Man ate the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance. Sermons
God is represented as being "grieved" because his people failed to trust him, and depend upon his help. The good man is troubled when those whom he loves fail to trust him. We love to be relied on. We do our noblest and our best for those who will confide in us. And from ourselves we may learn to think of God aright. The best in man is the suggestion of the truest thoughts we can have of God. Our Lord represented the attitude of God towards us when he said to the ruler, "Only believe [trust]; all things are possible to him that believeth." If God calls us to trust him fully, and is grieved with us when we fail to trust him fully, the question arises, "Has he made such trust possible and reasonable?" We may confidently say he has, in view of what we know he is; what relations he bears to his people; and what things he has been doing in all ages for his people. I. IN VIEW OF WHAT WE KNOW HE IS. Whatever side of his revelation of himself to us we may study, the impression left on us is that he is infinitely trustworthy. Take his Creatorship, involving the reliance of all existence on his upholding. Take his independence, as indicated in the term, "I am," given to Moses as a substitute for a name. Take his holiness, as the indication of absolute perfection in character. We want, in those on whom we can rely, power - we must know that they can; independence - we must be sure that they are above being biassed; and character - we must be sure of their response, in feeling, to our need. On this line it may be shown that none but God can have the right to claim our perfect trust. We may "trust in the Lord forever." II. IN VIEW OF THE RELATIONS HE BEARS TO HIS PEOPLE. These have a special character. Beyond what God is to all his creatures, he bears special relations to his people. These gather up into the terms, Redeemer, Saviour, Father. Redeemer from Egypt, and from sin. Saviour from peril, and from self. Father, as hearing on himself the burden of his children's well being. If these relations are unfolded in their Christian developments, the call to full trust will be shown as every way reasonable. III. IN VIEW OF THE THINGS HE HAS BEEN DOING IN ALL AGES. This brings us to the psalm. We may select illustrations from this historical retrospect. The two things immediately connected with the text are - the failure to trust God to provide needful daily bread. They might have trusted, for he could, he did, provide. With this lesson, the people failed to trust God for needed drink. But they might have trusted fully, for he could, he did, provide. - R.T. Man did eat angels' food. Homilist I. There are in the universe HIGHER ORDER OF INTELLIGENT CREATURES THAN MAN, "Angels." The proofs, the nature, the functions, the varieties of their existence abound in the Scriptures. II. This higher order of intelligences REQUIRE FOOD. No creatures, however exalted, can be self-subsisting, i.e. can live of themselves or from themselves; they must appropriate something from without. III. Of this food MAN TO SOME EXTENT IS A PARTAKER. Revelations of truth, beauty, God, are the food of souls in all worlds, and this food is universal. () We soon tell by our appearance what food we have been eating. You cannot hide the bill of fare. The face is a tell-tale. The more the sensualist eats the greater a sensualist he appears to be. He feeds the flesh. He gets coarser every day; what little music there was in his voice is all dead and gone; he has choked it with the food of beasts. Once there was a little child in him, well spoken of, thought to be the germ of a fine man; but that child-angel is dead. Every mouthful of meat the man now takes makes him more beast-like. Say not that it is of no consequence what a man eats. It is of vital consequence. The mystery, however, is this, that even the best food may be turned into evil nutriment, according to the nature of the man who partakes of it. The lion grows as a lion the more he eats; though it be of the daintiest food it all becomes lion. So with us bodily, intellectually, spiritually: we tell what our food is. Under what circumstances may men be said to cat angels' food, corn of heaven, bread sent down from God? When earth cannot satisfy him any longer, the good food is beginning to tell upon him. Growing in spirituality is not a metaphysical process; it is concrete, intelligible, patent to the observation; it is not a growth in mere sentiment, it is not an enrichment of the nature in mere foam of ecstasy and rapture: it is a larger outlook, a firmer grasp of things eternal, a clearer view of distant things; it is a growth in preparation, in the estimate of relative values, in sympathy with God. Growing so, the whole world changes; its duties become light, its burdens become comparatively easy, its wealth a handful of dust that may be thrown up and caught again and laid down with a conjurer's ease. Growth in spirituality means larger intercourse with God, keener perception of religious essences and moral affinities. Growth in spirituality means a throwing-off of mere burdensomeness and ceremony and ritual; a forsaking of the fleshpots of Egypt, and a yearning for the society of angels and spirits, blessed and immortal. We can now do better than eat angels' food, a larger feast has been prepared