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Hungry Hearts
By Sophia Prinsloo with Barbara Wilmerton Haas

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Text Version | Afrikaans


www.childrenschapel.org/biblestories/text/mosesmanna.txt

Gus had a hunger in his heart that he could not
satisfy. He was not hungering after something to
eat, but for something else. He did not know what
to do about it or how to handle it, and that made
him sad. Every day he went to school with a
lunchbox filled with the most delicious
sandwiches, a juicy fruit or two and a special
treat for the day. But all of that could not
satisfy his hungry heart. 

In class, Gus sat next to Frank, but Frank had
another kind of hunger he could not satisfy. His
father had lost his job and there was barely
enough food in the house for everybody. They were
only just getting by. 

As the days went by, the hunger in Gus' heart got
worse and he hardly smiled anymore. So did Frank's
appearance as his shoes looked more worn, the
colors of his old clothes began to fade, and he no
longer brought a lunchbox to school. One day in
math class, Frank's stomach began to rumble from
hunger. He quickly folded his arms across his
stomach, blushing a little. Mister Baker, the math
teacher, didn't even hear a thing, but Gus did. He
remembered his mom packing his lunchbox to the
brim and he decided to do something about Frank's
tummy. 

So during lunch break, with his lunchbox in his
hand, Gus went over to Frank, sitting alone on
under a small tree on the playgrounds, fidgeting
with his shoelaces. "Hi, Frank. Would you mind if
I join you?" Gus asked with a friendly smile. 

Frank looked up with a shy smile and said, "Sure,
Gus." 

Gus noticed that Frank couldn't keep his hungry
eyes off his lunchbox and, as he sat down, he
said, "Would you mind if I shared some of my food
with you? My mother stacked my lunchbox with
enough for two and I really wouldn't like to
disappoint her by taking it back home with
leftovers." 

Gratefully, Frank accepted Gus' offer and they
put away the mouthwatering treats. The next day,
Gus did the same and while they were munching on
some meatballs, he decided to spill his guts.
"Frank, I have a hunger I don't know how to
satisfy. It's not for food, but for something else
deep in my heart. Since yesterday, when I began
sharing my lunch with you, I am feeling a bit
better, but something is still missing."

Frank smiled and said, "Maybe I can help you with
that." He paused and then said quite unexpectedly,
"You must eat God."

Shocked, Gus replied, "WHAT IS IT? What in the
world are you saying?" 

"You must eat Jesus!" Frank continued. "Jesus said
so Himself when He was walking on this earth." 

Gus, wondering if Frank wasn't a bit crazy
upstairs, said, "How can I eat Someone Who has
died and gone to heaven?" 

"No, silly!" Frank smiled. "To 'eat Jesus' means
to believe in Him. The more you get to know Him,
the more He will satisfy the longing in your heart
and the stronger your faith will grow. Won't you
come with me to our church's youth group tonight?
Then you can learn all about Jesus satisfying your
hungry heart." 

Gus was eager to go with Frank to his youth group
that evening. There they heard about the Bread
from Heaven and the youth pastor told them a
story:

* * *

Have you ever been away from home for a long time?
Well, a month and a half after leaving Egypt and
miraculously being delivered by walking through
the Red Sea on dry land, Moses led the Israelites
through the wilderness of Sin. There were sand and
stone everywhere. They were running out of
supplies. Seeing only their problems caused the
Israelites to be very unhappy, because they didn't
trust the Lord fully. 

The people were so dissatisfied that they forgot
all about how hard it had been, being slaves in
Egypt. They even forgot about the awesome miracles
God had performed to deliver them from Egypt. On
top of that, they even doubted that it was really
the Lord Who led them out of Egypt, so they began
to murmur among themselves. 

They complained, "Moses, this is all YOUR fault,
not ours! Back in Egypt we had meat and bread,
lush green crops and fruit trees. Now, here in
this desolate place, there's nothing but inedible
sand and stone. Why didn't the Lord kill us in
Egypt with the plagues? It would have been better
than dying a terrible death of starvation here in
this barren desert."

Moses, their loving leader, humbly went to pray
and the Lord replied, "I am going to give the
people meat tonight and bread raining down from
heaven in the morning. Everybody will be able to
gather as much as they need. I will test them,
too, to see if they will obey a simple command:
They will be able to gather this food for 6 days.
On the 6th day, they must gather twice as much,
because on the 7th day, there will be nothing.
Then they must rest from gathering food." 

