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Lesson 38, Geography Study Concerning the Scriptures, Patriarchal Migrations and Wanderings, The Route of the Exodus, Continued
The natural man believes man, but the spiritual man believes God.
How quickly the children of Israel forgot God when the tribal rulers returned from their spy mission in the Promised Land.
We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we, was the report.
And instead of remembering “that if God be for us who can be against us”, they lifted up their voice and cried, they murmured and complained against God and his servant Moses.
Numbers 14:26-35, And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 27How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. 28Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: 29Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, 30Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. 31But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. 32But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness. 33And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. 34After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise. 35I the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.
Early in their wilderness experience the Israelites made an abortive attempt to press into southern Canaan, contrary to the command of Moses.
They sought to take the region near Hormah, a town in the rugged hill country of southern Judaea, thought to have been near Beersheba.
The Amalekites and Canaanites defeated the Israelites and pursued them to Hormah.
40-45, And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned. 41And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it shall not prosper. 42Go not up, for the LORD is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. 43For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you. 44But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. 45Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah.
From Kadesh-barnea to the Plains of Moab.
The longest period (38 years) of the wilderness wandering is one of which we know little.
The pilgrims who left Egypt became wanderers in the wilderness.
At the beginning and at the end of the period we find Israel at Kadesh, which seems to have served as their headquarters.
In the interval they traveled extensively in the Negeb and in the Wilderness of Paran.
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