for us — we can eat the body and drink the blood of Christ. Faith takes the bread, and turns it into the flesh of Christ; faith takes the emblematic wine, and makes it sacrificial blood. Lord, increase our faith! () He sent them View this verse as applicable to all time and all generations of men; for, just as surely as God fed Israel in the wilderness with manna, so surely is He feeding the whole human race to-day by a miracle not less wonderful.I. IN WHAT SENSE THE STATEMENT OF THE TEXT IS TRUE, AS APPLIED TO ALL MEN. Look at the variety of the food God gives us. It is not merely the one food sent directly from above, but we can use a hundred kinds of food, so we cannot comment upon the poor character of the products of the earth. The courses of Nature bring round the seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and point the Christian back to the God who lies behind them; and he who has the heritage of the Christian has a fountain of gratitude in his soul, because he recognizes that these come from above, for they tell the man who believes and trusts in God that these things are but another sign of that eternal love which has watched over us from infancy, and cares for us all the years of our life. II. IN WHAT SENSE THE STATEMENT APPEARS NOT TO BE TRUE. How is it that in a world in which there appears to be plenty, or at least in which there is the possibility of plenty, there should be a vast number in every town and city kept pinched and bare? I believe, in many instances, because of their own mismanagement and misconduct. Idleness will clothe a man with rags. It. is one of the wise provisions of God's providence that the earth surrenders her products only to those who work. There is also another explanation. Intemperance is the cause of a vast deal of the want that lies around us. Again, God has never said He will give a successive continuance of rich seasons, and commerce in its whole history has never gone straight on. It has always gone by leaps and falls, and there have been times of scarceness and plenty. But God means every prudent man to lay by in times of success and fulness for a time of scarcity, and I think it is nothing less than sacrilegious for men to blame God for want and poverty if they allow times of fulness to pass without laying by for a time of need. There are, however, some causes outside of a man's or woman's own control which lead to poverty and something approaching want. For instance, too many men rush into one trade, possibly because they think it a prosperous one. The result is, that the trade is overstocked, and there is not sufficient work for every one, and a great deal of pain and scarcity often follows, until matters right themselves — and they don't right themselves in a year. Or, again, the greed and cruelty of some may act as a pressure on those who are weak and unable to defend themselves, and because of this injustice and greed of gain they are not able even to make their bread. Or, again, bad economic laws, such as our Corn Laws that Cobden and Bright did so much to abolish, may raise the price of God's grain to a fictitious value. There is another cause of poverty and want that is perhaps more directly traceable to God Himself, and that is famine. God's universe is spiritual, and the powers that conquer in it must be Spiritual, and famine itself is, I believe, one of the methods by which God seeks to work out one of the spiritual purposes of the universe. See, for instance, how famine may bring a nation back to simpler and truer modes of life. See how famine disciplines men by bringing out generosity in them, making them go to the help of other nations. I believe that, too, may be the explanation of the fact that there is poverty among us. Does not God seek to lead us, by poverty, to think of that bread which perisheth not? ()
People Asaph, David, Ham, Jacob, Joseph, PsalmistPlaces JerusalemTopics Abundance, Angels, Ate, Bread, Eat, Eaten, Full, Measure, Meat, Mighty, Ones, Provision, Provisions, Satiety, Strong, VenisonOutline 1. An exhortation both to learn and to preach, the law of God
9. The story of God's wrath against the incredulous and disobedient
67. The Israelites being rejected, God chose Judah, Zion, and David.
Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 78:9-41 8705 apostasy, in OT Psalm 78:17-31 4478 meat Psalm 78:21-33 8741 failure Psalm 78:23-25 4111 angels, servants
4418 bread Psalm 78:23-29 4438 eating Psalm 78:24-25 4474 manna Library Memory, Hope, and Effort
'That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments.'--PSALM lxxviii. 7. In its original application this verse is simply a statement of God's purpose in giving to Israel the Law, and such a history of deliverance. The intention was that all future generations might remember what He had done, and be encouraged by the remembrance to hope in Him for the future; and by both memory and hope, be impelled to the discharge of present duty. So, then, the words …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy ScriptureTurning Back in the Day of Battle
