86. Exodus Adventures: God’s Faithfulness in the Wilderness

Stooooop.

Phew.

Oh, sorry.

G', day, Dave here.

Welcome to Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

But wait, today we're starting a new series which is really continuing an old series.

We're looking at the second half of the Book of Exodus.

We did the first half where God rescued his people out of Egypt last year.

If you haven't listened to the first half or you don't remember it, or you just want to listen again, then you can go back and listen.

Before starting this series, it's episodes 16 through to 31.

Episodes 16 through to 31.

If you have listened or you just want to start from where we're up to, or you weren't listening to what I was just saying because a really interesting bird just flew past your window.

Fantastic.

Let's get into the episode.

How much do you think God wants to look after you?

Do you think he'll still want to care for you when bad things happen, when you're scared, when you're worried?

Or do you think he'd just give up?

In the first part of the Book of Exodus, God rescues his people from slavery in Egypt.

The Egyptian army chased them to bring them back, but God destroyed the Egyptians in the Red Sea.

And the Israelites were so happy and excited, they sang about how good and powerful God is and how nothing can stop him caring for his people.

It doesn't take them long, though, to worry and panic and think that God doesn't really care about them.

I wonder what God's going to do with them.

Get ready for our next episode of Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

Its party time.

The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt, but God rescued them.

He did amazing things.

He did so many amazing wonders that in the end, Pharaoh had to let them go.

When the Egyptian army came to get them back, God saved them again.

He opened up the sea to let the Israelites through and then crashed the water back down on the Egyptians.

There's no God who's greater, no God who's more powerful.

He's gonna take the Israelites through to the promised land and no one can stop him.

He's the best.

He's the best.

He's the best.

That was three days ago.

Since then, the Israelites, more than a million of them, have travelled out into the desert.

And after three days, they haven't found any water.

Finally, they come to a place called Mara.

And hooray, there's water.

Except it's bitter.

It's gross, you can't drink it.

The name Mara actually means Bitter.

What are they going to do?

How are they going to survive?

Do you know what?

Most of them don't think.

They don't think it's all good.

Our God saved us out of Egypt.

He loves us heaps.

He can do amazing miracles.

There's no need to worry.

That's what they don't think.

Instead, they worry and panic and they start to grumble and complain to Moses.

What are we going to drink?

Moses knows exactly what to do.

He cries out to the Lord.

And because God's powerful and he does love his people, he solves the problem in a way that only he can.

Exodus 15:25 says, so the Lord showed him a tree.

Moses threw the tree into the water and the water became good to drink.

Whoa.

Do you remember back in Egypt, God had Moses hit the Nile river with his staff, and it was like the river died.

It turned to blood and no one could drink from it.

Well, now God's doing the opposite.

He's making bad water good.

He's giving life to his people because he's powerful and he loves them.

He wants them to know that he loves them.

He wants them to know that he'll look after them.

But he also wants them to know that he expects them to listen to Him.

They can't just keep grumbling and ignoring him.

He tells them in verse 26, you must obey the Lord your God.

You must do what the Lord says is right.

You must obey all his laws and keep his rules.

If you do these things, I will not give you any of the sicknesses I gave the Egyptians.

I am the Lord.

I am the Lord who heals you.

God doesn't want to hurt them.

He wants to heal them.

And they should listen to him and obey Him.

After that, he takes them to a beautiful place called Elam.

There are 12 springs of water there and 70 palm trees.

They get to enjoy a wonderful rest.

It may be that God could have taken them there sooner, but he was testing them, checking to see if they'd trust him.

When things looked bad, they didn't do very well.

But surely they've learned their lesson now, right?

After a while, the people leave.

Elim dragon travelling to Mount Sinai, the mountain where Moses first met God.

To get there, they have to travel through the desert of sin.

After a while, they have another problem.

They don't have enough food.

But really, that's no problem, right?

God loves them.

God's really powerful.

He can sort it out.

Well, you know what?

That's what they don't think.

Instead, again, they grumble and complain to Moses.

And what they say is actually quite shocking.

Instead of thinking God loves us, he's going to look after us, they actually think he wants to kill us.

I know, right?

As if.

Do they really think God would have gone to all that trouble to save them from Egypt just to kill them out in the desert?

They do.

And it gets worse.

They actually start to say, yeah, things were really good back in Egypt.

In chapter 16, verse 3, they say to Moses, it would have been better if the Lord had killed us in the land of Egypt.

There we had meat to eat.

We had all the food we wanted.

But you've brought us into this desert.

You'll starve us to death here.

Umm.

Are you serious?

You were in slavery back in Egypt.

They hit you lots back in Egypt.

They killed lots of you back in Egypt.

Do you think these Israelites are sounding a little ungrateful?

Amazingly, even though the people are being so silly, God still loves and cares for them.

He's not interested in killing them.

He saved them so that they can live.

In verse four, he says to Moses, I will cause food to fall like rain from the sky.

This food will be for all of you.

Every day the people must go out and gather what they need for that day.

I will do this to see if the people will do what I teach them.

On the sixth day of each week, they are to gather twice as much as they gather on other days.

Then they are to prepare it.

Ummm.

He's going to make food fall from the sky.

Ok. Moses knows that the people's problem is that they don't really know and trust God yet.

I mean, they know stuff about him, they just don't really know him in their hearts.

They don't believe that he's looking after them.

So he and Aaron said to the people in verse six, this evening you will know that the Lord is the one who brought you out of Egypt.

