Moses took God's people out of Egypt on their way to the Promised land. The land up in the wilderness and travelled 40 years before they ended up in Canaan. Normally this journey will last 12 days per foot.
Why did the wilderness lie between Egypt and Canaan for Moses and God's people?
Because of unbelief, an entire generation of Israelites spent their lives wandering aimlessly, never getting any meaning out of live, even with the promise.
Is that not always the result of life apart from God? Their enviroment was not pleasant. Their lives had no destiny except for dusty graves. Their investment in history was to serve only as a lesson of the futility of unbelief. Many of them wanted to return to Egypt, because they remembered the "good" days. It did not matter to them if they would return to slavery again. Even today we find people who want to return to their lives before they were saved. Even today the reasons and excuses remain the same.
Are you wandering in the wilderness?
Let us look where they came from - Egypt. Here they were in bondage for 430 years. They were oppressed and like any other group under restraint they complained. It was made known to their captors and to God. But they were also under the influence of the gods of Egypt. God heard their plea and put a plan into motion to deliver them. He accomplished this through Moses. Their deliverance did not occur instantly. They had to go through a process. A considerable amount of time and ten plagues were used to gain the release of them from Pharoah. The plagues accomplished two things :- This demonstrated the superiority of the God of Israel over the gods of Egypt. Secondly, it brought freedom to the people of God.
On their way from Egypt they went on a miraculous journey to Mt. Sinai to receive the Law. Here the people witnessed God's miraculous delivering power. They experienced God's ability to provide for His children and they also received the protection from the enemy, the Amalekites. Rulers were established to keep peace among the people. With all these events, God wanted to teach them one concept: God has His hand on the lives of His special people. Since they witnessed His presence and knew the way God worked on their behalf, they could adjust their lives to His way in order to continue receiving His blessings.
Then the miraculous revelations took place at Mt. Sinai. God's deliverance of the people is for the specific purpose of developing a covenant people. They received the Ten Commandments with instructions that explained in great detail how these commandments are to be expressed in the lives of God's covenant people. They responded by building a golden calf. In doing this they demonstrated that this happens when you live outside His covenant structure. God instructed Moses to build a tabernacle, its furniture. It will be a dwelling place for God on completion. Through this journey they will repeatedly complain to Moses. They did not like the wilderness at all but God provided to them daily in their needs but that was still not good enough for them. They saw God's miraculous power on the mountain with all the things that happened but this was in their memory only a short while. They forgot all this and kept on complaining with much unbelief that He will take them to the promised land.
Sometimes in our lives we can also identify with this. We were in the same situation and we experience it the same. We need to remember that God blesses those who remain in a covenant reltionship with Him. He is our God and we become His holy people. God explained in Exodus in great detail what is acceptable to Him. God delivers those who find themselves in bondage. It might not come instantaniously but it will come to those who wait and make preparation for His deliverance. That deliverance is based on obedience to God's expressed will and upon moving when He says to move. The people of Israel had to wait until after Pessagh meal and the angel of death had passed over, after that God gave the command to go. We also must wait and be ready to move when God commnds us to move.
Egypt represents the land of not enough.
The desert or wilderness represents the land of just enough. God provided for them manna and quils for 40 years!
Canaan represents the land of more than enough.
There will be abundance.
Now, let us return to the original question. Why did the wilderness lie between Egypt and Canaan. The answer to this question is appropiate for each one of us. Egypt stands for a land of carnal and lustful lifestyle. To leave the habits and foods of that behind and to immediately enter into the promised land would have left a lesson unlearned. The people of Israel had to learn that all their sufficiency, all their supply, came from God. But this lesson is not only for the people of Israel, it is also for us who are believers.
Had the people of Israel slipped out of Egypt to reside at once in the promised Land - Canaan - where the abundance was everywhere, would have created a self-centered people. They would have taken their environment for granted. Because of the wilderness, there was a stark realization that land without God's blessing and without God's provision - life is barren and dry.
Now let us look at some answers, why they were in the wilderness so long, in:
Numbers 11-14.
Fire is a sign of God's presence and judgement. Numbers 11:1
Manna means "What is it?" Numbers 11:6
No one who rebelled will live to see the promised land. Number 14:23
They must return to the wilderness. Numbers 14:25
Forty years will pass. Numbers 14:34
The ten spies who misled the people will die. Numbers 14:37
The people will have no success in military encounters with the people of the land. Numbers 14:33
Only Joshua and Caleb will enter the promised land. Numbers 14:33
Let us look what we read in the New Testament about Manna.
John 6:31-35, 48-58
:31 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, "He gave them bread from heaven to eat."
:32 Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
:33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."
:34 Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always."
:35 And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
:48 I am the bread of life.
:49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
:50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.
:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."
:52 The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?"
:53 Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
:54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
:55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.
:56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.
:57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.
:58 This is the bread which came down from heaven--not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever."
In our Christian lives, we sometimes wonder why God allow the "desert or wilderness experiences". It is obvious, sin creates barrenness. Living in the midst of sin, we find the reality of life. The answer is not in the environment, but in Him!