Sermon: The Longer Route (The long way still leads)

By Dorcas Moyo 

Exodus 13:17

The distance between Canaan and Egypt is about 613 km. Yet Moses and the children of Israelites took 40 years to cover that distance. This means they were moving about 42 meters per day (meters, not kilometers). Doesn’t that seem extremely slow?

Of course, in earlier parts we discussed why they took the longer route. But even with that route, the journey was not supposed to take 40 years—something caused the delay.

Remember, when God was delivering His people from Egypt, He promised to take them to a land flowing with milk and honey (Exodus 3:8). When they reached the borders of Canaan, 12 spies were sent to assess the land and bring back a report. The Bible tells us that 10 of them returned with a negative report. They admitted the land was good, but said the people living there were stronger and would defeat them. Only two—Caleb and Joshua—gave a positive report, saying the land was good and they could conquer it (Numbers 13:1–33).

Unfortunately, the people chose to believe the negative message brought by the ten spies. They complained against God and even wanted to appoint a leader to take them back to Egypt (Numbers 14:1–4).

By doing this, they treated God as a liar. They did not believe His promises that He would give them the land. Instead, they trusted the words of men. The spies had spent 40 days exploring Canaan, so God declared a punishment: for every day they spied the land, they would spend one year in the wilderness—40 years in total—until that generation died (Numbers 14:33–34).

That is why they spent 40 years in the wilderness. It was not because the journey was too long, but because of their unbelief.

Only Caleb and Joshua were allowed to enter Canaan. Everyone else who was 20 years and older died in the wilderness.

They left Egypt, but they never entered Canaan—all because they did not believe the Word of God. They doubted that God could give them victory over the giants in Canaan. In the same way, if we fail to believe God’s Word as it is, we risk missing His promises—and even heaven itself.

1 Corinthians 10:11 says these things happened as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.