Exodus 16 - The Lord Tests His People
In 2016 Channel 4 featured a TV series called ‘Eden’. It featured 23 participants, 13 men and 10 women who were to live for a year in a remote 600 acre part of West Scotland. This area had been uninhabited since the Bronze Age. Their aim was to build a self sufficient community. It was filmed by the participants themselves. The group included a plumber, a doctor, a vet, a shepherdess, a fitness instructor, a carpenter and an ex-army officer. They could leave any time they wanted. It was a social experiment to see if these able people could build a self-sufficient community away from the technology and hectic pace of life, that’s all the producers told them. The advert looking for volunteers simply said,
“Are you tired of modern life? Would you like to start all over again?”
The producers hoped they would thrive and gave them livestock, chickens, sheep and goats, seeds, tools and basic building materials.
After 3 months tensions began to grow. Rations ran low, they became tired of a potato dominated diet. The garden was behind schedule and no fish were caught. Criticisms began to flow. There was poor management. Those deemed not to be pulling their weight were isolated. Stealing started. The leader Anton was seen by some as a major problem. Divisions developed. Five months later they were down to 14, mainly men and the atmosphere was hostile. Only four sessions were broadcast because of poor ratings, though it was later screened under the tile ‘Eden - Paradise Lost’.
Utopia is a wonderful concept but the idea is flawed. Sir Thomas More coined the word in 1516 when he wrote the book ‘Utopia’, describing an ideal society on a fictional island. But the title itself is a play on Greek words:
“Ou-topos” (οὐ τόπος) → “no place” or “nowhere”
“Eu-topos” (εὖ τόπος) → “good place”
More’s pun is that Utopia is both an ideal place (a “good place”) and a place that will never exist (“no place”) on earth.
Many of us are coming to realise that the present experiment in social utopianism in our society and schools is not really working because we are all too selfish.
This morning we are going to focus on a report on God’s people as they faced the trials of living in the wilderness after they had escaped from Egypt. As we saw last week, this was an amazing, miraculous rescue by our powerful God.
The Tests
God’s people had been rescued from slavery in Egypt and were then facing a time of testing and teaching. They would learn both about the character of God but also about themselves. How would God’s people shape up under difficult circumstances? This report was not good or even satisfactory! There were four tests!
First test -Thirst
As we saw last week, the first test came at Marah, after they had travelled for three days through the desert without finding water. There they then found water but it was undrinkable:
“So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?” Exodus 15:24
To some extent this seems understandable. They were thirsty and water reserves had run very low. If there were 600,000 men together with probably a similar number of women and even more children there would need to be a lot of drinking water!
“Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink. There the Lord issued a ruling and instruction for them and put them to the test.” Exodus 15:25
God is always training and testing his people to make us more like the people he wants. He longs for his people to show their love for him by being obedient. The Lord explained that this comes from listening to what he has told us:
“If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.” Exodus 16:26
Then they moved on to Elim, a small oasis with twelve springs. They could all fill up their water bags now. But note what is said about their response - nothing. No gratefulness or thanks.
Moses later wrote:
“Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.” Deuteronomy 8:2
It is not different for us. He allows us to face real trials to see if we can trust and obey him. That is the secret of the Christian life, to trust and obey, to be grateful and thankful whatever life throws at us
Second test - Hunger
They fail, the rebellion now becomes stronger. It was only 6 weeks since they had been freed from Egypt. Yet:
“In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.” Exodus 16:2
What is the substance of their complaint now?
“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.” Exodus 16:3
We have seen that it was the Lord who was testing them but the people take it out on Moses and now his brother Aaron too. They now hankered after the old life in Egypt in which they were captives with no hope of a future! They were suffering from amnesia, they had forgotten the horrors of Egypt. They thought that living and dying in Egypt was preferable to the short-term strains they were now facing. How often God’s people are like this. We prefer to look at the easy life of being enslaved to sin rather that being free to live for God in his world. They actually wished they had never been saved!
The Lord in his mercy then provided them with food. Wouldn’t he have done this even if they had’t grumbled?
“When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared . . . The people of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey.” Exodus 16:4, 14-15
“Manna” comes from the Hebrew phrase that means “What is it?”. This is nothing like any food they had seen before or since. It rotted after one day yet was obviously nourishing.
Yet even in supplying this food the Lord was testing his people. He gave them guidelines on how it was to be used. Exodus 16:4 recounts God’s promise to provide for the Israelites with manna, bread from heaven, as a test of their obedience. The Lord instructs Moses that the people should gather only a day's portion each day to test their trust in His provision. This verse is a key element in the story of the Israelites' journey through the wilderness, where God provides for their needs in a miraculous way.
“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. 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 day Exodus 16:4-5
It is a remarkable interaction. The people selfishly complain and the Lord, as a loving parent, satisfies the needs of his people. Exodus 16:3 describes the pitiful grumbling against the Lord and if you look down to verses 7-13 you will see that the word grumbling or grumble comes 6 times. In the middle of this section comes a reminder of what really matters, they had forgotten the glory of the Lord.