Then Moses and Aaron gathered all the people and
said, "The Lord has heard your murmuring and He
said, you are not really complaining against us,
but against Him. But the Lord loves you and wants
you to see his glory. That is why He will send you
meat to eat this evening, and early tomorrow
morning, He will send you an abundant supply of
bread. He wants you to come close to Him and see
his glory so that you can know that He cares about
you and will provide for you."

As the people were listening to Moses and Aaron,
suddenly, the radiant glory of the Lord appeared
in the clouds. The Israelites were in awe and
Moses hoped that seeing the glory of the Lord
would encourage them to believe with all their
hearts that the Lord loved them and would care for
them wherever they would go. He knew that if they
did not learn to trust the Lord, they would remain
disgruntled slaves in their hearts. 

That evening, the Israelites heard a rushing sound
in the distance. It couldn't be the Egyptians
coming, because their army was destroyed in the
Red Sea. The Israelites wondered what it could be
and, as it came closer, they could hear the
flapping sound of thousands upon thousands of
wings. Yes, the Lord was true to his Word and,
just as He promised, swarms of quail came flying
into the camp, landing on their tents, on their
possessions and on the ground. They saw with their
own eyes that the Lord cared for them and, that
evening, they all stuffed their rumbling tummies
with delicious, roasted quails. 

The next morning, dew covered the desert around
the camp and when it disappeared, flakey white
stuff was left behind. It looked like frost but
didn't feel cold and didn't melt when they touched
it. It was the first time in all of their lives
the Israelites saw something like that. The
inquisitive children said, "Mom! Dad! WHAT IS IT?"

Moms and dads frowned, looking puzzled at each
other, and asked, "WHAT IS IT? We don't know.
Let's go, ask Moses." 

Moses explained to them, "It's the bread that the
Lord promised to give you. You will eat this bread
for as long as you travel through the desert,
until you enter the Promised Land. The Lord said
that you must gather as much as you need for each
day but, he warned, don't leave it overnight
because it will spoil if you do." 

So the people gathered the white stuff. The white,
grainy stuff was the same size as coriander seed,
or about as big a pearl, but flat, and they called
it "MANNA," which means, "WHAT IS IT?" They had to
gather it early in the morning before it melted in
the sun and disappeared, and there was exactly the
right amount for everyone.

Cautiously, they tasted it and, WOW! They were
pleasantly surprised because it tasted just like
honey bread. The Israelites invented a recipe, so
they ground it like grain and cooked it to make
pancakes. YUMMY!

Some of the people were a bit lazy. They didn't
want to get up early each the morning to gather
manna, so they disobeyed the Lord and decided to
put away some manna in a container for the
following day. The next morning, they slept while
the other people were gathering manna. When their
hunger pangs drove them out of bed and they opened
their containers to make manna pancakes for
breakfast, PHEW! They were met with the most
disgusting smell ever. The leftover manna was full
of stinking, crawling maggots and they had to
throw it away, outside the camp. So the
disobedient people had to go hungry that day!

On the 6th day, there was twice as much manna as
usual and the people wanted to know why. Moses,
the patient teacher that he was, told the people
that it was because the 7th day was the Sabbath, a
day of rest, and that there would be no manna on
that day. They had to stay in their tents, resting
and not go out to gather manna in the morning.

Those Israelites, who were obedient to the Lord,
wisely gathered twice as much as usual on the 6th
day so that they would have enough left over for
the Sabbath. When the 7th day came and they opened
their containers, the manna was still perfectly
good to eat and make pancakes from, so they rested
from gathering manna that morning. But some of the
people were disobedient and only gathered the
usual amount for one day on the 6th day, thinking
there would be manna to gather on the 7th day as
well. But they were wrong! When they went out to
gather manna on the Sabbath, there was no manna at
all and they had to stay hungry for the whole day.
By going hungry, they quickly learned that the
Lord was serious about what He commanded and they
learned they ought to obey if they didn't want to
go hungry again.

The Lord also instructed Moses to tell Aaron to
take a sample of two quarts of manna and store it
in a container in a sacred place, as a museum
specimen for future generations. Then they would
be able to see what the miracle food their
forefathers ate in the wilderness looked like.
Aaron did exactly as he was told and, later, when
the tabernacle of the Lord was built, they placed
the manna in a special container and stored it
inside the Ark of the Covenant.

