They started their journey in the land of Goshen. If you’ve got a map of that area handy, you may want to glimpse over it as you pin down their location. The Red Sea ( or ocean of Reeds ) is north of the Gulf of Suez.

They crossed that sea, then commenced a south-southeasterly journey toward Mount Sinai. But before they turned up at the mount of Our Lord God, they reached the wasteland of Shur in the northernmost section of the Sinai Headland . Here’s where the cloud and fire led Israel into the badlands, with the shepherd Moses out in front of the flock. It absolutely was a massive expanse of desolation stretching south to the badlands of Etham.

But why were they there? If God took the people thru the Red Sea, could not He take them straight away to the lush land of Canaan? Naturally. If He was able to part the waters, and enable them to stroll on dry land, and deliver them from the Egyptians, wasn’t He also in a position to move them swiftly to the borders of milk-and-honey-land? Totally. If he will be able to take me and you thru our conversion, he will hasten our journey across this materialistic desert and swiftly deposit us into heaven.

Why does God put us thru outback experiences before Canaan? For one thing, He wants to check us. that is the reason why God led Israel into the outback, according to Deuteronomy 8:2 : “You shall remember all of the way that the LORD your God has led you in the wasteland these 40 years, that he would humble you, testing you, to grasp what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.” ( Read that again.

God places us in the badlands to humble us, to check us, to stretch our non secular muscles. Our temporal badlands experiences are engineered to develop us into ladies and men of religion. Let’s admit it, our religious roots grow deep just when the winds around us are powerful. Take away the tests, and we become shallow-rooted, spiritual wimps. But bring on the wasteland winds, and it’s noteworthy how we grow as our roots dig terribly into religion.