#14 Ye Shall Be a Peculiar Treasure unto Me"

Exodus 15-20; 32-34
What are some of the simple things in life that you enjoy? I Love eating a hot fudge and Reses peanut butter shake right after a sweaty game of volleyball or softball or racquetball. I also love sitting on my back step feeling the sun on my face, eyes closed listening to the leaves of the trees wrestling in the wind and smelling the fresh air. Those things are very satisfying to me. I’m not sure about the shake experience but the latter experience gives me, not only a physical satisfaction, but a spiritual satisfaction. I know without doubt that when I do those very things I feel deep in my heart a great contentment. Life is good there, no kids are yelling, the checkbook isn’t screaming help me! I can guarantee myself peace and contentment every time I do that even if it is only for 5 minutes. Being outside is balm to my troubled heart. What do you do? Is there anything you do that brings you that kind of contentment? Out of those experiences, have any of them brought to your mind a learning experience? Perhaps an analogy of your life, have you learned anything about anything while experiencing a moment like that? How about the love of God, during those moments; have you felt the love of God just for you during that moment in time? Like He sent that sunshine right to my back step and sent the breeze at the perfect time just for you during just that moment? I have I can testify that during those times that the Lord is sending me His love right to me right at that moment. I don’t know what the rest of you are doing or where you are, but I know when He’s been there at the right time just for me. It is during those times that I recognize the atonement at work in my life, leading me to peace, teaching me what taking the atonement in feels like for me personally. I feel it working on me, healing me of whatever I have going on that is disturbing, it’s like I’m sitting there enjoying and nothing else matters; as I sit I feel that nothing is important for that moment except for the healing that I am experiencing.

Well that was relaxing wasn’t it? On with the lesson, the children of Israel had experiences like this quite frequently, but they didn’t recognize them as such, the Lord brought them out of Egypt, but now what? They had life a life of servitude up to this point, they were told what to do, where to live, how to act etc. Now, poor Moses had the huge job of turning these people into men and women of God! Getting there heads back to the point of centering all of life’s activities on Christ. He’s not sure how to do it but the Lord has a plan. He’s starting from scratch with them; and what I love is we get to read it and dissect it and then point out all the awesome symbolism. What this does for us is helps us to put our own lives into perspective. We can start to see how the Lord uses normal daily occurrences to teach us about the atonement and how to incorporate it as healing power into our daily living.
So let’s start in Exodus 16 we have the story of the children of Israel, who have just seen the destruction of Pharaoh and his armies; they are living in the wilderness. Coincidence? Never-the Wilderness is symbolic of this world we live in. What better place for the Lord to teach from scratch than a place where there is nothing. When does He start to teach them about the basics of life? Right away! Most of these people brought what they could carry so to say that food and water, the basic necessities for life were scarce is probably an understatement.
So lesson #1: if you want something don’t just complain about it get on your knees and pray for help from the only person who can and will help. Moses is the example here, he had a problem of all these people complaining to him and instead of complaining to his counselors he prayed about it. Ex. 16: 4 what does this teach the people? God is the only one we should be relying on. Also the Lord wants to help us, he’s waiting to help us, but He won’t force himself on us. We have to want His help.

Lesson #2: Exo. 16:12-15 He sends quail and manna. As a kid whenever I pictured manna I pictured this heavenly bread, with this heavenly name; now I know that the name manna means “what is it?” the name isn’t quite as heavenly to me anymore, what a name. Even though the people weren’t great at naming their food they still loved this manna, I wanted to discover some things about manna. What is it exactly?
Write what manna is on the board:
Exo. 16:4-5 Only the exact amount that you will be using can be gathered daily-except for Saturday night they can gather for Sunday. What does this teach them? He gives us as we need-no more, why do some seem to have more than others, this too is a test for those who have more to see if they will share, for those who don’t have tons, to see if they will humble themselves to get help as well as not be jealous. What is he trying to teach us about the Sabbath day? Ex. 16:22-25 tells us that when they normally kept the bread overnight it rotted and stank and had worms growing on it. Now, however, it saves. How important is it? So important that we should prepare for it the night before! This teaches us another principle: Christ, and the gospel blessings aren’t meant to be kept for another day, they are to be utilized to their fullest daily, not put on the shelf and forgot about until the next Sunday.
Numbers 11:7-9 Tastes like coriander seed, can be ground up baked into cakes has a fresh oil taste. Now I don’t know when the last time you tasted coriander seed and fresh oil but that sounds nasty to me. I’m sure it was delicious to them. Personally I like the description in Ex. 16:31wafers made with honey. Perhaps the taste changed with the ways they prepared it. This is true for gospel blessings as well. Even if we all are in the same calling, doesn’t mean we will get the same things out of it.
1 Cor. 10:3 it is spiritual meat and everyone gets the same thing. This is symbolic to us. All people in this gospel get the same blessings, all people rich, poor, black, white, heavy, skinny, all of us have every part of the gospel offered to us, however if you noticed each person took the amount they would eat, I imagine some took more than others, some took less, We are all offered the same spiritual meat, but we don’t all take the same amount at the same time; we also take what we need and what we are ready for.
Just like my back step experience, some days I need to sit there for 5 minutes to feel satisfied and spiritually fed, other days I feel like I should and could sit there all day long.

