Introduction
God told Abraham, His friend, that his seed would be in a strange land, would serve there 400 years and afterwards they would return to their land (Gen 15: 13-16). Jacob and his children went to Egypt because of famine in their land. There they multiplied and became great. Pharaoh the king of Egypt took knowledge of this and made them slaves. They were put to too much hardship. Then they cried unto the Lord and He remembered His promise to Abraham, He sent His servant Moses to bring out the children of Israel from the bondage of Egypt. According to His word He judged the Egyptians by His mighty miracles and plagues and delivered the children of Israel. Then Israel came out of Egypt and began marching towards the land of promise and we find that though they came out of Egypt, Egypt was not out of them! They had always a tendency to go back to the old life, the life of bondage. We too have the same nature. Though the Lord has made every provision for us to be free from all bondages, we tend to go back to bondage in one way or the other. We learn precious lessons from the journeys of Israel.
In studying the journey of the people of God from Egypt to Canaan, we understand that Egypt speaks of bondage, slavery, darkness and condemnation. When we are saved by God’s grace, we are delivered from every bondage and every condemnation, and the Lord wants us to come into His fullness. The land of Canaan speaks of that fullness, and unless we overcome the different trials and temptations on the way, we will not enjoy that fullness. The experience of the new birth depends only upon our faith, and the very second we believe on the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, we are forgiven; but our enjoyment of the fullness of god depends upon our obedience and faithfulness, and that is why we have to go through that journey in the wilderness to be tested whether we have a living faith or not.
We can see step by step the lessons which could be learned from that journey, and then we come to know how the Israelites came to mount Sinai, how the Law of God was given them and for that purpose.