Imagine you are one of the children of Israel wandering through the wilderness hungry. God has promised to provide food for all of you. One morning you wake up to find that Josephus has lots and lots of manna. He tells everyone that God is providing manna to him for everyone.
Josephus sells manna to each family every day for whatever they can pay. He takes food, jewelry, animals, or anything of value.

Before long Josephus starts telling everyone that God has spoken to him and gave him a new set of laws and commandments. He says God has instructed him to only give manna to those that are following the rules he has set before them. Guess what everyone does? They follow Josephus new laws and commandments. After all Josephus is the one that God chose to be the food supplier to all the people of Israel.

Josephus quickly becomes the most wealthy and powerful man of all the Jews. He has replaced Moses as leader.

One night you wake up in the middle of the night to use the nearest tree. As you walk out you notice the ground all around you is covered with manna. You decide to check this out just as soon as you finish doing what brought you out of your tent in the first place. While taking care of business you hear voices and notice that Josephus and his whole family are walking around and picking up all the manna.

The next night you stay up to see what is going on. You notice that manna falls from the sky over the whole encampment and again Josephus and his family are collecting it. You suddenly realize that manna has been free for everyone all along. However, Josephus has led you to believe that the way to get manna is through him. Josephus is a middleman where one is not needed.

How would this make you feel? Would you feel misled? Would you think you had been deceived? Would you be angry? What about resentment?

Allow me to ask one last question. When you read this story do you see an analogy to the modern church? Here’s a hint. Josephus equals the church. The manna equals access to God.