Episode Transcript
2 Kings 17-14 is where we left off last week.
2 Kings 17-14.
And just for your learning, whenever you hear the word "text," T-E-X-T, at least in Sunday School,
it is always going to refer to the passage that we started off on.
So if I say go back to your text or look in your text, don't pull your phone out.
Just look in your Bible in whatever verse we're in.
That's kind of like our home base for this lesson.
I thought you might want to know that.
Where we left off last week in chapter 17 verse 14, we had studied the symptoms of having
hardened neck. That's how the Bible described the children of Israel as
their necks were hardened. And then I left you hanging with a question, what
was the greatest sign of a hardened neck? Both in the children of Israel and their
fathers before them and people all the way up to today. And we ran out of time
before we got to answer it. But looking back at our text in verse 14, here is our
answer and I'm going to reread the verse. It says, "Not withstanding they would not
hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not
believe in the Lord their God." That did not believe in the Lord their God and
And that's where we are.
The symptoms of one whose neck is hardened have been discussed in the lessons before
today.
But what's the greatest sign of a hardened neck?
It's unbelief.
That's the touchstone.
That's where it all springs from.
In fact, it could be argued that unbelief is not only the greatest sign of a hardened
neck, but that it's also the cause of a hardened neck, because it explains everything else,
as we'll see throughout this morning.
And whether a hardened neck causes unbelief or unbelief causes a hardened neck, we could
at least conclude that these are two inseparable vices.
You can't say, "Well, you can have one without the other."
You can't.
If you have a hardened neck, then you're not going to believe the truth.
And if you don't believe the truth, you have a hardened neck.
It's unbelief.
Sometimes theologians will debate about whether faith comes before repentance or repentance
comes before faith.
And we can also conclude there that they are inseparable graces just like hardened neck
and unbelief are inseparable vices. You don't have faith without repentance or
repentance without faith. They go together. And so if you say, "Well I'm not
sure which one comes first," don't worry about it. God gives you both. He grants
you the ability to have faith and to repent. Just accept that they come
together and they're from God unless you just want to get carried away with
with spurious arguments with other people and I don't enjoy doing that.
Now don't get anxious and say, "Well, I hardened my neck against the Lord yesterday when I
let a curse word leave my mouth or I had a dirty thought or I stayed home from church
because I didn't feel like going.
Maybe I'm not really in the yoke with Jesus."
You remember we studied the yoke last week.
Listen, the only person who's not in the yoke with Jesus is someone who's an unbeliever.
That person's not in the yoke.
Think about the purpose of a yoke.
Jesus doesn't just save us and say, "Okay, well you should be good to go now."
No, we're in his yoke.
He said to take my yoke upon you.
Even though we're saved, the fact that we live in this flesh, which is corrupt, it's
prone to sin, it wants to sin, it fights against what our spiritual man says is right and wrong.
We need a yoke.
We spoke about the yoke quite a bit last time.
The purpose of the yoke is to guide the oxen in a certain direction.
or if you have them on cows, whatever your beast of burden is.
The yoke slows them down, even brings them to a stop, or the yoke gets them going.
When it's time to plie, it turns them to the left, turns them to the right.
And ox is a beast.
That's all he is.
He's a magnificent beast.
He's a strong beast, but he's still a beast.
And while he's doing, now I want you to picture a Christian, I want you to picture someone
who's an Israelite in your mind here.
When an ox is doing the tedious work of plowing up hardened ground, he doesn't see the future
value of his labors.
He doesn't look out over the horizon and say, "You know, this isn't fun.
This doesn't look like it's very productive, but it's necessary.
The ox doesn't know that his labor makes it possible for the sower to sow the seed into
that plowed up dirt.
You know what happens if you drop seeds on hardened ground.
They either blow away or they're eaten up by the birds, and if they can't have any root
in them if they start sprouting up they're going to die, their little roots are going
to burn up.
That's why we put them down into the ground.