For 40 years, the Israelites wandered in the
wilderness and never had to worry about going
hungry again.

That evening at youth group, Gus and Frank also
learned that, just as the Lord proved his love by
giving the Israelites bread from heaven to fill
their hungry tummies, to stay alive in the
wilderness, He also proved his love by sending us
Jesus Christ to fill our hungry hearts and give us
eternal life when we start believing and obeying
Him. Just like the Israelites had to gather manna
every day and eat it, we must daily spend time
with Jesus by praying to Him, reading his Word and
doing what it says.

The best way to read your Bible is to, first of
all, ask the Lord to help you understand what
you're about to read and believe that He will help
you, even before you begin reading. Just like food
has different flavors, such as sweet, sour, salty
and so on, passages in the Bible can make your
heart experience different feelings, such as
gladness, conviction of sin, chastisement,
awareness — how to act in a situation — and many
more. 

Also, just like some foods are easy to eat,
melting in your mouth, like ice cream, some
passages are easy to understand. Other passages
are difficult to understand and are more like
chewing on a piece of tough steak, meaning you
have to take your time to think hard about it so
you can digest it. We call that meditating. 

Sometimes you'll have to ask someone to help you
understand but, just like steak is nutritious and
makes you strong, if you make an effort to
understand the Bible, it will build your spiritual
muscles and make you strong and wise, so that the
Lord can use you in his Kingdom, just like he did
with Moses. God loves to know that you are serious
with Him as you make an effort to get to know Him.

* * *

REMEMBER!
Only Jesus can satisfy your hungry heart when you
start believing in Him, take time to learn about
Him and obey Him.

THINK!
1. Why did the Israelites murmur in this story?
2. Did the Lord hear their complaining?
3. How did the Lord fix their problem? 
4. What did the manna taste like? 
5. Do you think the Lord loved them and cared
about them?
6. Do you think the Lord loves you and cares about
you?
7. Did everyone obey God by gathering manna only
for 6 days and resting on the 7th?
8. Why must you believe in Jesus and take time to
learn about Him every day?

VERSE TO LEARN:
"For the bread of God is he which cometh down from
heaven, and giveth life unto the world" (John
6:33).

ALTERNATE VERSE TO LEARN:
"And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life:
he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he
that believeth on me shall never thirst" (John
6:35).

PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Let's see. What’s your favorite food? Have you
ever been so hungry that your tummy rumbled or
ached? Or have you ever felt weak and irritated
but didn't know why, until you saw something
delicious to eat? Then you knew you were hungry,
didn't you? 

Now tell me, how do you know when your heart is
hungry? Could it be when you feel a deep longing
in your heart to believe in something worthwhile
or maybe when you sense a desire to be right with
God? Maybe, on the other hand, you don’t even
realize your heart is hungry until you hear how
much Jesus loves you, and then you find yourself
wanting to know more about Him. 

[After discussion:] Just like you can satisfy your
tummy with junk food, you can try to satisfy your
heart with the wrong things, like worldly things
that make you feel good for a little while but
then leave you feeling worse afterwards or leave
you with a guilty conscience. The only way to
satisfy the hunger in your heart is to accept
Jesus as your Lord and Saviour and then learn all
you can about Him from the Bible, obey Him,  and
pray and worship Him every day. The Word of God
says: "O taste and see that the Lord is good:
blessed is the man that trusteth in him" (Psalm
34:8).

Take a moment in prayer and thank Jesus for coming
to satisfy your hungry heart. Ask Him to teach,
guide and help you through the day. Always
remember to pray and worship Him every day so that
your faith can grow strong.


LET'S PRAY:
****************************************************
Heavenly Father, thank You for sending Jesus Christ, 
the real Bread from Heaven, to satisfy my hungry heart. 
Teach, guide and help me through this day. Help me to 
pray and take time to learn about You every day so that 
I can grow strong in my faith. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
****************************************************

CAN YOU FIND THIS STORY IN THE BIBLE?
Exodus 16:1-36

DID YOU KNOW?
You can view this Bible story in full color with
pictures and resources to go along with the story
at www.bit.ly/mosesmanna-en

BIBLE STORY ARCHIVE
www.childrenschapel.org/bibstory2.html 

                                 * * *
Copyright (c) 2021 by Barbara Wilmerton Haas.

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