Moses in the wilderness

Moses grew to be a man. God called him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. God said, “I will show you the land where you will live.”

Now they were in the wilderness, on the way to their new land. The people began to grumble. “Why did God bring us here? In Egypt we had plenty to eat. There is no food here!”

“Don’t grumble,” said Moses, “God will take care of us.
He told me He will give us meat in the evening and bread in the morning.”

The next evening thousands of little brown birds, called quails, flew into the camp to rest.
“Come and look!” shouted someone. “God has sent the quails for food!”

So the people caught the quails and ate them.
The next morning there was dew on the ground.
When the dew dried there were tiny things like seeds
left on the ground.

They called it manna. It tasted like honey bread.
The people gathered the manna. Each one picked up just enough for one day. Every day there was fresh manna on the ground.

Moses spoke to the people.
“God said that on the sixth day you are to gather enough manna for two days. No manna will fall on the seventh day.”

Some people were greedy. They took too much and tried to save it.
“See what has happened,” they said, “the manna has gone bad!”
“Yes,” said Moses, “God told you not to keep it. He will give you fresh manna every day. You must do what God tells you.”

For forty years God sent manna every day and the people were never hungry again.