Genesis 16:1-18

Now they had been travelling for days. Always through the hot, dusty desert. Just away from Egypt, just away from this terrible land where they had worked as slaves, men and women and children. Every day they had toiled for foreign masters. But that was over now. They were free!

God showed them the way. He went before them in a great pillar of cloud. He had sent the wind that drove away the water, he had led them through the Red Sea when the Egyptians were after them. They had been helpless, but God was there when they needed him. A mighty God who protected them.

They hadn't been able to take much with them on their escape, just enough to keep them warm for the night, a small supply of water, a little bread, barely baked.

"We'll take a break here. We don't have to go any further. We are free people. Moses is leading us. He has found this resting place."

"It's good that we have each other. It's good that we were able to leave Egypt together. The children have their parents, the parents have their children. Old people have young people and young people have old people. We have each other. We have our freedom. We have what we need. What more do we need?"

But now there was opposition: "We are hungry and need bread. There's sand and stones here - more than we need - but there's nothing left to eat.

All this freedom is of no use to us. We might as well have stayed in Egypt."

So, Moses stood before all the people and said: "Listen! You will be given as much bread as you need. It will be a special desert bread, it will rain from the sky at night. Tomorrow you will find as much as you need."

The dew fell from the sky during the night and lay around the camp in the morning. And when the dew was gone in the sun, there was something like hoar frost, small and round lying on the ground.

"What's that?" - "Look, small and round, what is it?"

They shouted it in their mother tongue, in Hebrew, so this question sounds like "ManHa?"

"This is the bread of heaven!" Moses said to them, "Man Ha, this is the bread that God gives you to eat."

"There is as much as you need," cried Moses. "Everyone gets a piece. Come, take a piece. Whoever takes a second piece should give it to someone who has nothing. Wait for each other to eat."

Back then, some people took more than they needed. They wanted to build up a small supply. But the next day, the ManHa had gone bad and the worms crawled out.

But every morning there was dew again and then the ManHa was back on the ground. This saved the people from starving to death in the desert.

The people had only just escaped from Egypt when they began to rebel.

They had forgotten the slavery, oppression and deprivation they had experienced there. Instead, they thought of the meat pots, as the Bibletext says. Even today, I keep coming across people who have experienced systematic oppression and long to return to that time. Here in South Africa on the bus journey to the children's Kailager, when the bus driver told me that he used to be much better off when he was simply given a job after leaving school, or in Germany, because in the GDR all women worked and childcare was organised.

The Israelites had forgotten their trust in Moses, who had just freed them from oppression with God's help.

But God would not allow them to rebel, God wanted to see the Israelites free and provided for them. Every day, for 40 years, God provides for the Israelites. But some cannot believe this, their fear that it will not be enough is great. They take more than they need, they don't want to share.

How often are we afraid that what we have is not enough? That we find it so difficult to share with others because it is just enough for us.

The story of Jesus, who is full of confidence that the 5 loaves and 2 fish will be enough for everyone, is completely different. And the disciples trust him. And because everyone trusts that there will be enough, there is

even something left over at the end.

Those who are not afraid of coming short have no shortage. Everyone has plenty.

If you're not afraid of coming short, you won't be deprived. As a result, everyone has plenty.

At Kidsweek there was a pearl to commemorate this: the desert pearl.

It reminds us: God takes care of me, even in the desert times of my life.