Three Tests: God's Provision

Exodus 15.22-17.7

The people of Israel, held under slavery for centuries in Egypt, were finally free. God brought them out of Egypt with great power, visiting plagues on the people of Egypt when the Pharaoh refused to let Israel go free. Finally the Pharaoh relented and let the people go—and then he quickly changed his mind and chased after them. God held him at bay while he separated the waters of the Red Sea and allowed the people of Israel to cross over on dry ground. Then, when the Pharaoh and his army chased them into the sea, God let the waters go, and the sea swallowed them up.

At the end of chapter 15, it’s now been three days—three days since God showed himself to be Israel’s ultimate Protector. In today’s passage, God moves from the role of Protector to that of Provider. But he doesn’t do it simply—as is often the case with God, there is a goal behind the way he does what he does. Here we see him begin to train the people of Israel in obedience—as someone put it, “After getting Israel out of Egypt, he has to get the Egypt out of Israel.”

On the one hand, although they were slaves in Egypt and their lives were hard, they still had their basic needs provided for. The Egyptians wouldn’t have wanted them to be weak, or they wouldn’t be able to work. So this was their first experience, not of pain and suffering, but of true deprivation.

On the other hand, God doesn’t want slaves; he wants joyful obedience. And for people who had been through what they just had, joyful obedience wouldn’t be easy to muster; understandably, they would have been wary of any kind of authority after their lives with the Pharaoh. And if God wants his people to joyfully obey him, he knows they will need to trust him to provide, not just when things are easy, but when they’re hard.

So he’s going to start training them in that trust now.

There are three separate episodes in our passage in which we see him do this. We’re going to look at them quickly, and then we’ll try to bring them together to see the larger picture of what’s happening here.

1. Bitter Water Made Sweet (15.22-27)

The first time takes place three days after they leave the Red Sea, three days after the song we saw the people sing last time. And it’s so predictable—God sends the people into the wilderness, into the desert, so naturally, it’s hard to find water. Chapter 15, v. 22:

22 Then Moses led Israel on from the Red Sea, and they went out to the Wilderness of Shur. They journeyed for three days in the wilderness without finding water. 23 They came to Marah, but they could not drink the water at Marah because it was bitter—that is why it was named Marah. 24 The people grumbled to Moses, “What are we going to drink?” 25 So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When he threw it into the water, the water became drinkable.

It’s a kind of reversal of the first plague they saw in Egypt, isn’t it? In the first plague God sent against Egypt, he took the good water of the Nile and turned it into blood—he made it undrinkable. Here, he takes undrinkable water and makes it pure again.

And then we read (in the second half of v. 25):

The Lord made a statute and ordinance for them at Marah, and he tested them there. 26 He said, “If you will carefully obey the Lord your God, do what is right in his sight, pay attention to his commands, and keep all his statutes, I will not inflict any illnesses on you that I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.”

27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy date palms, and they camped there by the water.

So you see what happens—the people worry about their material need, the need for water; God miraculously provides for that need by making the water drinkable. Then he pulls them toward obedience. “If you obey my commands, none of the things that happened to the Egyptians will happen to you. I will not be the God who harms you; I am the God who heals you.” He’s teaching them to trust him.

And after that, he goes beyond the miracle—he directs them to Elim where there are all these springs and date palms, enough for everybody to have their fill.

2. Bread and Meat Provided (16.1-36)

Then when we start chapter 16, we skip ahead in time. Now a month and a half has gone by. The food the Israelites took with them from Egypt is gone. Now a new need has presented itself—it’s no longer thirst, but hunger.

So what happens? They complain again. V. 2:

2 The entire Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat and ate all the bread we wanted. Instead, you brought us into this wilderness to make this whole assembly die of hunger!”

4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. This way I will test them to see whether or not they will follow my instructions.

Notice how the people of Israel act, and how God responds. The people forget that in Egypt they were slaves and they were miserable, they had literally suffered the mass murder of their little boys just a few decades earlier—and they’re talking about how much better things were in Egypt!

And yet, God doesn’t punish them, but instead promises to provide for them. This is how he responded to them before, and this is how he responds to them again here.

