(AN: Well I haven't gotten to those changes I promised yet, mostly cuz I'm lazy and don't have my laptop working, so I don't have indefinite internet access :(. Oh well, I hope you've been patient, and I hope that I can make the second half of the journey just as exciting as the first half was.)
Moving On
During the following months, the people became rather relaxed with the idea of living here, on the slopes of Mount Sinai. There was always water from the rock and the mana came down from Heaven six days out of seven. They also began learning the new laws and the feast days that the LORD had ordained for them. Life was going quite easily for the people of Israel.
Three hundred and sixty days after the Tenth Plague had slain the firstborn of Egypt and the LORD brought the Children of Israel out of bondage, the Passover was celebrated once again in the desert. It was a time of joyful celebration among the faithful, for they had been free for a whole year. Others, however, were not so exuberantly joyful. No matter how many miracles and wonders they had seen, no matter how many times the LORD brought His judgment upon those who mocked Him with their wickedness, they continued to believe that it was Moses, not the LORD, who was guiding them. Choosing to forget all of the good that had befallen them, such as the water and the mana which kept them nourished and strong for the day, they, like Jambres, chose rather to complain that their present situation was not perfect. Pride and a slothful spirit led them to question whether God was leading them at all: for, thought they, should not a perfect God make the way to the Promised Land completely perfect and without any trials at all?
So it was that many still believed that they were being led out into the wilderness by Moses to die. They looked upon the corrections of God as unwarranted and cruel, preferring rather the barbaric treatment of their former masters, the Egyptians. They attributed to the LORD all the evils that were upon their own hearts, and feared Him as if He were indeed a tyrant rather than a loving shepherd.
A month had passed since the second Passover had been observed. The second month was but ten days from being over. The morning started as always, with the gathering of the mana. In the tent of Aaron, he was entertaining the new lord of Midian: Hobab the son of Jethro. He had been born mid-way during Moses' stay in Midian and had grown to maturity by the time they were now encamped at Sinai.
But Hobab's visit brought sad tidings for Moses and Zipporah. Old Jethro now slept with his ancestors. They mourned his passing and Zipporah had returned to her father's tents to see to his burial. But now she had returned, and they were in the tent of Aaron together - Moses, Zipporah, Aaron, Elishebah, their children, Miriam and the new lord of Midian - eating food that, predictably, consisted of mana.
While they were eating, the sound of commotion was heard outside the tent.
"I wonder what this could be." Aaron said.
Moses remained silent. Just then, the tent-flap was pushed back.
"Moses, Aaron!" Caleb announced. "The Pillar of Cloud...it's gone!"
"What!" Aaron rose to his feet in shock. "Are you certain?"
"Yes, my lord High Priest." Caleb stated. "I had just finished helping prince Nashon's family with the morning gathering when I saw the Cloud vanish from over the Tabernacle!" He turned to the veiled prophet. "Moses, what does this mean?"
Moses' eyes opened up and he stood tall.
"It is time to march!" Moses stated, with strength in his voice.
"At last!" Caleb announced. "The Promised Land will be ours!"
"L-Let me come with you," Moses said. "You must k-kn-now how the c-congregation must go f-forth."
"Yes, Moses!" Caleb smiled. He then walked out of the tent, his hands over his mouth and shouted out: "Rise up! The LORD leads us on to the Promised Land! Move out!"
Miriam and Elishebah then began the process of packing everything while the sons were gathering up their things. They did not let Zipporah aid them in their packing. As Moses followed Caleb outside of the tent, Hobab took up the rear.
"Wait!" Moses said to the young man. "You're going?"
"I must." Hobab returned. "My people need their prince."
"P-please!" Moses began. "Come with us. The LORD favors Israel, He will surely favor those who go with us!"
"But my people..."
"My sisters are more than capable of ruling the tribes on their own." Zipporah stated as she joined them. "My husband is right, brother. They need someone who knows the land to go before as a scout."
"Furthermore," Moses said. "All the good that the LORD has p-promised to do unto His p-people, so shall it be unto you, brother-in-law."
Hobab nodded. "Very well."
Moses smiled and slapped his shoulder, then turned to Caleb.
"This is h-h-how we shall depart," Moses began. "Judah, Issachar and Z-Zebulun shall go first, with the Tabernacle carried by the sons of Gershon and Merari." Moses felt strength rising up into his mouth as he spoke. "Reuben, Simeon and Gad will follow, with the holy furniture behind them, carried by the sons of Kohath. The rest shall be in this order: Ephraim, Manasseh, Benjamin, Asher, Naphtali and Dan."
