161 And they went on their way from Elim, and all the children of Israel came into the waste land of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they went out of the land of Egypt. 2 And all the children of Israel were crying out against Moses and Aaron in the waste land: 3 And the children of Israel said to them, It would have been better for the Lord to have put us to death in the land of Egypt, where we were seated by the flesh-pots and had bread enough for our needs; for you have taken us out to this waste of sand, to put all this people to death through need of food. 4 Then the Lord said to Moses, See, I will send down bread from heaven for you; and the people will go out every day and get enough for the day's needs; so that I may put them to the test to see if they will keep my laws or not. 5 And on the sixth day they are to make ready what they get in, and it will be twice as much as they get on the other days. 6 And Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, This evening it will be clear to you that it is the Lord who has taken you out of the land of Egypt: 7 And in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord; for your angry words against the Lord have come to his ears: and what are we that you are crying out against us? 8 And Moses said, The Lord will give you meat for your food at evening, and in the morning bread in full measure; for your outcry against the Lord has come to his ears: for what are we? your outcry is not against us but against the Lord. 9 And Moses said to Aaron, Say to all the people of Israel, Come near before the Lord for he has given ear to your outcry. 10 And while Aaron was talking to the children of Israel, their eyes were turned in the direction of the waste land, and they saw the glory of the Lord shining in the cloud. 11 And the Lord said to Moses, 12 The outcry of the children of Israel has come to my ears: say to them now, At nightfall you will have meat for your food, and in the morning bread in full measure; and you will see that I am the Lord your God.
13 And it came about that in the evening little birds came up and the place was covered with them: and in the morning there was dew all round about the tents. 14 And when the dew was gone, on the face of the earth was a small round thing, like small drops of ice on the earth. 15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, What is it? for they had no idea what it was. And Moses said to them, It is the bread which the Lord has given you for your food. 16 This is what the Lord has said, Let every man take up as much as he has need of; at the rate of one omer for every person, let every man take as much as is needed for his family. 17 And the children of Israel did so, and some took more and some less. 18 And when it was measured, he who had taken up much had nothing over, and he who had little had enough; every man had taken what he was able to make use of. 19 And Moses said to them, Let nothing be kept till the morning. 20 But they gave no attention to Moses, and some of them kept it till the morning and there were worms in it and it had an evil smell: and Moses was angry with them. 21 And they took it up morning by morning, every man as he had need: and when the sun was high it was gone.
22 And on the sixth day they took up twice as much of the bread, two omers for every person: and all the rulers of the people gave Moses word of it. 23 And he said, This is what the Lord has said, Tomorrow is a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord: what has to be cooked may be cooked; and what is over, put on one side to be kept till the morning. 24 And they kept it till the morning as Moses had said: and no smell came from it, and it had no worms. 25 And Moses said, Make your meal today of what you have, for this day is a Sabbath to the Lord: today you will not get any in the fields. 26 For six days you will get it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any. 27 But still on the seventh day some of the people went out to get it, and there was not any. 28 And the Lord said to Moses, How long will you go against my orders and my laws? 29 See, because the Lord has given you the Sabbath, he gives you on the sixth day bread enough for two days; let every man keep where he is; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. 30 So the people took their rest on the seventh day. 31 And this bread was named manna by Israel: it was white, like a grain seed, and its taste was like cakes made with honey.
32 And Moses said, This is the order which the Lord has given: Let one omer of it be kept for future generations, so that they may see the bread which I gave you for your food in the waste land, when I took you out from the land of Egypt. 33 And Moses said to Aaron, Take a pot and put one omer of manna in it, and put it away before the Lord, to be kept for future generations. 34 So Aaron put it away in front of the holy chest to be kept, as the Lord gave orders to Moses. 35 And the children of Israel had manna for their food for forty years, till they came to a land with people in it, till they came to the edge of the land of Canaan. 36 Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.
