Into Sinai and God's Total Presence...

As God's plan unfolds, we see Israel moving. From the camp at Horeb, the Children of Israel were guided to the wilderness of Sinai.

In the wilderness of Sinai, the people dwelt for some time. They had been led here. God wanted them here. Here they heard Him for themselves.

In this valley they camped with the Holy Mountain in view. Here is where God spoke to them in the thunder, lightning, and fire. Exodus 19

God told Moses to set up boundary markers around Mt. Sinai so they did not approach too close and be killed. They are still there.

The Holy Mountain still has a singeing of the rock at the top where God Himself descended and gave Moses the 10 commandments and the rest of the Law or Torah (1st 5 books of the Bible). Exodus 20

                                                                      

Moses made an altar to worship God at the foot of the mountain, and it is still there. Exodus 24

Remember that this mountain is called Jabel El Laws in Saudi Arabia. It is not the traditional Mt. Sinai on the Egyptian side of the Gulf of Aqaba. Yet this one has the evidence.

Moses was a long time up on the Holy Mount talking with God and receiving His Word. During the time he was gone the people became inpatient and pushed Aaron into building a golden calf and they built an altar and worshiped it as the "god" that led them out of Egypt. Exodus 32

I have seen pictures such as this and thought that the altar was relatively small. However the altar is there and is as big as a house.

You can see the fence that the Saudis have erected, not only here but across the valley leading to Sinai.





You can imagine the people dancing and worshiping this false god. Look at the petroglyphs of cows along the top of this altar.

God spoke to Moses on the Mount and told him to get down for the people had corrupted themselves.

Moses was angry and broke the tablets of stone from the Lord.

Many people were killed and many plagued over the making and worship of the golden calf. Moses burned the calf and ground the ashes into powder and made the people drink it. God still was forgiving and promised them the land flowing with milk and honey. Exodus 32 and 33

Before we judge the actions of the Hebrews too harshly, we must remember that they had been many generations in Egypt where this type of worship was common. The god Hathor was a female that also was depicted as a cow, giving life. There were many Egyptian gods.

Plus, we know the commandments  that God set forth, yet we still put things in our lives above God.

The Word teaches us that all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God, Romans 3:23. We all need the Grace of God and the forgiveness and life that comes only through God's salvation in Jesus Christ.



The stories told of the Exodus in the Bible are true because this book is inspired by God and reliable truth. In the last few blogs I wanted to show you the evidence that is out there.

Further study should include Ron Wyatt's research at arkdiscovery.com, and Youtube.

All of the pictures here came from Google Earth and the Internet.

If you like my blogs you might like my book available at Amazon.com

Into the Wilderness

So how large was the number of Hebrews? Did they leave any evidence of their wilderness journey?

I will answer these questions in this post.

In the wilderness of Sinai, God had Moses to number the people of war. From 20 years old and upward that were able to fight there were 603,550 men of war. This did not include parents, younger siblings, or wives. It would be a conservative estimate that there were 2 to 3 million, Numbers 1.

The great miracles of the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea and destruction of Egypt's army were fascinating. Some we take for granted, for example all of Israel was healed that Passover night, there was not a feeble one among them, Psalms 105:37.
Also their clothes and shoes did not wear out for 40 years. God fed them and watered them in a desolate land.

When the people looked back across the sea they saw the last of the land of Egypt (present day Nuweiba which means were Noah parted the waters)

Now they went into the Wilderness of Shur to the East for 3 days and found bitter water and called the place Marah. The people murmured and Moses cried to the Lord and He showed him a tree that when put in the waters made them sweet (a type of the cross of Christ). God told them if they would listen to Him and do what is right, He would heal them and allow none of the diseases that came on the Egyptians (also a type of the healing that would come through Christ).

From here they went South to the wells at Elim, which the Bible says had 12 wells and 40 palm trees, Exodus 15. The mountains come next to the Sea so they probably went close to the route in this picture.



As you can see the wells are still there, but a lot more palm trees that grow clear down to the Sea (Aqaba). They camped here and along the canyon.



Israel stayed here for a while where there was good fresh water. They went up the canyon to the East to the Wilderness of Sin which is in the area of Horeb. They camped here and were hungry and complaining, for they were running out of water too. It was 2 1/2 months since they left Egypt.

Here is where God sent them quails to eat, and bread from heaven. When they saw it they called it manna which means, "what is this?", for they did not know what it was. It looked like balls of frost on the ground and tasted like wafers made with honey. They ate this manna until they made it to the promised land for 40 years, Exodus 16. This manna is also a type of Jesus Christ the true bread from Heaven, John 6.

Here in this desolate country, God fed his people every day except the Sabbath, but on Friday there was a double portion which you could gather and save. Any other day it would spoil. But, they needed water. So God told Moses to smite the Rock of Horeb and it would bring water out for the multitude.

This Rock was representative of Jesus who would give us living water after He was smitten. Moses was angry and hit the rock twice and because of this disobedience, he did not get to go into the promised land, Exodus 17, Numbers 20.

The rock split and spewed out water that ran into the valley and made a lake for the people to drink for some time.

The worn rocks where the water flowed.

Down into the valley to water all the people.

This might be what the lake that was formed looked like.

Other views of the Rock of Horeb and the valley of Rephidim, Exodus 17.

Besides this monolith of record, there are still campsites showing the rocks that the people used around their tents.

Here also did Amalek attack Israel, but was defeated and made an enemy of God from generation to generation. Israel had the weapons that they had taken from the Egyptians and under the leadership of Joshua, but it was at the hand of God they won, for they were not ready for war. God sent Moses to the top of a mountain to look on the battle. As long as he had his staff held over his head, Joshua would win.

When Moses' arms got tired, and he lowered his staff, Joshua would loose. So Aaron and Hur held his hands up until Amalek was defeated.

This camp at Horeb is closer to Mt. Sinai which we will cover in the next blog.

To sum up: God has delivered His people from the bondage of Egypt. He healed them and gave them water as well as supernatural food. He led them with a column of fire by night for warmth and light and a column of smoke by day which gave them shade.

Their clothes and shoes did not wear. Virtually if they would listen and obey, God met all their needs. The cool thing is He still will.

All pictures found on Internet.

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