Deuteronomy 1 explained: Looking Back Before Crossing Over

Moses begins his last speeches (vv. 1-5)

These words come at the end of the forty years, on the plains east of the Jordan River, after Israel had beaten two local kings, Sihon and Og. The remark that Horeb to Kadesh is only an eleven day walk quietly makes the point that the long delay was never about distance.

Time to leave the mountain (vv. 6-8)

At Horeb, another name for Mount Sinai, where Israel received its laws, the LORD said they had stayed long enough and should go take the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The borders, stretching as far as the Euphrates River, describe that promise at its widest.

Sharing the work of judging (vv. 9-18)

The people had grown too many for Moses to settle every dispute alone, so wise leaders chosen from each tribe were placed over groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. They had to hear small and great, Israelite and foreigner alike, without fear of anyone, because justice finally belongs to God.

Scouts and a refusal (vv. 19-33)

At Kadesh Barnea, on the edge of the land, twelve scouts brought back fruit and a good report, but also news of high walled cities and the Anakites, a people remembered as giants. The people decided the LORD must hate them, even though Moses reminded them that God had carried them through the desert like a father carrying his son.

A generation shut out (vv. 34-40)

The LORD swore that none of that adult generation would enter the land except Caleb and Joshua, while the children they feared would be taken captive would inherit it instead. Moses says he too was barred because of the people, though other passages tie his exclusion to a later event, and scholars differ on how the two accounts fit together.

Too late to fight (vv. 41-46)

Now sorry, the people armed themselves and attacked anyway, even after Moses warned that God would not be with them. The Amorites chased them down like a swarm of bees, and their weeping afterward did not change the outcome.

Key verse: Deuteronomy 1:32

Something to think about

When fear and the evidence of your own past experience point in different directions, what usually decides which way you go?