Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. (Deuteronomy 8:2, NRSVue)
The account in the Hebrew Scriptures of the Exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt gives the number who fled enslavement as "about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children (Exodus 12:37)." This tabulation strains credulity for anyone who has actually traversed the Sinai Desert in the footsteps of the Prophet Moses and his followers, especially considering they were condemned to wander in this limited geographical area for forty years as a punishment for their failure of trust in God. Focusing on scientific and historical detail distracts from the real point of this foundational narrative of Judaism. The wilderness ordeal of the Hebrews was intended to reveal to them the nature of the One True God--not to be worshipped in a specifc sacred grove or holy mountain but in a movable tabernacle--powerful enough to supply their every need with a covey of quails and manna from heaven and water from a rock. The forty years of wandering were necessary to bring about a generational change in a people who may have been physically free when they entered the wilderness but were unable to shed the mindset of slaves wanting the security of their daily "fleshpots" in Egypt. The accompanying color lithograph of the Exodus by Marc Chagall served as the frontispiece for The Biblical Message, a 1972 album of reproductions of his sacred art. (John Kohan)