I. We will first consider for a little while WHAT THESE MEN DID. They turned their backs. When the time for fighting came they ought to have shown their fronts. Like bold men they should have kept their face to the foe and their breast against the adversary, but they dishonorably turned their backs and fled. This, I am sorry to say, is not an unusual thing amongst professing Christians. They turn back; they turn back in the day of battle. Some do this at the first appearance of difficulty. "There …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 12: 1866 Limiting God
Among such sins of the first table is that described in our text. It is consequently one of the masterpieces of iniquity, and we shall do well to purge ourselves of it. It is full of evil to ourselves, and is calculated to dishonor both God and man, therefore let us be in earnest to cut it up both root and branch. I think we have all been guilty of this in our measure; and we are not free from it even to this day. Whether we be saints or sinners, we may stand here and make our humble confession that …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 5: 1859 Fifteenth Day for Schools and Colleges
WHAT TO PRAY.--For Schools and Colleges "As for Me, this is My covenant with them, saith the Lord: My Spirit that is upon thee, and My words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LoThe future of the Church and the world depends, to an extent we little conceive, on the education of the day. The Church may be seeking to evangelise the heathen, and be giving up her own children to secular …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession Fourteenth Day for the Church of the Future
WHAT TO PRAY.--For the Church of the Future "That the children might not be as their fathers, a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God."--PS. lxxviii. 8. "I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thy offspring."--ISA. xliv. 3. Pray for the rising generation, who are to come after us. Think of the young men and young women and children of this age, and pray for all the agencies at work among them; that in association and societies …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession Centenary Commemoration
OF THE RETURN OF BISHOP SEABURY. 1885 THE RT. REV. SAMUEL SEABURY, D.D. FIRST BISHOP OF CONNECTICUT, HELD HIS FIRST ORDINATION AT MIDDLETOWN, AUGUST 3, 1785. On the ninth day of June, 1885, the Diocesan Convention met in Hartford. Morning Prayer was read in Christ Church at 9 o'clock by the Rev. W. E. Vibbert, D.D., Rector of St. James's Church, Fair Haven, and the Rev. J. E. Heald, Rector of Trinity Church, Tariffville. The Holy Communion was celebrated in St. John's Church, the service beginning …
Various—The Sermons And Addresses At The Seabury Centenary "Thou Shalt Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother. "
From this Commandment we learn that after the excellent works of the first three Commandments there are no better works than to obey and serve all those who are set over us as superiors. For this reason also disobedience is a greater sin than murder, unchastity, theft and dishonesty, and all that these may include. For we can in no better way learn how to distinguish between greater and lesser sins than by noting the order of the Commandments of God, although there are distinctions also within the …
Dr. Martin Luther—A Treatise on Good Works Indiscreet Importunity.
"I gave thee a king in mine anger." HOSEA xiii. 11. "Ye know not what ye ask." MATTHEW xx. 22. PSALM lxxviii. 27-31. That God sometimes suffers men to destroy themselves, giving them their own way, although He knows it is ruinous, and even putting into their hands the scorpion they have mistaken for a fish, is an indubitable and alarming fact. Perhaps no form of ruin covers a man with such shame or sinks him to such hopelessness as when he finds that what he has persistently clamoured for and refused …
Marcus Dods—How to become like Christ The Mystery
Of the Woman dwelling in the Wilderness. The woman delivered of a child, when the dragon was overcome, from thenceforth dwelt in the wilderness, by which is figured the state of the Church, liberated from Pagan tyranny, to the time of the seventh trumpet, and the second Advent of Christ, by the type, not of a latent, invisible, but, as it were, an intermediate condition, like that of the lsraelitish Church journeying in the wilderness, from its departure from Egypt, to its entrance into the land …
Joseph Mede—A Key to the Apocalypse The Second Continental Journey.
1827-28. PART I.--GERMANY. After John and Martha Yeardley had visited their friends at home, their minds were directed to the work which they had left uncompleted on the continent of Europe; and, on their return from the Yearly Meeting, they opened this prospect of service before the assembled church to which they belonged. (Diary) 6 mo. 18.--Were at the Monthly Meeting at Highflatts, where we laid our concern before our friends to revisit some parts of Germany and Switzerland, and to visit …
John Yeardley—Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel The World's Bread
'And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told Him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught. 31. And He said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. 32. And they departed into a desert place by ship privately. 33. And the people saw them departing, and many knew Him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them, and came together …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Out of the Deep of Loneliness, Failure, and Disappointment.
