2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, 3 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.”
4 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 ptest them, whether they will walk in my law or not. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, qit will be twice as much as they gather daily.” 6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, At evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, 7 and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. For uwhat are we, that you grumble against us?” 8 And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.”
9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, Come near before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.’ ” 10 And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. 11 And the Lord said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’ ”
13 In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. 14 And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. 15 When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?”1 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.
Focus: God is a creative God that sees more than we do in all situations.
Function: That the hearer my be able to release some of their mental preconceptions about how God works in the world and the church.
Malady: We think the way we see the world is the only right way or the way God does.
Means: Jesus is the true creator of reality.
Open with a box. Bring it out and plop it in front of the Altar.
I just moved recently, so I have a lot of boxes like these around my house. And I have a question for you. What do you see when you look at this box?
Now I don’t want to rush you through this so I am going to give you a whole fifteen seconds to think about it. What do you see when you look at this box? Ready set Go!…
(Sit and look at box for 15 seconds)
What did you come up with?
I know when I look at a box I see some cardboard I can put stuff in. That’s all a box is right? A place to put stuff. And once I don’t have any stuff I need stored, a box is pretty useless.
But if you ask anyone under the age of about 10 or so you’ll get a much different answer. A box can be so much more. I see something to put stuff in, when I have a bunch of them lying around they end up looking a lot like trash that needs to be taken out.
But for a child, a box has so much more potential. It could be a house for stuffed animals or the foundation of a castle. An astronaut helmet or a rocket ship. Imagination sees so much more than just what is on the surface.
Creativity and imagination is something many of us have as children but seem to “lose” somewhere between stressing out over finals and realizing that you’re finally an adult whether you want to be or not
We get stuck seeing only what is in front of us. We don’t have time to see the potential a box or most things have in our lives beyond their normal daily use.
This is not a new phenomenon. The Israelites experienced the same thing in our reading today. They were in the desert. Hot dry, empty desert and all they saw was a death sentence. They looked around to the sand stretching in every direction and that is all they saw. They forgot what God had literally just done for them. He had brought them out of over four hundred years of slavery. He had brought plagues against the Egyptians each proving His power over the river, sun, and even life itself. All elements the Egyptians had a “god” in control of. But Yawhew didn’t just have control of one element like an egypian god. He was different, He was stronger. There were no limits to His power. And he brought the Israelites out away from the persecution and the hard labor they had lived in for so many years.
But now out here in the desert, the Israelites just saw a beach without any waves. A box with no stuff to put in it. A place God had tricked them into going so that they would all die from heat and starvation.
But God did not just see the plain reality in front of the Israelites. He saw potential that never even crossed their minds. God didn’t get bogged down in some kind of logistical puzzle trying to figure out how to feed thousands of Israelites hanging around in the desert. He knew exactly what He was going to do and it didn’t involve letting them all starve.
God provided for them in a way that was so shocking it’s name literally means What is it?? White little flakes lying around the ground. In a place where nothing grew and nothing lived God provided everything they needed.
No one expected how God was going to take care of them. Unlike a child that sees things creatively God is the creator and can do vastly more creative things than we can imagine.
No one expected God’s plan in Jesus. A man dying on the cross does not look like God pulling off anything successful. After all didn’t everyone who got on the bad side of Rome end up coming to similar nasty ends?
If we look at what is just in front of us all we see is a sad defeat a good teacher and a wise man executed for no reason
Describe death of Jesus
But God sees so much more he sees the salvation of the world
What desert are you stuck looking at? What box have you gotten used to
Joke about being lutherans and not changing
Some of that being good but not all of it. The experiment i did in class.
We get stuck in boxes east vs west side. Traditional contemporary. Young old.
Crusades an example of Christians thinking the way they saw to world was the only right way. They thought that taking back the promised land was a good thing they were doing for Jesus. Deus Volt. God wills it! Crusader indulgences where the direct predecessors to the indulgences Luther dealt with. As if the way we see things is just automatically what God is up to.
Paul persecution good in philippians
Dream dreams as a church and individuals. Follow christ to see what he sees and we don’t. Step out of our boxes and let God show us what he sees.
Jesus is the true creator of Reality