Why is he so patient? Because Israel is like a baby here—you don’t punish a little baby for crying when they’re hungry, or when another kid takes a toy they wanted. A little baby doesn’t know any better. We’re generally much more patient with little babies than we are with older children, because older children should know better.

That’s what’s happening here: God is patient with them, and in his patience he is teaching them to obey. Look again at v. 4:

4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. This way I will test them to see whether or not they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.”

So God clearly states his intention: he’s not merely going to provide for them, but he will test them to see whether they will follow his instructions. What are his instructions? We see that in the verses that follow, which we read earlier: every evening God will send quail for meat, and every morning he will send bread from heaven, which they came to call manna (which literally means, “What is this?” because they don’t know what it is at first).

So every evening the people will gather meat, and every morning the people will gather bread. They’ll only take what they need for the day, and they won’t keep any excess, because it won’t keep until morning. They’ll do this for five days, and on the sixth day they’ll collect double, because on the seventh day they’ll rest (we’ll come back to this).

Those are the instructions: don’t gather too much, don’t keep any leftovers—everyone gets what they need, and no more.

Why? Because God wants the people to learn to depend on him to provide for their needs, and he wants them to know that he will always provide. He’s not a fickle master like the Pharaoh, who might suddenly double their workload at a moment’s notice.

And they see it: twice they disobey God’s instructions, in v. 20 and in v. 27. But still, God doesn’t punish them—he knows they’re still learning. He patiently provides for their needs.

3. Water from the Rock (17.1-7)

At the beginning of chapter 17, we see the same thing again. V. 1:

The entire Israelite community left the Wilderness of Sin, moving from one place to the next according to the Lord’s command. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So the people complained to Moses, “Give us water to drink.”

“Why are you complaining to me?” Moses replied to them. “Why are you testing the Lord?”

3 But the people thirsted there for water and grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you ever bring us up from Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”

This is starting to get ridiculous. Remember, God is still sending them quail in the evening and bread in the morning, every day. They can still see God providing for them. But they don’t see any water here in this wilderness, so just like at the Red Sea, they start doubting and complaining, worrying about their needs.

And once again, God responds with incredible patience. V. 4:

4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What should I do with these people? In a little while they will stone me!”

5 The Lord answered Moses, “Go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take the staff you struck the Nile with in your hand and go. 6 I am going to stand there in front of you on the rock at Horeb; when you hit the rock, water will come out of it and the people will drink.” Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 He named the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites complained, and because they tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

(In case you were wondering: “Massah” means “testing”, and “Meribah” means “quarreling.”)

What’s changed about this particular instance is that instead of God testing the people, to see if they will obey, the people test God, to see whether he will provide. Just like children often do with their parents. There is a push and pull between God and the people, where their trust is being stretched and grown. Later on in the book we’ll see that the people’s trust has its limits, just as God’s patience has its limits. But for now, they’re still learning.

These three events are the beginning of that learning process. God has set them free, yes, but by sending them into the wilderness, he’s also willfully depriving them. In Egypt, they had meat and they had bread—but they were slaves. And God does not want slaves; he wants joyful obedience, the obedience of children who love a good Father.

So he starts depriving them of old things, in order to reshape their affections around essential things. That deprivation is painful at first, and it’s hard for them to understand—but it is necessary for them to learn to trust that God will not only protect them, but he will also provide for them.

God’s Provision for His People’s Needs

So we’ve seen the basic story. Now I’d like us to dig a little deeper, because as is almost always the case in this book, the simple things we see are actually showing us patterns that will continue far beyond the story we’re reading.

In this passage we see that there are four essential things that characterize God’s provision for the needs of his people. And these characteristics of God’s provision carry over in the New Covenant that Christ established with the church.

1. God’s Provision Is Necessary.

The first time God tests the Israelites, he tests them by depriving them of a real, genuine need: the need for water.

Think about the situation they’re in: for any new society, particularly an agrarian society, the questions they’re going to be asking at first are extremely basic. How do we drink? How do we eat? You can live for a good while without food, but without water, you won’t last long.

God shows here that he isn’t merely concerned with Israel’s spiritual provision, but with their material provision as well. He knows they need water; he knows they need food. So the first thing he does is to test them—will they trust God to provide for their most basic human needs? Will they obey him even when they’re not sure exactly how he will provide?

