God Tests Us to Teach Us

Fierce: Knowing the God of Exodus • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

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Every hard exit involves struggle. The Israelites immediately face water and food shortages and it affects their community. What do we do when the next step feels impossible because the resources are not there? God knows what we need even before we know our need. For Israel He provides water from rocks, mysterious manna in the morning, and quail from the sky. What if God already knows our needs and already has the provisions we need and all we need to do is just ask? Intimacy with God involves asking God for things we need on the journey we’re on. Communion is one of the biggest reminders that God knows what we need. We all ultimately need Jesus and communion with Him and that’s what this meal gives us the opportunity to experience.

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Introduction

One of my favorite questions to ask couples or friends how they met. The stories are always so different.

I remember connecting a friend of mine with someone that i thought might be a good match.

Well sometimes I meet someone and think - they would be great with so and so. I remember praying with this friend of mine who was a former pro baseball player who was very single and satisfied and it was his lack of thirstiness that made me think that he would be great with someone I knew.

I gave him her full name and he messaged her on facebook. They would eventually start dating. I love this part of the story.

There was one couple that I thought might work together - I thought that they might be my success story and it would secure me an invitation to their future wedding and I’d be part of every story.

I thought that they might be my success story and it would secure me an invitation to their future wedding and I’d be part of every story they tell. Because it wasn’t through “Friends” but through a FRIEND.

This couple would go on to get engaged, sent invitations, we bought a gift, and then go through an extremely messy and painful break up.

Now let’s imagine what might have happened after the break up: He might come to me complaining and asking me to do something.

he might ask me to call her or help him get better so that they to reconcile.

If all that doesn’t work his complaining may graduate to grumbling. He may start to resent me, in his pain he may start to go around and telling people not to trust me, to doubt my judgment and intution, maybe even leave the church I pastor. He may start blaming me for the break up and try to make me feel the pain that he’s experiencing.

What’s the difference between grumbling and complaining?

I may, at this point, start to realize why she may have broke up with him : / His response to the rejection in this relationship was a test of his heart.

TRANSITION: Today we’ll see the people of Israel respond to God’s testing in the wilderness which will serve as a warning to us in our lives today.

the difference between grumbling and complaining?

He also listens to a lot of people go to him when they are trying to figure out a career change. He’ll hear what’s stressing them out about their job or what’s difficult.

He always asks - “so what do you need?”

It’s sometimes hard to describe but we can just feel the difference.

And he says most people don’t know what they truly need,

They might say, “i need a new boss,” or “I need a new job, or I need a break.” but all of these things are too broad to ever bring aid to any specific problems. You might say, “I need my husband to help out more.”

And whatever the case may be, he will then ask, “When is the last time you have asked for what you need?”

Usually this is where I either get defensive or I get humble.

Tom along with others taught me that if we ask and we don’t get what we need, then we need to ask for something different because that person lacked the ability to give us what we needed.

What he is essentially saying is that “our performance in work and life will continue to frustrate you and everyone around you untoil

and as a result, they don’t know how to ask for what they need, and as a result, people can’t thrive in their roles because they don’t have what they need.

He used to say that there is no such thing as a bad employee, only bad fits.

TRANSITION: Today we’ll see

He used to say that there is no such thing as a bad employee, only bad fits.

[SLIDE] God tests us to teach us what we can’t learn in comfort. x2

Please turn with me to to Exodus ch. 15:22, while you’re turning there i want to summarize the three things that i believe God’s testing teaches us:

[summary SLIDE] God tests us to teach us:

The condition of our heart.

That we can trust Him.

The folly of disobedience.

Now let’s read some of the passage

Read ;

The last words of today’s reading remembers the grumbling of the people “Is the LORD among us or not?”

This leads us to our first point: God tests us to teach us the condition of our heart.

God tests us to teach us the condition of our heart: Grumbling

I find that God leads us on roundabout ways, on painful journeys, he leads us to the point where our backs are against the wall, so that we finally realize what we need, and we get to the point where we are willing to ask for what we really need.

This is where he moves.

[PICTURE OF EXAM HERE] Teachers test us to see what we know. Teachers are often evaluated by the success of their students, right? I think teachers invented grading on a curve so that they wouldn’t look bad ;)

God tests us to show us what we don’t know.

Teachers test us to see what we know. God tests us to show us what we don’t know.

Grumbling, Testing

The people of Israel had just come from being delivered from the red sea and the “people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.”

They had just come from being delivered from the read sea and the “people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.”

The people may have believed God would deliver, But they haven’t faced the pains of the wilderness just yet. The condition of their hearts still needed some renovation.

For the sake of time we only read parts of the two stories in chapters 15 and 16, but it’s part of a three story progression, that goes through ch. 17:7

Graduating grumblings, murmur

[Scripture SLIDES] First they experience thirst, which is reasonable after three days of wandering. ; Bitter water - Grumbling against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”

First they experience thirst, which is reasonable after three days of wandering.

Thirst Water - Bitter to Sweet (15:22-27)

Graduating grumblings, murmur

Not much is said hear about their grumbling, but it will intensify over the next two stories.

Transition: PICTURE: You aren’t you when you’re hungry.

Hunger - The whole congregation grumbled against Moses and Aaron and 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.”

[SLIDE} Hunger took them over to where they wished they had died in Egypt with full stomachs than to die of hunger.

