The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, 25th presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, in an interview with Duke Divinity School’s Faith & Leadership:
The desert was a period of purification and self-knowledge in order that they were prepared to enter the promised land. All the things that happened in the wilderness, the struggle and the suffering, were part of being shaped and formed and being made ready to enter the promised land, especially where they could receive it as gift rather than acquisition.