The Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost
STRENGTH IN NUMBERS Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen! In today’s Old Testament, God’s people complained. These are the very same people whom God had powerfully and miraculously brought up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. These are the people whom God had carefully watched and vigorously protected night and day, every moment of their journey. In today’s Old Testament, the people who complain are the same people who held between their own teeth the very bread of heaven; bread faithfully and miraculously given to them by the hand of God Himself. “Now our strength is dried up,” God’s people complained, “and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” Dear Christian friends, Two places in the New Testament of His Bible, God explains to you why He wrote today’s Old Testament for you. • First God says in 1 Corinthians 10:11, “These things happened to them [that is, to the people of Israel]… for our instruction.” With these Words, God wants you to know that He wrote today’s Old Testament for your sake, in order to teach you something that is vitally important. • God also says in Romans 15:4, “Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that … through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” With these Words, God is telling you why He wants you to hear today’s Old Testament and take it to heart: God is going to give you ENCOURAGEMENT, STRENGTH, and HOPE through the what people have said here today: “Now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” When God tells us that He wrote His Old Testament for our instruction, He is also telling us that He wants us to make a comparison, history for history and life for life. God wants us to compare ourselves to the people of the Old Testament, about whom God has written. God wants each of us to compare our life situation to their life situation; our struggles to their struggles; our doubts and fears to their doubts and fears; our continual sin and rebellion to their continual sin and rebellion. When God tells us that He wrote His Old Testament for our instruction, He wants us to hold in comparison the way He loved and nurtured and protected them and the way He equally promises to love and nurture and protect YOU and ME. 1. The people in today’s Old Testament are the same people whom God had brought up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. These people once lived in a bondage from which they could not escape; in a land of darkness in which they could feel no hope. But what did God do? It is written: The Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians… Pharaoh’s chariots and his host He cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red sea. The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone (Exodus 14:30, 15:4-5). “These things happened to them… for our instruction” (1 Corinthians 10:11). The way God saved Israel from Egypt can be compared to the way God has likewise saved you and me from our own bondage. “You were dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:10). “We all once lived [enslaved] in the passions of our flesh… by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). But what God do? It is written: When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior (Titus 3:4-6). 2. The people in today’s Old Testament are the same people whom God had carefully watched and vigorously protected night and day, every sandy footstep of their journey. God’s Old Testament people were not left abandoned. But what did God do? It is written: He divided the sea and let them pass through it, and made the waters stand like a heap. In the daytime he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a fiery light (Psalm 78:13-14). [God] in [His] great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go (Nehemiah 9:19). Can anything less be said of you? “These things happened to them… for our instruction” (1 Corinthians 10:11). God the Son remained continually present in the Old Testament cloud of water vapor just as God the Son likewise remains continually present for you in the water of your Baptism. God promised—and God fulfilled His promise—that He would not forsake His Old Testament people in the wilderness. God the Son has likewise promised you—and thus far has proven true—“I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). 3. “Now our strength is dried up,” God’s people complained, “and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” These are the same people who held between their own teeth the very bread of heaven; bread faithfully and miraculously given to them by the hand of God Himself. What did God do? It is written: He commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven, and He rained down on them manna to eat and gave them the grain of heaven. Man ate of the bread of the angels; He sent them food in abundance (Psalm 78:23-25). Is not bread of equal value likewise served to you in this place? Our Holy Communion here is nothing other than God’s greatest form of heaven-sent manna, the very “grain of heaven” and “bread of the angels.” Your Lord Jesus has personally declared for your sake, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven” (John 6:51). Jesus also points His finger at the bread and wine upon our altar and He faithfully declares, This is My body… This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:26, 28). The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? (1Corinthians 10:16). “These things happened to them… for our instruction” (1 Corinthians 10:11). “Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that … through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4). With these Words, God wants us to compare ourselves to the people of the Old Testament. • Make the comparison, O Israel (Romans 4:16, Galatians 3:7), and feel ashamed. • Make the comparison, O people of God (Luke 1:68), and rejoice in Christ Jesus, the God of your Salvation! Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” • “We remember… Egypt,” the people said. These people in today’s Old Testament had no business complaining and wishing for better days, and neither do we! The best of days are the days that God Himself gives and provides—for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health. • “But now our strength is dried up,” the people said. These people had no business complaining about their hardships and struggles and weaknesses and neither do we! “The weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength” (1 Corinthians 1:24). It is when we are weak that Christ Himself is strong and His grace proves to be more than sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9). Count it a blessing and gift from God Himself when you find that your “strength is dried up” because your God has promised with an oath, “I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak” (Ezekiel 34:16). • “There is nothing at all but this manna to look at,” the people said. These people should never take lightly the miraculous bread that God provides from heaven, and neither should we! The bread of heaven may appear flat and unbecoming to look at, but it contains both hope for eternity and strength for hear-and-now daily life! Gift from God to you passes between your teeth and over your tongue at your every communion—“so that [you] may eat of it and never die” (John 6:50). “Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that … through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4). When God tells us that He wrote His Old Testament for our instruction, He wants us compare the way He loved and nurtured and protected the His people of old, and the way He equally promises to love and nurture and protect YOU and ME. The people complained, and yet God remained. God’s history concerning them is God’s promise to you. As it was for them, so it shall be for you. In every moment, ALL God’s people—Old Testament and New—all God’s people may confidently sing with Moses His servant, “The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation” (Exodus 15:2). _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