This is an incredibly important question, because God knows what their deepest needs actually are. He knows that even more than food or water, they need him.

And of course the same is true for all of us. Remember when Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, in John chapter 4. He asks her to give him a drink from the well, and then he says (John 4.13-14):

“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The most profound need of God’s people is God himself. But we’re separated from God because of our sin, so Christ came as our Substitute: he lived our life and died our death and was raised so that we might become righteous in him. We can only come to God through Christ, through his perfect work, and when we do, we are reconciled to God, and find eternal life in him. That is our biggest need.

But God knows that at least at the beginning, the need to be reconciled to him may not feel as strong as the need for water when we’re thirsty, or the need for food when we’re hungry. So he shows Israel that he will provide for these most basic needs, in order that they might trust him to also provide for their greater need.

2. God’s Provision Is Limited.

This one is a little harder to swallow, but it’s important.

When God gives the people bread and meat, he gives them what they need, absolutely—but he just gives them enough each day for that day. With one exception, he doesn’t give tomorrow’s provision today; he gives today’s provision today.

The 19th-century English preacher Charles Spurgeon once spoke on those who had been martyred for their faith in the Bible, and someone came to him after the service and asked him, “If someone came in here today and threatened to kill you if you didn’t renounce your faith, could you do it? Would you be ready to die for your faith?”

Spurgeon responded, “If it happened today? Of course not. I’m not ready to die for my faith today.” The person looked surprised at his answer, so Spurgeon continued: “But I am confident that if that day should come, on that day, God will give me the strength I need to stand firm and die for him.”

God limited his provision in order to teach the people of Israel to depend on him every day. This is how you build trust. Trust can be destroyed in an instant, but it takes a long time to build. You can decide to trust someone, but the only way you can truly know they are dependable is if you have depended on them for something, and have seen them provide over, and over, and over again.

God knows this, so in his provision he includes a means to prove to the people that as he provided yesterday, he will provide today—and he will continue to provide tomorrow. So that they might trust him.

This is why Jesus teaches us to pray for exactly what God gave the Israelites: “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6.11). Lord, give us what we need today, and help us to grow in the knowledge and assurance that as you have provided for us today, you’ll also provide for us tomorrow.

Now of course this forces us to expand our idea of what we really need—much of what we think we need are actually things we want. And sometimes we genuinely do need something, and God holds back. That’s genuinely difficult, but there’s always a reason for it: either we didn’t really need it, or God wanted to teach us something through the wait. (God didn’t give the people water before they got thirsty; he let them feel the need before providing for it.) Often God will stretch us beyond what feels like the breaking point before he provides for us.

But again, he knows what he’s doing. Every time that happens, we’re forced to decide once again: will I keep obeying him? Will I keep following him? Will I keep trusting him, even when I don’t see his hand? And what a blessing it is to learn that he not only provides for our need, but even better, that he gives us the strength we need to remain faithful while we wait, and actually provides for other needs through the wait.

3. God’s Provision Is Abundant.

I say this for two reasons. The first is because God recognizes and provides for a need that the people may not even have anticipated yet: the need for rest. Read Exodus 16.4-5 again:

4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. This way I will test them to see whether or not they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.”

And then, in v. 29, we see what they are to do on the seventh day of the week:

29 Understand that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he will give you two days’ worth of bread. Each of you stay where you are; no one is to leave his place on the seventh day.” 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.

God doesn’t just provide for their material need; he goes beyond that, and provides a day of rest.  This is really interesting, because God provides this day of rest, the Sabbath, before he gives the law—the actual commandment that says, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy won’t come until chapter 20. But already, this structure is in place: six days, you work, and on the last day, you rest.

God goes beyond what the people ask for, and provides for a need they didn’t see.

Here’s the second reason why I say that God’s provision is abundant.

It may seem like I’m contradicting myself, because I said just a minute ago that God’s provision is limited—“Give us this day our daily bread.”

So how can God’s provision be limited and abundant at the same time?

God doesn’t give them everything all at once; but he shows that he will provide for their need for as long as they need it. As long as that need is still there, the bread will always be there in the morning, and the meat will always be there in the evening.