Grumbling is a symptom of distrust, it demonstrates that the glory of the Lord is no longer what is important to them, so no wonder the Lord hates it.
“I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’” Exodus 16:12
To remember the love, power and control of God in all situations is what he wants for all his people and this passage is just one of the many reminders in Scripture of this.
Read on and we see how the Lord loves his people. In v.3 we read of the longing of the Jews to sit in circles and eat ‘pots of meat’ and this is what the Lord now gives them together with the manna:
“That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor.” Exodus 16:13-14
The quail mentioned in Exodus 16 were migratory game birds, a species native to the Middle East and North Africa. What an extraordinary coincidence. Our Lord is a God who controls coincidences.
The wise Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple was once asked why he bothered to pray. He answered,
“When I don’t pray, coincidences don’t happen, when I do pray they do happen.”
This should surely be the experience of all Christians.
This manna was such an extraordinary coincidence that Moses asked Aaron to collect some and put it in a jar which was placed ‘in front of the Testimony (Exodus 16:34) to be a constant reminder to God’s people that they can always trust him when they are obeying him.
What is “the Testimony” here? The Tabernacle hadn’t been built yet (that comes in Exodus 25–40). The stone tablets of the Ten Commandments weren’t given until Exodus 20 (and finally in Exodus 31:18). A probable explanation is that this verse was written with hindsight. It’s an example of what scholars call a “narrative insertion” - like a footnote the writer adds to clarify what happened later, even if it hadn’t yet happened at that point in the story. The point is that people always need reminders of God’s love. This is why we have the Lords Supper to remember the corpse and the shed blood of the Lord Jesus, we remember it is because of his death we are saved. This is what Jesus instructed his followers to do:
“And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” Luke 22:19
Third test - Thirst again
The children of Israel travelled around the deserted area of northern Sinai (as described in Numbers 33). When they came to Rephidim they again found no water. Isn’t it interesting how little we learn from past experiences:
“So they quarrelled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?” But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” Exodus 17:2-3
In the Hebrew this literally says ‘. . . to kill me and my children and my livestock’. Their own self-interest was their priority, not the Lord’s.
So far we have had a brief look at the spiritual status of the Children of Israel and it was not good. In fact it was so bad that the Lord refused to allow them into the promised land for the next 40 years, a whole generation later. They repeatedly refused to listen and obey God’s word.
Fourth test - obedience
When you think about it there was no difference between Israel and Pharaoh, they were all disobedient! This is what Moses said concerning
Pharaoh.
“You are to say everything I command you. . . to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you.” Exodus 7:2-3
When Moses struck the Nile with his staff it turned to blood and the fish died causing a great stink. But then Pharaohs magicians showed they could do this, so:
“Pharaoh’s heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said. Instead, he turned and went into his palace, and did not take even this to heart.” Exodus 7:22-23
The plague of dead frogs left the landing stinking:
“But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said.” Exodus 8:15
This cycle keeps being repeated. When problems come they want God’s help but then their hearts became hardened.
How easy it is to forget what God has done. Many years ago I picked up a hitch-hiker who had been a soldier in the Falkland War. He explained how he and his company had been descending down tumbledown Hill towards Port Stanley when the came under machine gun fire from the Argentine forces. He told me that his friend who was next to him was shot in the head and died instantly. They lay down and quickly dug in. He then volunteered.
“We all prayed like mad.”
What an opening. So I asked:
“Do you still pray?
“Oh no. I don’t need to now!”
So many people, even religious people treat God just as Pharaoh and as the children of Israel did. They listen when it is in their interest but really what they want is to be in charge. Most people claiming to be Christians forget God most of the week.
However some of God’s people just would not obey God:
“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.” Exodus 16:20
How frustrating it is for the Lord when his people just will not listen to what he says:
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commands and instructions?” Exodus 16:28
They claimed to have a relationship with the Lord but in practice they would not trust him or live as he told them.
Towards the end of a televised football match the wing sent across a brilliant centre into the front of goal. The goalie was out of place. All the forward had to do was push it into the net. Unfortunately he got underneath the ball and it went flying above the crossbar. The next shot showed his anguished manager and it was clear what he was saying,
“How did he miss that?”
How do God’s people miss what is obvious. Perhaps some educational psychologist will justify the Israelites blunders on their economic disaster, social conditioning or environmental hardships but they were the most privileged of people because they had witnessed first hand the power of God in freeing them. They had seen the Nile turn to blood, the frogs, the gnats, the livestock, the boils, the hail, the locusts and the darkness. They had obeyed God’s word and had experienced his salvation. When they came to the Red Sea they were cornered by the Egyptian chariots. Moses lifted his staff and walked across and when the Egyptians tired to follow they were all drowned. Yet then they forgot all this!
Application of this story for today
1. Our Tendency to Rebel
This stubborn rebelliousness of humanity against the Lord is recorded throughout the Bible. There is no way we can get to and enter God’s promised land, heaven, unless God is with us. Just as the Lord gave manna to the children of Israel so he gives himself to help his people throughout the world. Didn’t Jesus say:
“Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
“Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” John 6:32-35
The manna was a picture of what Jesus would do for all who turn to him.
