It is impossible to read this chapter without being deeply moved by the tender love and care of God so signally displayed throughout the whole. To think of his deigning to keep such a record of the journeyings of His poor people, from the moment they marched out of Egypt until they crossed the Jordan—from the land of death and darkness to the land flowing with milk and honey.
He went before them every step of the way; He traveled over every stage of the wilderness; in all their afflictions He was afflicted. He took care of them like a tender nurse. He suffered not their garments to wax old, nor their feet to swell, for these forty years; and here He retraces the entire way by which His hand had led them, carefully noting down each successive stage of that marvelous pilgrimage, and every spot in the desert at which they had halted. What a journey! What a Traveling-Companion!
It is very consolatory to the heart of the poor weary pilgrim to be assured that every stage of his wilderness journey is marked out by the infinite love and unerring wisdom of God. He is leading His people by a right way, home to Himself; and there is not a single circumstance in their lot, or a single ingredient in their cup, which is not carefully ordered by Himself, with direct reference to their present profit and their everlasting felicity. Let it only be our care to walk with Him, day by day, in simple confidence, casting all our care upon Him, and leaving ourselves and all our belongings absolutely in His hands. This is the true source of peace and blessedness all the journey through; and then, when our desert wanderings are over—when the last stage of the wilderness has been trodden, He will take us home to be with Himself forever.
God recalls to His people, the way they had come, now that their long journey almost ended. Their stopping places are named, but not a word is said of the murmuring, and even rebellion against Him on the way. How gracious God is! It was good for His people to recall the way they had been brought, and no doubt they thought with shame of their past waywardness as they faced the home prepared for them across the river of death.
The closing verses of the chapter bring out the fact that there was to be war in taking possession of the land; its inhabitants were to be entirely driven away, and all their idols, and everything that belonged to them, were to be destroyed.
Failure to carry out God’s desire for them meant sorrow and vexation, and the certain judgment of God. We shall see what this became, D. V., as we go on through the succeeding books of the Bible.