The journey of Israel from Egypt to Canaan is a type of the Christian salvation and is treated as such by Paul, Jude, and the writer of the Book of Hebrews. The wilderness wandering was a curriculum designed to teach God's people the ways of the Lord. The destination, the goal of the Israelites, was the land of milk and honey.

Just what is the destination, the goal of the Christian discipleship? The goal of the Christian discipleship is twofold, consisting of two aspects that work together to bring us fully into the rest of God. One aspect is the change of our personality from Adam to Christ. The second aspect is our complete, untroubled abiding in Christ in the Father.

To have the Character of Christ and to be always abiding in Christ are our destination, our goal.

The Book of Hebrews exhorts us to enter the rest of God. The rest of God, the place in God where we have attained the goal God has set before us, is typified by Canaan—the land of milk and honey.

The Jewish Christians, to whom the Book of Hebrews was written, were experienced believers. They had joyfully accepted the plundering of their material possessions.

For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. (Hebrews 10:34)

However, the Book of Hebrews is not a letter of congratulation but one of warning. These believers had stopped pressing forward toward the mark, toward the rest of God. They were not meeting together as before. They were surprised at the amount of chastening they were experiencing at the hand of the Lord.

The second chapter describes our great salvation and warned the Jewish believers that God's judgment would fall on them if they neglected to follow the Lord diligently.

The third chapter continues the warning, stating that we partake of Christ only if we continue to press forward in faith until we arrive at our destination.

But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. (Hebrews 3:6)

Salvation is seen to be a journey rather than a one-time happening. We understand that the Israelites were "saved" out of Egypt. But in another sense they were not "saved" until they settled down to rest in a subdued Canaan.

I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. (Jude 1:5)

Let us say we have "made a decision" to receive the salvation that is in Christ. Can we now consider ourselves to be "saved"? Yes in the sense that we have taken the all-important first step. No in the sense that we have not as yet followed Christ to the destination.

To be continued.