"It will be done!" Caleb saluted, running off toward the camp of Judah to carry out his mission.
By noon, the people where assembled and ready for the march. The Tabernacle, which the LORD had commanded Moses to place in the midst of the camp rather than on the outskirts, was being taken down slowly, with Aaron going in alone into the Holiest Place to place the blue veil upon the Ark of the Covenant. When at last all was done, Aaron waved over his sons - Nadab, Abihu, Eliezar and Ithamar - and they stood on either sides of the Ark, to be the bearers of the poles that held the Ark.
"Rise up, LORD!" Moses shouted out, his voice filled with strength. "And let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate Thee flee before Thee!"
Suddenly, the giant pillar of cloud appeared once more in front of Moses and the people. It moved before them, just as it had almost a year past, when they left Egypt.
"Let us go forth!" Caleb, whose place was with the people of Judah, at the front of the line, shouted to those behind. The princes of the people repeated his declaration, and soon they were off again.
The sands at the base of Mount Sinai, which had become, to them, like a home, they were now leaving for good.
Many days had passed now since they left Sinai. The land of Canaan was still many days journey onward, but they were now come upon a great and wide plain north of the valley of Taberah. It had been so named because, while they had camped there, those people who hated the LORD spoke out against Him and against Aaron and did evil before the LORD. In response, they were burned with fire from Heaven.
The tents had not begun to appear upon the plain when the elders came rushing to Moses and Aaron, with throngs of people running after them.
"What do you bring before us?" Aaron asked.
"The people are starving!" one of the elders said.
"We want food!"
"But you have food!" Aaron returned.
"Mana?" one of the people shouted. "That's not food!"
"It was better off for us in Egypt!"
"Yes!" another said whining. "We ate fish and cucumbers and onions and leeks and garlic there and meat to our fill!"
"Is not the mana wholesome?" Aaron said.
"Wait!" Moses spoke, his voice firm but filled with indignation. All were silent as he spoke.
"The LORD has spoken!" he began. "The elders must sanctify themselves before the LORD, to go before the Tabernacle and become co-rulers among the people. But you..." He pointed to the people behind them.
"Because of your rebellion and your spite against the LORD," Moses said. "You shall eat meat - not for a day, or two, or five, or seven, or ten or even twenty days...but for a whole month! Until you've eaten so much meat that it oozes out of your nostrils and you loathe it!"
There was silence, while the people mused on what evil this meant for them.
"And just how will this come about?" Dathan queried. "We are six hundred thousand men strong! Shall the flocks and herds be slain, or shall all the fish of the sea be magically brought up to feed us?"
"Is the hand of the LORD waxed short?" Moses returned. "Tomorrow...you shall see whether or not this will come to pass!"
He then departed back into the tent, with Aaron shrugging before the people before running back after his brother.
The morning came to pass, and there was a great noise throughout the camp. Moses, now living in his wife's tent, arose early to gather the mana with his two sons as before. At the door of the tent there stood Joshua.
"Moses!" he announced. "Something's wrong!"
"What is it?" Moses asked.
"Just look!" he announced. "We cannot see the mana this morning! There are quail all around the camp as far as the eye can see! But that's not the only problem! The elders you sent to the Tabernacle, well, they've been prophesying all night and they're still going on!"
"That's good n-news, Joshua!"
"But there are two men," Joshua continued. "They're not of the elders, and they're prophesying as well. Should we tell them to cease?"
"Why?" Moses laughed. Joshua turned back: Moses had actually laughed. "Are you jealous? Would to God that all of the LORD's people were prophets to receive His spirit!"
"Even so," Joshua said. "I fear what these quail might do. I mean, some of us still like the mana. It's sweet like honey, yet mixes like oil when ground into our meal. But all these quail!"
"The people d-demanded," Moses said. "And the LORD shall show what the end of their lusts shall be."
Cries were now rising up from among the camp.
"What is it?" Joshua asked. "Are we under attack?"
Moses shook his head.
"They are reaping the fruits of their lust," Moses said. "Even as the meat is between their teeth."
A month had passed since the people had eaten themselves into their graves by reason of their lusts. The plain, which had been renamed the Graves of Lust, or Kibroth-Hattaavah, was far behind them. They were once again on the move, always northward.
At last, there came a day when the Pillar of Cloud halted. Moses ordered Aaron to bring the Ark up and place it before the Pillar.
"Return, O LORD!" he said. "Unto the ten thousands of Israel!"
