Next week’s children’s lesson for the church:

Water from the Rock

Exodus 17:1-7

God continued leading His people through the wilderness, moving them toward the place where He would give them His law and make His permanent promises to them. Along the way, they ran out of water, as they had before.

It would have been good for them to remember the last time that happened. Because then they could have prayed, and God would provide. But instead of trusting God and asking Him to help again, they complained again. They went to Moses and used very harsh words to attack him. “Why did you lead us out of Egypt to a place of no water?” They asked. “Did you just want to kill us and our children and animals, dying of thirst? Is God really with us, or not?” They were so upset that Moses felt threatened and intimidated. Has anyone ever been so angry with you that they made you afraid? That’s how Moses felt that day. So Moses cried to the Lord for help. That was the right thing to do.

“Lord, what do I do with these people?” Moses asked. “For they are so angry they’re ready to pick up large rocks and throw them at me to kill me.” God didn’t want Moses to focus on the rocks he thought the people were about to hit him with. There was another rock God wanted to show Moses. Not a rock of anger. But a rock of solid help from God for all the people.

God told Moses, “Walk past the people in front of them, taking some of the elders with you. Carry the staff you struck the Nile River with to turn it to blood in Egypt. Come to Me at the great rock of Horeb. Then you shall strike the great rock, and I will make water gush out of it in a stream, and all of the people will drink.”

Now you must understand that this would be a miracle. Rocks don’t have streams of water inside them. But God is the Maker of everything in heaven and earth. He can do anything, even miracles like causing abundant water to flow out of a rock. Moses obeyed God. He struck the rock with his staff, and water flowed from it like a mighty waterfall. Every thirsty person and animal had as much as they needed.

The New Testament tells us that this rock was God’s way of giving us a picture of what Jesus would do for us. Jesus spoke of “living water,” that when He gave it to someone it would be eternal life. The rock and the water from it were a metaphor. A symbol of Jesus and the eternal life He gives. Jesus came, and He was struck like the rock. He died for our sins. And His blood flowed from Him, becoming like living water that cleanses our sins and gives us eternal life when we believe. At the end of the Bible, in Revelation, which Dave is teaching later, Jesus promises to give the water of life for free to anyone who wants it. You can have it today. If you believe in Jesus, and believe He died for you and rose again, He will forgive your sins and give you eternal life.

God and Moses wanted the people to learn these lessons and always remember them. So the place was named Massa and Meribah, words that mean “testing” and “quarreling.” This is because the people tested the Lord and quarreled with Moses. We need to learn not to put God to a test or fight with each other when we’re in need. Instead of testing and quarreling, trusting and praying is the answer.

Here’s this week’s children’s lesson for the church

God provides Manna from Heaven

Exodus 16

The people of Israel had been rescued from slavery by God. They followed Him into the wilderness and worshiped Him. After about a month and a half, their supply of food ran low.

Now, what should they have done? They should have remembered God is their provider, and asked Him for help. Last week we learned that when they didn’t have a source of water, God provided for them abundantly when Moses prayed. Now, they were running out of food and were hungry. The wise thing to do would be to ask God.

` Jesus taught us that, too. He said to pray to God to give us each day the food we need for the day. Since God told us to ask for that, we can trust Him to answer that prayer. As a child of God who believes on Jesus, always know you can depend on God to provide food when you ask. And when you eat, give thanks to God each time for giving you food. It even helps you enjoy the food more when you start the meal by thanking God for it.

Unfortunately, the people of Israel didn’t ask God to provide when they were hungry. They were out in the wilderness, and they thought there was no way for God to give them food there. So they didn’t ask. Just because we don’t know how God could help us is no reason not to ask Him. When we’re in need, we must pray. The Lord is wise. He can figure out a way to help us, even if we can’t think of a solution.

The people didn’t pray, though. Instead, they complained. They grumbled against Moses and Aaron the priest. They said, “It would have been better if we had died in Egypt where we had food, since you’ve brought us out into the wilderness to die.” That was a pretty silly thing to say, wasn’t it? They thought it would have been better to have stayed slaves and died in Egypt than to live free with God but have needs for food. See how wrong we sound when we complain against God? Isn’t it obviously better to pray when we need help than to complain?

God told Moses and Aaron to tell the people that He would start sending quail in the evening, so that they would have meat to eat. And He said to tell them He would make bread from heaven appear on the ground in the morning, enough for everyone to be full. And then God did just what He said He would. God said in the morning there would be enough food to gather for that day. On the sixth day of the week, Friday, there would be enough of the bread from heaven to collect two-day’s worth of it. Then they could obey God, and take the seventh day of the week as a day off from work to rest. The first five days of the week, they would work to gather that day’s food. On Friday, there would be twice as much on the ground. Then on Saturday they would have enough food already that they didn’t need to work to have food. On other days, if there was extra kept, it would rot at night. But on Friday night, they would have extra and it would stay fresh through the next day.

God did all these things just like He said He would. And He taught the people to depend on Him to provide. For the next 40 years, God made them this food from heaven and put it on the ground for them in the morning.

When the people first found and ate it, they said, “What is it?” And so this heavenly bread came to be called “manna,” because in the Hebrew language, that word “manna” means, “What is it?” That was an everlasting reminder that God can provide for His people’s needs, even if they don’t understand how He helped them.

If anyone didn’t trust God, and tried to gather enough manna for several days’ worth, the extra they gathered rotted overnight. But new manna was there for them in the morning. This was to teach the people that each day, God would meet their needs that day. They didn’t need to worry about tomorrow. Just trust God today, and see the Lord provide. If we learn that God is our Provider, we will always know how to live trusting Him.