He told them, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Tomorrow is a day of complete rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you want to bake, and boil what you want to boil, and everything left over set aside to be kept until morning.’”

So they set it aside until morning as Moses commanded, and it didn’t smell or have any maggots in it. “Eat it today,” Moses said, “because today is a Sabbath to the Lord. Today you won’t find any in the field. For six days you may gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.”

Yet on the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they did not find any. Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep My commands and instructions? Understand that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day He will give you two days’ worth of bread. Each of you stay where you are; no one is to leave his place on the seventh day.” So the people rested on the seventh day.

The house of Israel named the substance manna. It resembled coriander seed, was white, and tasted like wafers made with honey. (Exodus 16:23-3)

“There’s nothing to eat!” say our children when they can’t find the one food item they are craving. Soon after, they may complain that we hate them and have ruined their lives if we don’t immediately go to the grocery store and get it. Perhaps it’s not so odd that God called his people the children of Israel. They complained about their hunger. Not necessarily an unreasonable thing to do. But one day rather than simply announcing that they were hungry, or asking how much longer before supper, they were sullen. They believed that they would never eat again and that in fact God had brought them to where they were for the express purpose of making them die a miserable death. It was one thing to be hungry and let someone know about it. It was another thing entirely to accuse that someone of evil intent.

Despite that accusation, however, God fed his people—just as a parent we will feed our sometimes bratty children because, bratty or not, they are our children and we love them and want what’s best for them: we want them to be healthy and happy and to lack for nothing. God felt the same way about his people as we feel about our kids, however annoying they might get—and even when they break the rules. We don’t starve our children or fail to care for them just because they come in past curfew or “forgot” to study for their history test. And God’s a better parent than we can ever hope to be.

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