After God helped Moses to lead the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, a great journey through the desert began. The Israelites walked through the hot, dry desert day after day. Soon after, they had nothing to eat and began to worry.
People began to grumble and complain. They said to Moses and Aaron, “We would have preferred to stay in Egypt. There we had enough to eat. But now we’re going to starve to death here in the desert!” Their stomachs growled, and they didn’t know what to do.
Then Moses heard God’s voice. God said to him, “I have heard the murmuring of the Israelites. I will rain bread from heaven for you. People should go out every morning and collect only as much as they need for a day.”
The next morning, when the dew had disappeared from the earth, the Israelites discovered something surprising. There was a fine, fluffy layer on the ground that looked like frost. People were surprised and asked, “What is this?” Moses told them, “This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. It’s called manna.”
People gathered the manna, and it tasted sweet like honey. Everyone ate their fill, and so it went on every day. God provided the Israelites with manna every morning so that they would not go hungry. God also told them that on the sixth day they should gather enough for two days so that they would not have to work on the seventh day, the day of rest.
The Israelites learned to trust in God’s provision. He provided the bread from heaven every day. God wanted to show them that He sees them, cares for them, and meets their needs.
Message of history
God cares for us and provides us with what we need every day. We can trust that He will always take care of us.
Bible passage
The story of manna in the desert is in 2. Genesis 16:1-36:
“And they departed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came into the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had gone out of the land of Egypt. 2 And all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 And the children of Israel said to them, “Would to God that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, while we were sitting by the pots of flesh and eating bread in abundance?” For you have brought us out into this wilderness to starve this whole church! 4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will make bread rain down from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather together one day a day [den Bedarf für] , that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not. 5 And it shall come to pass on the sixth day, and they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as that what they collect every day! 6 Then Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, “In the evening you will know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt, 7 and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord; for he has heard your murmuring against the Lord. For who are we to murmur against us? 8 Moses said, “In return the Lord will give you meat to eat in the evening, and bread in the morning an abundance, because the Lord has heard your murmuring, with which you murmured against him; Because who are we? Your murmuring is not against us, but against the Lord! 9 And Moses said to Aaron, “Say to all the congregation of the children of Israel, ‘Come before the Lord, for he has heard your murmuring.’ 10 And it came to pass, when Aaron was speaking to all the congregation of the children of Israel, that they turned to the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. 11 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 12 “I have heard the murmuring of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, “In the evening you shall have meat to eat, and in the morning you shall be satisfied with bread, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God.” 13 And in the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning the dew lay around the camp. 14 And when the dew had risen, behold, there lay on the surface of the wilderness something fine, grainy, as fine as frost on the earth. 15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “Man hu? (“What is that?”), because they didn’t know what it was. And Moses said to them, “This is the bread that the Lord has given you for food.” 16 This is what the Lord has commanded: Gather some of it, each according to his need for food, a gomer for each head, according to the number of your souls, each one for those who are in his tent. 17 And the children of Israel did so and gathered, some much and some little. 18 But when they measured it against Gomer, he who had gathered much did not have too much, and he who had gathered little did not have too little. everyone had collected as much as they needed to eat. 19 And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it until morning.” 20 But they did not listen to Moses, and some left it until morning. Then worms grew in it, and it became stinking; and Moses became angry with them. 21 So they gathered it every morning, each according to his food needs. But when the sun got hot, it melted. 22 And it came to pass on the sixth day that they gathered twice as much bread, two gomers for each. And all the princes of the church came and told Moses. 23 And he said to them, “This is what the Lord has said: Tomorrow is a day of rest, the holy Sabbath to the Lord. What you want to bake, bake, and what you want to cook, cook; but what is left, put it aside, that it may be kept until morning. 24 And they laid it aside until morning, as Moses had commanded; then it did not become stinking, and there was no worm in it. 25 Then Moses said, “Eat this today, for today is the Sabbath of the Lord; you won’t find it in the field today. 26 You shall gather it for six days, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath, and there will be nothing. 27 And it came to pass on the seventh day that some of the people went out to gather, and they found nothing. 28 Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my commandments? 29 Behold, the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Let each one remain in his place, let no one leave his place on the seventh day! 30 So the people rested on the seventh day. 31 And the house of Israel called it “Man,” and it was white as coriander seeds, and tasted like honey-cake. 32 And Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: Fill a gomer full of it to keep for your descendants, so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt. 33 And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a vessel and put manna in it, a gomer full, and set it before the Lord for your descendants to keep.” 34 As the Lord had commanded Moses, so Aaron set it before the testimony for safekeeping. 35 And the children of Israel ate the manna for 40 years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate the manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan; 36 But a Gomer is the tenth part of an ephah.”
