This is the Baimal Podcast with Marty Solomon. I'm his co-host, Brent Billings. Today we are exploring the next two tests of God's people on their weight amount Sinai, in Exodus 16 and 17.

And again we do have a presentation for today, so get that opened up and follow along with us.

Yeah, so don't forget where this story falls. We've set the story up in the book of Genesis. We'd have a preface where God told us that creation was good. That's what he thinks about it. That matters because he's one that made it.

He's one that is king or master of the universe as the Jewish blessing says. So what he thinks is important. He thinks it's good.

Vites is creation to trust it. Finds a family in the introduction Genesis 12 through 50 of Ram, Metsak, Jekko, Yosef. This is a family that although they struggle and although it's difficult, they learn how to trust that story.

They learn how to trust in God's provision. They learn how to trust in God's acceptance and his love. And that sets the story up for us. And then the narrative of God begins.

In the book of Exodus, the narrative starts. We've called the narrative a tale of two kingdoms. And we are always going to have these two narratives that are juxtaposed together.

We're going to have two kingdoms. We're going to have empire and Shalom. And empire is going to be built off of fear. Empires going to be built off of coercion. Empires going to be built off of a particular kind of stick.

The outstretched arm and the upraised stick of Pharaoh trying to enforce his will upon others. And instead we have the kingdom of Shalom, which is the shepherd's stick of God leading with his voice.

And trying to teach his people how to trust his voice. And instead of fear, it's about trust and invitation. And these are two different worlds. And so God's rescued his people out of empire, out of Egypt. And now they're on their way to Sinai.

Where they're going to figure out what it means to follow God. They're going to figure out what obedience looks like. But on the way, as we talked about last week, God is testing his people along the way.

God has three tests because he wants to know, according to Deuteronomy 8, he wants to experience to Yadah and the Hebrew. He wants to experience what's in their heart.

And so he puts them through three tests. He tests their heart. And he tests their soul. And he tests their might. He tests their Levov. He tests their Nafech. And he tests their Meyud.

And we're going to talk about the last two. So last week we talked about how he tested their heart. Where was that test at, Mr. Brent?

At Mara. At Mara. The waters of Mara, where the waters were bitter. And God was trying to teach them to wait on his word, on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God to just trust that God will give you what you need.

Just be obedient and follow the voice. Follow the commands. Follow the invitation of God. And he will lead you to a place like Aleem, if you'll only let him.

So that was test number one. And they got to show God where they were at. And that was their gift to him. And I think a lot of times we look at that as a passer of fail. And we look at that and we go, boy, they failed. They failed the test.

But that's not what the test was about. Yeah, sure. And some respects they failed. But in a lot of respects, that's exactly what God wanted to experience with them. And he was able to give them his gift, which was teaching them a lesson.

So now we move on. So we go to Exodus 16. So we'll pick up the whole Isra Light assembly.

I'm in verse one, set out from Aleem and came to the desert of sin, which is between Aleem and Sinai. And on the 15th day of the second month, after they had come out of Egypt and the desert, the whole community grumbled against Moshe and a heron.

And the Isra Light said to them, if only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt, there we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted.

But you have brought us out into the desert to starve this entire assembly to death. So they're grumbling again. So part of us says, they haven't learned a thing.

...