The ox doesn't know that after he plows up that hardened ground and after that seed is
sown by the sower that one day that seed is going to turn into a stalk of wheat or corn
and bear fruit. And that not only will that wheat and corn, when they bear fruit, not
only will they feed many people, but they'll also feed the ox. The Bible says, "Thou shalt
not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn." The laborer is worthy of his reward, speaking
of teachers and pastors. So I want you to think about the person who believes God's
word versus the one who does not. That ox is a beast of burden and he has a job and
that's to plow as the husbandman sees fit. And so while plowing that ox may see or smell
a patch of newly sprouted ryegrass over in the bardage. That's why a lot of cows get
out during certain times of the year is that ryegrass in the barditch looks more
attracted to them than what's on their side of the fence so they find a way out
and I get the phone call it says there's a cow out on the road and I say well
alright I'll go run him back into the fence and you know what he's gonna do
he's gonna come back out there again because he sees that newly sprouted
ryegrass and when it's about that tall out of the ground that's when they like
it best. When it gets this tall they couldn't care anything about it because
it's unless they're starving it's just not as tender, it's not as tasty. It's
kind of like an overripe apple to us or an overripe piece of okra and we
wouldn't want to try to eat that anymore than that ox wants that old rye grass.
But that rye grass looks good to him. It satisfies his immediate desire for food
so the ox begins pulling to the left or pulling to the right and heading for
that patch of ryegrass rather than plowing straight ahead which is what he
was supposed to do. Now a faithful husbandman, a farmer, when that begins to
happen, if that ox heads this way he'll pull the rain on that yoke this way to
try to turn that ox's head in the right direction. And a well-trained ox knows,
"All right, I'll go the way you say. That little gentle nudge is all I need. That
didn't feel too good. You know that yoke pulled up against the back side of my
head. I didn't like that. I'm gonna head this way." That's what Jesus does with us
in his yoke. That's what his spirit does by his word is when we are in his yoke
and only believers are in his yoke. The unbeliever has left the yoke of the
world on him, but the yoke of bondage as we spoke about last week. And by his
spirit through his word, Jesus takes those in the yoke who are pulling to the
right or pulling to the left and he leads them back into the right way. Now
can you imagine what would happen if the husbandman, the farmer, let that ox pull
the plow wherever he wanted? That ox would never plow another straight row in
his life or at least not a useful straight row. He'd go wherever he wanted
and what would he eventually do? He'd get that yoke and that plow tangled up in
fence or in the brush and then he'd be stuck and the predators would get him or
he'd die of thirst or hunger. That's what would happen. So although he thought he
was free, that so-called freedom would end up costing him his life. And the one
Anyone who believes Jesus' words and is in the yoke knows, we know because God's Word
tells us that the flesh will sometimes want to stray away from what the Spirit knows is
right.
We know that.
I'm not under any illusion that because I'm saved I'm never going to sin again.
Now there are some religions that teach that, that once you're saved you're above sin.
You're living above sin.
Well, John told us that that is not true.
If you say you have no sin, you deceive yourself and the truth is not in you.
So we know that this flesh we live in has that desire to pull over this way or to pull
over that way when the Spirit knows that we need to go straight.
And the believer knows that the Spirit of Christ will pull that rain on that yoke and
remind the believer you're headed in the wrong way.
That's what that conviction is.
When the Spirit of God says, "Now Andy, you know what my word says about this.
What you're doing is wrong or what you just said is wrong."
Thank God he doesn't just turn loose of the rains and say, "Well, alright, if you want
to go over there gone, but he gently guides us in the way we should go. He
wants us to go in the right way. And the believer is always glad when Jesus does
this. No Christian, I'm not talking about people who say they're Christians, I mean
somebody who is a believer. No Christian would ever be upset that the Lord pulled
on his reins and caused that little bit of discomfort to get him headed back in
the right direction, maybe even caused him some pain. And if you think, "Well, God
turned loose of Israel because he let them be captive," he didn't turn loose of
the reins. He was still in full control. He had a time and a date and a place in
in mind, or how long and where and to what extent the Israelites would be delivered into the hand of their enemies,
and he had a date of deliverance there too. He didn't turn loose of the reins, but these hard-necked Israelites didn't respond to that pull of the reins.
He'd pull and they'd keep wanting to go this way, and he'd pull and keep wanting to go this way.
And so instead of turning loose to the reins and letting them go where they want,
he said, "All right, that's the way you want to go. We're going to take you over there,
and I'm going to show you that this is the wrong way by delivering you into the hand of your enemies.
And then when you repent and you seek the Lord, then I'm going to guide you back over here where
you should have been all along, and I'm going to punish those enemies who persecuted you."
Sometimes it's hard to understand, isn't it? But God doesn't turn loose of those
reigns. You might say, "Well, Brother Andy, I have strayed really far from God." This
isn't about a little gentle nudge here. This isn't just about one or two bad
decisions I made. I've really strayed away. I know what His Word says and I've
disobeyed it for so long. Now get this, some oxen are more stubborn than others.
