Deuteronomy 29:5-6: "During the forty years that I led you through the desert, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet. You ate no bread and drank no wine or other fermented drink. I did this so that you might know that I am the LORD your God."
In the Old Testament, we find wonderful imagery of our eternal progression toward Heaven, our Promised Land. The Israelites wandered for forty years through a barren wilderness. Although God provided for them as He led them through that wilderness, He did not give them the blessing of bread and wine (products of a fertile land that yields the blessing of abundant harvest). God withheld these luxuries so that the Israelites would not become complacent with their wilderness wandering, but they would look forward to their arrival in His blessed Promised Land.
So too we as Christians find ourselves on a similar trek. We find that God provides for us in this life in order that we might move forward toward our blessed eternal hope. Still, God does not shower upon us the abundant harvest of Heaven now; rather, He is grooming us for the day of our redemption. By withholding the eternal blessings, He assures that we will not become complacent with this life, but we will look forward to our arrival into His eternal presence, a place where "no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared" (I Corinthians 2:9).
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