The Wilderness

of-plymouth-plantationBradford describes the Pilgrims’ plight as facing “a hideous and desolate wilderness,” and says they could not “go up to the top of Pisgah, to view from this wilderness, a more goodly country to feed their hopes.”  Unless students are familiar with the books of the Pentateuch which describe, among other historical events, the wandering of the Hebrews in the wilderness for 40 years before the Lord causes Moses to see the Promised Land with his eyes, but “not cross over there” (DEUTERONOMY 34:4) and that “Moses went up from the plains…to the top of Pisgah” from where “the Lord showed him all the land…” (DEUTERONOMY 34:1), they have no hope of understanding the depth or breadth Bradford’s description.

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