Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #4 of Genesis, chapter 22. We are continuing to read the first two verses, in Genesis 22:1-2

And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

I will stop reading there. We have been discussing the word “tempt,” as God did tempt Abraham. That led us into a discussion concerning what the Bible has to say about the “day of temptation” in the wilderness. That “day of temptation” was actually a 40-year period, and we saw how it fits with other Biblical language which relates to the time period for the unfolding of Judgment Day. And Judgment Day began with the churches as judgment began at the house of God, according to 1Peter 4:17. Judgment must begin at the house of God, and it continued for exactly 23 years, and then it transitioned into the time of judgment on the world. Now we are looking at a prolonged judgment time, with the Biblical evidence pointing to 2033. There is much evidence pointing to that year, but it also fits the overall description of the historical parable of Israel’s experience. First, there was the deliverance from Egypt and their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, that “day of temptation,” which was followed by their entrance into the Promised Land of Canaan.

We have a similar connection in our time. We had the deliverance in the Jubilee Year of 1994, which was also the year the judgment officially began on the corporate church, and then a time of 40 inclusive years that goes to 2033. If we are correct in our understanding of the Biblical evidence, it will be followed with entrance into the Promised Land of the new heaven and new earth.

Also, in our last study we discussed another similarity. God had kept “manna” in reserve and He sealed up the Word until the time of the end, as He told Daniel. In the same chapter, He said that knowledge would increase, and the implication is that the Word would be unsealed at the time of the end. God would bring forth knowledge and understanding in His Word of certain things. It says in Daniel 12:9-11 that the wise would understand, but none of the wicked would understand the information that had been sealed up and then unveiled or revealed to the people of God. It would only be understandable to the elect, but not to the non-elect, the unsaved people of the earth.

Of course, we know the manner in which God sealed His Word – it was hidden in parables. That same principal where the wise will understand and none of the wicked will understand is what Jesus said in Matthew 13 when He spoke to His disciples, who represent the people of God. “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.” Therefore, the unsaved will not know these mysteries, as God has hidden truth in the Bible. And when He brings it to the light and reveals truth, that is the revelation of the mystery or the revealing of the parable. That is what He has been doing throughout the Great Tribulation and throughout the Day of Judgment. And this is very similar to the “manna” that the Israelites fed upon during their 40-year wilderness sojourn during their “day of temptation,” a day of judgment for Israel. They were nourished physically. Yes – it was physical bread they could eat to keep them alive. They were fed with this miraculous bread that God caused to fall from heaven, and it would be lying as dew on the ground. They would pick it up and prepare it, living off it every day. Of course, it never fell on the Sabbath Day. The day before they would gather enough for two days, and God always made provision. We know (because the Bible tells us) that the “manna” was pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ, and Christ is the Word of God made flesh. Let us read from John 6. We could read a lot here, but let us start right after the Lord performed the miracle of the bread, and it was appropriate that a discussion of “manna” would result. It says in John 6:26-35:

Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Now let us go down to John 6:41:

The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.

Now, again, there is a similarity because after the deliverance from Egypt the Jews were constantly murmuring as they were going through that “day of temptation.” Again, and again, and again, the Bible records that they murmured because they had no food. Yes – it is a serious thing when you do not have food and you do not have drink. But keep in mind what they had just witnessed. It is not as if God did not reveal Himself by showing His power and His might to them in outstanding ways, because God had just delivered them from a long, cruel period of bondage after they had been in Egypt for 430 years. Egypt was the greatest and most powerful nation on the earth at that time, and God destroyed them. He brought them to their knees. He destroyed the land of Egypt. He destroyed the army of Egypt and Pharaoh in the Red Sea. The Israelites saw miracle, after miracle when the Lord sent Moses to Pharaoh to command him to let His people go. When Pharaoh hardened his heart, then God prescribed a judgment of frogs, or lice, or water turning to blood, or darkness. These were not things that were magician’s tricks. Everyone knew that this was the hand of God. But then Israel was entrapped in the wilderness and they began their murmuring then because the Egyptians were pursuing them. At that point, they were complaining already, until Moses told them to go forward and the sea opened up and they crossed the Red Sea as on dry ground.

How often does that happen in a person’s lifetime? They personally witnessed it. It was not a cinematic trick like we can see today in television and movies. Yes – we are so accustomed to that, and we think it is nothing, but it is deceptive imagery. None of that is real. None of the things we see in these fictional stories has any real power or might behind them. It is simply using photography and movie cameras in certain ways.

But all this was done right before the eyes of the Israelites. There was no trickery or magic involved. It was a real sea and it was a real army that was “hot on their trail,” but the Lord parted the sea and it stood like walls on either side. Tell me, who could deny that this was the hand of God? It was the work of God. God did it. They walked through the sea and the ground beneath them was not even damp – it was dry ground. They made it safely across, and then God showed His glorious hand even more by causing the water to collapse upon the enemy and they drowned and lay dead upon the seashore, including Pharaoh.

Now they have gone a little way into the wilderness. Yes – it was a hot sun and they had very little food, and they had no water for such a mighty nation. But I do not care how long it had been. I do not care if it was a week, two weeks or a month later. You do not murmur and doubt God and complain. If anything, you turn to God and you thank Him for the deliverance which He wrought. You know He graciously delivered you to save your life, so you would pray, “O, Lord, at this point I do not know your will, but I pray it is not your will that we perish in the wilderness in this way. You have done so much for us, so you will certainly feed us. You will certainly provide drink for us. You will care for us, O, Lord. We can trust in this.”

