Exodus | A Supplied People
For Meditation
God has set his people free with amazing acts of power, drowning their enemies in the sea. Yet barely two months later, the people of God have forgotten all these mighty acts of rescue and are captive to their fears of being abandoned and starved in the desert. Still, God graciously responds by abundantly providing for their needs, and gently helps them to become people who base their lives not on fear of scarcity but trust in God’s faithful provision.
This Sunday we’ll spend some time looking at how easily we allow our own lives to be held captive by our fears, especially the deep fear that we are alone and that God will not take care of us. We’ll see how the Scriptures encourage us again and again to trust and believe that God is faithful and that we can trust his provision for everything. He ever calls us from fear to faith.
Our weekly Worship Guide can be downloaded by clicking the image below.
Notes on our Worship Space:
The Cross, the Font, the Table, the Book
As we explore what it means to be the people of God, we have positioned these four symbols prominently to remind us of God’s faithfulness and where we find life, hope and our identity. The cross speaks of Jesus’ atoning death, the Font speaks of the new life he gives us through baptism, the Table speaks of our resurrected Savior who continues to gather us around his table of grace, and the Bible speaks of our source of authority and comfort as God speaks through his living word even today.
The Banners
The 10 banners hanging in the sanctuary represent the messages in our series on Exodus. It is not just the spoken word but the creative, visual word that tells us of God’s love and faithfulness. See if you can guess which banner goes with which story! Many thanks to the team of Third artists who put them together: Mark Sprinkle, Holly Smith, Kathy Ames and Sarah Hale.
Exodus 16:2-5, 13-21
2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” 4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”
13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. 16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.’” 17 The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 18 And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.
19 Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.”
20 However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.
21 Each morning everyone gathered as much as they needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away.
References: Corey cited two sources in addition to the Scripture text In today's sermon: You Can Change, by Tim Chester (Crossway, 2010), and "Trusting His Provision," a sermon by Greg Thompson, Sept 6, 2015, Trinity Presbyterian Church.
For an overview of the Preparing a People sermon series, click HERE.