41 – What Is It?

Exodus 14:29 – 16:36

The people of Israel walked through the Red Sea on dry ground. Then God killed the Egyptian army when they tried to cross. From there, Moses led the people into the wilderness, toward Mount Sinai. They traveled for three days without finding water. They finally came to a pool, but it was undrinkable. The people complained and said, “What are we going to drink?” 
The Lord said to Moses, “Cut down that small tree and throw it into the water.” Moses threw the tree into the water, and instantly the water was drinkable. 

God said, “If you obey me and follow my commandments, you won’t be sick like the Egyptians. I am the Lord who heals you. 

From there, the Israelites went and camped at a place that had twelve springs. They stayed there a little over a month, and then left and headed toward Mount Sinai. 

As they traveled, they started complaining, “We should’ve died in Egypt. Yes, we were slaves, but at least we had plenty of food to eat. Every night we had a pot of meat and all the bread we wanted. Here we have nothing.” 

The Lord said to Moses, “I’m going to rain bread from heaven for the people. But I’ll use this to see if they’ll follow my instructions.” 

Moses said to the people, “You’re not complaining against me and Aaron. You’re complaining against the Lord. Still, He’s heard you. Tonight you’ll have meat, and in the morning you’ll have bread.” 

That evening, a flock of quail came and landed in the camp. This provided meat for the people to eat. In the morning, they saw that the ground was covered with heavy dew. When it evaporated, there was something on the ground that looked like frost. The people went and looked at it. They said, “What is it?” They tasted it and it was like a light wafer, sweetened with honey. 

Moses said, “God will provide this bread from heaven six days out of every week. For the first five days, you’re to gather only enough for one day. On the sixth day, you may gather enough for two days. In this way, you’ll have food to eat on the Sabbath. It won’t appear on the Sabbath. 

Some of the people disobeyed God’s instructions and gathered more than one day’s worth. The next morning it stunk and was full of maggots. This didn’t happen when they gathered more on the sixth day. It was still good to eat on the Sabbath. Some of the people went out to gather bread on the Sabbath, but found that there was none. 

The people called the bread manna, which means, “What is it?” God provided manna for them for the entire forty years they were in the wilderness.

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