Day 56 – Moses & the Manna

• Taking this many people through a barren desert was never going to be an easy task, as Moses soon finds out. Today we read about one of the problems that the people had as they journeyed into the wilderness, and how God reacted to their calls.
• List all the times in the Exodus passage that the people grumble or go against God’s commands. This is becoming quite a habit, isn’t it? How did God react in these situations?
• What does the word “manna” mean? The Israelites ate this throughout their time in the wilderness. Do you think they liked it? If you fancy being a bible detective for a few minutes, you could try and find the verses in the book of Numbers which states whether the people liked it or not (although it’s worth pointing out that they were in a grumpy mood that day).
• Why does God provide twice as much on the sixth day?
• Deuteronomy, the book, is pretty much entirely one long sermon given by Moses. He preached it to all the Israelites. That’s one big church service! It was given close to the end of the time in the wilderness, so bear that in mind as you read it, as it sometimes describes future events that we haven’t studied in the natural course of this reading plan yet. You may be interested to know that nearly all the people who were rescued out of Egypt actually died in the wilderness (a punishment from God for their disobedience to Him during the 40 years) so the words spoken by Moses in Deuteronomy may well be mostly to the children of those who were rescued from slavery. They were people who would have been born in the desert and won’t remember the time in Egypt.
• Moses reminded the crowd in the Deuteronomy passage that they were being tested by God when in the wilderness. Their hearts were being tested to see if they were putting God first. Jesus was tested too, whilst fasting. Who came through the tests with the best record?
• The passage in Matthew 4 records that instance of Jesus being tempted in the desert. It links very closely with Moses’ encouragement to remember God in the passage in Deuteronomy, especially in verses 2-3. How?
• The amount of time Jesus fasted in the wilderness (40 days) and the amount of time the Israelites were in the wilderness (40 years) is closely related – this isn’t an accident!
• “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by the the word of God” is a paraphrase of one of the most well known verses from today’s passage. Jesus often referred to himself as “the Bread of Life”. In light of today’s readings, what does Jesus mean by this?

As you might expect, Exodus gives us plenty of opportunities to see that God is remaining faithful to His covenant promises to Abraham: a nation, a land and a blessing. Here He provides for their physical needs by giving them food, but you should also spot that God also sustains the people in their whole lives. After all, Jesus didn’t come to the earth just to share loaves and fish between 5,000 people, did He?

Moses’ sermon in Deuteronomy also reminds the people of a major aspect of God’s relationship with His people. He rescued them first – and then gave them the Law to live by. The laws that the Israelites were given allowed them to respond in obedience in thankfulness for God’s abundant grace already shown. We’re going to be reading about these laws in the coming weeks.

As we do, keep a look out as we read on for more examples of how obedience to God is not a means of salvation, but a response to it, just like we’ve been discussing in Cells as we read through the book of James.