“Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.” Exodus 16:4-5
I want to know if this is the kind of response you have with your children when they blame you and complain against you? I know it isn’t the response I would have with my children. The last thing I would want to do for my children is give them what they are asking for if they asked for it in a complaint against me as their provider. But that is exactly what God did for the children of Israel! Once again He showed up in the midst of their complaining and rebellion and provided for them. In this passage of Scripture God says that He is going to test them to see if they will walk in His law or not.
This wasn’t some cruel game God was playing with them. It was an incredible act of love because only God knew what was before them and how they would need to be obedient to heed His voice. He was saying do you trust Me and will you believe Me at my Word? And this wasn’t something that wasn’t familiar to them. For over four hundred years they heeded the voice of their Egyptian masters. They knew their voice and they obeyed their every command. But what I find very interesting in what happens next in chapter 16 and throughout the journey in the desert is that what the Israelites were able and willing to do for man; they were not able or willing to do it for God. But isn’t that exactly what we see happening in the modern day church today as well?
People obey the rules and regulations of their denomination but they don’t heed the voice of the Holy Spirit! But just like God did for the Israelites then; He does for us today. It’s called mercy and grace when we repent (renew our minds) and when we submit ourselves to His counsel! The greatest advantages we have that the children of Israel didn’t have is that we are not required to obey God in our own strength any longer and we have been given the Holy Spirit as our counselor and guide. And remember that Jesus paid the ultimate price for our disobedience and rebellion and He fulfilled the requirements of keeping the law perfectly so that we do not have to. All we are required to do today is to believe in the finished work of the Cross and labor to rest in Christ.
This is why the writer of Hebrews wrote, “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:9-12)
We will look at this passage of Scripture in more detail another day but for today I want you to understand that our laboring today is not a laboring in keeping the law as the children of Israel and the other people under the Old Covenant were required to do. We are required to believe God at His Word and His Word says, IT IS FINISHED! This understanding will help us to comprehend why the laws were given the way they were and why we are not under the same requirements to keep them anymore because of what Jesus did for us on the Cross.
Now let’s return to the study so we can see what happens next. Read Exodus 16 in its entirety and ask the Holy Spirit to open up your understanding so that you are able to comprehend what was taking place and why God did what He did when He put them to rest on the Sabbath day. The Sabbath rest is probably one of the most misunderstood commands of God in the church today and people are continually battling over what it means. Hopefully in the next couple of paragraphs you will come to the revelation understanding that I came to when the Holy Spirit showed me this truth.
Exodus 16:28-30 says, “And the LORD said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? See! For the LORD has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.” So the people rested on the seventh day.” Here God is saying why don’t you trust me and believe Me at My Word? There is nothing you can do to produce this provision. It comes from me! Stop laboring to produce something that you have no ability to produce! Believe Me! Trust Me! Rest in Me! The children of Israel could not produce the manna in their own strength and by their own efforts in the same way we can’t produce righteousness in our own strength or by our own efforts! It comes from God, given to us by the shed blood of Jesus Christ!
Stop laboring to produce something that you have no ability to produce! Rest in the promise that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and believe Him at His Word! Read Matthew 12 for further study on this subject. For today I want us to spend time asking the Holy Spirit to reveal if we are still trying to labor to produce righteousness in our own strength and through our own efforts by trying to be right and do right from what we have been taught by man. Give the Holy Spirit permission to teach you the truth because “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32) And “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36)
No comments:
Post a Comment