Deuteronomy 1

"It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea. 3 Now it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him as commandments to them, " vv.2-3

Read chapter 1
Deuteronomy is the fifth and last book of the Pentateuch, no scroll ever seen with more than these five books.   Deuteronomy means "the words" and sure enough we have the last words of Moses throughout this book as he spoke unto the Israelites before they enter the promised land.  He reminds them of the law, of their rebellion, of how God provided. 
At the start of this chapter it's noted that it is an eleven day journey from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea, yet it took them way longer than that.  Kadesh Barnea is where Moses sent the spies to spy out the land in Numbers 13.

The Children of Israel had traveled south from Egypt to Mount Sinai, which is in the southern portion of the Sinai peninsula. After eleven months there, they journeyed north to Kadesh-barnea, which is right at the southern border of the Promised Land.
They can see it. They can taste it. They can smell it. They can touch it. It is right there! They are right on the border of where God has been intending to take them.
From Mount Sinai to Kadesh-barnea—Mount Sinai where the law was given, to Kadesh right at the border of the Promised Land—is 150 miles or so. According to Deuteronomy 1, this is an eleven-day journey on foot. But that journey—they come to Kadesh but they end up being in and around Kadesh and not getting into the Promised Land for another thirty-eight years.
God intended they go from Sinai to Kadesh and into the Promised Land, an eleven-day journey; they should have been in. (Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Revive Our Hearts)

If we could see how something was all going to work out we wouldnt need faith, especially if we knew something would take 40 years verses 11 days depending on how we chose.  When have you realized a long round about way of coming to God's promises that could have been much shorter if you would have obeyed God in the first place?