171 And the children of Israel went on from the waste land of Sin, by stages as the Lord gave them orders, and put up their tents in Rephidim: and there was no drinking-water for the people. 2 So the people were angry with Moses, and said, Give us water for drinking. And Moses said, Why are you angry with me? and why do you put God to the test? 3 And the people were in great need of water; and they made an outcry against Moses, and said, Why have you taken us out of Egypt to send death on us and our children and our cattle through need of water? 4 And Moses, crying out to the Lord, said, What am I to do to this people? they are almost ready to put me to death by stoning. 5 And the Lord said to Moses, Go on before the people, and take some of the chiefs of Israel with you, and take in your hand the rod which was stretched out over the Nile, and go. 6 See, I will take my place before you on the rock in Horeb; and when you give the rock a blow, water will come out of it, and the people will have drink. And Moses did so before the eyes of the chiefs of Israel. 7 And he gave that place the name Massah and Meribah, because the children of Israel were angry, and because they put the Lord to the test, saying, Is the Lord with us or not?
8 Then Amalek came and made war on Israel in Rephidim. 9 And Moses said to Joshua, Get together a band of men for us and go out, make war on Amalek: tomorrow I will take my place on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. 10 So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and went to war with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11 Now while Moses' hand was lifted up, Israel was the stronger: but when he let his hand go down, Amalek became the stronger. 12 But Moses' hands became tired; so they put a stone under him and he took his seat on it, Aaron and Hur supporting his hands, one on one side and one on the other; so his hands were kept up without falling till the sun went down. 13 And Joshua overcame Amalek and his people with the sword. 14 And the Lord said to Moses, Make a record of this in a book, so that it may be kept in memory, and say it again in the ears of Joshua: that all memory of Amalek is to be completely uprooted from the earth. 15 Then Moses put up an altar and gave it the name of Yahweh-nissi: 16 For he said, The Lord has taken his oath that there will be war with Amalek from generation to generation.
181 Now news came to Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, of all God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, and how the Lord had taken Israel out of Egypt. 2 And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her away, 3 And her two sons, one of whom was named Gershom, for he said, I have been living in a strange land: 4 And the name of the other was Eliezer, for he said, The God of my father was my help, and kept me safe from the sword of Pharaoh: 5 And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to where Moses had put up his tent in the waste land, by the mountain of God. 6 And he said to Moses, I, your father-in-law, have come to you, with your wife and your two sons.
7 And Moses went out to his father-in-law, and went down on his face before him and gave him a kiss; and they said to one another, Are you well? and they came into the tent. 8 And Moses gave his father-in-law an account of all the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians because of Israel, and of all the troubles which had come on them by the way, and how the Lord had given them salvation. 9 And Jethro was glad because the Lord had been good to Israel, freeing them from the power of the Egyptians. 10 And Jethro said, Praise be to the Lord, who has taken you out of the hand of Pharaoh and out of the hand of the Egyptians; freeing the people from the yoke of the Egyptians. 11 Now I am certain that the Lord is greater than all gods, for he has overcome them in their pride. 12 Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, made a burned offering to God: and Aaron came, with the chiefs of Israel, and had a meal with Moses' father-in-law, before God.
13 Now on the day after, Moses took his seat to give decisions for the people: and the people were waiting before Moses from morning till evening. 14 And when Moses' father-in-law saw all he was doing, he said, What is this you are doing for the people? why are you seated here by yourself, with all the people waiting before you from morning till evening? 15 And Moses said to his father-in-law, Because the people come to me to get directions from God: 16 And if they have any question between themselves, they come to me, and I am judge between a man and his neighbour, and I give them the orders and laws of God. 17 And Moses' father-in-law said to him, What you are doing is not good. 18 Your strength and that of the people will be completely used up: this work is more than you are able to do by yourself. 19 Give ear now to my suggestion, and may God be with you: you are to be the people's representative before God, taking their causes to him: 20 Teaching them his rules and his laws, guiding them in the way they have to go, and making clear to them the work they have to do. 21 But for the rest, take from among the people able men, such as have the fear of God, true men hating profits wrongly made; and put such men over them, to be captains of thousands, captains of hundreds and of fifties and of tens; 22 And let them be judges in the causes of the people at all times: and let them put before you all important questions, but in small things let them give decisions themselves: in this way, it will be less hard for you, and they will take the weight off you. 23 If you do this, and God gives approval, then you will be able to go on without weariness, and all this people will go to their tents in peace. 24 So Moses took note of the words of his father-in-law, and did as he had said. 25 And he made selection of able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, captains of thousands, captains of hundreds and of fifties and of tens. 26 And they were judges in the causes of the people at all times: the hard questions they put before Moses; but on every small point they gave decisions themselves. 27 And Moses let his father-in-law go away, and he went back to his land.
