Since one can walk from Egypt to Israel in a few days, was Moses just really, really bad with directions?

Question

If I spent 40 years trying to drive from LA to NYC, my wife would shoot me.

Answer 1

I think I've seen that rock before! Doh!

Answer 2

1. I've been to the mountain that Egyptians claim is Mt. Sinai. I've been to the Sinai desert and I lived in Egypt. With that terrain, there's no way thousands and thousands of people could cross into Israel is just a few days.

2. God punished His people by having them walk around the desert for forty years.

3. Yes, its possible that Moses could have been bad with directions. He was a man, after all.

Answer 3

Actually, they got to Cannon relatively quickly (after taking a short detour to Mt. Sinai). It was because of the Israelite's disbelief that they could conquer the Cannonites (because there were giants) through God that God sent them wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, so that the generation of disbelief would die off. Only Caleb and Joshua survived the wandering, and led the Israelites into the Promised Land of Cannon.

Answer 4

There was no "Moses". And the person who made up that story didn't know anything about geography. But, you're right. There's no reason to cross the Red Sea between Egypt and Israel.

Answer 5

Or maybe forty years is about the amount of time it would have taken for the generation of Israelites who had continually murmured against God, despite the many miracles He had done for them, to die off without seeing the promised land as punishment for constantly rebelling against Him?

Answer 6

They didn't spend 40 years making the trip. God punished them by making them wander in the desert for 40 years:

(Num 14:22) Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

(Num 14:23) Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:

(Num 14:24) But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.

(Num 14:32) But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.

(Num 14:33) And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.

Answer 7

They weren't lost. God planned for the wandering as He had a purpose in the 40 years of wandering.

Answer 8

Actually...Egypt is a very large country, so it depends on where he was coming from. And there were no roads or good maps back then.
Lastly...the timetables in the Bible are really off...people living for thousands of years? Something tells me watches/calendars had yet to be invented.

Answer 9

Moses seemed to be able to follow directions - It's His followers that were always getting lost!

Answer 10

Go back and read the story again. They were following the cloud that God sent before them. When it moved, they moved. When it stopped, they stopped. They could have gotten there a lot quicker, but God was teaching them to follow His leading. Much the way He teaches us to follow Him today. He has great things in store for us, but we need to follow His path to reach them.

Answer 11

Moses could not take a direct route as that would put him into enemy territory.

Also, it has been theorized that he wandered for 40 years because even back then a man wouldn't stop and ask for directions.