# Day 61

# The Long Desert Journey

Numbers 14:1–45

The people of Israel were complaining. “We should have died in Egypt or the desert. Why does God want us to die in a war in Canaan? Let’s all go back to Egypt.” Suddenly the glory of God flashed and shone from the tabernacle.

God spoke: “How long will this people disobey and despise me? They shall not enter Canaan. Instead they will all die in the desert. Their children will grow up, and only they will enter this good land. Tomorrow you must go back to the desert. You will wander there for forty years.”

Then the people changed their minds. “No,” they all said. “We’ll not go back to the desert. We’ll go straight into the land right now.”

“You must not go into Canaan,” Moses said. “God will not go with you.” But they rushed to enter Canaan anyway. The tribes who lived there, the Canaanites and the Amorites, attacked them. Many Israelites were killed. So they finally turned back into the desert.

For forty years, they moved through the desert. The old men died and the young men were trained as warriors. Then they came back to Kadesh near Canaan where they began.

Questions: Why were the people afraid to enter Canaan? How long did they travel through the desert?