This is meant to be a fun reading (with some commentary) for all ages through Scripture. Please do not take this as a substitute for reading through the Bible on your own.
Previously, after God had presented the Commandments and other parts of the Israelites' Law and worship, the Lord asked Moses, and no one else, to approach the mountain. God gave some of the instructions for the Law and worship to Moses specifically, though God's true purpose was to give Moses 2 tablets with the 10 Commandments written on them for the Israelites to remember. God wrote on these tablets with God's own finger.
Yet God's time is different than our time, and the Lord had quite a bit to say to Moses. It took Moses a long time on Mount Sinai, and the Israelites soon got bored. They decided they wanted to make new gods to follow. Not only was this strictly against the Commandments God had given them, but they asked Aaron, the first of those God called on Moses to ordain as a priest, to help do this misdeed. So Aaron had the people melt down their gold and create a statue of a calf, a Golden Calf, for them to worship.
Now God had been very patient with the Israelites up to this point, more patient than they deserved and more patient than most of us would be. Though they have complained against the Lord greatly, God has always provided for their needs. God now sees how stubborn the Israelites are and wants no more to do with them. The Lord tells Moses God's plan to destroy the rest of the Israelites and to instead use Moses alone to create a great nation.
This shows that, just like us, God gets angry. Yet unlike us, God has patience, as the Lord has shown to the Israelites time and time again. God also wants to talk with us. God wants us to share our troubles, hopes, sorrows, and desires. Moses does so now.
Moses reminds God of the Lord's Covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. Also, if the Israelites are finished now, the Egyptians might forget that it was God who brought the Israelites out of Egypt in the first place.
God here mirrors what we should do with our own anger. God does not act right away, but talks things out first. God does not really want to end the Israelites, and so after talking with Moses and having that anger go away, God decides not to destroy the people. Yet they still must suffer the consequences of their actions.
Even though Moses is the one who pleads with God not to destroy the Israelites, he too gets consumed with anger once he sees the Golden Calf. He throws the Tablets with the Commandments on the ground and burns the calf. Then, as a punishment for what they had done, the Israelites had to drink the powder remains of the calf, scattered into water.
The other sons of Levi quickly gathered around Moses. When Moses asked his brother Aaron how he could do such a terrible thing as immediately disregard the Commandments God had given, Aaron immediately turned his blame on the Israelites. He even claims that the calf just magically sprouted out of the fire he threw the gold in. In many ways, Aaron mirrors the blame-game of Adam and Eve in their Fall into Sin at the start of Creation.
A new set of Tablets for the 10 Commandments are now needed, since Moses broke the first set when he threw them out of anger at the Israelites. Moses goes up to receive the God-written tablets once again. Moses has another request of God. Moses wishes, if he has found favor, to see God. God agrees to pass by Moses, though Moses will not be able to see God's face, otherwise he would die.
When Moses came back down the mountain with the new Tablets, his face shown brightly because he had been talking with God. As a result, the people could barely look at him. To solve this problem, Moses wore a veil on his face. He would only take the veil off in the presence of the people whenever he told them the words God had given him.
As they made their way from the mountain to the land that had been promised them, the Israelites were once again led by the pillar of cloud. This was a sign that God was leading them and they were to follow when and where the pillar would go.
The people would still complain along the way about food and other things. God continued to get angry, and Moses was frustrated too. He asked God what to do with the people, so God decided to formalize the authority of the 70 of the elders. God told Moses to gather them together so that God's Spirit would rest upon them. This would allow them to better help Moses carry the burden of leading the people, just as Jethro had recommended before.
So Moses gathered the elders and the Spirit descended on them, and they began to prophesy. Yet two were missing from this group: Eldad and Medad. Yet the Spirit descended on them too, and they also began to prophesy in the camps.
Now Moses had an assistant named Joshua. When Joshua saw what was happening with Eldad and Medad, he immediately informed Moses of what had taken place. Yet Moses dismissed it, asking Joshua if he was jealous for Moses' sake. Moses also remarked that it would be better if all God's people were prophets and had God's Spirit within them.
Yet still the Israelites complained all along the way. Once again, they complained that there was no water. Once again Moses turned to God and God gave a command to Moses and Aaron. They were to tell the rock to yield its water. This was different from how Moses got the water out for the Israelites before, and it was meant to be so. The difference would show that God was in control and would continue to look after the Israelites.
Moses did something different from what God had asked. Instead, he did exactly what he had done before and tapped the rock to make it yield its water. It worked, but it was not what God had asked. This time Moses and Aaron would face their own punishment.
At this point Miriam, Moses' and Aaron's sister, had passed away. Aaron soon would pass away, for God told him he would not see the Promised Land because of his rebellion. Moses too would be told that he would not see the Promised Land for his own rebelling against God's commands when they needed water at Meribah.
In fact, all of this generation of Israelites would pass away before making it to the Promised Land. Only Moses would get to see the land before they entered. Joshua would take his place to lead the people to their home. God realized that the Israelites were complaining because they knew nothing different from their time in Egypt. They were holding on to the past, even though their past was bleak. Because they were so stubborn and set in their ways, a new generation needed to come for the Israelites to enact God's plan. This is unfortunately often the same case for us today as we try to bring about God's will in the world. The Israelites are thus a cautionary tale that we should listen to so that we do not do the same and let our own holding on to the past keep us from being able to move forward to the bright future God has planned for us after the wilderness.
There are other stories that happened at this time that are important to understand the stories of Scripture later. One is the story of the Bronze Serpent. As the people once again complained, they found poisonous snakes in their midst. As an act of mercy, God has Moses make a bronze serpent and has him place it on a pole. The idea is that anyone who looked on this serpent after being bit would be saved.
There were other dangers in the wilderness too: other people. Because they were wandering in the wilderness, the Israelites occasionally camped by other places. One of these places was Moab, and Balak, the king there, got nervous. He hired a prophet, Balaam, to curse the Israelites.
Now Balaam, like Jethro and Melchizedek before, though not an Israelite was a follower of the Lord. He refused to go out and do King Balak's bidding many times because the Lord told him not to. When he finally did head out, he eventually was stopped. He was riding on his donkey at the time, and ahead on the road, this donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing there with a mighty sword in hand. Seeing this, the donkey refused to budge. Balaam was so mad that he kept whipping and whipping his donkey until finally something happened that has not happened in the Bible since the serpent, nor will it happen again. God opened the mouth of the donkey to speak.
When it spoke, the donkey asked why Balaam was hurting him. Balaam responded that his donkey wasn't going forward. The donkey asked Balaam, 'have I ever let you down before.' Balaam responded, "no."
The donkey then explained that they had stopped because of the angel, and in that moment, Balaam's eyes were opened and he too saw the angel of the Lord standing there, sword in hand. Balaam realizes he has done wrong and returns home.
Balaam sends word to King Balak of Moab after that not only will he not curse Israel, he will bless them and curse Moab instead. In this way he repents of his actions towards his trusty donkey and shows that he can listen to the Lord.
After 40 years of wandering, the Israelites arrive to Mount Pisgah. Before going up, Moses gives his final words to the people, conveyed in the Book of Deuteronomy, or "Second Law" in Greek, for Moses gives a Summary of all that was witnessed in the Book of Exodus and all that was told in the Books of Leviticus and Numbers, which together with Genesis mark the entirety of the 5 Books of Moses also known as the Torah. Moses then climbs Mount Pisgah to see the Promised Land before dying. Joshua son of Nun, his assistant, will take over leadership, as God intended he do. Joshua will lead the Israelites into the land God promised them at the start of the book in the Bible that bears his name.
This, then, marks the end of Torah.