The people therefore began to set up their tents. Today they would rest and set camp and pray that no further calamities befell them - though many refused to believe that it had been their fault that the calamities struck.
In the camp of Levi, Aaron was helping Miriam set up their tents, since his sons were busy at the Tabernacle overseeing its completion in his absence. While they were busy, Miriam turned and saw Mered and Bithiah walk past them on their way to the camp of Judah.
"It's a disgrace," she muttered.
"What is?" Aaron asked.
"Watering our sacred blood with that of... heathens!" she said. "But then again, Moses has no problem with that...what with him marrying that Ethiopian scum!"
"If the LORD has aught against their union," Aaron said. "Then He shall reveal it to Moses."
"'Reveal it to Moses'," she murmured. "And why should He? You're the High Priest, and I'm the elder of our people! Who was it who took care of the people while he was off hiding from the Pharaoh or running away into Midian?"
"You were!" Aaron admitted.
"Exactly!" she returned. "Why shouldn't the LORD speak to us instead of Moses? Are we any less than him?"
"No."
"Have we suffered any less than he?"
"No!" Aaron stated. "In fact, I'd say that, Egypt included, we've suffered more than Moses ever did!"
"Exactly!" Miriam repeated. "See? Even you agree with me! This has gone too far!"
"Ahem!"
The two turned around, looking rather guilty. It was only Caleb.
"Moses has asked for you two," he said.
"Us?" they chorused.
"Yes, at the Tabernacle. Now!" His voice was serious, with no jest or lightheartedness in his voice.
They shared glances with each other, then followed after Caleb.
As they passed through the many-colored doorway that led into the courtyard, walked past the large altar of brass and washed their hands in the bronze laver, they parted the curtain and entered into the Holy Place, all of blue, violet and crimson with cherubim of gold woven into the walls. There was the table of showbread, and the golden menorah and the altar of incense. Beyond was the heavy curtain that cut them off from the Holiest Place. There was a rush of wind coming from beyond, for in there the Pillar of Cloud came to rest.
"Hear the word of the LORD!" a voice spoke from inside the Holiest Place. "If there is a prophet among you, I will make My word known unto him through a vision or a dream. Moses is faithful unto Me in all of the house of Israel: with him I will even speak plainly, mouth to mouth as a man speaks unto his friend, and he shall behold My likeness."
"My LORD," Moses said abashedly. "I...s-s-surely there are some of good report among Thy p-p-people..."
"If I have chosen him," the voice said again. "And speak with him face to face and let him see My likeness, why then were you two so unafraid of speaking ill against him?"
Miriam cried out suddenly, and fell down upon the ground. Aaron, keeping his gaze averted, crawled over to her on his hands and knees and placed his hand upon her shoulder. Her hand went back to forbid him from touching her, and immediately Aaron fell back in fear, his hands over his mouth.
Her hand was rotting, the skin upon it white as snow and dead like that of a stillborn child.
"Unclean!" Aaron cried. "Unclean!" He threw himself out of the Tabernacle, crying "Unclean!" as he ran out into the courtyard.
Moses turned back to the veil that separated Him from Moses.
"My LORD," he said. "P-please, don't let this sickness be unto death! Heal her in all of Thy mercy!"
The wind slowly died down, and Moses nodded. He then turned to his sister, the one who had saved him from starvation at the inexperienced hand of the Pharaoh's daughter, who had helped wean him with their mother, and now had turned against him in rebellion. Her cohort, their brother, had run in fear. Only he was left.
He reached down and lifted her up to her feet.
Outside, Aaron was groveling in the dirt, reaching into the grating beneath the altar and pulling forth ashes which he threw upon his head as he wept aloud. Slowly, through his blood-shot eyes, he saw the feet of Moses walking out of the Tabernacle.
"Moses, please!" Aaron said, crawling before his brother. "Don't let this sin be upon us! We have sinned, we were fools to deny the LORD's chosen! Only please, let this..."
Moses held up his hand, continuing to help the poor, weakened Miriam make her way out of the Tabernacle without harming herself any further by reason of the malady upon her.
"She shall be shut out of the camp," Moses said. "For seven days. After which, she shall be healed." He then turned to his brother, the one who had seen first-hand how the LORD was with them, and therefore had no reason to doubt.
"Lead her away." Moses said, turning away as a tear trickled down his face. Aaron nodded and, careful to only touch her robes, led Miriam out of the Tabernacle...and then the camp...
(AN: Well, on that lovely note, we can end this chapter)