It's the first day since escaping the land of Egypt. I'm very scared, yet curious about what there is ahead of us. After walking for countless amounts of hours, we finally decided to stop. The place where Moses decided to stop was Mt. Sinai. He explains to us how this mountain seems suspicious because it was sunny outside, yet in the location of the mountain it was very dark. Then, out of nowhere, a huge lightning bolt struck the tip of the mountain. Thunder roared like a starving tiger, and all the people became extremely frightened. As for Moses, he became excited because he heard God speaking to him. He started climbing the mountain and everyone was shouting at him to get down because of this mysterious storm. However, Moses did not listen and he continued to climb. Once he reached the top, God gave Moses a plaque made out of stone. Moses told the rest of us to come up with him, but no one wanted to. Therefore, God came down with Moses because he wanted to speak to all of us. God told us that the plaque he gave Moses were the ten commandments and if we followed them, we would represent God to the rest of the world. He also told us that we must find a way to build a tabernacle because he wants to be present with us throughout our journey toward the Promised Land. God then disappeared and we were left dumbfounded. Moses told us to rest up for today and tomorrow we would start on the construction of the tabernacle. Well, I'm going to get some rest and hopefully, these next few days will be successful ones.
We just finished constructing the tabernacle. It took a long time, but it was definitely worth it. We filled it up with many holy objects in order to make God feel welcomed. Something that I included was a cross that I brought with me from Egypt. I figured that it was more important to give it to God, so I gave it away. I tried not to bring much stuff with me since I knew that we would be doing a lot of walking so all I brought was a jug for water, my cross, and a staff so that walking would be a lot easier. I saw a lot of other Israelites bringing things that can carry water and staffs in order to walk easier as well. However, I didn't see many people bring crosses or holy objects in general. This made me worry because I like to feel very connected with God, but I feel as if everyone else isn't doing the same. Anyways, once we finished building the tabernacle, I saw a bunch of my people doing something very out of place. They had constructed a golden calf and wanted to put it in the tabernacle. However, I knew this was breaking one of the commandments because we aren’t supposed to worship idols. I tried telling the rest of the Israelites to stop, but they wouldn’t listen. Then, when Moses returned from Mt. Sinai, he saw what we were doing. Moses got extremely angry because not only were we breaking commandments, but he knew God wouldn’t be happy. After a long while of staying near Mt. Sinai, Moses came to all of us and demanded that we make sure the calf goes nowhere near the tabernacle. Once we finally finished, I could tell that God’s presence had become known within the tabernacle. As a result, Moses tried entering the tabernacle, but God would not let him. I knew this wasn’t good...
The past few days have been very interesting and difficult. All the Israelites settled in Paran, I ran into many difficulties, and many deaths occurred. It all started the day after the tabernacle was built. Moses commanded us to bring the tabernacle along with us so that it could guide us to the Promised Land. This was a very difficult thing to do because it was extremely hot outside and many of us were suffering from heat exhaustion, thirst, and hunger. This led to a few deaths, fights breaking lose, and a change of plans. Moses picked out twelve spies in order to go ahead of everyone and scout out the land of Canaan. Luckily, I was one of the twelve spies that were chosen. He told us to go explore the land while the rest of the people settle down in the land of Paran. We all did exactly as told and we left that same day. In our journey, we ran into many obstacles. The first being a mudslide that one of the spies had slipped into on the way. Fortunately, we were all able to take action and save his life. After that, we decided that we would take a different route into Canaan. In total, we spent three nights in the woods because it was a long and difficult journey up to Canaan. These three nights were very scary because there were many creatures within the woods. This included insects, reptiles, and many birds. The scariest night was probably the last one. During the night, I heard footsteps traveling near the area where we were sleeping. I decided to get up and try to discover what the noise was. About five minutes into searching, I ended up tripping over something. I thought I was in big danger because I thought I had broken a bone. However, I was fine and only received some bruises and scratches. The scary part was that the thing I had tripped over had started to rise. My heart sank when I saw the object rise and I thought I had lost my life. In the end, it turns out it was another man sleeping in the same area we were. I laughed at this site, but I was also very curious as to why another man was sleeping in the woods as well. We had a conversation and it turns out he was a slave that had escaped from the Canaanites. He was very lucky to still be alive. I felt bad for him, so I told him that the Israelites were staying in Paran if he wanted to meet up with them. The man thanked me for my kind offer, but he told me that he was trying to find his way back to Egypt as that’s where he was originally from. After this encounter, I gathered the rest of the spies and we finally reached Canaan. Ten of the twelve spies said that they were not impressed with the land of Canaan and that they were starting to lose trust in God. However, another spy named Caleb and I knew that there was still a chance and that God would never let us down. Alright well, I’m going to sleep now because we have a long trip back to Paran in the morning.
