Our text for this morning is from Exodus chapter 16 starting at verse one, open your Bibles there with me. As we continue our series in Everyday Leadership, one of the challenges of leadership is that often it comes with criticism. How many of you have ever felt like you were criticized for something unfairly?

Today we are going to look at someone from scripture who was one of the most enduring examples of godly leadership, but also one of the most openly criticized leaders we have ever seen, today we are going to look at Moses, The Criticized Leader.To set this up; The Israelites were held in captivity, in captivity for 430 years. Their people were slaves in Egypt, forced labor, beaten, their children murdered by the hand of Pharaoh, they were in fact a people who were not a people in Egypt; about fifteen generations experienced this horrible, tragic human reality and at the right time and in the right place God spoke to Moses. He spoke to Moses and used him as a means to display his power and display his glory in Israel as he delivers them out of the hands of Pharaoh.

After a miraculous moment at the Red Sea the Israelites find themselves in the wilderness as God prepares them for the land he has promised them; their own land, no longer slaves, no longer oppressed, this is the backdrop for where we will pick up the Exodus narrative in an uncomfortable conversation in which Moses is being criticized for his leadership of God’s people, but what Moses will teach us through this passage is that in the midst of criticism the most important thing is God’s work, not man’s words. Let’s stand together this morning out of reverence for God and his Word as it is read: Exodus 16:1-12, hear the word of the Lord.1 They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt.2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness,3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.”6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt,7 and in the morning you shall see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your grumbling against the LORD. For what are we, that you grumble against us?”8 And Moses said, “When the LORD gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the LORD has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him-what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the LORD.”9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, ‘Come near before the LORD, for he has heard your grumbling.'”10 And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.11 And the LORD said to Moses,12 “I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.'” – Exodus 16:1-12

May God add his blessing to the reading of his word as we seek his face this morning.According to this passage this narrative takes place on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. they had