1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Exodus 16:1-35; Psalm 34
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
There’s a game people like to play called Desert Island. The idea is to imagine that you are on a desert island, and that you only have access to a limited number of …, whatever: Books, songs, movies, food, you get the idea. The point is that you’re going to be reading, listening to, watching, and eating only those very few things every day for the rest of your life, so you better be selective in what those things are going to be. Truth be told, however, no matter how selective you are, and no matter what you select, you’re going to get fed up, bored, and tired of those things sooner or later, and then you’re going to start to grumble and complain. It’s only human; that is, since the Fall.
We have food to eat, clothing to wear, a roof over our head, and so much more, but it’s not good enough, or it’s not novel enough, or the grass is always greener somewhere else, or I’m bored, so something has to change. We crave novelty, excitement, and continual change, … except when we don’t. The bottom line is that we are never satisfied, never content, always restless, always seeking some great fulfillment, and we end up rejecting the good things that God provides us every day, thinking them common and mundane. Consequently, we are ungrateful, thankless, discontent, and generally miserable. Good thing we’re on a desert island all alone! Who would want to be us? And because we are so ungrateful, we fail to let our light shine, the light of God’s goodness, mercy, love, grace, and forgiveness, but we keep it under a bed or under a basket where, not only does it not help us, but it helps no one else either.
It had been exactly one month since the LORD delivered the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt through the waters of the Red Sea. He had demonstrated unequivocally that He was for them, and with them, and would never leave them, and that He keeps His promises. How quickly did they forget. How quickly did they cease to be grateful. “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.” Think about their complaint for a moment. They preferred bellies full of meat and bread, along with slavery and harsh labor – even death! – to freedom and a more mundane diet that would still provide them necessary sustenance for health and life. Such thoughts are indicative, not merely of those who have forgotten the LORD and His goodness, but of those who no longer believe that the LORD is good, but instead believe Him to be capricious, malicious, and evil. They believed that the LORD who had preserved them in Egypt for 430 years, and who had lead them out of slavery with a mighty hand and powerful signs, did so in order to watch them suffer and die of hunger in the wilderness for His own pleasure. Truly, it is not the LORD who is capricious, malicious, and evil, but such are the corrupted hearts and minds of fallen men. They, and we, are the children of our First Parents who fell; and, as it is said, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve was not to disobey God, at least not at first, but it was to think of Him as capricious, malicious, and evil. His question, “Did God really say?” was intended to raise the suspicion that there was something more than what the LORD had said and that He was intentionally, maliciously, holding out on them and keeping something good from them. In that first question, the seed of doubt was already planted, and in Eve’s response it already bore its poisoned fruit. Eve responded correctly with the word of the LORD concerning the tree, “do not eat of it,” but she betrayed her doubt by adding her own words to strengthen that word and to reassure herself, “and do not touch it.” Satan knew that he had her, and he bald-facedly contradicted the LORD saying, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” And there you have it; the accusation was that God was willfully and intentionally, maliciously, holding back some good from them. “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” And all of this took place in a lush, fruitful, garden paradise where they were provided everything they could possibly need or want: Freedom, plenteous food, perfect health, life, righteousness, holiness, innocence, and a loving relationship with their Creator and LORD.
However, the LORD did not punish or destroy His children, but in His mercy and compassion He sent them out from the garden, away from the Tree of Life, and He put into motion a plan of rescue and salvation that they should be restored to Him once again and live. The LORD would send His own Son to become a man, the Seed of the Woman, that through His perfect, righteous, and sinless fear, love, and trust in God, and through His innocent suffering and death, Jesus would crush Satan’s head and fulfill for all men what our First Parents, the Israelites, and we their children, have failed to do, thus deserving temporal and eternal punishment and death. No, our LORD is not capricious, malicious, and evil, but He is the very essence of goodness, love, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness.
The LORD provided His people daily bread – literally “bread for the day.” He gave them manna in the morning and quail in the evening, bread and meat. And He sealed His promise with the sign of His presence among them, His glory appearing in a pillar of cloud. Yet still, many did not trust Him, and they hoarded the manna, which spoiled, stank, and bred worms. For forty years the LORD provided for His people and sustained them, for He heard their grumbling, and He knew their need, and He provided for their needs, not what they believed that they needed or wanted, but what He knew that they needed and what was best. The people were not to trust the LORD because of the meat and the bread, but they were to trust in the LORD because He is good and He keeps His promises. The food He supplies is not intended to fulfill our every desire, for our desires are fallen and corrupted by sin, but to fulfill our true need, our need for God and His Word. Simple bread and meat will fulfill our bodies’ needs for life and health well enough, but our true need is not physical and material, but spiritual. A bit of hunger is not a bad thing if it causes us to be aware of our spiritual need for the Living Bread of God’s Word, and the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ.
In the Lord’s Supper, Jesus has provided us a meal that meets our spiritual needs. The bread and the wine we drink is not intended to fill either our bellies or our desires, but to provide us the spiritual gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. We do not eat a multi-grain artisanal bread, but a bland, tasteless, thin wafer. We do not drink a fine Boudreaux, but an inexpensive, sweet, and syrupy wine. Nevertheless, in, with, and under these humble elements we receive precisely what Jesus’ words proclaim, His real and true body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins, life, and salvation. We do this in remembrance of Him. And as often we eat this bread and drink this cup we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. The Lord’s Supper is our manna and quail, our bread for the day, as we make our way from slavery and bondage to sin and death, through the wilderness of this valley of the shadow of death, into the promised land of God’s kingdom forevermore. We do not eat and drink because the bread and wine fulfill all our desires, but because they provide us all we need to sustain us spiritually along the way. He who created us, body and soul, provides us daily with everything we need for our bodies and lives. The LORD has heard our grumbling as well, and He graciously provides for us. Let us give thanks unto the LORD, for He is good, and His mercy endures forever.
In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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