Last Sunday we left the people of Israel at Mount Sinai where they had received the commandments of God. They spent about a year at this holy mountain. (They arrived at Sinai in Exodus 19:1; they did not break camp until Numbers 10:11.) In our text for today, they are on the move again through the trackless wilderness. Their wilderness wanderings were the best and the worst of times for these chosen ones of God. On the one hand it was the time when God and the people were on close and intimate terms. God delivered them from Egypt. Looking back on this decisive moment in their history, the people of God made this memorable confession:

And you shall make response before the Lord your God, "A wandering Aramean was my father; and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number; and…