Camping by a High Mountain Exodus 18 and 19:1, 2
WHEN the Lord spoke to Moses at the burning bush on the mountainside, He said He would bring the people of Israel from Egypt to the same place (Ex. 3:12). There were many thousands of people, and the flocks had to be driven, so the travel was not fast, but in the third month they reached that very mountain, called Sinai.
There are many mountain peaks in that land which altogether are spoken of as Horeb. Some have low trees and bushes; others are all bare rocks. There are large valleys and plains between the mountains, where there was grass and springs of water, so a good place for the flocks, and room for all the people. They no longer lived in booths made of the branches of trees, but in tents, which could be used all the year in that warm land. Tents were usually made by fastening together the skins of animals, or from thick cloth, woven from goats’ hair, and poles cut from trees for support. They may have brought the cloth from Egypt (Ex. 12:36).
Can you picture in your mind all that large company before the great mountain?
It was not far away that Jethro, the father of Moses’ wife, lived, and he brought her and their two sons to the camp. We do not know how old the sons were, but their names were Gershom and Eliezer.
Moses told Jethro how God had saved Israel from King Pharaoh, and Jethro praised God for all.
The people stayed by this mountain nearly a year (Numbers 10:11, 12). We will learn much more of all that was done there, and of the words God spoke to them.
Note: You can find Mt. Sinai marked on a map of Egypt, just at the north of the Red Sea.
ML 04/18/1937