Collection of Manna and the Sabbath Day

SUNDAY MORNING WORSHIP SERVICE, 27 August 2023

Sermon Text: Exodus 16:22-36
Sermon Series: “Exodus Chs. 1-19” (#23)

Main Points:
Introduction
I. The origin and meaning of the Sabbath
II. The Sabbath day and the Lord’s Day
III. The day of rest in Christ
Conclusion

Australians love to go on a picnic or camping. Spending some time in the nature is always fun and relaxing. When the time for home comes, almost everyone feels reluctant to pack things up. Yet, we know that all these are parts of the joy of having a picnic or camping.

These Israelites in Ex. 16 were away from their homes and camping, but they had no plan for packing things up for returning. They spread their tents on their one-way trip to their destination. A full month has passed now since their departure. Over those days, their excitement of travelling and camping has mostly worn out. Furthermore, all of them have been under a great stress recently with depletion of food reserves. No longer is their camping exciting; it has become difficult – even fearful – as they see nowhere to find food.

They’ve just complained to Moses. Then, Moses calls them all and tells them that God is going to give food from tomorrow morning. In addition, He’ll provide them meat soon in the evening. Exciting news! Then, Moses says that God wants them to adhere to a couple of rules in their collection of this food God will provide. Firstly, collect a homer of this bread, ‘manna,’ per each person every morning, and do not leave it for another day. This is what we read and meditated on last Sunday. Then, secondly, collect twice as much on the sixth day and no collection on the seventh day is allowed because the seventh day is the Sabbath day or the day of solemn rest. The half of the collection is for the sixth day and the rest for the Sabbath day, and preserving that portion for the next day is allowed.

While the majority would follow these rules, some consider it lightly. When the sixth day comes, people go out and collect what they are told – two homers per person for two days. Next morning, however, some people go out intending to collect manna for the day. God is disappointed and asks this rhetorical question, “How long will you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?” He means, ‘how constantly unfaithful you are!’

Hearing this, a question arises and that is, ‘Why would God sigh over some Israelites’ attempt to collect manna on the seventh day, and say that they were unfaithful?’ Putting it in other words, the question is, ‘What is the Sabbath day? And how is one’s foul attitude to the Sabbath day a sign of his shallow faith in God or unfaithfulness to the Lord?’

This is, in fact, one of the hottest issues Christians of our time ask because we believe that the OT Sabbath day is now the Lord’s Day in the NT. And many Christians are not sure about the meaning of the Lord’s Day, thus, confused with what to do with the Lord’s Day.

I pray that the Holy Spirit teaches us about the meaning of the Lord’s Day and the blessing it brings to all who keep it faithfully to the glory of the Father and the Son.

I. THE ORIGIN AND MEANING OF THE SABBATH
So, let us begin with what this day is all about.

The very first thing you must understand is that the Sabbath predates the OT laws Moses delivered to Israel. I mean, the Sabbath day and keeping it did not begin from the moment Israel received the laws from God at Mt Sinai. Although keeping the Sabbath day holy is listed as the fourth one in the Ten Commandments, its origin is much earlier than the OT laws.

Its origin is the creation. God created the world and everything in it in the beginning of time, and the Sabbath was a part of God’s creation ordinance. The Sabbath day was the day that culminated all creation works of God. By resting on the seventh day, God finished, completed His creation, as Gen. 2:2 says. Because of this, God blessed this day.

On the Sabbath day that was the seventh day, God rested. That means, resting was a part of God’s creation. Speaking more accurately, ‘resting’ was God’s purpose of creation. He didn’t create the world to cause any anxiety or clamour, or difficulty or anything that would cause disorder. He designed His creation to bring rest in Him. In this sense, God’s blessing and His resting are synonyms – His blessing means His ‘resting’ on the seventh day. Each day’s work was good, and the works done in six days was ‘very good.’ All of God’s very good work flew into the seventh day’s rest. No wonder why God blessed that day of rest!

So, the Sabbath day has never been a day from the beginning on which people must always keep in mind what to observe and refrain themselves from anything that violates rules and regulations. Quite contrarily, the day of Sabbath was for peace and joy and dwelling in God’s love and grace, enjoying the Creator’s abundant blessings.

This is why God asked Israel in the wilderness to keep the Sabbath day. In another word, to ‘rest’ on this day. Leave all hardships and rest in God’s blessing; leave your earthly tent and dwell in God’s eternal home on the day God had rested, on the day He blessed. God would see Israel’s collection of manna on the seventh day an unnecessary burden. As you know, the manna appeared all around Israel’s camp. So, they must’ve started their daily collection of it from the entrance of each one’s tent. The work must’ve been like going for a picnic or having a stroll in the fresh morning. But even that would be regarded by God unnecessary for Israel’s resting in their Creator’s blessing!

In short, this is what God asked Israel in Ex. 16. This command was never to burden anyone but to restore to them the lost peace and joy and blessing of God! The Sabbath day was originally intended to benefit God’s beloved.

II. THE SABBATH DAY AND THE LORD’S DAY
Having said, now we need to think about why the seventh day is no longer the day we Christians rest but the first day of the week. We call the first day ‘the Lord’s Day.’ It’s not any man’s invention but the Bible teaches this. The Apostle John called this day as the Lord’s day in Rev. 1:10. In many other places of the NT, we’re told that the followers of Christ gathered together on ‘the first day of the week’ to worship and break the bread and for fellowship.

