From 1513 to 1473 B.C. Forty years in the desert

During the months in which the tabernacle was built, everything was made ready for the ordination of the special class of priests.

Though the entire tribe of Levi was set apart from the other tribes to take exclusive care of the service of Israel's God, not all the Levites (members of the tribe of Levi) were priests. Only the direct relatives and descendants of Aaron could perform priestly duties in the sense of serving as mediators between God and members of God's people.

The ordinary Levites were assistants of the priests. During the journey through the desert, they were the ones who had to carry the tabernacle and all the objects connected with it. At every new stage, these assistants had to build the tabernacle up and to break it down. They also assisted people who wanted to offer sacrifices to their God. Once they arrived in the Promised Land, the main duty of the Levites was to take care of public order and worship. In addition, they assisted the people who wanted to offer sacrifices to JHWH. They also took care of the music at religious festivities.

The Levites were exempted from the need to take care of their own livelihood. Their material needs were provided for by the arrangement that all the members of the other tribes had to donate 10 percent of their income to them. In turn, the Levites donated 10 percent of their income to the priests.

In the months during which the tabernacle was built, Moses also wrote down all the regulations regarding offering sacrifices to God. The Israelites usually sacrificed animals: birds, goats, sheep and cows. Grain could also be sacrificed to God.

During these months near Mount Sinai, Moses also wrote down all the regulations that had to do with the way the three yearly festivities in honor of JHWH ought to be celebrated: the Passover in early spring (in memory of the liberation from Egypt), the Harvest Festival (later called Pentecost) in late spring, and the Day of Atonement in autumn. The Day of Atonement was an important feast. On that day, Israelites should grieve because they were sinners. This was despite the fact that they had good intentions.

The people of Israel stayed near Mount Sinai for about a year. In those days, Moses wrote the first three Bible books: Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus. The people were made to understand that they formed one single nation and they became very well organized. Just before the people left the mountain to continue the journey towards Canaan, they counted the number of men who were strong enough to take part in the expected battles. There appeared to be 603,555 of such able-bodied men (see Numbers 1:44-46). This means that when they left Mount Sinai, the entire nation consisted of over three million people.

After a stay of one year near Mount Sinai, the Israelites continued on their journey. God's pillar of cloud and pillar of fire showed them the way again. Whenever the pillar of cloud stopped somewhere, the Israelites camped on that spot until the pillar rose and started to move. Then they cleared out their camps and followed the pillar of cloud again.

They journeyed across the desert for some 250 kilometers in a northern direction towards Canaan. On at least three occasions, the people behaved in a very ungrateful manner towards JHWH and His servant Moses. They complained about the food, among other things. The God-given manna became uninteresting. They complained that the food they got when they were slaves in Egypt was a lot more varied: leek, onions, garlic, cucumbers and melons, and fish.

At a given moment, Moses' brother and sister rebelled against him because he behaved too much as a leader and did not consider them as his equals.

In short, it was not an easy task for Moses to lead his people through the desert to Canaan. But in the end, they did arrive. They approached the Promised Land from the east: the plains of Moab, east of the Salt Sea, and the river Jordan. JHWH advised Moses to send scouts to the land of Canaan and its towns to spy out the country, where several mighty nations lived in those days.

Moses sent out 12 spies, one from each of the tribes, and they traveled all over Canaan. When they came back, they carried huge fruits with them which showed how fertile the land was.

But what they had seen in Canaan had scared them terribly. The towns were very well-fortified and well-guarded. The inhabitants were big, strong, heavily armed men. According to 10 of the 12 spies, the Israelite army would not stand a chance if they tried to conquer such a country. Only two men put sufficient trust in JHWH. They said that if God wanted them to conquer Canaan, they would certainly be able to do this.

However, the people put more confidence in the 10 men who did not consider God's endless capacity to achieve His ends than in the two men who were sure that with God's help, they could conquer Canaan. The people were really scared and they refused to enter the Promised Land.

JHWH felt deeply hurt by this total lack of faith and trust in Him. He told Moses that He wanted to annihilate these stubborn people, but Moses persuaded Him not to do this. Instead, JHWH punished his unbelieving people by forcing them to walk through the desert year in year out, until all men who were older than 20 and who had been such cowards would have died. None of them would enter the Promised Land, except for the two spies who had advised the people to cross the river Jordan and start conquering Canaan.

Thus, the people walked through the desert for 40 years, as the number of men who had refused to march into Canaan gradually decreased.

During those four decades, there were again cases of rebellion against Moses' authority. At a given moment, a large group of some 250 men rose in rebellion against Moses and his brother. They thought that both of them were too authoritarian. God killed the entire group. This led to an even greater revolt of almost the whole nation because the people held Moses and Aaron responsible for the death of the 250 "critical minds". Again, God punished the rebels with great severity. He killed another 14,700 complainers.

In 1473 B.C., Israel had been wandering through the desert for forty years. Everybody who had been over 20 years old when they had first approached the Promised Land had died. They approached Canaan again, but even with the Promised Land in sight, the people complained again about the monotonous food and lack of water. At JHWH's advice, Moses struck his staff against a rock. This caused a large quantity of refreshing water to appear. But this time, Moses and Aaron themselves did something that was very wrong. Irritated as they were, they forgot to thank and honor God for this great miracle.

Because of this, they were punished by God very severely. God would not allow either of them to enter the Promised Land.

Aaron died shortly afterwards. His son succeeded him as High Priest.

Moses decided to approach Canaan from the east again. To make this possible, the people had to pass through the country of Edom. The Edomites did not want them to pass through their land, but they were defeated by the Israelites.

Later on, the Israelites were attacked by two other nations who lived east of the river Jordan. But they also defeated these two peoples and occupied their territory.

Thus, they eventually arrived at the large plain of Moab, across Jericho, east of Jordan. The Moabites tried to weaken the male warriors. They used their women to seduce the warriors into taking part in certain perverted rites in honor of their god Baal. Many Israelite warriors succumbed to the seduction of the Moabite women and really proceeded to worship an idol. Again, while they had almost reached the Promised Land, God had to intervene with severity. He killed 24,000 idol-worshippers.

At this time, Moses counted the number of men who could take part in the battles to conquer Canaan. This was the same kind of counting as he had done near Mount Sinai 39 years earlier. If you compare the two figures, you can see that during the forty years of wandering through the desert, the number of Israelites did not increase. On the contrary, the number became smaller. At the second count, there appeared to be 1,820 warriors fewer than at the first count.

Moses knew that he would die before the people would cross the Jordan and enter the Promised Land. Before he died, he told the people how they were to divide the Promised Land among the several tribes, in accordance with JHWH's instructions. He also appointed Joshua, who had assisted him in leading the people for decades, as his successor. He was also the chief of the army that was going to conquer Canaan.

In the last things that he said and wrote down, Moses emphasized the necessity for the people to obey God's laws and to offer sacrifices to God regularly and in accordance with the prescribed manner. He also mentioned the celebration of the three festivities that God had instituted every year.

During the last months of his life, in the plains of Moab opposite Jericho, Moses wrote three more Bible books: Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Job.

The tribes of Ruben and Gad had already conquered the territories east of the Jordan. They asked Moses if he could give them these territories as their hereditary portions of the Promised Land. He granted them their wish. This was on the condition that they would help the other tribes in conquering Canaan on the west side of the river.

(It is very worthwhile to read the stories about all the events that happened in the desert from the moment the Israelites left Mount Sinai to their arrival at the Promised Land, in the Bible itself. These stories are to be found in the book Numbers.)