Nobody is exactly certain the route of the Exodus, the exact location of Mt. Sinai, or other landmarks, because the names aren't recognized, or not clearly associated with any sites today. The current popular mappings are poorly supported, at best, but seem better than the alternatives. We do not have to know. Israel marched east of Egypt, at least part of their time was spent on what we now call the Sinai Peninsula, and ended up at Ezion-geber, the first place on the journey of which we are relatively certain. They spent some time wandering about in the Wilderness of Paran just long enough for those age 20 and up at the departure from Egypt to die sometime around age 60. It is critical here to note the narrative refers to wandering more in the spiritual sense than in any literal sense.
It is so very easy to let movies and books by worldly people lead us astray from what really mattered. We've already established Israel was a very troublesome people. Precious few of them were spiritual, but the entire nation suffered under serious delusions about the nature of things even from a human angle. While they weren't spiritual, they were terribly superstitious. Keep in mind, they were hardly the only Semitic people in the Nile Delta; there were other nations from outside Egypt. All of them were pagan, apparently. There was some early trade contact with Hittites to the far north (associated with modern Kurds), and some of the rowdy Greek and Trojan cities. Israel had long been exposed with a broad mixture of religious traditions, including early magic markets. Most people with any apparent mystical powers probably bought the secrets from some other mystic. The whole known world took seriously supernatural powers, but had a very twisted view of what was real.
Some of those other mixed nations followed Israel out of Egypt, and brought their idols along. From this massive mixed mob, we have at least Moses who is spiritual, and later came Caleb and Joshua. Aaron was spiritual, but very weak. We have a hard time identifying anyone else who understood things of the Spirit Realm. Everyone else was simply superstitious. When we read between the lines, we find most of the political attacks on Moses aim at forcing him to reveal whatever secrets he had for persuading Jehovah to do this or that. They seemed to believe He was just another god, totally incapable of processing the idea of One True God, and that all gods were pretty impartial. If you just made the right incantations and performed the right rituals -- presto chango -- stuff happened. This is typical of nonspiritual people who believe there is anything beyond human logic. There was for them no such thing as a holy God; they were all the same, open to bribery and whatever, as long as they got what they wanted out of the deal.
In their eyes, because Moses was keeping the secrets, he wielded unjust power over all those poor benighted souls, leading them according to his personal mad dreams. This explains how they could so quickly insult their God. To the degree Moses was crazy, it was the fault of those he led, constantly drive him to distraction. All this serves to show just how radically different Moses was, but also how incredibly patient God was.
Notice what God is willing to do with just a minimum of cooperation: food from the sky when nothing else is available, enemies incapable of exploiting weaknesses, water found where no other man ever found it before, clothing which lasted forty years, and healing from snakebite just for looking up at a bronze statue. This is how God might treat people who don't know Him at all, if they only try to meet some of His demands for nations. These were blessings under the Law.
Look what happened when they pushed God too far: snakes biting repeatedly in huge numbers, earthquakes which precisely swallow rebel tents, wildfires which burn in a barren desert, deadly plagues which strike without any carrier vector, not to mention empowering what amounts to policemen executing thousands with no resistance possible. These were punishments under the Law.
There was another significant element in the constant rebellion, which was purely political. Reuben had been the first born, and the chieftains in his tribe wanted to forget Jacob had justly removed the birthright from Reuben and his tribe (Genesis 35:22; 49:4). The same was true of Simeon and Levi who were next in line (Genesis 34:25-31; 49:5-7). Reuben's tribe kept trying to reclaim it. Simeon's tribe accepted their fate, and Levi had a completely different mission. Since Levi was treated specially, with what was viewed as an advantage as the priestly tribe, it seemed unfair they got a reward and Reuben didn't. Judah gained the birthright, but Reubenite complaints were against Moses because everyone figured he was favoring his own Levite tribe. What everyone soundly rejected was the notion this was God's own idea, since God seemed to speak only with Moses -- or so Moses said. Miracles such as the budding rods didn't mean much, since most suspected Moses was doing the same old mumbo-jumbo. When plagues and such struck them down, they only surrendered because they had no defense against what they regarded as simply magic, and it didn't prove anything at all.
That particular generation was totally unfit for the life to which God had called Abraham, that of the desert nomad sheik. For some forty years, that generation died unnaturally early, as their children learned from scratch how to live and operate in the desert. They didn't keep the Passover, didn't circumcise, and were generally not allowed the honor of establishing the regular rhythm of life God intended for the nation. They were mostly held in default on the covenant, rather like in contempt of court in modern times. The next generation grew up on manna, lived their whole lives in tents in a land with only a few seasonal grasses and shrubs, on scant water supplies, and may well have been fighting off petty raids from other wandering tribes in that area. It was a completely different nation which turned north once more at the end of that period.
We learn very early in the Bible narrative, if someone requires proof to obey God, no amount of proof will ever do. By the same token, those whose spirit was touched by God could believe anything God said. That's why Caleb and Joshua had no trouble believing Jehovah could defeat the giants in southern Canaan Land. Had He not split the Reed Sea? Had He not destroyed the economy of Egypt and defeated all the pagan magicians? Spiritual men could believe God for anything, and were thus exempt from the early death which plagued the rest of the nation. Moses reviewed the Covenant of the Law one more time with this new generation, then passed the leadership to Joshua.
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By Ed Hurst
20 April 2009
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