John 6:31-32 Christ is the true bread of life. So what’s he trying to teach them/us? Only through Christ, living the kind of live he lived, and coming to Him, remembering His sacrifice and making sure we don’t live in vain is what He is teaching us through providing bread.

Last scripture about the bread Rev. 2:17 eat hidden manna Hidden can be translated better for us as sacred gospel blessings through Christ. White stone-white=pure stone=Christ; in the stone a new name, those who have been through the temple should understand this one. If not I have a quote from Charles C. Rich who teaches what he learned from Joseph Smith what this scripture means in the journal of discourses 19; “We read in Revelations of St. John that the saints are to receive a white stone, “and in the stone a new name, which no man knoweth save him that receiveth it.” Joseph tells us that this new name, which no man knoweth save him that receiveth it.” Joseph tells us that this new name is a key word, which can only be obtained through the endowments. This is one of the keys and blessings that will be bestowed upon the saints in these last days, for which we should be very thankful.”
So manna is the blessings we get from covenants we make and keep from the temple.

The lesson manual gives us a small summary of what the manna experience gives them/us.
1-It shows the Lord whether his people would obey him Ex. 16:4
2-It would give the people daily reminders of the Lord’s power and love. Ex. 16:12 We too already talked about things you do and enjoy which is partaking of the Lord’s power (atoning) and love.
3-It would teach the people that they do not live “by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord” Deut. 8:3
4-It would humble the people and help them receive salvation Deut. 8:16
He teaches them one last thing. John 6:48-51 that the people who ate manna are dead, but the bread Christ offers will live forever, meaning the resurrection. When we partake of the living bread, daily partaking we will be eternally blessed, and our posterity will be blessed.

Lesson #3 all that talk of bread has made me thirsty hasn’t it to you? The people were thirsty in the wilderness, they wanted water, well the Lord wanted to give them water but he wanted it to be a teaching moment as well.
Ex. 17:5-6 we know that the rock signifies Christ. Who smites the rock? Our sins smite the rock, and out comes living water, atoning water, saving them from thirst.

Another experience of the Lord giving them water also gives us insight. Ex. 15: 22-23 there was no water when they first came into the wilderness. The only water they were able to find was bitter so in v. 25 the Lord shewed him a tree which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet; What does the tree symbolize? Christ on the cross, by doing this the Lord proved to them that Christ dying for us turns bitter things into sweet things. He makes a covenant with them after that v.26 if they/we hearken to the commandments, do all he asks of us He won’t put all the diseases he put on the Egyptians, because the blessing He wants to give us is that of healing; healing them/us from anger, bitterness, jealousy forgiveness etc daily and forever.

I want to share an experience I had just recently that illustrates the principle that Christ heals and we can partake of the living water and bread daily. First let me start with a question; have you ever been in the position where one of your family members was hurt or offended by someone and their battle becomes yours because you want to protect them from hurt. Well this happened to me recently one of my family members was hurt, and me being the protecting lioness wanted to claw out the eyeballs of those who hurt my family member. Of course I am a nonviolent person so I didn’t, but inside my feelings festered and grew till I knew I couldn’t even look at the offensive people without being mean. I realized about a week of anger and bitterness that my attitude was wrong and I needed to repent. I went to my knees and asked for forgiveness for holding on to my anger, for allowing the bitterness to creep in I asked forgiveness for thinking bad thoughts about the people. Because I’m stubborn I could still tell that there were not completely loving thoughts in my head and I knew that was wrong; I asked the Lord to help me get past this through the power of the atonement. I asked that the atoning power of unconditional love fill me up so I didn’t have room to dislike or be angry at these people anymore. I discussed these things for a while. By the time I stood up I felt like a new person, I could picture these people with love and understanding instead of anger and bitterness. It seemed like a miracle to me that it was that easy, and the result was complete peace.
As I studied this lesson I know that the Lord does want to send us living manna and water daily, He wants to bless us, He’s waiting to bless us in any way that we need, He’s just waiting for us to ask. He’s just waiting for us to keep the commandments, keep our covenants, just so he can send those blessings from heaven. He provides us with so many opportunities to feel His Love, through the world outside; through the things we love and appreciate most, the simple things, like sitting outside on the back step. We just have to ask, and center every daily activity on Christ, that is all He asks; include Him in your life, and He will heal in the name of Jesus Christ amen.