Advanced Level, Block 4—Wilderness
Week 32
Rules Related to Manna are Broken
Point to Emphasize: Why do we act as if we are the exception to the rule?
Reference Reading: Exodus 16:1-5, 13b-28, 35, footnote 42
Memory Verse: …To everyone who is among you, not to think more highly of himself that he ought to think, but to think so as to be soberminded… (Romans 12:3b)
Story Sample
As the children of Israel journeyed in the wilderness, they became hungry. The wilderness was not a place suitable for farming or ranching. There were not any natural plants growing in it that could feed two million people. And the food supplies they had brought with them from Egypt were gone. What would they do for food?
The whole assembly murmured against Moses saying that he had brought them out of Egypt where there was plenty to eat, just to die from hunger in the wilderness. Then Jehovah said to Moses, “I will now rain bread from heaven for you…” (Exodus 16:4). And for forty years Jehovah rained bread from heaven for the children of Israel. Early each morning as the dew lifted there upon the surface of the wilderness were fine round flakes, fine as the frost on the earth (v. 14). The people saw it and said, “What is it?” (v. 15). They had never seen anything like it. Manna was miraculous. It could be baked or boiled. It was white and its taste was like wafers made with honey. It was manna, bread from heaven.
Jehovah gave the people rules about the manna. The rules were simple, clear, and so easy to follow:
- Early every morning they were to gather the manna according to their eating: an omer per head (an omer is a measurement), according to the number of persons in their tent. So, if there were five in your tent, you could gather five omers.
- No one was to leave any of it until the next day. No left-overs!
- On the sixth day, they were to gather twice as much bread, two omers for each person in their tent. No gathering manna on the seventh day!
Jehovah easily fed two million people for forty years by raining bread from heaven. All they needed to do was to gather it according to the three simple regulations. BUT even during the first week of the manna appearing, some of the children of Israel thought that the rules only applied to others, not to them. Some did not get up early to gather the manna. They waited until the sun became hot. All they found was melted manna. It was not good to eat. Others decided that they would not eat all they had gathered that day. They would save some and have left-overs the next day. When they woke up the following morning, they found that the left-over manna smelled awful, and it bred worms. How gross! And others decided not to gather twice the amount they needed on the sixth day. When they rose up on the seventh day, they discovered that they had nothing to eat because the manna did not rain from heaven that morning. They went hungry.
Moses was indignant with them! He was angry! Why couldn’t the people just listen and gather according to Jehovah’s three simple rules? Why did some think that the rules did not apply to them? They thought that they were the exception to the rules.
Now, we must ask ourselves that question. Why do we act as if we are the exception to the rule? Maybe you are in a special place and there are signs saying, “NO PICTURES ALLOWED”. Yet, you can’t resist taking out that cell phone and getting a selfie. Or how about ignoring a sign that says, “No bikes, no skateboards”. But you just have to try it. Maybe, your mom has a rule that no one is to walk on the kitchen floor after she has mopped it BUT you just have to get the snack from the cupboard, so you tiptoe across the floor. [Lead the children in a simple discussion of when they have seen others act as if they were the exception to the rule. Maybe it was going against a posted sign, putting a knife down the toaster when it is plugged in, eating a spoonful of peanut butter, touching a wall that says ”wet paint”, etc. If possible, lead them to discuss what they have personally done because they think they are the exception.]
There is always a time when we think we are the exception to the rule… BUT are we? If we consider it, we really must admit that those rules apply to us just as they apply to everyone else. We have no right to make ourselves the exception.