Can it be possible that the "ark of the covenant" traveled on its own
account, and that "when the ark set forward" the people followed, as is
related in the tenth chapter of the holy book of Numbers?
Forty-sixth. Was it reasonable for God to give the Jews manna, and
nothing else, year after year? He had infinite power, and could just as
easily have given them something good, in reasonable variety, as to
have fed them on manna until they loathed the sight of it, and longingly
remembered the fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic of
Egypt. And yet when the poor people complained of the diet and asked for
a little meat, this loving and merciful God became enraged, sent them
millions of quails in his wrath, and while they were eating, while the
flesh was yet between their teeth, before it was chewed, this amiable
God smote the people with a plague and killed all those that lusted
after meat. In a few days after, he made up his mind to kill the rest,
but was dissuaded when Moses told him that the Canaanites would laugh at
him.1 No wonder the poor Jews wished they were back in Egypt. No wonder
they had rather be the slaves of Pharaoh than the chosen people of God.
No wonder they preferred the wrath of Egypt to the love of heaven. In my
judgment, the Jews would have fared far better if Jehovah had let them
alone, or had he even taken the side of the Egyptians.
When the poor Jews were told by their spies that the Canaanites were
giants, they, seized with fear, said, "Let us go back to Egypt." For
this, their God doomed all except Joshua and Caleb to a wandering
death. Hear the words of this most merciful God: "But as for you, your
carcasses they shall fall in this wilderness, and your children shall
wander in the wilderness forty years and bear your sins until your
carcasses be wasted in the wilderness."2 And yet this same God promised
to give unto all these people a land flowing with milk and honey.