The Land That Can Shut You In

Above is Exodus 14, from the English Standard Version, 2007 Text Edition.
I was reading through Exodus this morning, and verse 3 struck me:

For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’

“The wilderness has shut them in”.
Then the rest of the context struck me.
Land, in case many do not know, is an entity that actually interacts with us.  It responds to us when we sow seed, and when we work the ground (Gen 2:15).
And based on Pharaoh’s assumption, land can work against us, even engage in behavior that results in our entrapment.  If land sees us as life-giving, land may not want to get rid of us so easily.  Our job, is not merely to work the land as a mechanical thing or an inanimate object.  Now, am I saying land is a living thing that deserves our worship?  No.  Land does however have some quality about it by which it interacts with us.  There are places where we each have been, in which we note that it is as if the land is speaking to us positively and negatively.
And the Israelites, in response to the behavior of Pharaoh’s armies, make a comment to Moses about wishing they had remianed in Egypt and died there.  Translation: “it would have been better for the land of Egypt to shut us in in the place of slavery, than for us to die IN THE WILDERNESS.”  These comments of complaint are often colored with discussion of the land itself and the fruit of the land.

“We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic“.

Yeah, and as a result of these complaints, plagues came of all sorts.  And don’t forget the LAND that swallowed up Korah’s rebellion in Number 16.
Many times, there are believers that think the land does not interact with us.  However, it does.  It:

• Swallowed up Korah (Number 16).
• vomited the inhabitants out before the Israelites (Leviticus 18:25, 28).
• Enjoys seasons of rest (2 Chronicles 36:21).
• Can be open to people (Gen. 34:10).
• Can either support or not support its inhabitants.  In other words, people can cause the land to become strained (there is an emotional component to that: Gen. 36:7).
• the land can have knowledge of seasons, which means it can also forget things that happen to it (Gen. 41:31).
• Can languish (Gen. 47:13). This is an emotion the land here is experiencing.
• Can be naked (Gen. 42:12).
• Can provide a place of rest (Gen. 49:15).
• Can become defiled like the human mind (Lev. 19:29).
• Can yield its fruit (Lev 25.19).
• Can devour its inhabitants (Num 13:32).

Among other things.
 
Just some things to consider.
Thoughts?