Learning to Rest - Learning to Trust
Notes
Transcript
Manna From Heaven
Manna From Heaven
I am currently am studying the book of Ephesians, and will be starting that in a week or so, but for this week I would like to talk about the Torah Portion. Those who were at the Torah Service will know this, but this week is the story of the Crossing of the Sea of Suf (or the Red Sea or Reed Sea). But that is not the only thing that is included in the Torah Portion which goes from Exo. 13:17 to Ch. 17.
So while I was praying and asking the Lord to show me what to focus on, I was led to Chapter 16 and the Adonai’s provision of Manna. And the question came to me, “Why did the Children of Israel not simply obey Adonai when it came to the Manna?” And I felt Adonai say, “Because they did not know how rest, and they did not know how to rest because they did not know how to trust.” So let’s read the passage and see: Exo 16
They journeyed on from Elim, and the entire community of Bnei-Yisrael came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after leaving the land of Egypt. But the whole congregation of Bnei-Yisrael murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. Bnei-Yisrael said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of Adonai in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat, when we ate bread until we were full. But you have brought us into the wilderness, to kill this entire congregation with hunger.” Then Adonai said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. The people will go out and gather a day’s portion every day, so that I can test them to find out whether they will walk according to My Torah or not. So on the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather day by day.” So Moses and Aaron said to all Bnei-Yisrael, “In the evening you will know that Adonai has brought you out from the land of Egypt, and in the morning, then you will see the glory of Adonai. For He heard your complaining against Him. What are we? You complain against us?” Then Moses said, “Adonai will give you meat to eat in the evening and enough bread to fill you in the morning, since Adonai hears your complaints that you mutter against Him, what are we? Your complaining is not against us, but against Adonai!” Moses said to Aaron, “Say to all the congregation of Bnei-Yisrael, ‘Come near before Adonai, because He has heard your complaining.’ ” Then, as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of Bnei-Yisrael, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of Adonai appeared in the cloud. Adonai spoke to Moses saying, “I have heard the complaining of Bnei-Yisrael. Speak to them saying, ‘At dusk you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am Adonai your God.’ ” So when evening fell, quails came up and covered the camp. Moreover, in the morning there was a layer of dew all around the camp. When the layer of dew was gone, on the surface of the desert was a thin, flake-like frost, as fine as the frost on the ground. When Bnei-Yisrael saw it, they said one to another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Then Moses said to them, “It is the bread that Adonai has given you to eat. This is the word that Adonai has commanded. Every man is to gather according to his needs, an omer per person, according to the number of people per household. Each man is to take it for those who are in his tent.” Bnei-Yisrael did so, and some gathered more, some less. When they measured it with an omer, those who gathered more had nothing left over, and those that gathered less did not lack at all. Every man gathered according to his appetite. Also Moses said to them, “Let no one save any of it until the morning.” However, they did not listen to Moses. Some of them preserved it until the morning—but it bred worms and rotted. So Moses was angry with them. So they gathered it morning by morning, each man according to his needs, and as the sun became hot it melted. On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each individual. So all the leaders of the community came and informed Moses. But he said to them, “This is what Adonai has said. Tomorrow is a Shabbat rest, a holy Shabbat to Adonai. Bake whatever you would bake, and boil what you would boil. Store up for yourselves everything that remains, to be kept until the morning.” So they set it aside until the morning, just as Moses instructed, and it did not rot nor were there any worms. Then Moses said, “Eat that today, because today is a Shabbat to Adonai. Today you will not find it in the field. You are to gather it for six days, but the seventh day is the Shabbat, and there will be none.” Yet on the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather and they found none. Adonai said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep My mitzvot and My Torah? See, Adonai has given you the Shabbat, so on the sixth day He gives you the bread of two days. Let every man stay in his place, and let no man go out on the seventh day.” So the people rested on the seventh day. The house of Israel named it manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey. Then Moses said, “This is what Adonai has commanded. Let a full omer of it be kept throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out from the land of Egypt.” Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar and put a full omer of manna inside. Store it up before Adonai, to be kept throughout your generations.” Just as Adonai commanded Moses, Aaron stored it up in front of the Testimony, to be preserved. Bnei-Yisrael ate the manna for 40 years. They ate the manna until they came to an inhabited land, when they came to the borders of the land of Canaan. Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.
For a couple hundred years, Beni Yisrael had been slaves of the Egyptians. They had been forced to work every single day, all of their lives. And now they finally had the opportunity to rest, but that did not compute. The people did not know how to rest, nor did they know how to trust. Three days earlier they watched the Egyptian Army get washed away, while they were led through the Sea on dry ground. This had produced a spontaneous worship service with Moses leading the singing, and Miriam leading the dancing. This was the ultimate experience of Adonai’s provision and protection.
And yet, 3 days later the people were complaining that they did not have water, and a month later they are complaining that their food has run out. Can the God who splits the Sea, not provide water and food? Has the God of Israel gone to such great lengths to rescue the people now to only starve them in the wilderness? Is the arm of Adonai too short to save?
So Adonai tells Moses, Exodus 16:4 “Then Adonai said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. The people will go out and gather a day’s portion every day, so that I can test them to find out whether they will walk according to My Torah or not.”