Tomorrow morning you will see the greatness of the Lord.

He has heard you grumble against Him.

We are nothing.

You're not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.

And Moses says, each evening the Lord will give you meat to eat, and every morning he will give you all the bread you want.

He will do this because he has heard you grumble against Him.

You are not grumbling against Aaron and me, you are grumbling against the Lord.

So God's going to miraculously give them both bread and meat, the things they said they had back in Egypt, where they were beaten and enslaved and killed?

Well, God's going to give them now in an amazing way, God really wants them to know that he is their God.

The Lord God who promised to save them and take them to Mount Sinai and give them the land of Canaan.

He says to Moses in verse 12, I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel.

So tell them at twilight you will eat meat, and every morning you will eat all the bread you want.

Then you will know I am the Lord your God.

And because God's always faithful, that's what happens.

As the sun's going down, the camp gets covered by small birds called quail, and they become the evening meal.

It's pretty amazing that the quail all come there, but also, people have seen quail before.

It's not like God just went out and invented a new food.

The next morning, though, something even more amazing happens.

The people get up, come out of their tents, and rub their eyes on the ground.

There's dew, just like there is every morning.

As the sun dries up the dew, though, the people notice something else on the ground.

Everywhere they look, there are small white flakes.

They look a bit like frost.

The people have no idea what it is.

They ask each other, what is it?

But none of them know.

Moses knows, though.

He tells them in verse 15.

This is the bread the Lord has given you to eat.

God's actually made a special type of bread that no one's ever tasted before.

Moses gives some really important instructions.

He tells the people to gather enough for each person who lives in their tent.

They only need to gather as much as each person will eat in a day.

If 20 people live in their tent, they need to gather enough for 20 people for one day.

If two people live in their tent, they need to gather enough for two people for one day.

He's very clear.

They must not keep any until the next day.

So the people go out and gather up enough for each person.

Some of them, though, despite everything God's done, still don't trust him.

They think, what if we don't have any food tomorrow?

And so they keep some overnight.

The next morning, they wake up and there is a foul stink in their tents, A bit like the stink in a teenage boy's bedroom.

They look over at the special bread and it stinks also.

It's got worms or maggots all through it.

There is no way they can eat it.

Moses was really angry with them for not listening to God.

Of course, they had absolutely no reason to worry, because on that second day, God's made the special bread Again.

And on the third day and the fourth day, every day, they go out and get just enough for that day.

They cook it and eat it, and God keeps looking after them.

On the sixth day, they have to do something different.

Moses tells them to collect enough for two days because the seventh day is going to be a special day of rest for God.

What's called a Sabbath day.

There won't be any bread to collect because the people are supposed to rest from their work.

So the people go out and collect enough for two days.

The next morning, none of it stinks.

None of it has worms.

It's good to eat.

Unfortunately, some of them don't do what they're told.

They think, I know how this works.

The bread just appears every day.

It'll be fine.

They still aren't listening to the word of God.

When they get up and go looking for bread on the seventh day, they don't find any.

The Lord is getting really frustrated with them.

In verse 28, he says to Moses, how long will all you people refuse to obey my commands and teachings?

Look, the Lord has made the Sabbath a day of rest for all of you.

So on the sixth day, he will give you enough food for two days.

But on the Sabbath, each of you must stay where you are.

Do not leave your house.

The people call the special bread manna.

Do you know what manna means?

It means.

What is it?

In verse 31, we're told the manna was like small white seeds.

It tasted like wafers made with honey.

Yum, scrum.

God tells them to put one serving of the manna in a jar.

Later on, they're going to put the jar in the special box, the ark, as a reminder of how God looked after them in the desert.

And do you know how long God kept sending the manna for?

Not one week or two weeks.

Not two months or even a year.

God kept sending it for 40 years.

He kept giving them food in that amazing way for all.

All those years until he brought them safely to the promised Land.

It's so sad that so many Israelites thought God didn't care about them.

They even thought God wanted to kill them.

Just think about what he'd done.

He'd gone into Egypt.

He'd done amazing things.

Sent frogs and flies and gnats, turned the Nile river to blood, and even sent darkness on the land for three days.

He'd parted the Red Sea and crashed the sea back together again, all to save them.

Of course he cared about them.

Of course he was going to look after them.

And if that's true for them, how much more true is it for us?

How much more has God done to save us?

Not just to give us a better life out of slavery, but to give us eternal life in his kingdom.

He sent his own Son, Jesus, to live the perfect life we could never live, to die a death in our place, and to be raised to life to give us new life.

In Jesus.

God has done everything we need to have life with him forever.

So when you're worried or scared, when you're not sure about the future, when you're tempted to think, ah, God doesn't care about me, remember what he's done for you in Jesus.

Keep trusting Him.

Keep obeying him, knowing that he'll look after you no matter what.

Back in the desert, the Israelites are about to face a new problem.

They're about to be attacked.

The Amalekites are coming.

But that's a story for next time.

Thanks to everyone who listened to the short episode with my friends Priscilla and Andy talking about the need for giving to support the podcast.

Thanks if you gave, if you can't, and if you're not up for it, then don't worry, that's okay.

But I do need heaps more, so if you're up for it, that would be great, but otherwise, I'd love to hear from you.

I'd love you to get in contact, tell me how you're finding the show.

If you haven't had that before, I'd love to hear from you and I'd love to give you a shout out on the show.

Keep trusting Jesus.

Bye for now.