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Patriarchs and Prophets
see in what direction the cloud would lead. As it moved toward the
east, where were only mountain masses huddled together, black and
desolate, a feeling of sadness and doubt arose in many hearts.
As they advanced, the way became more difficult. Their route lay
through stony ravine and barren waste. All around them was the great
wilderness—“a land of deserts and of pits,” “a land of drought, and of
the shadow of death,” “a land that no man passed through, and where
no man dwelt.”
Jeremiah 2:6
. The rocky gorges, far and near, were
thronged with men, women, and children, with beasts and wagons, and
long lines of flocks and herds. Their progress was necessarily slow
and toilsome; and the multitudes, after their long encampment, were
not prepared to endure the perils and discomforts of the way.
After three days’ journey open complaints were heard. These
originated with the mixed multitude, many of whom were not fully
united with Israel, and were continually watching for some cause of
censure. The complainers were not pleased with the direction of the
march, and they were continually finding fault with the way in which
Moses was leading them, though they well knew that he, as well as
they, was following the guiding cloud. Dissatisfaction is contagious,
and it soon spread in the encampment.
Again they began to clamor for flesh to eat. Though abundantly
supplied with manna, they were not satisfied. The Israelites, during
their bondage in Egypt, had been compelled to subsist on the plainest
and simplest food; but then keen appetite induced by privation and
hard labor had made it palatable. Many of the Egyptians, however,
who were now among them, had been accustomed to a luxurious diet;
and these were the first to complain. At the giving of the manna, just
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before Israel reached Sinai, the Lord had granted them flesh in answer
to their clamors; but it was furnished them for only one day.
God might as easily have provided them with flesh as with manna,
but a restriction was placed upon them for their good. It was His
purpose to supply them with food better suited to their wants than the
feverish diet to which many had become accustomed in Egypt. The
perverted appetite was to be brought into a more healthy state, that
they might enjoy the food originally provided for man—the fruits of
the earth, which God gave to Adam and Eve in Eden. It was for this
reason that the Israelites had been deprived, in a great measure, of
animal food.