True & Better - Bread
Exodus 16
April 3, 2022
Jay Haugh

“You search the Scripture because you think that in them [scriptures] you have eternal life; it is these [scriptures] that testify about me; and you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life” —John 5:39-40

They are saved by the blood of a perfect substitute.

God tests His people.

Every profession of faith must be tested.

So the people grumbled… —Exodus 15:24

God tests through discipline.

Trials expose our faith.

They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. —Exodus 16:1-2

They forgot the pain of the past.

and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. —Exodus 16:3

God will provide bread from heaven.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. —Exodus 16:4

God tests with limitations.

When the people of Israel saw it [manna], they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer, according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.’” —Exodus 16:15-16

The bread has come from heaven. It’s from God.

God wants them to have a daily encounter with Him.

God wants your first priority.

Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted. —Exodus 16:21

God wants them to make Him first priority.

The people of Israel ate the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land. They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan. —Exodus 16:35

Jesus is the true and better bread.

Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.” —John 6:32-36

Big Idea: Jesus is the true and better bread who wants us to encounter Him and put Him first daily.

STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS:
• The statement, “every profession of faith must be tested” has been repeatedly stated. What are your thoughts? Why would God “test” our faith? Where do you see this happen in the Bible?

• What was God teaching His people by giving them bread from heaven (manna)? Does this lesson apply for us today?

• The people who were redeemed from bondage constantly grumbled and complained against God. Where do you find yourself grumbling and complaining? How do you think God feels about our grumbling? Or what do you think this says about us as believers?

• Where did God “break in” and get your attention in the passage? What are you “hearing” from God?

• Where is God calling you to repent? Or what is He calling you do or believe?

• What question wasn’t addressed that you think your small group should discuss?