The first great event the children saw in the second year of the journey to Canaan was the keeping of the Passover Feast, which many Hebrew children since have seen.
Soon after, they saw the tents taken down and all marched from Sinai.
How glad they must have been when they heard they had come to the border of the good land God had promised; and how beautiful the fine fruits the spies brought, must have seemed! But they were disappointed: the men were afraid to go in, and they had to live a long time in the wild lands, and not much is told of those years.
They saw the dreadful sight when the ground opened and the three families, whose fathers had spoken against God, fell into the earth. But the children of the leader, Korah, “died not’’, and long after sons of that family were singers in the Tabernacle, Numbers 26:1111Notwithstanding the children of Korah died not. (Numbers 26:11); 1 Chron. 6:31-3831And these are they whom David set over the service of song in the house of the Lord, after that the ark had rest. 32And they ministered before the dwelling place of the tabernacle of the congregation with singing, until Solomon had built the house of the Lord in Jerusalem: and then they waited on their office according to their order. 33And these are they that waited with their children. Of the sons of the Kohathites: Heman a singer, the son of Joel, the son of Shemuel, 34The son of Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Eliel, the son of Toah, 35The son of Zuph, the son of Elkanah, the son of Mahath, the son of Amasai, 36The son of Elkanah, the son of Joel, the son of Azariah, the son of Zephaniah, 37The son of Tahath, the son of Assir, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah, 38The son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, the son of Israel. (1 Chronicles 6:31‑38); and Psalm 84 was one of their songs.
The children must have seen animals taken to sacrifice for sins, and have learned that was God’s way then to forgive them.
Every day they saw the cloud which sheltered them from the hot sun, and every bight they saw the pillar of fire lighting the camp. No other children ever saw those.
They would see the serpent of brass up on the pole; Aaron’s rod that grew almonds; the silver trumpets; and perhaps yon, can think of more.
At last, after forty years, they were ready to enter Canaan, but the boys and girls who left Egypt were grown up. We will read of them and their children there.
It is good for us to remember about that strange journey, for it makes us know better God’s holy ways, yet His care for all His people.
ML 02/06/1938