We see a profound echo of this promise from God every time we take Communion together. 1 Corinthians 11.23-26:

On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death—for how long?—until he comes.

God goes beyond providing for our basic, material needs; even those needs are not the most fundamental. The deepest need we have is our need for him—and we have him. Always, and forever, even in death. Every time we take the bread and we take the cup together, we remind ourselves that every day, the new covenant God established with his people in Christ is still new, still real, still active, still available. His mercies are new every morning.

If God saved you, he will keep you, because his provision for our salvation is abundant—it goes on as long as we need it to go on. It goes on forever.

Finally:

4: God’s Provision Is Trustworthy.

I’ll be honest with you: I’ve read this passage dozens of times, but in preparing this message, I noticed something I had never noticed before—and I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it.

Go back to the beginning of chapter 17. The people are thirsty again, so this time instead of God testing them, they test God—even while they see God sending bread and meat for them every day, they complain to Moses: “Why did you ever bring us up from Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”

So when Moses comes to God to ask him what to do, look at how God responds—chapter 17, verse 5:

5 The Lord answered Moses, “Go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take the staff you struck the Nile with in your hand and go. 6 I am going to stand there in front of you on the rock at Horeb; when you hit the rock, water will come out of it and the people will drink.” Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

I had always seen, of course, that Moses does what God says and hits the rock with his staff. What I hadn’t seen before was what God tells Moses in v. 6: “I am going to stand there in front of you on the rock at Horeb; when you hit the rock, water will come out of it and the people will drink.” When Moses hits the rock, God is on it. It’s almost as if the people deserve to be smacked, but God says, “No, smack me instead.”

Now, if this was all there was, I’d think I was reading too much into the text; it’s easy to attribute deeper meaning to something in the Bible that is merely descriptive. But that’s not all there is. God didn’t stand on the rock for no reason; he wanted it to be clear that when Moses struck the rock, God was there—the water wasn’t coming from the rock, but from him.

And we know this because in 1 Corinthians 10, the apostle Paul mentions this episode and says,

[The people of Israel] all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.

This is a complicated passage, and we don’t have the time to dive deep into every detail of it, but at the very least, Paul is saying one thing very, very clearly: this moment of Moses striking the rock, and the water coming out of the rock, is a picture of what would come in Christ. Christ was struck for our obstinance and our rebellion, and because he was struck, we have life: rivers of living water, as he said in John 4.

The rock that Moses struck was the final test in this first series of tests; it was the final test of the people’s dependence on God, and of his trustworthiness. And, as we’ll see later on in Exodus, in many ways they failed that test.

Jesus Christ is the final test for us.

We always wonder if God will provide for our needs. We always worry about whether or not we’ll have what we need to do what he’s called us to do.

Why do we worry? What more does God have to do to prove himself? He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also grant us everything with him (Romans 8.32)?

There’s a reason why Paul wants us to see this. He says a little later, in 1 Corinthians 10.6, 11-13:

6 Now these things took place as examples for us, so that we will not desire evil things as they did… 11 These things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages, have come. 12 So, whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall. 13 No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.

You see, Paul is saying that the story of Israel’s grumbling and complaining, and their other failures which we’ll see later on in the book, were written so that we might be driven to holiness: that we might learn from their experience and become more like Christ.

Do you see how that changes the way we look at God’s provision in these chapters in Exodus? God’s provision is not mainly focused on comfort, or material sustenance, but on holiness. He definitely provides for their material needs, and he also provides comfort—he provides a day of rest. But mainly he provides for his people so that his people might be holy, and even our rest and our comfort and the moments of pleasure he gives us are meant to help us raise our eyes to the God who gave us that rest and comfort and pleasure.

The water from the rock was proof for the people of Israel that God was trustworthy—and they still desired evil things. Jesus Christ is the final proof we need to know that God is trustworthy.

So don’t desire evil things like they did. If God has done all this for you, you can trust him. His provision is necessary; it is enough for today; it is abundant; and it is absolutely trustworthy.

So trust him. Look at his faithfulness in the past, and trust in his faithfulness in the future. Resist temptation, stay faithful, and trust that God will provide.