The logistics of so many people travelling in the book of Exodus

I was reading the book of Exodus, and as always, was amazed at the logistics of how that many people were all traveling together. The number of Israelites were 603,550. This number came from a census that was taken while traveling in the desert:

So the whole number of the Israelites, by their ancestral houses, from twenty years old and upward, everyone able to go to war in Israel— their whole number was six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty.

Numbers 1: 45-46

Imagine over half a million people all traveling together. There are many passages in Exodus where logistical details are mentioned, for example that they would make camp when it was time to rest somewhere, and break camp when it was time to set off again.

Nonetheless, I wondered how it worked for food, bathroom breaks, and so on. Having so many people go through an area would surely make it hard to get food, even when in areas where fruit and grain were growing naturally. Indeed, the Israelites started grumbling about the lack of variety in their diet and in the lack of meat, as we can see in this Bible verse:

The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” 

Exodus 16: 2-3

God sent manna from heaven to provide food for them:

Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.” So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In the evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your complaining against the Lord. For what are we, that you complain against us?” And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning, because the Lord has heard the complaining that you utter against him—what are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the Lord.” 

Exodus 16: 4-8

The Israelites ate manna, which the Lord provided. Even so, it cannot have been an easy journey logistically. Half a million people on a journey must surely have posed a lot of challenges. The Bible does not go into the logistics in great detail, although it does cover the frequent grumbling of the Israelites. This latter point is a bigger deal than it might first seem, because in grumbling and complaining they are not trusting God and they are turning away from God. That said, we are not any better ourselves, and frequently make the exact same mistake today.

If the books of Exodus and Numbers had focused heavily on the logistical challenges, we would have lost a lot of the focus on the important things: that God led them out of Egypt and provided for them. The grumbling of the Israelites was also much more important than the logistical details because it demonstrates to us that we should listen to the Lord and pray to discern His will, instead of turning away from Him and assuming we know everything and can accomplish everything in the flesh.

So as much as we would like to know more about the logistics of over half a million people on an exodus through the desert, that is not the main take-home message of that part of the Bible. Indeed, as I have mentioned before, if the Bible was in fact a "textbook of everything", it would be so long that no-one could hope to read it in their lifetime.

Instead, we should be glad that the important bits have been given to us so that it is possible for the Bible to be read by each person.

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