And sometimes the pulling of that rain is not enough. So what does that husband
man that farmer have in his possession to get that auctions attention? He's got a
whip and he'll smack that ox on the side where he's headed astray to get him to
come back over here. He's tried pulling the rain and that ox keeps bearing the
left and the husbandman pulls to the right and he gets that whip and he
smacks that oxen on the flank and that oxen says man I don't want any more of
that and straightens up.
That's what that whip is for.
Now a good husband doesn't just whip that ox every time it
goes left or right.
He tries the rain first.
Just like we do with our children, if you're a good
parent and you see your children doing wrong, you say,
hey, don't do that.
Come back over here.
You're going to get run over if you stand there.
And then if that's all you need to do, you don't have to do
anything else.
But if your child doesn't listen to you and stays over there, then you have to get the
whip out and make them understand that your will is going to be enforced.
You know, some children need more whippens than others.
Some oxen needs more whippen than others.
Some only need for the voice to be raised slightly by the mother or the dad.
They're all different.
And some Christians need more chastening from God than others.
So in that kind, remember Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you."
He said, "It's easy."
That word meant kind and gracious.
It didn't mean carefree and I can do what I want.
Kind and gracious.
In that kind and gracious yoke,
don't forget that Jesus also has a scourge, a whip.
And according to Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 6, he chastens the ones he loves, every one of them.
Hebrews 12, 6, it says, "Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth; even every son he receiveth."
Do you believe what Christ has done for you at the cross?
Then you're not one whose neck is hardened in unbelief like the Israelites in our study.
So don't get this mixed up and begin doubting your salvation
because the Lord has had to pull hard on the rain and scourge you
and deliver you into some affliction to get your attention.
Don't think, "Well, I must be an unbeliever."
No. Only the believers are in Jesus' yoke, and that's all of them.
If a man has 10 children, he's going to have some who are compliant,
He's going to have some who are not compliant, some who are harder to train, some who are
easier to train, but they're still all his children, aren't they?
Now I want to stop and point something out to you that we've learned over the last few
months in these lessons, kind of the big picture.
And it has to do with the senses.
Do you remember what led King A has, the King of Judah, to commit abomination by replacing
the brazen altar that God had ordained with the so-called great altar from Damascus?
He had gone to Damascus, Syria, and the Bible says there, and we've already studied it in
2 Kings 1611, it says, "And he saw an altar that was at Damascus. He was where he
shouldn't be, so he saw what he shouldn't see." How about that for something to take
home with you? "He was where he shouldn't be, so he saw something he shouldn't see."
Now the sin of Israel and Judah continued and the unbelief that was in
most of the people was evident in that they would not hear the Word of the Lord
as verse 14 tells us. So in seeing what they shouldn't see they refused to hear
what they should hear. And if we keep our eyes tied to what God's Word says, not
just looking at it but with the attitude of doing it, of obeying it, if we keep our
eyes tied to what God's Word says, then we won't go where we shouldn't go. And we
We won't see what we shouldn't see,
and we will hear what we ought to hear.
So here's a way to remember that.
This is a good practical application.
Being faithful to God's word
corrects vision loss and hearing problems.
It does.
How about that?
Let's look at verse 15 now.
Continuing with these unbelieving Israelites,
"And they rejected his statutes," that is God's statutes,
"and his covenant that he made with their fathers,
and his testimonies which he testified against them.
And they followed vanity and became vain,
and went after the heathen that were round about them,
concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should not do like them."
I like that the words in this verse follow the words in verse 14 logically
because it shows us that because of unbelief the hard-necked children of Israel did the following things.
starting off with they rejected his statutes.
A statute is a law.
It's an ordinance.
It's something that is definite and absolute.
And immediately I think of the difference between God's law and man's law.
Every other year the Texas legislature meets and passes new laws and changes old laws.
But this will never happen with God's Word.
God doesn't convene a legislature on odd numbered years to decide if the Bible needs to be updated.
There's no such thing.
Psalm 119, verse 89.
Psalm 119, verse 89.
"Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven."
And that word settled means it stands.
It's established.
It never gets knocked down.
Do you remember the Philistine god named Dagon?
They had a huge statue of Dagon in Samson's day.
