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July 1943
AUGUST 15, 1943 GOD PROVIDES FOR HIS PEOPLE E xodus
had taken them, just as He said He would, out of the land where they had been so badly treated, on their way to a country that they could call home. Miriam remembered the won derful way in which the Lord had made a dry path for His people to walk right through the sea — the water piled high on either side of them. And she thought of how their enemies, the people who would not love and trust the Lord God, had been covered by the waves. She sang a song of praise to God for bringing His peo ple safely to a place where they could worship Him. Other women sang with her, all of them giving thanks to the Lord. Our songs, too, should "be like Miriam’s: they should be about the Saviour and our love for Him. (This would be a good time to teach true worship, t h r o u g h appreciation of hymns that speak of the Lord Jesus, rather than of any person. Be sure the selection chosen has language which the children can understand easily.) Object Lesson F ollow the L eader OBJECTS: A compass and a fluffy ball of cotton. LESSON: If you were lost in the mountains, and had a compass like this in your pocket, you would use it immediately. When the children of Israel were leaving Egypt, they did not have a compass, but God gave them some thing better than a compass to guide them. Who can tell what He gave them? “A cloud?” “Yes, He gave a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. We will let this ball, of cotton remind us of the cloud which guided the children of Israel. When the cloud moved, they were commanded to move too. They were to follow the cloud rather than their own ideas about their path. You and I do not have a cloud to guide us as did the children of Israel. Today God has given us the Bible and the Holy Spirit for this very purpose. It would not help me to have a com pass in my pocket unless I took it out and looked at it. Did you know it is not enough for Christians to have the Bible in their pockets or on their book shelves? We need to read it and hide it in our hearts, and then the Spirit of God will use the Word of God to guide us “into all truth”( John 16:13).
16, 17 and-keep his laws” (Psa. 105:45), but all they returned to Him was constant murmuring and complaining. In this they give warning to the church of this day, because those things “hap pened unto them for types,” and for instruction of the church (cf. Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:9-12). II. B read P rovided ( 16:14-18)‘ The “bread from heaven” gathered upon the dew, and when the dew dis appeared, there was left, “a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.” The people could not tell what it was. They never had seen anything like it before, so they called it “manna,” which means “what is it?” Moses told them that it was “the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.” The manna was a type of Christ Jesus, who is the good gift of God, never having been seen before His revelation was made to man, and without whom no life can be sustained (cf. John 6:53; 1 John 5:12). As each one of the people must eat manna for himself, so Christ must be taken by each Christian as food for the life. The manna was to be gathered by each individual “according to his eat ing,” that is, enough was to be gath ered for each household. Some gath ered more and some less, and it was found that “he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gath ered little “had no lack.” There was sufficiency for all. Hoarding was prof itless. By this process, the people were taught that they were in constant daily dependence upon their God. The Christian must learn the same lesson. III. W ater P rovided (17:3-6) When the people came to Rephidim, they found no water. Immediately they began again to murmur, accus ing Moses of bringing them into the wilderness in order to kill them by thirst. Thus complaining against /the providences of God, they revealed their folly. Over and over again God’s pa tience shines out in His dealing with Israel in spite of the murmuring and . complaining and all their sin. Con sidering what the people were, we can understand why the Old Testa ment ends with God’s words, “t change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed” (Mai. 3:6). The patience of Moses came near to the breaking point. He asked the Loyd, “What shall I do unto this peo ple?” (v. 4). He was told to go to the rock in Horeb and smite it with his rod; the Lord would cause water suf ficient for all needs to flow from the solid rock. Horeb means “arid” or
E xo d u s 16:11 A n d the Lord spake unto M oses, saying, . 12 I have neard the m u rm u rin g * of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, A t even ye shall eat flesh, and in the m orning ye shall be filled w ith bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord yo ur God. 13 A n d it cam e to pass, that at even the quails cam e up, and covered the cam p: and in the m orning the dew lay round about the host, i 14 A n d when the dew that lay w a s gone up, behold, upon the face of the w ilderness there lay a sm all round thing, as sm all as the hoar frost on the ground. 15 A n d w hen the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is m anna: for they w ist not w hat it w as. A n d M oses said unto them , T h is is the bread w hich the Lord hath given you to eat. 16 T h is is the th in g w hich the Lord hath comm anded, G ather of it every m an a c cording to his eating, an om er for every m an, according to the num ber of yo u r per sons; take ye every m an for them w hich are in his tents. 17 A n d the children of Israel did so, and gathered, som e more, som e less. 18 A n d w hen they did mete it w ith an omer, he that gathered m uch had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every m an according to his eating. 17:3 A n d the people- thirsted, there for w ater; and the people m urm ured against M oses, and said, W herefore is th is that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle w ith th irst? 4 A n d M oses cried unto the Lord, s a y ing, W h a t shall I do unto th is people? they be alm ost ready to stone me. ... 5 A nd the Lord said unto M oses, G o on before the people, and take w ith thee of the elders of Israel; and th y rod, w h ere w ith thou sm otest the river, take in thine hand, and go. 6 Behold, I w ill stand before thee there upon the rock in H oreb; and thou iWialt sm ite the rock, and there shall come w ater out of it, that the people m ay drink. A nd M oses did so in the sigh t of the elders of Israel. L E S S O N T E X T : Ex. 16:11-18; 17:3-6. G O L D E N T E X T : “ Give Us th is d ay our d a ''v bread” (M att. 6:11). D E V O T IO N A L R E A D IN G : Psa. 57:6-11. Outline and E xposition I. F lesh P rovided (16:11-13) S HE PEOPLE we r e delivered seemed to oppose them, but their mur muring was, in actuality, against God. This murmuring became characteristic of Israel, and the church is warned not to fall into the same iniquity (cf. Heb. 3:7-19; Phil. 2:12-15). God had promised to send them flesh to eat "between the two eve nings” (marg.), and “at even the quails c a me up, and covered the camp” (v. 13; cf. Psa. 105:40). The quails were two cubits high upon the face of the earth” (cf. Num. 11:31) t- that is, the birds flew two cubits above the earth, thus enabling the people to take them easily. God was proving the people, and “while their meat was yet in their mouths” judgment fell upon them (cf. Psa. 78:26-32). God’s purpose in His grace and goodness toward them was “that they might observe his statutes,
from Egypt, but not yet from themselves. T h e y murmured against Moses every time providence
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