Three millions of people, with their flocks and herds, with borrowed
jewelry and raiment, with unleavened dough in kneading troughs bound in
their clothes upon their shoulders, in one night commenced their journey
for the land of promise. We are not told how they were informed of the
precise time to start. With all the modern appliances, it would require
months of time to inform three millions of people of any fact.
In this vast assemblage there were six hundred thousand men of war, and
with them were the old, the young, the diseased and helpless. Where were
those people going? They were going to the desert of Sinai, compared
with which Sahara is a garden. Imagine an ocean of lava torn by
storm and vexed by tempest, suddenly gazed at by a Gorgon and changed
instantly to stone! Such was the desert of Sinai.
All of the civilized nations of the world could not feed and support
three millions of people on the desert of Sinai for forty years. It
would cost more than one hundred thousand millions of dollars, and would
bankrupt Christendom. They had with them their flocks and herds, and the
sheep were so numerous that the Israelites sacrificed, at one time, more
than one hundred and fifty thousand first-born lambs. How were these
flocks supported? What did they eat? Where were meadows and pastures for
them? There was no grass, no forests--nothing! There is no account
of its having rained baled hay, nor is it even claimed that they were
miraculously fed. To support these flocks, millions of acres of pasture
would have been required. God did not take the Israelites through the
land of the Philistines, for fear that when they saw the people of that
country they would return to Egypt, but he took them by the way of
the wilderness to the Red Sea, going before them by day in a pillar of
cloud, and by night, in a pillar of fire.
When it was told Pharaoh that the people had fled, he made ready
and took six hundred chosen chariots of Egypt, and pursued after the
children of Israel, overtaking them by the sea. As all the animals had
long before that time been destroyed, we are not informed where Pharaoh
obtained the horses for his chariots. The moment the children of Israel
saw the hosts of Pharaoh, although they had six hundred thousand men
of war, they immediately cried unto the Lord for protection. It is
wonderful to me that a land that had been ravaged by the plagues
described in the Bible, still had the power to put in the field an army
that would carry terror to the hearts of six hundred thousand men of
war. Even with the help of God, it seems, they were not strong enough
to meet the Egyptians in the open field, but resorted to strategy. Moses
again stretched forth his wonderful rod over the waters of the Red Sea,
and they were divided, and the Hebrews passed through on dry land, the
waters standing up like a wall on either side. The Egyptians pursued
them; "and in the morning watch the Lord looked into the hosts of the
Egyptians, through the pillar of fire," and proceeded to take the wheels
off their chariots. As soon as the wheels were off, God told Moses to
stretch out his hand over the sea. Moses did so, and immediately "the
waters returned and covered the chariots and horsemen and all the hosts
of Pharaoh that came into the sea, and there remained not so much as one
of them."
This account may be true, but still it hardly looks reasonable that God
would take the wheels off the chariots. How did he do it? Did he pull
out the linch-pins, or did he just take them off by main force?
What a picture this presents to the mind! God the creator of the
universe, maker of every shining, glittering star, engaged in pulling
off the wheels of wagons, that he might convince Pharaoh of his
greatness and power!
Where were these people going? They were going to the promised land.
How large a country was that? About twelve thousand square miles. About
one-fifth the size of the State of Illinois. It was a frightful country,
covered with rocks and desolation. How many people were in the promised
land already? Moses tells us there were seven nations in that country
mightier than the Jews. As there were at least three millions of Jews,
there must have been at least twenty-one millions of people already in
that country. These had to be driven out in order that room might be
made for the chosen people of God.
It seems, however, that God was not willing to take the children of
Israel into the promised land immediately. They were not fit to inhabit
the land of Canaan; so he made up his mind to allow them to wander upon
the desert until all except two, who had left Egypt, should perish. Of
all the slaves released from Egyptian bondage, only two were allowed to
reach the promised land!