And before Samson ever pushed the pillars on that temple and collapsed it on everyone
and killed them all, including himself, God had made that statue of Dagon fall down on
his face.
And that's the way it goes when it's not established according to God's Word.
It gets knocked down.
And then it fell again in Samson's day.
It didn't hold the building up, did it?
It didn't save the lives of those Philistines who believed in Dagon.
Settled truth is the only real truth.
The rest of it that's called truth is relative, meaning it depends.
It's situational and it's based on ever-changing opinions.
Something that may have been respectfully said at one point was, "Well, follow the science."
Now, it's a big joke, isn't it?
When you hear that, "Follow the science."
Oh, really?
which trail shall the science go today that it didn't go down yesterday.
Two plus two is four and it always equals four.
That's never changed.
We don't have to worry about it changing even if the liberals tell us it's okay for students
to come up with a different answer than four.
Well it's not okay and don't ever agree that it's okay.
for something that seems to be small like that, settled truth is the only truth that
matters.
People whose necks are hardened resist statutes.
They resist absolute truth, both earthly and spiritual.
They don't want to be told what to do.
When I stop someone for speeding, I get one of several answers from them.
Most of the time people already know they were driving too fast.
Sometimes they'll say, "Well, I didn't think I was going 80.
I thought I was going 75."
And they're in a 60-mile-an-hour zone.
I'll say, "Well, that's speeding, isn't it?"
Yeah.
They were just in a hurry, not paying attention, and usually late to wherever they were going.
But some people say something like this.
I think it's ridiculous that the speed limit is 65.
It's an interstate.
I should be able to drive faster than that if I want to.
Did you know we have a tollway in central Texas
where the speed limit is 85 miles an hour?
Don't burn your gas up going down there to try it out.
It's not as cool as it sounds.
But guess what?
People still speed on that highway.
Some people have hardened necks
when it comes to the speed limit.
They don't like being told how fast they can drive.
And even though speed laws are for the safety
of all motorists, not just them, all motorists,
they don't care that the likelihood
of being in a fatal crash doubles
from 50 to 60 miles an hour,
and it doubles again from 60 to 70 miles an hour.
I know I worked those crashes.
And when it comes to God's word,
he has given that to all people,
just like the speed limit is given to all motorists
who drive vehicles on public roads.
God's given his word to the people
for their admonition and learning.
And he's done it so that mankind may come to know the Lord,
the one who formed man out of the dust of the earth and gave him life
and had mercy on his unrighteousness
and sent his son to die to redeem
man from sin.
Just like two plus two equals four is a statute,
an absolute,
so the gospel of Jesus Christ
is a statute. It's an absolute.
And the unbeliever
as Israel
first rejects this statute.
So it follows that he'll reject any or all of God's statutes.
If a man or a woman doesn't believe the record
that God gave of his son, why would he believe
the record that God gave of anything?
And we see in our text that another thing Israel rejected
is God's covenant there in verse 15.
They rejected his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers.
I can just hear them now saying, "Well, that was with them."
We didn't have any say in that.
Why should we have to go by a contract that God made with our fathers?
The first time we read the word "covenant," the English word "covenant," is there in
Genesis chapter 6 and verse 18. Genesis 6 verse 18 where God told Noah, this is
before he sent the flood, he said, "But with thee I will establish my covenant
and thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons
wives with thee." And then when you move down to Genesis chapter 9 verses 12
through 15, Genesis 9, 12 through 15, you see what that covenant was. And here it is.
And God said, "This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every
living creature that is with you for perpetual generations. I do set my bow in the cloud,"
that's the real rainbow, by the way, "and it shall be for a token of a covenant between
me and the earth, and it shall come to pass when I bring a cloud over the earth, that
the bow shall be seen in the cloud.
And I will remember my covenant which is between me and you, and every living creature of all
flesh, and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh."
Have you ever thought about this when it comes to that rainbow?
The last time that Noah and his family had seen it cloud up and start raining was when
God flooded the earth.
And so that's the big story.
When they get off the ark and they start reproducing, having children, and they tell their children
about that, well, can you imagine how they felt the next time after they got off the
ark, the next time they saw it cloud up and start to rain?
Without that rainbow, they would have thought, "Oh, no.
He's going to do it again.
We're going to have to get right back in the ark and shut the door.
He'll seal us in there and we're going to be in there another several months.
And so God said, "There's going to be more clouds, but I'm not going to judge you this
way anymore.
I'm going to put a rainbow."
