You can have too much of a good thing. Actually, in scripture, sometimes good things eventually become bad things. When a good thing stops, that may signify that God wants to do something new in your life.
I’m asking you to trust God when something that’s been good in your life suddenly stops.
It’s Gonna Stop
I don’t mean to use poor grammar, but you need to know that God’s provisions often end.
I want you to think of Old Testament Israel as an example. There was a time when they were in…
Slavery.
God did many amazing things to bring His people out of Egypt at the appointed time.
Slavery stopped. God’s people now lived, breathed, and worked directly for the Almighty God. They had no taskmasters controlling them. They were free.
If you’re familiar with scripture, you know the people weren’t always happy that their slavery had stopped.
Here’s what they said in Exodus Chapter Sixteen:
Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full
Exodus 16:3
That’s right. Slavery ended, but the time came when God’s people wished they were still slaves.
In the Bible, Egypt often represents the world. Bondage, of course, represents sin.
In Israel’s case, deliverance represented salvation.
The wilderness was just a distraction. God’s people were a brief journey from the land God promised them.
Do you miss slavery?
Where are you now? Perhaps you’ve accepted Christ as your Savior, but you now feel lost. You feel alone. You’ve left your sinful life and the world behind, but now you’re afraid of the unknown, and you want to go back.
Don’t be like the Israelites who wished they were still slaves.
Even in the modern world, not too long ago, a slogan existed that said,
Better Red than dead.
People in America thought that they’d be better off living with the brutalities of communism than losing their life in the fight for freedom.
Look around you: people still think the same way.
They’d rather obey the evil people who run our government and the United Nations than risk confrontation or inconvenience.
- They’ll put that mask on.
- They’ll take those dangerous fake vaccines.
- They’ll give up their freedoms for the fake pandemic.
- They’ll gladly accept the Mark of the Beast, so they can keep their job, take vacations, and buy food.
It’s easier to get along with our oppressors than it is to stand against tyranny.
It’s easier to go along with the crowd than to stand up for your God-given rights.
Even commercial religion feels that way. I believe that many churches in existence today will thrive under the Antichrist. I’m willing to suggest that most modern religion is anti-Christ.
I guess I want you to stay out of slavery. I want you to find God and have a true relationship with Him. I don’t want you to feel comfortable living in the world and living with the worlds religion.
Don’t give in. If you’ve accepted the New Birth, you don’t belong in slavery. Sure, looking back, sin might seem more comfortable. Going along with the world causes a lot less conflict, than following Christ.
Let this serve as a warning to you:
Egypt looked good to Israel in their rear-view mirror.
But slavery ended. God had something new for His people.
God has something new for you.
Don’t look back.
next, I’d like to mention that…
Manna
…stopped.
Let’s give the people the benefit of the doubt. They were in Egypt for 430 years. Satan ingrained Egypt inside the people. They had a limited, worldly, carnal culture and mindset.
God got the people out of Egypt, but Egypt was still in the people.
Is the world still in you?
God may have delivered you from the bondage of sin, but it’s up to you to allow Him to transform you.
Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Romans 12:2
I’m telling you to take your salvation seriously. If you don’t, you’ll die in the wilderness, just like the Israelites did.
Adopt a new mindset.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus
Philippians 2:5
The ways of Egypt doomed God’s people in the wilderness.
Don’t let the ways of the world keep you from receiving God’s best for your life.
Getting back to the manna….
We’re cutting Israel some slack. Egypt was engrained in them. They were now in a new life. They were existing in a new setting. They were living by new rules. We can understand why they felt unnerved.
So did God.
If I were God, I’d probably wipe those people out. I’d say, “I just did all these miracles to redeem these people from slavery, and now they want to go back.
How ungrateful they are! I’ll show them!”
Fortunately, I’m not God.
The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.
Psalms 145:8
God, in His mercy, provided manna for His people.
Here’s what He told Moses:
Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.