The entire idea of a 7 day week is a test for the people of Israel to see if they will trust Adonai and demonstrate their love through obedience to His word.
But the people did not trust. They took more than they should on the week days, they did not collect double on Friday, and they went out to collect on Shabbat. In every way they could, they demonstrated their lack of trust. Here was a miracle as big as the splitting of the Sea of Suf, happening every day, and they could not see it. They did not trust so they could not rest.
And yet Adonai was doing everything He could to train the entire nation to rest in Him and learn to trust Him. Adonai provided exactly what the people needed, when they needed it. And all the people needed to do was to trust.
Rest in Yeshua
Rest in Yeshua
Yeshua was going around healing the sick and raising the dead, feeding 5000 people all at one time. These miracles should have been signs to the people about who He was, but the people still could not see it and would not trust in Him. This is what we see in the chapters leading up to Matt. 11. But in the middle of all this Yeshua makes and interesting command. Matt. 11:27-30
“All things have been handed over to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and ‘you will find rest for your souls.’ For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Yeshua called to His talmidim and says, “I will give you rest.” We are called to come to Him and to rest in Him. The question is do we trust Him? Do we recognize that he is truly watching out for us? Will He be able to respond in time?
What I find interesting, is that immediately after this call to rest in Messiah Yeshua, we read in Matt. 12:1-8
At that time Yeshua went through the grain fields on Shabbat. His disciples became hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and eat them. But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not permitted on Shabbat.” But He said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he became hungry, and those with him? How he entered into the house of God, and they ate the showbread, which was not permitted for him to eat, nor for those with him, but only for the kohanim? Or haven’t you read in the Torah that on Shabbat the kohanim in the Temple break Shabbat and yet are innocent? But I tell you that something greater than the Temple is here. If you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you wouldn’t have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of Shabbat.”
Here the talmidim were collecting grain on the Sabbath, exactly what Beni Yisrael had been commanded not to do with the Manna. And Yeshua does not correct them. Why? Instead, when the Pharisees bring this to Yeshua’s attention, Yeshua corrects them. Why?
This is still a massive question today within Rabbinic and Christian circles. The command is to not work on Shabbat, but what is the definition of “work”. For Beni Yisrael living in the wilderness, work was defined by collecting or not collecting Manna in the morning. But Yeshua points out that for the kohanim who were on duty at the Temple, they had to work on Shabbat and yet were innocent.
But what does Yeshua mean by the statement “something greater than the Temple is here”? Well Yeshua provides us the answer in the next statement. Matthew 12:8“For the Son of Man is Lord of Shabbat.””
Enter God’s Rest
Enter God’s Rest
The author of Hebrews continues on this point by quoting from Ps. 95. The Psalm concludes by saying Ps. 95:7-11
Psalm 95:7–11 (TLV)
Today, if you hear His voice: “Do not harden your heart as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers tested Me, they challenged Me, even though they had seen My work. For forty years I loathed that generation. So I said: ‘It is a people whose heart goes astray, who do not know My ways.’ Therefore I swore in My anger, ‘They shall never enter into My rest.’ ”
Not that Adonai swears in anger that the people will not be allowed to enter into His rest because they refused to trust? Trusting in Adonai allows us to rest in Him, but refusing to trust removes even the possibility of resting at all.
The author of Hebrews continues in Heb. 4:1-10
Let us fear then! Though a promise of entering His rest is left open, some of you would seem to have fallen short. For we also have had Good News proclaimed to us, just as they did. But the word they heard did not help them, because they were not unified with those who listened in faith. For we who have trusted are entering into that rest. It is just as God has said, “So in My wrath I swore, ‘They shall never enter My rest,’ ” even though His works were finished since the foundation of the world. For somewhere He has spoken about the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works,” and again in this passage: “They shall never enter My rest.” So then it remains for some to enter into it; yet those who formerly had Good News proclaimed to them did not enter because of disobedience. Again, God appoints a certain day—“Today”—saying through David after so long a time, just as it has been said before, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So there remains a Shabbat rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered God’s rest has also ceased from his own work, just as God did from His.
Trust in Yeshua
Trust in Yeshua
Yeshua is the ultimate rest. He is the Lord of the Sabbath; He is the one who is greater than the Temple; and He is the ultimate fulfillment of the Sabbath. We are asked to trust in Yeshua for the provision of our salvation as well as our daily provision, just as Beni Yisrael were asked in the wilderness. Would the people trust in Adonai for miraculous salvation? Would the people trust Adonai for daily provision?
The same questions are given to us today. Do we trust Yeshua for the big things like salvation and for the small things like our income, our daily bread?
The author of Hebrews finishes this discussion by saying: Heb. 4:14-16
Therefore, since we have a great Kohen Gadol who has passed through the heavens, Yeshua Ben-Elohim, let us hold firmly to our confessed allegiance. For we do not have a kohen gadol who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all the same ways—yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near to the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help in time of need.
Yeshua Ben-Elohim (the Son of God) completely understands our situations. He knows and experienced our weaknesses and was tested just as we are. He is trustworthy, or worthy of our trust. He is faithful, and knows what we need.
Let us choose to rest in Him, and trust that He will meet all our needs, carry us in our emotional weakness, and guide us as faithful shepherd. He is worth it!