Deuteronomy 1:2-82(There are eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea.) 3And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the Lord had given him in commandment unto them; 4After he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Astaroth in Edrei: 5On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying, 6The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: 7Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates. 8Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them. (Deuteronomy 1:2‑8)
IT WAS the eleventh month of the fortieth year after the people came out of Egypt. They were at the borders of the promised land and about to enter in and take possession of their inheritance.
Moses was nearing the end of his course and soon to depart. This book gives his last words to the people so dear to his heart because they were God’s people.
He begins by reminding them that it was only eleven days journey straight out of Egypt into Canaan, yet it had occupied them, going backwards and forwards, nearly forty years. It was because they despised the beautiful country God had promised them and they were afraid of the giants. They did not believe that God could make them conquer them all, so God kept them in the wilderness all that time to punish them and until that generation that came out of Egypt all died off.
But this is a picture of man’s heart. For when God gives us any blessing we are very slow about taking possession of it, because we do not believe how good it is. The moment we see how very good it is we forget all the things that frightened us before, and we think that everything else is nothing compared to it. Then we want to get all we can of God’s blessing. Furthermore when we come to know how good it is we find out how God delights to give it to us, for God has His own joy in blessing us.
It does not seem that the children of Israel were afraid of the giants any more after they had gotten into Canaan for after they had destroyed those two mighty kings, Sihon and Og, on this side of the Jordan, we hear no more of their fears. They seemed to have proved how God would give them victory as He said He would.
Moses began by going over their history showing us how the Spirit of God kept account of every step of their way. He showed them that God had told them to go straight to the mountain of the Amorites, for that was the first bit of their possession He meant to give them. But alas, when they got there they in their unbelief of the word of God sent out spies. We learn from the book of Deuteronomy here that the decision to send out the spies began with the people. Moses tells them that it was unbelief in them that made them wish to send spies instead of going straight in themselves.
However, God had showed His patience with His people when He said to Moses, “Send the spies.” It was the spies that brought all the trouble upon them because they brought back an evil report of the land.
WE sing of the realms of the blest,
The home Jesus went to prepare
For all who His name now confess:
But what must it be to be there!
We speak of its peace and its love,
The robes which the glorified wear;
The songs of the blessed above:
But what must it be to be there!
We speak of its pathway of gold,
Its walls decked with jewels so rare;
Its wonders and pleasures untold:
But what must it be to be there!
ML-10/06/1974