As soon as the Hebrews crossed the Red Sea, they found themselves
without food, and with water unfit to drink by reason of its bitterness,
and they began to murmur against Moses, who cried unto the Lord, and
"the Lord showed him a tree." Moses cast this tree into the waters,
and they became sweet. "And it came to pass in the morning the dew lay
around about the camp; and when the dew that lay was gone, behold,
upon the face of the wilderness lay a small round thing, small as the
hoar-frost upon the ground. And Moses said unto them, this is the bread
which the Lord hath given you to eat." This manna was a very peculiar
thing. It would melt in the sun, and yet they could cook it by seething
and baking. One would as soon think of frying snow or of broiling
icicles. But this manna had another remarkable quality. No matter how
much or little any person gathered, he would have an exact omer; if he
gathered more, it would shrink to that amount, and if he gathered less,
it would swell exactly to that amount. What a magnificent substance
manna would be with which to make a currency--shrinking and swelling
according to the great laws of supply and demand!
"Upon this manna the children of Israel lived for forty years, until
they came to a habitable land. With this meat were they fed until
they reached the borders of the land of Canaan." We are told in the
twenty-first chapter of Numbers, that the people at last became tired
of' the manna, complained of God, and asked Moses why he brought
them out of the land of Egypt to die in the wilderness. And they
said:--"There is no bread, nor have we any water. Our soul loatheth this
light food."
We are told by some commentators that the Jews lived on manna for forty
years; by others that they lived upon it for only a short time. As
a matter of fact the accounts differ, and this difference is the
opportunity for commentators. It also allows us to exercise faith in
believing that both accounts are true. If the accounts agreed, and were
reasonable, they would be believed by the wicked and unregenerated. But
as they are different and unreasonable, they are believed only by the
good. Whenever a statement in the Bible is unreasonable, and you believe
it, you are considered quite a good Christian. If the statement is
grossly absurd and infinitely impossible, and you still believe it, you
are a saint.
The children of Israel were in the desert, and they were out of water.
They had nothing to eat but manna, and this they had had so long that
the soul of every person abhorred it. Under these circumstances they
complained to Moses. Now, as God is infinite, he could just as well have
furnished them with an abundance of the purest and coolest of water, and
could, without the slightest trouble to himself, have given them three
excellent meals a day, with a generous variety of meats and vegetables,
it is very hard to see why he did not do so. It is still harder to
conceive why he fell into a rage when the people mildly suggested that
they would like a change of diet. Day after day, week after week, month
after month, year after year, nothing but manna. No doubt they did
the best they could by cooking it in different ways, but in spite of
themselves they began to loathe its sight and taste, and so they asked
Moses to use his influence to secure a change in the bill of fare.
Now, I ask, whether it was unreasonable for the Jews to suggest that a
little meat would be very gratefully received? It seems, however, that
as soon as the request was made, this God of infinite mercy became
infinitely enraged, and instead of granting it, went into partnership
with serpents, for the purpose of punishing the hungry wretches to whom
he had promised a land flowing with milk and honey.
Where did these serpents come from? How did God convey the information
to the serpents, that he wished them to go to the desert of Sinai and
bite some Jews? It may be urged that these serpents were created for the
express purpose of punishing the children of Israel for having had the
presumption, like Oliver Twist, to ask for more.
There is another account in the eleventh chapter of Numbers, of the
people murmuring because of their food. They remembered the fish, the
cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions and the garlic of Egypt,
and they asked for meat. The people went to the tent of Moses and asked
him for flesh. Moses cried unto the Lord and asked him why he did not
take care of the multitude. God thereupon agreed that they should have
meat, not for a day or two, but for a month, until the meat should come
out of their nostrils and become loathsome to them. He then caused a
wind to bring quails from beyond the sea, and cast them into the camp,
on every side of the camp around about for the space of a days journey.
And the people gathered them, and while the flesh was yet between their
teeth the wrath of God being provoked against them, struck them with
an exceeding great plague. Serpents, also, were sent among them, and
thousands perished for the crime of having been hungry.