They believed God desired to kill them. They were not complaining to God - they were spreading the lies they believed about God, seeking to have people reject him and reject his appointed leader Moses.

Why did they grumble and rebel? Because they are the center of their universe - selfishness. Because they believe everything revolves around their comfort, the second they experience pain, or hardship, when God is not providing what they want when they want it, they will seek a different god who will.

You shall know he is LORD by his provision Ex. 16:6-7

Water from the Rock (17:1-7)

[SLIDE 17:3-4] Their murmuring turns murderous. Ready to stone Moses (), (17:7) questioning if the Lord even among us? As if they should turn to another god.

These three grumbles increase in intensity, going from questioning God’s leader, to questioning God’s motive and goodness, to desiring to murder

Three Grumblings

Where complaining engages relationship, grumbling disconnects, turns away, pushes away, doubts, believes the hopeless thoughts. Grumbling that ferments turns into rebellion and destructiveness.

Whereas honest complaint can engage relationship, grumbling disconnects, turns away, pushes away, doubts, believes the hopeless thoughts. Grumbling ferments, turning into rebellion and destructiveness.

Their grumbling questioned the Lord’s character - revealing that they believed God intended to harm them. God’s testing was not intended to harm them but instead reveal their self-centeredness and surface level trust.

“God tests his people for their benefit, not for his own. It is through passing and failing these tests that God’s people learn the nature of the obedience that he requires of them.”

[TRANSITION] Tests not only reveal the condition of our hearts, but they invite us to witness God God’s power and trustworthiness. This brings us to our next point.

[SLIDE]God tests us to teach us that we can trust Him: Grace

Three Needs

Thirst Water - Bitter to Sweet (15:22-27)

After each and every one of these rebellious grumbles, God responds graciously, and patiently.

[SLIDE OF EXAM]

Log turns water from bitter to sweet.

Hunger - Bread (Manna) (16:1-36)

There he established the rule - I will test you from here on out. Listen to me and do what I command you, for my commands hold back the afflictions of the world, but if you step outside of my provision, my hand does not withhold the consequence of disobedience. That would be unloving.

Water from the Rock (17:1-7)

Rain bread from heaven for you

Thirst / Hunger / Thirst

God provides the Manna and quail -

You shall know he is LORD by his provision

Gather a day’s portion and two days on the 6th day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my way or not. SABBATH was the test.

Hunger

Thirst

Water from the rock

The only time we see God’s patience begin to wane is when they disobey the sabbath. This is a foreshadow to the future of Israel.

Testing to teach them trust

This is all

From the very rocks they sought to stone Moses, God would bring life.

“God tests his people for their benefit, not for his own. It is through passing and failing these tests that God’s people learn the nature of the obedience that he requires of them.”

[SLIDE] God tests us to teach us the folly of disobedience: Meals that melt away

When the people gather more than they need for one day, all the excess spoiled or melted.

Gather a day’s portion and two days on the 6th day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my way or not. SABBATH was the test.

[Slide] And when they disobeyed the sabbath, God responded: . This phrasing is only ever used of Pharaoh in previous chapters, foreshadowing the fate of this generation of Israelites.

God tests us to teach us what we can’t learn in comfort.

Moses would go on to remind these people of these stories so that they can remember God’s faithfulness even when they are prospering and comfort comes.

Moses infact warns them of the dangers of propserity. Read

[slide] 11 “Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments for [vv.12-13 when you become wealthy/comfortable] 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.

17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

The writer is not describing the people of Israel favorably, but accurately. And these stories are a warning.

It wasn’t simply that the people of Israel lacked faith, but why did they lack faith? They were utterly self-centered and any moment or hint of their needs not being met sent them down a path of childishness and rebellion.

The Israelites want us to see that they will rebel against anyone who makes their life hard.

Difficult circumstances and not having what we need, when our lives feel threatened, self-centeredness blinds people.

I think this is important for us individually, as a church, and as a nation.

The dessert tests were and humbling was to prepare them to receive the wealth in the promised land so they they’d understand that everything has come from God, not their power.

Who here has thought, man God has blessed me, I must have done really well.

It’s all a gift - and the Lord wants our attention, our humility, he wants to test us to teach us.

Testing: The Church and Israelites are Wandering

[slide] Jesus is leading us through the desert as our the living water and the bread of life

The desert is “hostile territory” in that it is not our home, but it should not scare us to the point where we forget that God controls all of creation.

“We must be continually on guard against our all-too common penchant for judging our circumstances by our stomachs.” Peter Enns.

God tests us to teach us what we couldn’t learn in comfort.

Jesus would face excruciating trial, 40 days of fasting, temptation by the enemy, and just as God would deliver Moses by striking the rocks, the very rocks they may have sought to stone him, Jesus too, would carry the cross, the very cross the people used to kill him, to deliver us and bear the test that none of us could pass.

Jesus took and passed the test to teach us what we could never earn on our own - salvation or hope.

Jesus teaches us the condition of our hearts, condemning him on a cross with our sin, Jesus shows us what it means to trust Him, through his power in resurrection, and he shows us the foolishness of disobedience, by sending the Holy Spirit to convict us.

Jesus now leads us all on a journey, in a land that is not our home, as we endure tests so God can teach us humility, so that we might receive the glories of eternity, not thinking we earned it by the power of our might, but receiving it as a gift.