[Sermon Archive]

This Week's Sermon FOURTH MIDWEEK LENTEN VESPERS 27 February 2008 "Gifts in the Wilderness" Exodus 17:1-7 LSB Series A Vicar Heath A. Trampe Soli Deo Gloria!

The events of Exodus 17 seem to be just another link in the chain of Israel's journey in the wilderness. They are less than half way to the Promised Land and have already encountered many hardships and difficulties. They witnessed the plagues that Moses brought to the Egyptians as punishment for keeping them captive. They fled from Egypt, crossing over the Red Sea and entering into the wilderness. However, for every hardship they faced, there were several miracles and gifts along the way to fortify their faith in God. They were miraculously saved from Egypt through divine plagues and even the opening of a body of water. Pillars of fire and smoke led them to safety from the pursuit of the Egyptians. Once in the wilderness, God turned bitter water into sweet and refreshing drinking water. He then provided them with quail to eat and, even more incredibly, bread from heaven which we have come to know as manna. This was not earthly food with a scientific explanation, but was delivered from heaven for the nourishment of God's people. However, rather than being grateful, they continued to grumble and wail against their current situation. We now know that God delivered them to the Promised Land despite their groaning, but they were hardly worth it. This text is a wonderful example of how

I. Though distressed by the grumbling Israelites, God gives them all that they need.
--God punishes them with deadly serpents, fire, and disease.
--God supplies them with manna, water, and even clothing.
II. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
--We are by nature sinful and unclean and sin in thought, word, and deed.
--Justified by Christ's blood, we are reconciled with God and rejoice in the certainty of our salvation.

As with many of the stories of the Old Testament, we read this section of Exodus with amazement, wondering how God's chosen people could be so stubborn and pigheaded. Don't they remember the miracles with which God delivered them from the hand of Pharaoh and captivity under the Egyptians? Indeed, they are in the wilderness, but they're provided for. They have manna to eat, and it will be provided for them for the rest of their journey. And manna wasn't their entire diet. There was other vegetation available to them and they had livestock to sacrifice and eat as well. In fact, they weren't doing badly at all. The main thing to remember here is that they are free. They are no longer slaves who have to bend to the will of a wicked pagan ruler, but can worship God as they have always wanted. And they react to all of these gifts with grumbling.

Evidently, there wasn't much to drink on their journey, because they rail against Moses and God at the beginning of the text, saying "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?" They've forgotten the hardships that defined their former lives and see this journey in the wilderness as a death trap. It's as if they are saying 'if God is so powerful and loves us as He claims to, then why aren't we more comfortable?' This mistaken understanding is prevalent amongst today's Christians as well.

It's wonderful to be one of God's children. We take to heart the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 5 "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (verse 8). In spite of our shortcomings, God loves us and has saved us through His Son. We know this and believe it to be true, but we still hurt in this life, and we often wonder why tragedies befall even us, God's children (Galatians 3:26). Our families are torn apart by the same divorce, murder, and disaster that characterize the lives of unbelievers. We suffer poverty while our heathen neighbors and co-workers enjoy wealth and prosperity. In fact, our lives don't appear to be any easier than those of the heathen, and in this world, they aren't. Just as God showers His blessings on believer and unbeliever alike, so He also allows disaster in our lives as well as the lives of those who do not believe in Him (Matthew 5:45).

The Israelites fondly remember the wealth and power of the Egyptians, much of which they probably never experienced as slaves. In their eyes, God has removed them from a comfortable situation and has forced them to walk around in the middle of nowhere. Not only do the natural obstacles of the wilderness detain them, but God allows many hardships to befall them as well. Because they have shown a lack of faith in God's deliverance, and because they grumble against even Moses, God's representative, He teaches them a few lessons in faith. He sends fiery serpents to bite them and many among them died. He did, however, order Moses to fashion a bronze serpent so that they might gaze upon it and live (Numbers 21:4-9). He also sent fire to burn the outskirts of their camp, in order that they might know His displeasure and repent (Numbers 11:1). He looked upon the Israelites, His chosen people, and was displeased. Are the actions of modern Christians any better, or do we also complain and grumble when our lives don't go as smoothly as we would like?

There are many similarities between the rebellion of the Israelites and our own poor attitudes towards God's gifts. Just like the Israelites complained about and despised the manna that was keeping them alive, so also many Christians complain about having to receive Christ's body and blood on a weekly basis or about needing holy absolution for their ongoing sin. These gifts, along with baptism, are the Sacraments of Christ's church, but we despise them as ordinary. Indeed, we are rebellious and stubborn as well, but we are significantly different from Israel in a major way.

God knew the depraved condition of the world, and He knew just how adept man was at obedience. In order to remedy this serious deficit on the part of humanity, God sent His Son amongst us, as we hear from the Apostle Paul "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:6). We were the ungodly. Because of Christ's death and resurrection, God no longer has to look upon His people with displeasure. You see, in our baptisms, we are killed and raised again with Christ (Romans 6) so that we no longer appear to God as a rebellious and stubborn people. God doesn't punish us with fire or snakes because He always sees His Son in our place, and is pleased. Despite this wonderful news, however, we still experience tragedy in our lives and are apt to cry out, as did the Israelites, "is the Lord among us or not"?

When Adam succumbed to the wiles of the Devil in the Garden of Eden, sin entered into and corrupted the world. Now man would suffer throughout this life. Certainly Christ has given so much to us, not only temporally in the form of our families, friends, and all manner of good things, but also eternally. We have no doubt of our salvation, because Christ secured it for us. However, the world, which is Satan's domain, is still very much affected by sin, and we will encounter all sorts of hardships as long as we live in it. Our grumbling against God is also a result of this sin, and we'll never be truly satisfied until we are safely in the bosom of our heavenly Father.

If God truly is our Father and if we are to consider ourselves His true children, we should expect such a relationship, as it is written in the book of Hebrews: "It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?" (12:7-9). All hardship experienced by Christians in light of Christ's death and resurrection is from a loving Father to His dear children.

So how are we to respond when we get sick and hurt and all sorts of bad things start happening in our lives? The apostle says "we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces ?perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. ?Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us" (Romans 5:3-5). No matter what manner of horrible things may happen to us in this life, we are certain of our salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who has made us co-heirs of eternal life with the heavenly Father.

How did God respond to the grumbling of the Israelites in Exodus 17? They were given water, which God allowed Moses to miraculously bring forth from a rock. Even in light of their sinful displeasure and disbelief that God would provide for them, God gave them all that they needed. Even in light of our own sinful displeasure and disbelief that God is listening to us and answering our prayers, we are given all that we need in this life. Not only that, but we are given the hope of everlasting life through His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.