The Story of 40 Years in the Wilderness, Part 1 (Exodus 16)

The people of Israel escaped Egypt and Pharaoh because God was on their side. That’s the only way they could have made it, and now they are headed for their promised land. It was the same land God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that we talked about in earlier Bible Stories. Do you know why God’s people were called the people of Israel or sometimes the children of Israel? It was because God changed Jacob’s name to Israel, and Israel would also be the name of the great nation God promised to make of them after they settled in their own land. Do you think their journey was easy or hard? In order to reach the land, the people had to walk through what the Bible calls a wilderness. It was a desert area with mountains of rock all around them and with rocks under their feet. How could over a million people with all their herds of cattle and flocks of sheep survive in this wilderness 40 years? What did they eat? Where did they get water to drink? Would they live long enough to complete their journey? The sad fact is that many of them disobeyed God and murmured against him in the wilderness, and they died because of it. It’s hard to believe that people could rebel against God after all he had done for them. What about those that believed God and obeyed him, did they make it? Absolutely, they made it, and for the same reason they escaped Egypt, because God was on their side. I want God to me on my side, don’t you? Tomorrow we will learn about some of the many miracles God performed to save his people and bring them safely home.