So when you see the clouds, you're going to see the rainbow because when you see the clouds,
you're going to be afraid I'll flood the earth again.
But when you see the rainbow, you're going to remember that I made a covenant with you
not to do that.
And every time the clouds came out and every time the rainbows showed up, the people should
have been reminded about how God is faithful.
And they could tell their children, "You know what?
Since we got off that ark, it's been 30, 40 years.
And we've seen a lot of clouds.
And every time there's been a rainbow and it didn't flood the earth, God is faithful
over and over and over again."
So you think about all that this covenant embraces and that these people in Israel rejected
it.
If you read about covenants between God and man, what you will see throughout the Bible
is that God is the one who establishes covenants with man.
It's not the other way around.
He's also the only one who keeps covenants.
He commands people to keep His covenant, not to establish their covenant with Him.
God doesn't sit around and say, "Boy, I sure hope mankind comes to their senses one day
and establishes a righteous covenant with me and then keeps it.
If they'll keep their side, I'll keep mine."
I'm glad it doesn't depend on our faithfulness or there wouldn't be any covenants that were
kept.
You may have heard someone say something foolish like, "You know, I made a deal with God years
ago."
Well, whatever is said after that is foolishness.
I made a deal with God years ago.
What is a deal?
Here's what a deal is.
The price on that brand new 2023 Ford King Ranch Edition pickup may be $80,000.
And you don't have that figure in mind when you go to buy it.
You're thinking more like $60,000 is what you're willing to pay.
So somewhere in there, you and that salesman come to an agreement and let's say you both
agree that you'll buy it for $72,000.
That's called a deal.
What does that mean the salesman had to do?
He had to come off of what he said it's worth.
What does that mean you had to do?
You had to come off of what you say it's worth.
So when somebody says, "I'm going to make a deal with God," what they're saying is,
"I'm going to try to get God to come off of his word a little bit, just a little bit."
Now that's dishonorable.
That's blasphemy.
We don't make deals with God.
Mankind is sinful.
Maybe you've even said that before.
We'll just don't do it anymore.
We don't keep covenants.
We ought to.
We're obligated to, but we don't.
That's why we have these lengthy contracts.
If you want to get a good migraine going, just read a real estate contract.
First of all, it's in that number, the smallest font you can get and still call it print.
And it's long, and then they put it on these legal pages.
And you read that, and by the time you're done, you need some medicine.
You need to go lay down.
Why do we have these thick law books?
You ever walked into a law library at a courthouse?
books all over the shelf floor to ceiling probably millions of pages if you add
them all up because man doesn't keep covenants that's why why is this no good
why can't brother Doug and I just shake hands on something and that be it and
then you shake hands with her own something and somebody else shakes hands
and says that's the deal because we don't keep covenants very well we still
don't get it right. So whether you try to make your own covenant with God a deal
or you outright reject any covenant he's given, you're wrong. All of God's
covenants, which are really the gospel covenant expressed in different periods
of the Bible, teaching us the same thing in different settings, but those all
benefit both God and us when they're kept. So this begs the question if God is
the only one who keeps covenants then how can he punish mankind for keeping
that which he cannot keep? How could he punish Israel in our study? If you want
enrich your biblical knowledge about covenants. I suggest you read and study
Hebrews chapter 8 and 9. Brother Fulton taught through the book of Hebrews in
2017. You know how I know that? I have notes. I have extensive notes and they're
dated and they're in order and I went back and looked it up just so I could
say that this morning. And I'm not sure we were on Facebook then, but the lessons
may have been recorded on periscope.
And so I'm not going to expound it in much detail here, but I will tell you that Hebrews
teaches us that Christ did that which the high priest of Israel could not do when the
high priest went into the holy of holies in the presence of the ark of the covenant.
The high priest went in there.
God had made a covenant with Israel and the high priest represented the Lord Jesus Christ
as God's representative to the people and as the people's representative back to God.
And even though the high priest had many qualifications, he couldn't have blemishes, he couldn't have
this and that, he had to come from a certain family and do certain things, he wasn't allowed
to touch dead bodies or to grieve as you and I grieve when our loved ones die, all of that,
he was still a sinner.
And Christ, not with the blood of a substitute animal but with his own blood, presented himself
on our behalf and he fulfilled our end of the covenant that we couldn't fulfill.
You see the high priest had to go into that Holy of Holies once a year and he had to do
it every year, year after year.
