wilderness school

Monday September 22nd, Exodus 16: 4-5 God said to Moses, "I'm going to rain bread down from the skies for you. The people will go out and gather each day's ration. I'm going to test them to see if they'll live according to my Teaching or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they have gathered, it will turn out to be twice as much as their daily ration." The wilderness experience is a learning experience. In the old world, they thought they knew the rules and they pretty much boiled down to every man for himself. In the new world of God’s, there are new rules. Manna was a teaching tool. Everyday everyone was told to gather what they needed for the day. They learned that God provides. They learned that everyone had enough and no one had too much. They learned to be comfortable in God’s justice economy. On the sixth day they gathered for two days, again God provided, there was enough for everyone and the seventh day was a day of rest. If they horded the manna, gathering more than their share, it rotted and the lesson was that hording stinks. They learned that all the people were equal before God and that God provided and that hording stinks. Since that time we have forgotten those lessons.