Exodus day 19
Transcript
00:00Grace and Law Twice in this section we read of Israel grumbling.
00:07This is a mixture of complaint and unbelief.
00:11It highlights both their absence of contentment with God's way and their absence of trust
00:15that He will provide.
00:17Will they never learn?
00:19But then will we never learn?
00:21The God of the Red Sea is always the God of the Red Sea.
00:24The God of the Exodus is always the God of the Exodus.
00:28The God who finished the work of salvation is always the saving God.
00:33He never changes, never goes back on His word, never leaves His people, and never fails to
00:39keep His promises.
00:41It is for this unbelieving, grumbling people that He provides the healing tree and the
00:45daily manna.
00:47John Newton wrote, daily on the manna feeding which He gives them when they pray.
00:52Actually it was when they grumbled.
00:55What patience, what forbearance, what love, but the best biblical word is what grace.
01:03It was sheer undeserved, unmerited kindness and goodness.
01:08At morrow the Lord reveals His basic pattern of life to His people, His priority is grace.
01:14It always comes first, and grace is always grace.
01:19The outreach of unconditional mercy to the unworthy.
01:23But the people of grace are the people of law, that is to say that their gracious God
01:27now requires their obedience.
01:30Therefore He speaks, revealing first what He considers right, and secondly His law to
01:35be kept.
01:37Thirdly, He promises blessings consequent on obedience, grace, law, blessing, that is
01:45the biblical sequence.
01:47In Exodus 16 verse 1 to 25 this pattern is repeated.
01:52Once more the narrative leaves us in no doubt of Israel's unworthiness, grace is therefore
01:57grace in its true reality, being love to the loveless and goodness to the undeserving.
02:03Grace provides regular food, but the provision itself has a built-in test it must be gathered
02:08freshly every day, nothing else will work.
02:12And once more obedience promotes blessing, keeping the Sabbath law is accompanied by
02:17undecaying manna.
02:19Reflection Were the quails just a miracle of provision
02:22or also a miracle of providence?
02:26Commentators say Israel's journey intersected with the annual migratory path of the quails.
02:31Either way the Creator God is on the side of His people.