grumble about far more serious matters – a degenerating back, an untreatable cancer, a terminal disease, the drowning of a little child. Even in the face of these troubles we still confess, in Christ, we have it better than we deserve – for we have the forgiveness of all our sins – undeserved. We are living forever, undeserved. We are going to rise from the dead on the last day and our bodies will be made new – no cancer, no arthritis, no worn out organs and weary limbs – undeserved. And we have all of that by faith, right now. We are free from sin, death, and the power of devil – undeserved. Lord have mercy on us for grumbling against anything or anyone – for our grumbling finally is against you, O Lord.
What did Israel deserve? What do we deserve? What does the Lord do? “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.” (Exodus 16:4, ESV) What does the Lord do? The Lord gives His gifts. He feeds them bread. Was this because they grumbled? No. Does the Lord reward unbelief? No. Did they ask in just the right way with the right number of prayer partners? No. The Lord did what He did because He is who He is – He is the Lord and He chose to be the Lord over that particular nation of Israel.
What do we deserve from the Lord when we forget His great gifts of His Son, forgiveness, life, and the resurrection and we grumble about road construction or the ability of government to do so little work with so much money? What do we deserve? What has He given us? Were any of you excluded from His forgiveness this morning? Is there anyone here for whom Christ did not die? Is there anyone of your sins for which you are not forgiven? No, No, and No. God promised His Savior and He delivered His Son into the world, into hell and into death for us. He promised Christ’s saving work would be for all people and by His Holy Word and Sacrament He made sure that the work of Christ would get to you – whether you were born in Glendive, Montana, or you live in Stearns County, Minnesota.
You know what the Israelites called the bread the Lord gave them from heaven. They called it manna. Do you know why? Manna is Hebrew for “What is it?” God’s children had never seen anything like this before, so they said, “Manna?” What is it? And Moses answered, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you.” Every day we come to the Lord’s house we ought to be so surprised by what we see here that we say, “manna” – what is this? What is this in absolution? This happens nowhere else. This is forgiveness for all your sins in the strong name of the Triune God. What is this that the pastor is reading? I hear nothing like this in all the world. This is God’s Word to rebuke and comfort you, to teach and strengthen you. What is this sermon? This is God’s Word spoken and preached into your life. What is this wafer and wine? I have never witnessed anything like this – this is Christ’s body and blood, given into the womb of the Virgin Mary, given over to death on the cross, and now raised and seated at God’s right hand – it is for you. What is all of this? This is the Lord’s undeserved mercy for you. This is manna in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
1 August 2016 anno Domini