First of all, I want to tell you that when the OT Israel observed the Sabbath, they were looking for the restoration of God’s rest broken and lost in sin. What I mean is this – the origin of the Sabbath was God’s creation ordinance. It was planned to bring rest to man in God’s creation. But because of man’s sin, that rest was broken, and the humanity was sent out of that rest. No longer was man in God’s rest and, for temporary restoration of that rest, the blood of a sacrifice had to be poured out because the only way to cancel a sin against God was through death and the consequent shedding of blood.

That was what the OT Israel did. And their keeping the Sabbath was a temporary restoration of that lost and broken rest. Every time they kept their Sabbath, they longed to see God’s promise for the Messiah and His redemption of Israel. They longed to behold the Saviour God promised because, once He appeared, He would bring them into God’s eternal rest once again!

So, their expectation through Sabbath keeping was, firstly, to look back in time and remember God’s creation blessing, and, secondly, to look forward to having the Saviour who would restore them into God’s eternal rest.

Then, at last, the Messiah came and He is the Lord Jesus! He came in flesh, born of the virgin Mary. This Jesus is the Lamb of God, meaning, the One who would cancel all sins of those sinners who come to Him in repentance and faith. Believing in Him means salvation, receiving Jesus’ eternal life. He accomplished this salvation of sinners through His death on the cross. Moreover, by rising from death, He restored God’s rest in the life of all believers!

This is what the OT Israel longed to see and have. By His death, Jesus paid the price for sin that had severed man from God’s rest. Then, by His resurrection, Jesus restored God’s rest in the believer’s heart and soul and body. He inaugurated a new world for all believers. In this new world of Jesus, we rest; we rejoice; we worship; we love God through Jesus; we also love one another in Him. In this new world of Jesus, we enjoy God’s restored rest, and this is a foretaste our eternal home.

So, no longer do we look for the appearance of the promised Saviour, but we enjoy His presence with us! This means, we no longer observe the seventh day as our Sabbath, the day of rest, but rejoice on the first day of the week, the day of our Lord Jesus’ resurrection. No longer do we look back, missing the lost garden, but we rejoice for the day Jesus rose from the dead and defeated the power of death and broke the dominion of our enemy Satan over us Christians! This is why we rest on the Lord’s Day.

III. THE DAY OF REST IN CHRIST
Then, what does all this mean to you and to me? What are the spiritual and practical implications of this day of rest for us?

We must understand, first of all, that the Lord’s Day is God’s great gift to us, His worshippers. It’s never a burden but God’s abundant blessing for His beloved. In this rest, all burdens of sin are taken off from our shoulders; all hardships of our heavenward journey are removed from our souls. This day is for restoration and deepening of God’s rest in us who love the Lord Jesus. So, every week, look forward to having this day and receiving God’s blessings. On every Lord’s Day, look forward to resting more in God and finding the benefits of Christ’s death and resurrection. Focus on Jesus; focus on giving Him your thanks and praise on this day of rest.

But, doing it is not easy; resting solely in God and Jesus on the Lord’s Day is hard. I believe you all know what I mean. This is because we prefer to follow our own agenda even on the Lord’s Day. We want to rest in our own way than God’s way.

On Sunday, for example, we struggle in our preparation for coming to church. Then, our trouble continues in church, in worship service, by not really focusing on Jesus but missing the purpose of worship, therefore, feeling bored. What about after the service? Soon, our mind searches for anything that might entertain us for the rest of the day. Jesus and resting in His blessings last only for a few hours in our mind on the day we should fully rest in the Lord. In a word, this is a recurrence of Ex. 16:27, that is, some Israelites’ going out to gather manna on the Sabbath day.

Because we cannot fully rest in Jesus on the Lord’s Day, we need His help. This is the second implication of the day of solemn rest. To rest in God, we need His help. Depending on His help is our true rest in Christ. From the beginning of this day of rest and to its end, we constantly seek His help and guidance in thoughts and words and deeds, and this is our true rest in the Lord.

And the third important point you must remember is that God will bless those who rest on this day. Listen to God who says this in Ex. 16:4, “go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them [test you], whether they [and you] will walk in My laws or not.” He means that He tests us to bless us. He sees whether we rest on this day He blesses. He doesn’t mean He would evaluate our behaviours and grade them to see whether anyone is worth for receiving a reward. No, that’s not what He means. He means, rather, that when we rest on this day, the blessings He has already intended for the day will be ours. It’s already given for all to enjoy, so, the Lord will see who receives its benefits.

In fact, this is the same blessing God has intended with tithing. In Mal. 3:10, God says this: “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse … And thereby put Me to the test … if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.” He means, He’ll surely pour down on the one who tithes His heavenly blessing until there is no more need.

God’s promise of blessing for both keeping the Lord’s Day holy and giving a tithe to God is, in fact, not difficult but quite simple and easy to understand. That is, He has made both as the means or ways or channels through which God’s blessings flow continually because, by resting on the Lord’s Day, God’s people appreciate His deliverance from death, His salvation from the slavery to sin; and by bringing a tithe to the Lord, Christians recognise that all we have are from God, thus, we give Him our thankful heart with a tenth of all He has blessed us.

This is our rest in Christ Jesus on the day of rest.

CONCLUSION
The conclusion for us to remember is that the Lord’s Day is the day God has prepared for us to enjoy. It is the day God designed for our benefit as His gift for us. So, we should enjoy the True Bread from heaven on this day, that is, Jesus Christ, not trying to gather the perishable bread of the world.

May God teach each of us what to seek on the Lord’s Day, and may He brighten our eyes to see what blessings He has prepared for us to take through our rest in Christ Jesus! ***