My heart is smitten down, and withered like grass. I am even as a sparrow that sitteth alone on the housetop--Ps. cii. 4, 6. My lovers and friends hast Thou put away from me, and hid mine acquaintance out of my sight--Ps. lxxviii. 18. I looked on my right hand, and saw there was no man that would know me. I had no place to flee unto, and no man cared for my soul. I cried unto Thee, O Lord, and said, Thou art my Hope. When my spirit was in heaviness, then Thou knewest my path.--Ps. cxlii. 4, 5. …
Charles Kingsley—Out of the Deep The Good Shepherd: a Farewell Sermon
John 10:27-28 -- "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand." It is a common, and I believe, generally speaking, my dear hearers, a true saying, that bad manners beget good laws. Whether this will hold good in every particular, in respect to the affairs of this world, I am persuaded the observation is very pertinent in respect to the things of another: I mean bad manners, …
George Whitefield—Selected Sermons of George Whitefield Adam and Zaretan, Joshua 3
I suspect a double error in some maps, while they place these two towns in Perea; much more, while they place them at so little a distance. We do not deny, indeed, that the city Adam was in Perea; but Zaretan was not so. Of Adam is mention, Joshua 3:16; where discourse is had of the cutting-off, or cutting in two, the waters of Jordan, that they might afford a passage to Israel; The waters rose up upon a heap afar off in Adam. For the textual reading "In Adam," the marginal hath "From Adam." You …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica The Eighth Commandment
Thou shalt not steal.' Exod 20: 15. AS the holiness of God sets him against uncleanness, in the command Thou shalt not commit adultery;' so the justice of God sets him against rapine and robbery, in the command, Thou shalt not steal.' The thing forbidden in this commandment, is meddling with another man's property. The civil lawyers define furtum, stealth or theft to be the laying hands unjustly on that which is another's;' the invading another's right. I. The causes of theft. [1] The internal causes …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments "The Sun of Righteousness"
WE SHOULD FEEL QUITE JUSTIFIED in applying the language of the 19th Psalm to our Lord Jesus Christ from the simple fact that he is so frequently compared to the sun; and especially in the passage which we have given you as our second text, wherein he is called "the Sun of Righteousness." But we have a higher justification for such a reading of the passage, for it will be in your memories that, in the 10th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, the Apostle Paul, slightly altering the words of this …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871 A Jealous God
I. Reverently, let us remember that THE LORD IS EXCEEDINGLY JEALOUS OF HIS DEITY. Our text is coupled with the command--"Thou shalt worship no other God." When the law was thundered from Sinai, the second commandment received force from the divine jealousy--"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 9: 1863 Mosaic Cosmogony.
ON the revival of science in the 16th century, some of the earliest conclusions at which philosophers arrived were found to be at variance with popular and long-established belief. The Ptolemaic system of astronomy, which had then full possession of the minds of men, contemplated the whole visible universe from the earth as the immovable centre of things. Copernicus changed the point of view, and placing the beholder in the sun, at once reduced the earth to an inconspicuous globule, a merely subordinate …
Frederick Temple—Essays and Reviews: The Education of the World Privilege and Experience
"And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." --Luke 15:31. The words of the text are familiar to us all. The elder son had complained and said, that though his father had made a feast, and had killed the fatted calf for the prodigal son, he had never given him even a kid that he might make merry with his friends. The answer of the father was: "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." One cannot have a more wonderful revelation of the heart of …
Andrew Murray—The Deeper Christian Life Stones Crying Out
'For the priests which bare the ark stood in the midst of Jordan, until every thing was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua: and the people hasted and passed over. 11. And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over, that the ark of the Lord passed over, and the priests, in the presence of the people. 12. And the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, passed over armed …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture The Deaf Stammerer Healed and Four Thousand Fed.
^A Matt. XV. 30-39; ^B Mark VII. 32-VIII. 9. ^b 32 And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech [The man had evidently learned to speak before he lost his hearing. Some think that defective hearing had caused the impediment in his speech, but verse 35 suggests that he was tongue-tied]; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. 33 And he took him aside from the multitude privately, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat, and touched his tongue [He separated …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel Purity and Peace in the Present Lord
PHILIPPIANS iv. 1-9 Euodia and Syntyche--Conditions to unanimity--Great uses of small occasions--Connexion to the paragraphs--The fortress and the sentinel--A golden chain of truths--Joy in the Lord--Yieldingness--Prayer in everything--Activities of a heart at rest Ver. 1. +So, my brethren beloved and longed for+, missed indeed, at this long distance from you, +my joy and crown+ of victory (stephanos), +thus+, as having such certainties and such aims, with such a Saviour, and looking for such …
Handley C. G. Moule—Philippian Studies The Baptismal Covenant Can be Kept Unbroken. Aim and Responsibility of Parents.
We have gone "to the Law and to the Testimony" to find out what the nature and benefits of Baptism are. We have gathered out of the Word all the principal passages bearing on this subject. We have grouped them together, and studied them side by side. We have noticed that their sense is uniform, clear, and strong. Unless we are willing to throw aside all sound principles of interpretation, we can extract from the words of inspiration only one meaning, and that is that the baptized child is, by virtue …
G. H. Gerberding—The Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church An Exhortation to Love God
1. An exhortation. Let me earnestly persuade all who bear the name of Christians to become lovers of God. "O love the Lord, all ye his saints" (Psalm xxxi. 23). There are but few that love God: many give Him hypocritical kisses, but few love Him. It is not so easy to love God as most imagine. The affection of love is natural, but the grace is not. Men are by nature haters of God (Rom. i. 30). The wicked would flee from God; they would neither be under His rules, nor within His reach. They fear God, …
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial Links Psalm 78:25 NIV
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