The Israelite's preparation is about to come to a close and the journey is going to begin. God then takes the form of a cloud in order to lead them through the wilderness. God's guidance was not straight forward however. He instead used the journey as a way to prepare the Israelites for the Promised Land. The Israelites were supposed to learn to completely rely on God through this process. They were to become safe, well fed, and prosperous through God's plan. When we become comfortable though, we often forget to rely on God or even actively go against Him. Our destination of Heaven will come, but we are not there yet. We need to rely on God during the hard parts of the journey through this life so we can learn to become more and more like Jesus.