The Wilderness Wanderings
The Wilderness Wanderings
The tabernacle was erected on the first anniversary of the Israelites’ escape from Egypt (Exod. 40:17). A fortnight later the Passover was celebrated (Num. 9:1–3), and a fortnight later still a census taken of all the men of twenty years or older, who would be fit to fight (Num. 1:1–3).The development is striking. Israel is seen first as a disorganized rabble of freed slaves (Exod. 13:17–18), then as a holy nation in covenant with Yahweh, a “kingdom of priests” among whom he dwelt, but now (in Numbers) as fighting soldiers, an army encamped in battle array, ready to march to the promised land.
On the twentieth day of the second month of the second year the march began. The tablernacle was dismantled, only seven weeks after it had been erected. The pillar of cloud, symbol of God’s guiding presence, began to move, and “the Israelites set out from the Desert of Sinai” (Num. 10:11–12).
It must have been an exciting moment. At last, seven centuries after it had been first made to Abraham, God’s promise to give his people the land of Canaan was about to be fulfilled. “We are setting out,” they said to one another, “for the place about which the LORD said, ‘I will give it to you’” (Num. 10:29).
But their expectation was short-lived. First, the people complained about the shortage of food. Their mouth watered for the fish, the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic they had enjoyed in Egypt (Num. 11:1–6).Then Miriam and Aaron, Moses’ sister and brother, began to undermine his authority (Num. 12). Finally, the twelve scouts whom Moses sent out to reconnoiter the land of Canaan—although the fruit they brought back proved that it was indeed “a land flowing with milk and honey”—added that in their view its inhabitants were invincible:
The people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large…. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan…. We can’t attack these people; they are stronger than we are. (Num. 13:28–29, 31).
At this report the people wept and wailed. Two of the spies, Caleb and Joshua, pleaded with them not to disobey or disbelieve the Lord or fear the people of the land. But it was of no use. The majority spoke only of stoning them. So God’s judgment fell upon his people for their inveterate rebellion. None of that adult generation would enter the land of promise, he said; only the faithful Caleb and Joshua.
Forty years were now to elapse between the exodus from Egypt and the entry into Canaan, instead of only one or two. Many of them seem to have been spent at the oasis of Kadesh-barnea in the Negev. But they were years of wandering, too, down south to Sinai again, then north and east through rugged Edomite territory south of the Dead Sea. From here they could have joined the famous “King’s Highway” which ran from the gulf of Aqabah east of the Dead Sea right up into Syria. But the Edomites would not allow them to traverse their territory by this route, so they had to skirt round it further east (Num. 20:14–21). They did not fight the Edomites, for they were kinsmen. But north of them now were the Amorites, also blocking the King’s Highway, under Sihon King of Heshbon and Og King of Bashan. Their defeat in battle, and the defeat of the King of Moab’s attempts to overthrow Israel, first by hiring Balaam to curse them and then by immoral enticement, are described in Numbers 21–25.
Israel was now encamped on the plains of Moab close to the River Jordan, north of where it flows into the Dead Sea. Here Moses addressed the people for the last time; his words are preserved in the Book of Deuteronomy. He began by recalling the recent years of tragic wandering and its solemn lessons. He then reminded them of the Lord’s covenant and of its conditions. He repeated the ten commandments and expounded them in terms of Israel’s requirement to love the Lord their God with all their being and to prove their love by their obedience.
You are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession…. And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees …? (Deut. 7:6; 10:12–13)
Moses went on to expound a number of laws in detail, applying them to the situation the people might expect in the promised land. Two or three times in the course of his exposition he placed before the Israelites the only alternatives:
See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse—the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God … the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God…. See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. (Deut. 11:26–28; 30:15)
The death of Moses is recorded at the end of Deuteronomy. For forty years he had served God and the people of God with extraordinary patience and faithfulness. He had acted as lawgiver, administrator and judge. Above all he was a chosen spokesman of God, a prophet. Indeed the writer adds:
Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face. (Deut. 34:10)