When it was time for the children of Israel who had been in captivity in Egypt to leave the oppressors’ land, through a divine intervention, some other people who were not Israelites followed them.
“Now the sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, aside from children. A mixed multitude also went up with them, along with flocks and herds, a very large number of livestock,” (Exodus 12:37,38).
Unfortunately, it was these strangers who were either originally Egyptians, anxious to escape the tyranny of the kings, or fugitives from other subject races oppressed by the Pharaohs, that constituted a serious problem for Israel in the wilderness.
For instance, they were the first to lament how they missed the “flesh and the fish, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic” which they had eaten in Egypt freely. They thus, set a bad example, which the Israelites followed. And many of them were wasted in the wilderness!
Zebulon Agomuo
