It is an incongruous scene: a multitude in the desert.

The desert is supposed to be desolate, barren, devoid of life. There may be the occasional sturdy breed of plant, animal, or insect that can survive the inhospitable environment, but little else. Rivers and lakes may teem with fish; the forests are full of birds and wildlife; the fields and prairies are home to countless animals; the desert is a mostly unpopulated expanse that lacks almost everything necessary to sustain life.

And yet, as our camera zooms in on one particular portion of the vast wilderness that lies between Egypt and Canaan, we are astonished to see life there. A lot of life. Hundreds of thousands of men, women, children, and animals. Where we expect to see tumbleweed blowing along unimpeded, we see instead a crowded…