Following from the triumphal departure from Egypt and the divine revelation at Mount Sinai, the Book of Numbers finds the Israelites moving through the vast desert wastes, confronting obstacles and overcoming difficulties as they yearn toward a goal that continually eludes them. The arid wilderness landscape, painted from a range of perspectives, dominates the window as a mighty backdrop to the human stories of 40 years of wandering. A new generation is steadily replacing that which was enslaved. Along a meandering path that suggests the route of the wandering Israelites, Moses strikes the rock unbidden, Miriam (lower left) is exiled for her sharp tongue, and the sense of isolation and longing for the Promised Land intensifies. It is the Promised Land that provides the window’s sole splash of light and natural color: the eye finds it in the upper left at the end of the twisting trail, with Moses, painted small, gazing toward it from the summit of Mount Nevo.
