Why did Moses wander 40 years?

Why Moses wandered 40 years? Why the journey Israelites from the land of Egypt, the house of bondage lasted actually that long?

First, in the course of his journey Moses did not take the easiest possible route, which led along the Mediterranean coast to reach Canaan. The road led Israelites on a completely circuitous route through the desert.

According to some interpretations, Moses' choice was dictated by his desire to reach Sinai Mountains (Horeb). Mount Sinai, otherwise known as Mount Moses, is located entirely to the south Egyptin the southern part of the peninsula Sinai. To reach it, therefore, a journey into the country was needed.

As you know, the journey of the chosen people lasted a full 40 years. Some point out that these 40 years represent a symbolic length of life for the then generation. Some interpretations, referring to this symbolic length, suggest that it was intended as a complete generational change in Promised Land.

Throughout the journey there were cyclical censuses of the population, as we know when we reached our destination there was not a single person left from the old generation. Thus, by the end of the journey, a generation of completely free people had arrived, who did not remember the old order, did not remember what life in slavery was like, and were free people from the moment they were born. This was, as it were, the purification of the entire nation from the burden of slavery.

This is probably the simplest and also the most likely explanation of the matter. You could be yet to find in all this the punishment which the Lord imposed on the people for disobedience to himself israeli. Perhaps because of this, it somewhat condemned them to the hardships of a 40-year journey.