1:1 In the year after Israel’s departure from Egypt, the Lord frequently communicated his will to the people through Moses and gave them every opportunity to conform to his divine plan. • God’s self-disclosure often took place at the Tabernacle (literally the Tent of Meeting; see study note on Exod 27:21). • The wilderness of Sinai was a great, terrifying, and inhospitable desert (Deut 1:19). This relatively unpopulated region was the anvil on which God forged Israel as the environmental challenges of Sinai tested Israel’s dependence upon the Lord throughout the book of Numbers. Sinai reminded later biblical authors of the law and of Israel’s rebellious spirit (Ps 106:19; Heb 12:25-26).