When the Children of Israel — or any other person or group in the Bible — journey from place to place, the spiritual meaning has to do with changing states in our hearts and minds, or changes in what Swedenborg would call spiritual states. This is relatively easy to grasp, since we use ideas of physical space to describe mental states in common language (we might describe someone as “close” or “distant,” or might ask someone “where they are” with an idea of project).
The precise nature of these changing states is described by the places visited and the time and direction of travel. So if the Bible at times reads like a travelogue, this is why.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4010
‘And he put three days’ journey between himself and Jacob’ means that their state was one in which they were totally set apart. This is clear from the meaning of ‘putting a journey’ as being set apart; from the meaning of ‘three’ as that which is last, completed, or the end, dealt with in 1825, 2788, and so is totally set apart; and from the meaning of ‘days’ as states, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 8103
‘And they travelled from Succoth and encamped in Etham’ means the second state after they were delivered. This is clear from the consideration that the travels and encampments of the children of Israel after they had departed from Egypt mean the spiritual states of those delivered by the Lord, who have been the subject above. A change of state is meant by each journey from one place to another, and by each stopping-place. The second state is meant here by travelling from Succoth to Etham, since the first state was meant by travelling from Rameses to Succoth, 7972. Also by ‘travels’ in the internal sense of the Word states and established patterns of life are meant, 1293, 3335, 5605, and arrangements of truth and good which have to do with life by ‘encampments’, 4236.