Miracles in the wilderness
After they escaped Egypt, a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night guarded the Israelites from harm. This sight was a constant assurance of God’s presence among them. The opening of the sea for them to pass through and the deliberate collapse of the passageway on the Egyptian army provided still another example of God’s mercy and love for His people (Ex. 14:21,27).

God continued to perform miracles that sustained Israel both in emergencies and on a daily basis. At Marah the bitter waters became miraculously sweet after Moses, at God’s command, cast a tree into them (Ex. 15:23-25). Later, God provided an abundance of quail and manna (meat and bread) in response to Israel’s complaint of hunger (Ex. 16:13-17). Although skeptics had suggested a natural origin for the manna (tamarisk twigs) no explanation has ever been given for how, on the Sabbath, it kept fresh for an extra day (Ex. 16:24).

Beside the descriptions of these clearly miraculous events recorded in Exodus, there are references in the Psalms suggesting that God used still other ways of sustaining Israel:

"Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary" (Psa. 68:9).

"Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven" (Psa 78:23).

These and other verses suggest there were many other "silent miracles" besides those that shout out to us in the book of Exodus.

A massive host
Bible critics have questioned the large number of Israelites reported in the wilderness wanderings. Scripture provides the figure of over 600,000 males, 20 years of age and older (Ex. 12:37; Num. 2:32). Since this number is merely the older males and excludes the Levites, the total number of persons most likely exceeded two million. Providing the daily needs for such a large body of people in a wilderness setting was an incredible undertaking.

Water in the wilderness
Since most of us are city dwellers, we can easily overlook the magnitude of many of the miracles involved. Modern plumbing and waterworks supply us with large amounts of water for domestic purposes. If we go on a wilderness hike, careful thought must be given to how much water to carry. If used for drinking, washing and cooking, a gallon a day is barely enough for an individual. For the Israelites two million gallons (enough to fill several hundred modest backyard swimming pools) would be required daily. This may not sound like a lot until you consider that this is a flow of over 1,000 gallons per minute. But if you consider that a 24 hour lineup for water would not be reasonable, and that water for Israel’s many animals was not factored into the calculation, a much greater instantaneous flow would be needed. No wonder then the Psalmist says: "He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers" (Psa. 78:16).

The camp of Israel
I once pictured the camp of Israel as being rather small until I did a bit of arithmetic. A recent video of Moses and the exodus showed a small camp, but then who could afford to shoot a religious video with a cast of millions. A tent we purchased last summer for kid’s camp (10'x10') was advertised as a five man tent. Realistically, only four young teens could be crowded into it. Fortunately the young can put up with, perhaps even enjoy, camping this way for a week. To be cramped up like this for 40 years would be another story.

Obviously, the base of the tent is only a small portion of the area four campers occupy. To ensure that ropes and pegs don’t interfere with other tents and also to allow an area for cooking and eating, the total area for four needs to be at least 20'x20'. If the same standards of accommodation are applied to two million persons, an area of 20 x 20 x 2,000,000 / 4 = 200,000,000 square ft., or 7.2 square miles, is required. But even as large as this area is (2.7 miles on each side) it seems much too small for the Israelite encampment, since no allowance has been made for pathways or animal accommodation. Besides two million Israelites in an area of 7.2 square miles creates a population density ten to a hundred times denser than most city populations. Yet even if the camp were this small, Moses must have relied on miraculous means to communicate with the Israelites.

The problem of moving camp
Brethren who plan for assemblies at Bible schools or youth conferences can easily sympathize with the problems Moses must have experienced. Even moving the camp must have required tremendous patience. It is difficult to move a large number from point A to point B. Not only do the stragglers initially hold up the rest, but a prolonged wait seems to degenerate the resolve of the early arrivals to get moving. While managing even a small group of active children is demanding, it becomes increasingly more difficult to move a large number of people. Moses could not have done it on his own. Clearly the literal meaning of the psalmist’s words apply: "Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron" (Psa. 77:20).

When the camp moved, it is interesting to consider how long the line would stretch. Without allowing for animals or means of transportation, a group of two million walking two feet apart and ten abreast would stretch for some 75 miles. Since this is an unreasonable length, it suggests that Israel cut a much wider swath as they moved from place to place.

Critics have suggested that translating the Hebrew (Strongs #505 eleph) as family, group or perhaps tent instead of thousand would yield a more manageable number of Israelites in Moses’ flock. The total number of Israelites would be reduced from two million to around twenty thousand.

A serious disadvantage of this suggestion is that the sum of the resulting tribal figures would no longer add up to the total which is independently given (Num. 1:46 ) and confirmed by a second simple calculation. Based on Exodus 30:15 we are told each male was to give exactly half a shekel. When the silver was numbered it amounted to: "an hundred talents, and a thousand seven hundred and threescore and fifteen shekels (301,775 shekels)" or 603,550 half shekels (Ex. 38:25).

To conclude, even a cursory examination of the large numbers in Exodus suggests that much of the wilderness wandering would be regarded as a miracle. Only the very special circumstances that are hinted at in parallel accounts could have made this incredible journey possible.