God’s judgment has not finally fallen on his people in Great Britain yet but we in the churches show signs of this same rebellion. Some churches want to re-write what is right and wrong, wanting to redefine what is right and wrong about sex ethics and the value of human life, they actually encourage people to eat of the ‘tree of knowledge of good and evil’.
We can apply this message to us as we make our journey from being rescued to entering his promised land. Even we, God’s chosen people can fall into the trap of being rebellious and not seeing ourselves as the light to the world.
There are some Christians whose ambition seems to be just for this world - to build a utopian society here. Of course, our selfish fallen natures precludes that ever happening in this life, but as we follow Christ and what he wants then we are preparing ourselves and others sfor the new life with him in eternity.
Yet our society does seem to believe a social utopia is possible. Many Miss World contestants, when interviewed about their hopes for the future, answered ‘Peace on earth’.
Ben Elton, the British comedian, actor, author, playwright, lyricist and director was a part of London's alternative comedy movement of the 1980s and became a writer on the sitcoms The Young Ones and Blackadder, said,
“I believe the sum total of good in humanity outweighs the sum total of evil, despite evidence to the contrary.!”
Wishful thinking! Even churches are, like the Israelites, still full of people who reject his rule and grumble about practically everything. We have the same sinful hearts as the Israelites. This can be covered up by majestic liturgy or lively music or enthralling sermons but we are humans with the same problem as the Israelites.
The Bible is clear there will not be peace until Jesus returns to earth to rule those who have come to live under his authority. God has given us the principles by which societies will work best and out job as Christians is to keep reminding our leaders that we reject his rue at our peril.
For us today we have all the evidence that the Christian story is true. This is one of the reasons ‘Stepping Stones’ was written - it reviews this evidence. More than the intellectual evidence, there is the subjective evidence that what Jesus taught about love, honesty kindness and duty to our Saviour has the ring of truth about it. You can see the difference in the lives of those who have made themselves subjects of the Lord Jesus. The Lord knows our hearts, he looks not at the outward appearance but at our hearts and we cannot con him in any way at all.
2. Our Tendency to Self-Deception
This also warns us against the deception of our being spiritual successes. Don’t forget we are just like the Israelites, like Pharaoh, like the Egyptians, like the Nazis and Japanese in World War II. God will bless us only as we seek to live for the Lord Jesus.
Moses gave this reminder to God’s people:
“After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; Deuteronomy 9:4-6
God will not bless Christchurch Baldock if we are not seeking above all else to honour his name and seek his will in prayer. Charles Spurgeon, the famous 19th-century Baptist preacher, often attributed the extraordinary success of the Metropolitan Tabernacle to prayer, and there’s strong historical evidence that the church was deeply committed to it. Spurgeon famously said:
“We shall never see much change for the better in our churches in general until the prayer meeting takes a higher place in the esteem of Christians.”
And perhaps most famously, when visitors asked about the secret of his church’s power, he would take them to the basement prayer room and say:
“Here is the powerhouse of this church.”
The Monday evening prayer meeting was one of the most attended services of the week, often drawing over 1,000 people. We might ask ourselves do we have such a devotion to the Lord Jesus?
3. Our response
The Bible holds up this chapter as a warning to us all as individuals. Do our friends and family see us as Christians who are hard-hearted, grumbling about our problems or people who love the Lord Jesus and are eager to please him?
The writer to the Hebrews repeats the line, ‘Do not harden your hearts’ multiple times (Hebrews 3:7–8, 15 & 4:7) when urging believers not to fall into disobedience like Israel did in the wilderness, but to respond to God’s call with a real commitment to him. That is faith, it is a call to immediate, humble responsiveness - to not delay or resist God’s prompting.
Testing God implies distrust or manipulation - demanding He prove Himself rather than trusting His promises. It warns against a rebellious or skeptical attitude. Hardness of heart and testing of God are two sides of the same failure: unbelief in the face of God’s presence and care.
Other Bible Passages about Grumbling
Grumbling is a serious sin in both the Old and New Testament because it is a form of rebellion.
Exodus 16:2–3
“In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, ‘If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt!’”
The Israelites had just been delivered from slavery in Egypt, but they quickly complained about food and water. Grumbling reflected ingratitude and unbelief, despite God’s miracles.
Numbers 14:27
“How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites.”
God speaks directly against grumbling here, linking it to rebellion.
Philippians 2:14–15
“Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, ‘children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.’”
Paul exhorts believers to live differently from the world by not complaining. Grumbling is seen as a hindrance to spiritual maturity and witness.
1 Corinthians 10:10–11
“And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel. These things happened to them as examples…”
Paul warns the church not to repeat Israel’s mistakes. Grumbling here is associated with divine judgment.
James 5:9
“Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!”
Negativity about the Lord’s work is dangerous.
Jude 16
“These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.”
Jude is critical of those within the churches whose behaviour was ungodly.
Questions for Discussion
1. How does grumbling differ from constructive criticism?
2. What is the effect of constant grumbling or complaining on ourselves and others?
