It is highly unlikely that the sons of Jacob would have stayed together in Canaan.  -> They were not good men. -> They were not committed to God.  <p> The sojourn in Egypt served to keep them together so that they developed as a nation with a specific identity.,<p>Esau was a son of Isaac but he and his descendents did not stay true to the God of his grandfather Abraham as the two brothers separated their families geographically.<p>It has been said that the family that prays together, stays together.   The ChildrenOfIsrael is an example of how a family that stays together, prays together.