Locations & Times

1. What artifact did Dr. Shovelle and Marv find today, and what did the artifact have to do with the story? (A jar; the Israelites used it to collect the food and water God provided.)
2. How did God feed the Israelites in the desert? (In the evening God sent quail. In the morning he sent manna. Moses hit a rock and water came out.)
3. The Israelite people complained but God still took care of them. When was a time you complained about something even though you knew God was taking care of you? (Examples: complaining about taking medicine but God used the medicine to heal you, complaining about eating vegetables but God used the vegetables to make you strong, etc...)
4. Our Bible verse this month is “Don’t worry, because I am with you,” Isaiah 41:10. What does it mean to worry? (Take turns responding.)
5. Can we trust that God will take care of us? (yes)

Read: Exodus 16 and 17:1-7

The Israelites had just witnessed one of the greatest miracles of all time. And yet, not long after their dramatic exit from Egypt, less than two months after they watched God mightily rescue them from oppression, they thought they had it so bad that they actually whined and complained to go back to Egypt. What?

It’s easy to read the reaction of the Israelites, judge their discontentment, and be appalled at their lack of thankfulness and perspective. But what if we read this story as a mirror and try to see ourselves? When was the last time we complained to God? When was the last time that the impossibility of what was ahead of us caused us to romanticize the past and wish it back. When was the last time our attitude has been, this is terrible and miserable and at least if we were back there we had or could (fill in the blank)?

It’s no accident that quite often in the Bible we see this pattern of God’s faithfulness and his people’s forgetfulness because it’s a human problem. We do forget. And we do lack perspective. But God is gracious. Even when the Israelites refused to rest and follow God’s instructions, even when they continued to complain and mope and whine, God provided. He always gave them enough because he loved them. He was enough. 

Enough. Not surplus. And this is hard for us to get our minds around sometimes. We want to gather and store and save and hoard. Because at the root of those behaviors is not only fear, but a lack of faith in a God of abundance. We’d rather live in scarcity than trust that he will actually give us exactly what we need. Even if it isn’t an ounce more than what we need, he will provide and give us just what we need for the next day, and the next, and the next. He is enough. 

So how do we transition from living in fear and scarcity to living in abundance and faith and rest? We remember God; his character and what he’s done. We remember his goodness and provision in the past (Isaiah 46:9). We remember who he is because he is the Lord and does not change (Micah 3:6). Though the ways he provides and shows his presence in our lives may change with our circumstances, the truth that he does provide and is always near to us does not.

He was enough. He is enough. He will always be enough.

In what areas of your life are you living out of scarcity instead of trusting the God of abundance?

How do you relate to the Israelites, their lack of faith, and their desire to return to slavery because it was somehow “better” than freedom in the desert?