The Long Walk Trivia Quiz

Answer: Philistine

According to Exodus 13, 17, "When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter." Foreseeing the inevitable confrontation with the Egyptian armies, God provided the Israelites with a strategic position from which they could escape without having to fight: Moses parted the Red Sea and led the children of Israel through its waters on dry foot.

Answer: A piece of wood

Exodus 15, 25 describes this moment: "Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink." The early travels of the tribes of Israel were characterized by a pattern repeating several times - they were led to a place where they seemed to be facing certain death and lost faith in the Lord, but each time, they were saved through Moses.

Answer: Desert of Sin

In the words of Exodus 16, 1, "The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt."

While it may sound like the words "of Sin" are a descriptor, similar to Golgotha being the Place of the Skull, the name of the desert is actually a proper name which has nothing to do with being a sinner. Some scholars trace it to the moon deity of the same name.

Answer: He called down a plague on the sinners

When Moses came down from the mountain, seeing the Israelites worship the golden calf under the leadership of his own brother, he smashed the tablets of stone (Exodus 32, 19), burned the calf and scattered its remains on the water the Israelites then needed to drink (Exodus 32, 20) and finally summoned those loyal to the Lord - the Levites - and commanded them to "Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor." (Exodus 32, 27).

The plague, however, was brought on the tribes by the Lord himself (Exodus 32, 35) as a punishment for what they did.

Answer: Judah largest, Manasseh smallest

"The number from the tribe of Judah was 74,600." (Numbers 1, 27) while "The number from the tribe of Manasseh was 32,200" (Numbers 1, 35). Reuben and Benjamin were the oldest and youngest son of Israel, respectively. Benjamin's tribe, at 35,400 was the second smallest and Dan's, at 62,700 the second largest.

Answer: The eastern camp (Judah, Issachar and Zebulun)

Numbers 2, 9 decrees that "All the men assigned to the camp of Judah, according to their divisions, number 186,400. They will set out first." Being the largest of the four camps, it was of course strategically advantageous to have them in the first position where it was most likely to encounter hostilities while keeping the smaller and relatively more vulnerable camps of Reuben and Ephraim in the middle of the order.

The northern camp, being the second strongest in numbers, brought up the rear.

Answer: The twentieth day of the second month of the second year

In Numbers 10, 11-12, it is written that "On the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle of the covenant law. Then the Israelites set out from the Desert of Sinai and traveled from place to place until the cloud came to rest in the Desert of Paran."
Thus, from the day the census of the twelve tribes was taken (Numbers 1, 1) to the day of leaving Mount Sinai, only nineteen days passed, twelve of which were used to dedicate the tabernacle (Numbers 7).

Answer: Causing the people to rebel through false reports

When the scouts returned from Canaan, only two - Caleb and Joshua - delivered a truthful report of the land while the others, not having faith in the Lord's ability to ensure the Israelites would be able to drive off the inhabitants of the land, spoke of giants and monstrosities, which led the people to rebel against Moses.

The sentence was handed down in Numbers 14, 33-34: "Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. For forty years-one year for each of the forty days you explored the land-you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you."

Answer: Edom

Aaron died while the Israelites had to walk around Edom due to reason of that country's king denying them passage (Numbers 20, 14-20). His duty as high priest passed to his son: " Moses did as the Lord commanded: They went up Mount Hor in the sight of the whole community. Moses removed Aaron's garments and put them on his son Eleazar. And Aaron died there on top of the mountain.

Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain, and when the whole community learned that Aaron had died, all the Israelites mourned for him thirty days." (Numbers 20, 27-29)

Answer: Moses was still healthy and strong when he died.

Moses' death is described in the Bible as follows: "And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said. He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone. The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over." (Deuteronomy 34, 5-8).

He was not taken because of failing health, but because, despite having spoken for the Lord for so many years and having led the people of Israel in spite of all doubt, he was still not free of sin against the Lord. In him died the last of those who had disobeyed the Lord's commands, leaving their descendants free to finally enter the Promised Land.