And Israel is separated from the Egypt of this world.

Already God had performed many mighty works which demonstrated His power and supremacy over everyone and everything. Now though, as Israel is leaving Egypt, the Pharaoh and his servants changed their minds one last time. Then they they decided to pursue Israel with their armies, and they overtook them, Ex 14:5-9.

When they saw the armies marching after them, “… they were very afraid. The children of Israel cried out to Yahweh.” They already began to fault Moses. Was it because their were not enough graves in Egypt that you brought us into the wilderness to die? Ex 14:10. Moses told them,

“Yahweh will fight for you, and you shall be still.”
Ex 14:15

“Yahweh is a man of war.
Yahweh is his name.”
Ex 15:3

Then came that great scene in Exodus 14 when God parted the waters of the Red Sea, and Israel crossed the Red Sea on dry land, and when the armies of Egypt attempted to follow they were drowned. The text says that God caused “a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided,” Ex 14:21. This may in fact have occurred in a section of the Red Sea that has become silted up today.

Now Israel was firmly separated from Egypt,
by the Red Sea.

Then began the trials of living in a desert place, without the comforts and pleasures of this world. At every turn the people of Israel failed to go on trusting God.

First they traveled three days journey into the desert, perhaps as little as five miles per day with all of their little ones and livestock, but they found no water. Israel complained. At God’s direction they found water.

They were enslaved but had plenty to eat in Egypt, and now they were about to die of hunger. Then God provided food from heaven, literally. First there was dew, and when it evaporated there was left what the New American Standard “a flake like thing,” Ex 16:14. It was “mana,” which was substantial enough they could and did live on it for forty years!

Again and again Israel failed to trust God, NO MATTER
what powerful acts He performed.

Again they ran out of water, but did not pray, but rather complained and berated their leaders, and wished to go back to Egypt. God finally provided water out of a rock for them in the desert.

At Sinai they received the Law, but could not wait for Moses to get back, but created idols to worship in the mean time.

Then in Numbers 11 they got tired of the mana, and God gave them quail to eat until it came out their ears and made many sick. Then there were arguments about leadership, then they refused to enter Palestine because they were afraid of the giants in the land.

And on and on and on, always in bitterness and ungratefulness and perversity, and almost never in faith.

That was Israel in the wilderness.

Scriptures are from the World English Bible WEB, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901.