181 In that hour the disciples came to Jesus, saying, Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? 2 And he took a little child, and put him in the middle of them, 3 And said, Truly, I say to you, If you do not have a change of heart and become like little children, you will not go into the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever, then, will make himself as low as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever gives honour to one such little child in my name, gives honour to me:
6 But whoever is a cause of trouble to one of these little ones who have faith in me, it would be better for him to have a great stone fixed to his neck, and to come to his end in the deep sea.
7 A curse is on the earth because of trouble! for it is necessary for trouble to come; but unhappy is that man through whom the trouble comes. 8 And if your hand or your foot is a cause of trouble, let it be cut off and put it away from you: it is better for you to go into life with the loss of a hand or a foot than, having two hands or two feet, to go into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye is a cause of trouble to you, take it out, and put it away from you: it is better for you to go into life with one eye than, having two eyes, to go into the hell of fire.
10 Let it not seem to you that one of these little ones is of no value; for I say to you that in heaven their angels see at all times the face of my Father in heaven. 11 [] 12 What would you say now? if a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone wandering away, will he not let the ninety-nine be, and go to the mountains in search of the wandering one? 13 And if he comes across it, truly I say to you, he has more joy over it than over the ninety-nine which have not gone out of the way. 14 Even so it is not the pleasure of your Father in heaven for one of these little ones to come to destruction.
15 And if your brother does wrong to you, go, make clear to him his error between you and him in private: if he gives ear to you, you have got your brother back again. 16 But if he will not give ear to you, take with you one or two more, that by the lips of two or three witnesses every word may be made certain. 17 And if he will not give ear to them, let it come to the hearing of the church: and if he will not give ear to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax-farmer. 18 Truly I say to you, Whatever things are fixed by you on earth will be fixed in heaven: and whatever you make free on earth will be made free in heaven. 19 Again, I say to you, that if two of you are in agreement on earth about anything for which they will make a request, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are come together in my name, there am I among them.
(Read Matthew 18:1-6)
Christ spoke many words of his sufferings, but only one of his glory; yet the disciples fasten upon that, and overlook the others. Many love to hear and speak of privileges and glory, who are willing to pass by the thoughts of work and trouble. Our Lord set a little child before them, solemnly assuring them, that unless they were converted and made like little children, they could not enter his kingdom. Children, when very young, do not desire authority, do not regard outward distinctions, are free from malice, are teachable, and willingly dependent on their parents. It is true that they soon begin to show other dispositions, and other ideas are taught them at an early age; but these are marks of childhood, and render them proper emblems of the lowly minds of true Christians. Surely we need to be daily renewed in the spirit of our minds, that we may become simple and humble, as little children, and willing to be the least of all. Let us daily study this subject, and examine our own spirits.
(Read Matthew 18:7-14)
Considering the cunning and malice of Satan, and the weakness and depravity of men's hearts, it is not possible but that there should be offences. God permits them for wise and holy ends, that those who are sincere, and those who are not, may be made known. Being told before, that there will be seducers, tempters, persecutors, and bad examples, let us stand on our guard. We must, as far as lawfully we may, part with what we cannot keep without being entangled by it in sin. The outward occasions of sin must be avoided. If we live after the flesh, we must die. If we, through the Spirit, mortify the deeds of the body, we shall live. Christ came into the world to save souls, and he will reckon severely with those who hinder the progress of others who are setting their faces heavenward. And shall any of us refuse attention to those whom the Son of God came to seek and to save? A father takes care of all his children, but is particularly tender of the little ones.
(Read Matthew 18:15-20)
If a professed Christian is wronged by another, he ought not to complain of it to others, as is often done merely upon report, but to go to the offender privately, state the matter kindly, and show him his conduct. This would generally have all the desired effect with a true Christian, and the parties would be reconciled. The principles of these rules may be practised every where, and under all circumstances, though they are too much neglected by all. But how few try the method which Christ has expressly enjoined to all his disciples! In all our proceedings we should seek direction in prayer; we cannot too highly prize the promises of God. Wherever and whenever we meet in the name of Christ, we should consider him as present in the midst of us.
