1. To move about without a definite destination or purpose.
2. To proceed in an irregular course; meander.
3. To go astray.Definitions of a pilgrim:
1. One who embarks on a quest for something conceived of as sacred.
2. A newcomer
3. a person who undertakes a journey to a sacred place as an act of religious devotion.
3. a person who undertakes a journey to a sacred place as an act of religious devotion.
The differences between the two are profound. Like the Israelite's punishment of having to walk around the desert till a whole generation died off, wandering is what happens to someone when they refuse to acknowledge God's presence in their life. They fall under one of the effects of the original curse. They are without a destination and without a purpose. They stumble toward mirages in the rippling horizon, and for the moments when they are walking toward the image depicting a happiness or distraction, they are happy (or sometimes merely eager). But upon reaching it they they find it was merely a self generated display of a feeling that they wish they could have eternally. Everyone is looking for God, but many refuse to face this truth. Eternity was set in the hearts of men and no matter how much we deny Him, God is has always been our heart's desire from the beginning of time. It is sin that deludes us in to thinking we have any chance of finding purpose or joy apart from dwelling in Christ.
"He deprives the leaders of the earth of their reason; he sends them wandering through a trackless waste." Job 12:24
When the Israelites first embarked on the journey to the promised land, the journey God was taking them on, they were pilgrims setting off to discover a place of sacredness (I believe the Promised Land to be a depiction of Eden). They had a known destination, and their goal was to reach it. The wanderer walks aimlessly, distracted by everything because nothing is their destination (they have a goal, but no way by which to reach it unless they have a destination). Pilgrim's are dauntless, always with their eyes fixed straight ahead. They aren't even interested in looking this way or that, because they are so sure of what lies ahead of them, although it can not be seen with the human eyes as a mirage can.
"They shall ask the way to Zion, with faces turned toward it, saying, 'Come, let us join ourselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.'" Jeremiah 50:5
"For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God." Hebrews 11:10
The punishment of God is the curse (which we brought upon ourselves from the beginning), and when a pilgrim turns from their destination (the ultimate purpose for which something is created or intended), inevitably, they become an aimless wanderer chasing after wisps of smoke and figments of their imagination. They rely on the physical world and their physical senses to direct them instead of the eternity that is set in their hearts.
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