But Jesus with his own blood as Hebrews chapter 9 explains to you appeared in the presence
of God for us, that is on our behalf, having obtained our redemption through the shedding
of His blood.
And by doing that, He fulfilled God's covenant on our behalf.
God kept His end of the covenant.
We couldn't, we didn't, but Jesus stepped in and said, "I'll do it."
That's why He was sent.
In other words, God fulfilled both sides of that covenant, both His side and our side,
because we could not do so.
Now the specific covenant given here to Israel, I read you the first use of the English word
covenant back in Genesis, but the specific covenant being talked about here in our text,
The one that Israel rejected in King Hosea's day is found in Deuteronomy chapter 29.
It's found in Exodus as well, but Deuteronomy 29, and there are several verses there, pretty
much the whole chapter.
But I'm going to read you verses 12 and 13.
And it says, "Thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God and into his oath, which
the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day, that he may establish thee today for a people
unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God as he hath said unto thee, and as he
hath sworn unto thy fathers to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."
And we're told in our text that Israel rejected this covenant.
What was the covenant he made with Abraham?
He said, "And these shall all nations of the earth be blessed," or all families of the
earth be blessed.
Not just the Jews, but the Gentiles too.
All of those who put their faith in Jesus.
Now besides God's statutes and God's covenant, what else did unbelieving Israel reject?
Look back in your text.
said in the middle of the verse, "And his testimonies which he testified against them."
His testimonies which he testified against them.
That word testimonies is also translated as the word witness.
In fact, the first time the Hebrew word is used in the Bible is in Exodus chapter 16.
God had given the children of Israel manna to gather for six days and eat of it, and
the seventh day was a day they were supposed to stay home and eat on what they gathered
during those six days.
God had provided plenty for them.
And rather than the word testimony, the word witness is used in the text I'm about to read
you which is found in Exodus 16. I'm going to read verses 32 through 35. Listen for the
word witness. Exodus 16, 32 through 35 if you're taking notes. "And Moses said, 'This
is the thing which the Lord commandeth. Fill an omer of it that is manna to be kept for
your generations that they may see, underline those words, that they may see
the bread wherewith I have fed, underline that, I have fed you in the wilderness.
When I brought you forth, you can underline that, I brought you forth from the land of
Egypt. And Moses said unto Aaron, "Take a pot and put an omer full of manna therein
and lay it up before the Lord to be kept for your generations." As the Lord
commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the testimony, the witness, to be
kept. And the children of Israel did eat manna 40 years until they came to a land
inhabited. They did eat manna until they came unto the borders of the land of
Canaan. I told you the word witness was used in there, it's the word testimony.
I'm sorry, it's the same Hebrew word though, which I can't pronounce or I'd
say it both times. What a passage, especially when we learn what God's
testimony, what his witness was to the children of Israel. This manna along with
the law and Aaron's rod that budded were the three things that were kept in
in the Ark of the Covenant. In the Mercy Seat sitting on top of it.
You find that in Hebrews 9.4, by the way.
And in those verses, God gave the succeeding generations of Israel, the
ones who would come after Aaron,
a witness, and it said, "That they may see."
The breads of witness, that they may see.
And what they would see is,
I have fed. I have fed. That is God fed his people. What they would see is that
the children of Israel did eat. That they may see that I have fed the children of
Israel did eat. They ate what God fed them. That's the witness God gave to the
children of Israel. He led them out of Egypt, he gave them bread, and they did
eat until they came to the Promised Land. He never left them starving. And going
back to our passage, look again at what unbelieving Israel had done. They had
rejected God's testimony and although the manna was a witness for them to see
the bread which was a picture of Jesus Christ wherewith God had fed them they
would not look they would not see so they would not eat and although the
children of Israel did eat of the bread in the wilderness for their sustenance
the unbelievers in the text would not oh they may have eaten physical bread but
they didn't know the lesson they didn't heed the lesson that God taught them
about this bread. They rejected God's testimonies from the witness of the
manna to the witness of the prophets and seers. And we'll expound that a little
bit more when we gather again next week. Let's pray. Father, we're so thankful for
the truth of your Word. Thank you, Lord, that above all of your attributes you're
holy and you want your people to be holy. And so you teach us exactly what your
word says about holiness and we thank you that although we can't attain that
in our flesh that Jesus has attained it for us and that we'll be pleasing to you
when we're walking led by his spirit in obedience to your word. Help us.
