What are we pursuing?

There were 2 million people that were supposed to be going to the promised land wandering around in the wilderness for 40 years. During that time what were they really doing? Did they have goals? Were the getting more things or were they just walking around having a camping trip? I wonder. In some ways it seems it would have been simpler living in a situation like that without the feeling of needing to obtain a lot of things to live and survive. Then again, maybe they did do that too.