The God Story: Rising Action

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Exodus 16:2-4, 13-16; Numbers 11:4-6

The whole Israelite community complained against Moses and Aaron in the desert. The Israelites said to them, “Oh, how we wish that the Lord had just put us to death while we were still in the land of Egypt. There we could sit by the pots cooking meat and eat our fill of bread. Instead, you’ve brought us out into this desert to starve this whole assembly to death.”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “I’m going to make bread rain down from the sky for you. The people will go out each day and gather just enough for that day. In this way, I’ll test them to see whether or not they follow my Instruction.

In the evening a flock of quail flew down and covered the camp. And in the morning there was a layer of dew all around the camp. When the layer of dew lifted, there on the desert surface were thin flakes, as thin as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” They didn’t know what it was.

Moses said to them, “This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Collect as much of it as each of you can eat, one omer per person. You may collect for the number of people in your household.’”

The riffraff among them had a strong craving. Even the Israelites cried again and said, “Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish we ate in Egypt for free, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. Now our lives are wasting away. There is nothing but manna in front of us.”

 

This week, we took a look at one segment of "rising action" in The God Story. This is the part of the plot where one or more additional threads of conflict arise to complicate the story. Our initial conflict was established at the beginning of Genesis: God desires a relationship with humans, but our sin has caused a breach in that relationship. As The God Story unfolds, we find one long story of the salvation history of God's people. Although our relationship is broken, God's desire for us to be restored to right relationship with God does not cease.

The "rising action" this week appears, to the Israelites, to be the issue of how to survive in the wilderness. How will they eat? How will they drink? Has God (Moses) led them out here just so that they might die? Very quickly, a "back to Egypt" committee forms.

But God's perspective is very different. The issue is not that God will not provide. The issue is that God does and has and will provide, yet God's people do not trust God.

Change is hard. Leaving a familiar place is scary. There is a strong temptation to return to the known, the familiar, no matter how undesirable it may have been. Sometimes a leader entices us away from the familiar into a strange land where we would rather not go. A strong instinct tells us to get back to the way things were.

But sometimes God calls us into a strange place. Rather than focusing on how we can return to the familiar, we should first consider where God is meeting us in the place we now find ourselves. We are often too quick to rely on our own wants, our own needs, our own "gut," without even asking the question of what new thing God might be doing, here.

Our God Story thread this week is: God will provide for God's people. Before we enter into a long list of complaints, let us first consider where God is providing for us. We may discern that we are, indeed, called to go back. Or we may be called to go forward. But let us not be too quick to let our heads and our hearts lead us without first considering what God is providing for us in our current situation.

The Monday Connection:

• Is there a "wilderness" area of your life right now? Where can you see evidence that God is providing for you, even in the midst of the wilderness?
• Can you think of a time in your life when you have been called out of the familiar into the unknown? Looking back, where do you see God providing for you during that time?
• Is there a decision you are facing now that you can bring to God in prayer? Acknowledge the hopes and fears of your head and your heart and ask God to help you discern the path God has for you.

Proverbs 3:5-6: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."