Week Three

How are we going?

Two steps forward, one step back, and several sideways!

As we Get Packing with God we can sometimes find that the way is two steps forward, one step back, and several steps sideways as we find our feet! Travelling with God (as the Hebrews were discovering) is not necessarily about going in a straight line... No real adventures simply go from A-B do they!?

This week as we join the Hebrews wandering in the wilderness, we check in with how we are going on our own walks. Are we going round in circles, or even going backwards? Are we on the lookout for manna, are we open to resting, re-setting and reconfiguring along the way?

SEEDS TO SOW: An adventure is about the twists and turns on the way, not simply the end destination. How are we travelling light, not packing too much, to keep us from getting discouraged?

Read Exodus 16: 6-20

Going for fresh manna? Or manky manna?

Manna is God’s is provision for the day (or the weekend!) it is not seed capital. The Hebrews are invited to take it but not to hoard it.

Let’s have a thought experiment... Imagine if the manna hadn’t spoiled. Imagine the power and influence the early adopters could have wielded over the rest? Imagine if the fittest and biggest had scooped up the majority of the manna the next day, to bury in underground stores? Yes, the Hebrews were in danger of going backwards, into falling into the same ‘have and havenot’ cycles they had just escaped in Egypt!

What bothers you or unsettles you about this reading?

How do we keep each other encouraged along the road so that as a community we don’t find ourselves sliding backwards?

Read Exodus 16: 21-30

Going for a lie in?

It takes time to break cycles of relentless toil. To be fair to the Hebrews, in Egypt they wouldn’t have had the luxury of a day off.

How do we speak into a culture of overwork, where even leisure pursuits quickly become digitised, monetised and maximised!

How can we share our distinct Christian message of rest?

Read Exodus 32: 1-24

Going for the reset button!

As wacky as this seems, quickly cobbling together an idol is actually a pretty common human response to adversity. Sometimes our idols are physical objects and sometimes they’re theories or projects. What ties them together is that they are often hastily thrown together and creak under pressure!

And how about that moment when Moses windmill slams the reset button and confronts Aaron? Aaron squirms and frames it passively: we chucked a bunch of gold in the fire and “out came this calf...’ minimising his role (despite verse 4 saying that he sculpted it!) Getting packing with God can involving ongoing repacking when we realise we are trying to check a golden calf into our hold luggage!

What are the idols that society lifts up that have no place where we are going?