Exodus 16:4
God will provide. He did a great miracle. He provided His people with food in the wilderness.
I want you to notice that God’s provision always comes with a test.
When God miraculously provides for you, don’t take it for granted. I want you to respond properly. If you don’t pass the test, you will limit what God does for you in the future.
An entire generation of Israelites died in the wilderness because they failed the test. Don’t let that happen to you.
i’m trying to explain to you…
The purpose of the manna
Let’s look to scripture, in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter number eight, where you read an historical account of the manna.
Here’s how Moses explained what happened to God’s people
[God] humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.
Deuteronomy 8:3
God had a purpose in the hunger. He had a purpose in satisfying that hunger.
I’m asking you to learn the lesson of the manna. Learn to depend on God for everything you need.
Interestingly,
The manna stopped.
There’s a lot to say about the manna. For example, God continued to feed the people, even when they rebelled against Him.
God is so patient. God is so gracious. God is so merciful!
Anyway, the day came when the manna stopped.
The people went outside to look for it and gather it just as they did every other day of their life, but there was none.
For most of the Israelites, this was the first day they had ever experienced without manna.
As we will soon find out, God has something much better for them.
But first, I want you to notice there’s something else is gonna stop:
Reproach
This coincides with the manna.
Here’s what God says after Israel had crossed over the Jordan.
This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you.
Joshua 5:9
I’m telling you that if you feel reproach about where you’ve been in the past, or what you’ve done in the past, or the things that you’ve experienced, the time will come when the reproach will stop.
It took 40 years and many people dying before God’s people lost the reproach of Egypt.
How long will it take before you lose the reproach of the world?
For you, the reproach could stop today.
First John Chapter Two, Verse Fifteen tells us,
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1 John 2:15
It’s interesting to see that…
When the reproach stops, the manna stops.
For 40 years, God’s people wandered in the wilderness eating manna. All the while, the surrounding nations knew God’s people only as “the slaves that came out of Egypt.”
In the eyes of the world, the Israelites were low class. Things worsened when the heathen saw Israel rebel against God and suffer God’s judgment. Israel lived with the reproach of Egypt.
They were slaves. As long as they have that mentality, they’d make nothing of themselves.
What about you? Isn’t it time for you to change your reputation. Stop being known as a former addict, a former criminal, a former pervert, a former adulterer…
God wants to remove from you the reproach of Egypt.
But, when He does, expect the manna to stop.
At first, you might worry that the provision is gonna stop. You might fear losing your identity as a victim or perpetrator or being less than good enough.
The good news is that God has something new for you.
I’m telling you that…
It’s gonna start!
Slavery stopped. The reproach stopped. The manna stopped.
But, look what started:
Better started…
God’s people started receiving the fullness of their destiny.
First, they got…
Better food.
Here’s what the Bible says:
They did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day.
Joshua 5:11
Things got a lot better, didn’t they?
Let’s look at the next verse:
The manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.
Joshua 5:12
Can I tell you that “the fruit of the land of Canaan” is much better than manna?
I also want you to know they also got a…
Better relationship
with God.
After eating better food, Joshua saw the mighty city of Jericho.
Israel faced a bigger obstacle than anything they had faced before.
But do you know what? Joshua got to meet Jesus Christ, the Son of God, live and in person!
After staring at Jericho for a while,
[Joshua] lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?
And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?
Joshua 5:13-14
The new blessings came with a new experience. Joshua, the leader of Israel, had a fresh experience with a holy God. He received a fresh call to:
Holiness.
Do you remember when I preached to you about Moses and the knowledge of the holy? He stood on holy ground at the burning bush.
Now, Joshua has a similar experience:
The captain of the LORD’S host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.
Joshua 5:15
When God’s provision in your life seems to end, get ready for better things.
But, God’s going to expect more from you.
Holiness is gonna start. Are you ready?
If you’re not willing to take off your shoes, when God tells you to, you won’t enjoy the life of victory God wants you to enjoy.
