"Ye Shall Be a Peculiar Treasure unto Me" Lesson 14

Lesson 14: "Ye Shall Be a Peculiar Treasure unto Me"

[Note: I've decided to publish an initial blog post early in the week, and then update it as I study day by day.)
This week's lesson covers Exodus 15-20 and Exodus 32-34.

What does "peculiar" mean? Here's Elder Nelson explaining the origins of the word and why being called "peculiar" is a "compliment of the highest order."

Water and Manna

The children of Israel leave Egypt, but it doesn't take long for so many people, who had to leave in haste, to run out of food and water.
Let's just say they're NOT happy campers.
They murmur and even wish they were back in Egypt. They may have been slaves who were forced to labor with rigor, but at least they had their bread and "flesh pots."
The Lord responds with miracles to provide water. First, Moses is commanded to cast a "tree" into the bitter waters of Marah and they are made sweet. Sweet! (Exodus 15)

What's the symbolism of this? There are many! Bitter sins turning to sweet forgiveness with repentance; bitter trials turning sweet with the gaining of wisdom and closeness to God; the power of Jehovah to cleanse...

Next the Lord provides Manna to the hungry Israelites. They learn to collect just enough each day to eat, but double on the day before the Sabbath. That way they can rest on the Sabbath, when no Manna is provided. (Exodus 16)
Here's a video of Elder D. Todd Christofferson explaining the link between daily physical sustenance (Manna) and spiritual nourishment. (I believe we've already watched this one in class, but it's a good one!)

They continue to journey in the desert, but of course must find sources of water. When they become thirsty again, Moses cries unto the Lord, "What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me."

Here's a question: why does the Lord bring them to the brink before he provides a miracle? Why are we sometimes brought to the brink before we get relief?

The Lord instructs Moses to "Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and they rod...taken in thine hand, and go." Moses smites the rock of Horeb with his rod and water flows out of it. All this is done in the sight of the "elders of Israel." (Exodus 17)

What spiritual significance does getting water from a rock have? 

Christ or Jehovah is often considered our rock, our sure foundation.

• Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: (Matthew 7:24)
• And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.(1 Corinthians 10:4)
• And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

Christ is also the living water. If we drink of that, we will never spiritually thirst.

• Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water...Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
  
  But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. (John 4: 10, 13-14)

What would have happened  to the Israelites if they had tried to journey through the wilderness without the Lord's help?

What will happen to us if we try to journey through mortality without the Lord's help?