I am sure the true people of God did so. The true people of God are spiritual Israel. There were spiritual Jews in the Old Testament, as well as in the New Testament, because a spiritual Jew is one God has saved and given a new heart and a new spirit. He has “circumcised” their hearts and they are true Jews in God’s sight, and they would not have been murmuring and complaining. But the problem was that there was a vast number that were not true Jews. They were descendants of Abraham, but they had never become born again.

Maybe some waited an hour or a day before they started complaining, but it was not long before they put the glorious works God had performed and the mighty acts He had shown them right out of their minds, simply because their foreheads were getting a little sunburned, or their stomachs were starting to growl a little bit, or their lips were chapped. They desired food and drink. For the natural man, his natural desires supersede anything spiritual he may know or any truth of God. He must satisfy his natural desires, so he complains. He moans, and he murmurs. And that is what happened again, and again, and again, as God brought them through a severe testing ground for 40 years.

The reason they wandered for 40 years was because the spies that were sent to search out the land of Canaan had come back with an evil report. And, again, there was more doubting the magnificent, mighty and all-powerful God that had destroyed the greatest army in the world, the Egyptian army. But they were worried about a few Anakims, a few giants, in the land of Canaan, a relatively small land compared to Egypt. You see, that is the reason God was wrathful and furious at the spies for their evil report. They should have come back like Joshua and Caleb did, saying, “We are well able to go up and take them” because Joshua and Caleb were not looking at their army of slaves, but they were looking at the God that was with them, as that Bible verse says: “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”

The people of God know this. They realize because they can see with eyes of faith in the spiritual realm that their all-powerful and loving God is for them, and not against them; so they see God as on their side and, therefore, they do not fear man. They do not fear what men in great numbers with their puny powers might do against them. It is all in the soul of the one that God has saved, and they trust in the Lord and do not lean upon their own understanding, whereas those that God has not saved do not trust in the Lord. They do lean upon their own understanding, and they trust their own understanding far above the things of God, the things of the Bible and God Himself. They trust in their worrying, their fretting and their fears. They trust in their doubts. They lean upon these things and they try to find earthly solutions and natural-minded ways out of their dilemmas. “Let us go back to Egypt,” was their constant refrain. But I better slow down because I am getting away from the direction I wanted this study to go.

We want to look at the “manna,” and we have seen the Jews were murmuring because Jesus said that He was the bread that came down from heaven. Then He said, “Murmur not among yourselves.” Then I want to read verse 44 because it is such a wonderful verse. It says in John 6:44:

No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Then it says down in John 6:48-52:

I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

I will make just a quick comment. We can see that Jesus is speaking in spiritual terms, but they are listening and understanding His Words in what way? In natural terms. He is speaking about “eating His flesh,” and they are thinking of the flesh of His body. They are asking this question: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

It says in John 6:53-64:

Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.

Then it says in John 6:66-69:

From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.

What did Jesus do here? What did He do with this dialogue as He preached to these people? He had just performed the great miracle of multiplying the loaves of bread. He only had a handful of bread and a couple of fish, and He fed several thousand and they followed Him. Jesus said it was because they ate the bread and were filled. You see, they liked this idea that they did not have to work if He can miraculously bring forth food to eat. Then they do not need to make money to buy bread. It was a novelty and a strange thing, so they followed Him. Then Christ started comparing Himself to the “manna” in the wilderness, saying He was the bread from heaven that came down from above. Then He instructed His disciples (which could have been a a good number of people among the thousands) that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood. What did Jesus do here? He began to speak to them in the deeper spiritual language of the kingdom of heaven. He began to talk to them in the heavenly dialect of a spiritual Gospel.

In other words, God normally hides these things in the Bible. People do not like the Bible and they do not want to spend time in the Bible and, yet, God designed the Bible so there is a “natural” layer to it – there is plain, literal language for natural people, so they will not feel too alienated. In other words, God packaged the Bible in a way where He placed the deeper spiritual teaching of His kingdom in the Word, but He packaged it in a natural way in historical situations we can read about in the Bible. Many natural-minded people like the story of David and Goliath or Jonah and the whale. You see, God gave the history of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the history of the exodus and the history of the judges and the kings. God gave the Gospel within these things and He packaged it so the natural man could handle it and have something to hold on to, like the grammar, the moral teachings and the historical aspects of the Word of God. And, yet, the real message of the Bible is much deeper. You must dig for it, as for hidden treasure.

But, here, Christ is bringing it right to the surface. He is bringing it to them in spiritual language. He is not giving any definitions…well, actually, He does when He says that His flesh must be eaten, and His blood must be drunk, but He is not giving too much explanation. He did not say, “This is an allegory.” He did not say, I am going to speak a parable to you.” He did not say that and, as a result, they murmured: “This is an hard saying.” Then it said, “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”

You see, a natural-minded person is really troubled by a spiritual Word. And Jesus said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” But they were disturbed by it. They cannot grab ahold of it because it is on another level they are “dead” to, because they have no eyes to see it or ears to hear it, so it makes them very uncomfortable and they just want to get away from it. But, you see, this is the “bread” of God. This is what the “manna” was pointing to, the miraculous bread. We see the discomfort of the disciples. They were not scribes and Pharisees, but they were just regular Jews that saw a miracle and followed Christ for a little while.

Lord willing, as we continue in this study to look at “manna” and the Israelites experience with it in the wilderness, we will see how much the Jews in the wilderness hated that bread. There may have been natural reasons for hating it, but, spiritually, it was because of what it represented.