Week 9: Daily Food and Ten New Rules
Exodus 16, 20:1-17 Review the big story: God created the cosmos and humans and called it all good. We were created to live in harmony, but sometimes we miss the mark. Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and all of humanity missed the mark, and they had to live with the consequences, but God stuck with them and continued to love them. Then God called a family, beginning with Abraham and Sarah, to be in a covenant relationship with God. God’s work continued with three more generations from this family. Like the humans before them, they often missed the mark, but God was faithful. When the people became slaves in Egypt, God raised up Moses to be their leader. God performed many signs and wonders, and delivered them from slavery.
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Tell the story: The people had been saved from slavery - now what? It’s time for God to get to work at forming a people. These people have a lot to learn about this God that they worship! They learn to trust God’s leading and God’s provision. God gives them the gift of the law, a set of guidelines that will free them to live as God’s people in shalom community.
Prime the pump:
The people complain. God rains bread. Daily food. Ten new rules.
The people complain and God rains bread. Daily food and ten new rules.
- Read Exodus 16, 20:1-17
- Read pages 51-53 in the Shine On story Bible
Prime the pump:
- Things to notice:
- Notice the times the people complain - and God’s responses to their complaints. Do you think it’s okay that they complain?
- Notice what happens to the food when the people hoard it. Is this instructive for us?
- Read Exodus 20:2. This is the God the people serve, and this is why they can trust God. Wonder: What would God say to you in a statement like this?
- Notice which two commandments get the longest explanations. Why do you think this is?
- The commandments given in Exodus 20:1-17 are designed to enable the people to live in right relationships with each other. Notice the ways these instructions could help that happen.
- Background information:
- Mount Sinai is Mount Horeb. We’ve been here before!
- Notice how manna is described in Exodus 16:31. We can only guess at what it was like. There are several ideas for what this manna might have been, and it was probably something natural of the area the people found themselves in. Try foraging on the land around you to see what sustenance God provides for you.
- The law that God gives the people (what we know as the Ten Commandments, plus a lot of other stuff) is celebrated as a great gift. This is what is celebrated at Shavuot (known as Pentecost in Greek).
- Conversation starters:
- Imagine eating the same thing every day for forty years. Would you ever complain?
- In the story of the manna and quail, the people are learning that God provides. They learn to trust that there will be enough for everyone if each person only takes their share. This seems simple enough, but what would it be like to actually live that way?
- Why is the law a gift? Can boundaries and rules be freeing for us?
- Shalom community is a term we often use for the kind of people that the Hebrews were learning to be. It means a community where everyone has enough, where relationships with God, each other, and creation are all healthy. It is possible through trust in God and love for each other. This is radical! How does the way you live fit (or not fit) the concept of shalom community?
The people complain. God rains bread. Daily food. Ten new rules.
The people complain and God rains bread. Daily food and ten new rules.
Sing the big song:
This is the story of how it all began. God made matter, and chaos shattered.
Eve and Adam, they tried to hide.
The world got violent and God replied with a mark and a flood and a rainbow sign, God’s love written on skin and sky,
And then God called a family to be a blessing to the earth, ahhhhhh
A mother and her favorite son wrestle for the blessing,
Another son becomes a slave, the land is saved from famine.
God’s family grows. Egypt oppresses. They groan to God and God sends Moses.
Ten strange signs mean “Please release them!” By the sea God saves them. Ahhhhhhhhhh.
The people complain and God rains bread. Daily food and ten new rules.
God loves every one of us, it’s true, and God loves the universe.
This is the story of how it all began. God made matter, and chaos shattered.
Eve and Adam, they tried to hide.
The world got violent and God replied with a mark and a flood and a rainbow sign, God’s love written on skin and sky,
And then God called a family to be a blessing to the earth, ahhhhhh
A mother and her favorite son wrestle for the blessing,
Another son becomes a slave, the land is saved from famine.
God’s family grows. Egypt oppresses. They groan to God and God sends Moses.
Ten strange signs mean “Please release them!” By the sea God saves them. Ahhhhhhhhhh.
The people complain and God rains bread. Daily food and ten new rules.
God loves every one of us, it’s true, and God loves the universe.