Raining Bread

​11th Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 13)                                                 LSB #’s 904, 918, 648
Text – Exodus 16:4
 
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, & the people shall go out & gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.” 
 
RAINING BREAD
 
 
Where I grew up, if it was raining really hard, people would say, “It’s raining cats & dogs.”   According to the internet, no one knows where the saying came from or how cats & dogs are relevant to large amounts of rain.   In the OT lesson this morning, God tells His people that He is about to create a downpour of bread from heaven. 
“…in the morning dew lay around the camp.   And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground.   When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, ‘What is it?’”  (Exodus 16:13-15a ESV)    Like the saying – raining cats & dogs, God’s people could not explain what the flake-like stuff was. 
I’m sure that many of you have experienced the kind of downpour that makes driving the freeway uncomfortable.   That’s understandable.   Torrential rains obviously can put your life in danger.   The dangers of bread raining from heaven – those are not so obvious.   Yet, for the Israelites who were rescued from slavery in Egypt, the peril was just as real. 
In the sermon text, God illumines the danger, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you,   & the people shall go out & gather a day’s portion every day,   that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.”  (Exodus 16:4 ESV)    God doesn’t simply dump His blessings upon us & turn away.   He observes you & me to see what we do with them. 
Close to 40 years later, you can imagine that sinful human beings might be getting tired of eating quail & manna every day.   As God commands them to detour around the land of Edom, “…the people became impatient on the way.  And the people spoke against God & against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?  For there is no food & no water, & we loathe this worthless food.’”  (Numbers 21:4b-5 ESV)   Hearing that last sentence, did you pick up on how irrational they’ve become?   They complain there is no food or water, but then say they loathe this worthless food. 
“Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, & the people shall go out & gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them…”  God’s people marched through the wilderness, eating quail & manna every single day for almost 40 years.  Should we be surprised that they failed the test?  
The dangers of bread raining down from heaven became very obvious.   Although it was still God’s blessing, the people were sick of it.    Sadly, you & I are no different.   Which blessings from the heavenly Father have we grown weary of?   Have you ever given thought to a question like that?   Have you realized that some of God’s blessings do get old after a while? 
Being aware of our feelings is a beginning step to dealing with them in a productive & healthy manner.  The Israelites complained against God & Moses even though the food was given to them freely.  How else were they going to get food for millions of people in the middle of the desert wilderness?   They weren’t thinking rationally, but then, sin never does. 
You & I do not think rationally either when it comes to our complaining.  God’s grace is literally raining from heaven, upon each of us, every single day of our lives.   How often do our words make it sound like we realize & appreciate that?    For example, when you see a rainbow, do you thank God for His covenant?    Does seeing a rainbow even bring God to mind? 
In the book of Exodus; God was raining bread from heaven to bless & to provide for His people, yet, He was also doing so in order to test them.  Today, Yahweh still rains blessings upon us to provide for our needs, & to test you & me.   In the OT lesson, God acknowledges the Israelites’ need for assurance that food will be provided for them.  He did this in spite of their complaining.   There literally was no way for them to feed themselves.    However, God also desired to shape them into a different kind of people, a different kind of community.   As the Lord tested them, that too was a blessing meant to change their hearts. 
Our lives are not simply a day-to-day struggle of existence.  In the big picture, they are a journey to heaven guided & sustained by Jesus, no matter how short or long-term are the struggles we face.  Ultimately, none of us is able to feed ourselves in this wilderness corrupted by sin.   Without a savior, death is always the eternal outcome. 
In the face of such a bleak & desperate outlook, the world can only produce things like the opening ceremony at the Paris Olympics.  The world can only mock the things of Christianity because the only original thing that sin can produce is death.   All that sin is able to do is destroy what God brought into existence, & even that only because God allows it. 
He allows that, because the Father in heaven loves you enough that He will not force you to love Him in return.  He allowed Jesus to be mocked as He hung on the cross while paying for all the death & destruction that sinners bring into Yahweh’s creation.   The very Bread of Life was sacrificed in the hope that some would trust in that sacrifice & be saved. 
It was a huge gamble for the sake of sinful creatures like you & me.   As with the Israelites, none of us deserve to be saved.   Still, the Creator, through the death of His Son, has redeemed every single human being that is alive today.   Now, He’s waiting to see if we believe & trust in that blessing.  He rains forgiveness upon us in the hope that we’ll believe. 
When we pray, “…give us this day our daily bread,” Luther explained the meaning of it with these words, “God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people,  but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this & to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.”  And that is the test.  If saving faith lives within us we do receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.  Is that something we do perfectly?  Never.  Not even Christians are capable of perfection in this life.  However, if we are never thankful, that is not a good sign.  In the end, whenever we struggle with doubt, saving faith always turns to Jesus. 
In the Gospel lesson, people questioned Jesus, “‘what must we do, to be doing the works of God?’   Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.’”  (John 6:28-29 ESV) 
So they said to Him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see & believe you?  What work do you perform?  Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”  (John 6:30-31 ESV)
Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven & gives life to the world.”  (John 6:32-33 ESV) 
They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”  Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, & whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”  (John 6:34-35 ESV)   Jesus is telling us that in the beginning of our faith journey & many times along the way, God will redeem us from our unbelief.”  
The Holy Spirit is constantly calling us, gathering us & enlightening us through the good news of forgiveness in Jesus Christ.  God’s Word illustrates that with something we all understand well – food & our need for it.  God does not bless us just for its own sake.  He blesses that we might grow closer to Jesus & thus to eternal life. 
Because we’re sinful, He can’t simply give us everything we want.  He must also test us, because it is mostly in our need that we recognize Jesus as Savior.  God’s testing of us is part of the process of killing our sinful nature.  As Luther wrote about that, we must daily drown the old Adam through contrition & repentance.  Then, the new Adam, or the saintly nature, may arise anew each day, by the work of the Holy Spirit. 
The next time things are going so well, blessings seem to raining from heaven, & it seems to good to be true, remember that even in the good blessings that God gives, He is also helping us to see that He is always faithful & it will be a blessing to us if we hear His words & obey them.  Amen. 
 
 
 
Guide me, O Thou great Redeemer, pilgrim through this barren land.   I am weak, but Thou art mighty; hold me with Thy powerful hand.   Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more.     When I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside; death of death & hell’s destruction, land me safe on Canaan’s side.   Songs of praises, songs of praises I will ever give to Thee; I will ever give to Thee.  Amen.  LSB 918:1, 3.