Hi all! Welcome back.

Today’s story comes from the 1st part of the book of Numbers. This is the 4th book in the Bible and as you can guess…it has a lot of numbers. Moses had to count all the Israelites and they were put in their families and the families were put in a certain order and all told where to live around the tabernacle (the church where God lived).

The Israelites had left Egypt, gone to Mt Sinai where God gave them the rules He wanted them to follow and they stayed there a whole YEAR! One day, the cloud of God moved on and the people moved with Him.

BUT…the people started complaining. Again. “God! Why do we only have this manna (special bread)?! Why can’t we have meat!? We need more food! This isn’t faaaaaaiiiirrrrr!”

They were whining and complaining and God got frustrated. The people had already forgotten how good God had been to them. He saved them from the Egyptians, He provided for them by giving them the bread and water and they were still complaining.

Moses went to God and said “I can’t be in charge of all these people!? They are so unhappy and there’s so many of them!”

So God had 70 guys become Moses’ helpers. They worked in each of the 12 tribes (families) and helped oversee everything. God’s spirit was in the tabernacle and with Moses…and now with these guys too. Just like God’s spirit lives in our hearts when we believe in Him!

Moses said “How can I feed all these people?”

God told Moses He would provide meat for the people. But Moses knew even if they used all the animals they had, it wouldn’t be enough. But God reminded Moses, “Is ANYTHING too hard for God?”

No…of course God can do ANYTHING!!

God gave the people quail…a kind of bird to eat. He was still frustrated with the people for not trusting Him and some of them ate so much they got sick.

Even though the people were whining and doubting God, He still provided leaders for them and meat for them.

God is always faithful, even when we don’t follow Him perfectly. The Israelites had lots of times they didn’t follow God perfectly, but He always keeps His covenant promise with them. Just like we don’t always perfectly follow God, but He keeps His promise to love and save us, not because of our choices, but because it’s HIS choice to love and forgive us.

We’ll see more in Numbers next time. Love to you all!