Obedience

The story of Deuteronomy seems to begin after Moses received the Ten Commandments at Horeb. In chapter 1, Moses is outlining the steps that got the Israelites to the point of crossing the Jordan into the Promised Land.

From verse 19 to the end of the chapter we have “Israel’s refusal to enter the land,” as a subheading in the New King James Version, a bit more than half of chapter 1.

When the people were required to actually do something and make a decision, they quaked. They had the opportunity to take the Promised Land at that early stage, but, after a scouting expedition to check out the place and the people who lived there, they chickened out and wouldn’t make the move. After all the signs Moses had shown them on the way of how God would be with them! He promised, “The Lord you God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes” (KJV 1: 30).

They were already out of favour with God and were told that none of them would see the Promised Land save Caleb and Joshua. Their children would be the ones to enter the land. As we saw earlier in this blog, even Moses didn’t enter the Promised Land.

But. In previous thinking about this experience, I had not taken into account the people’s trying to get right with God. So, after being told that only Joshua and Caleb would go and take the land, we find the people eventually saying, “…we will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us” (NKJV 1: 41). At this point, God instructs Moses to tell them not to go, but they took no notice. They “… rebelled against the command of the Lord... And the Amorites who dwelt in that mountain came out against you and chased you, as bees do, and drove you back...” (NKJV 1: 43, 44).

Trying to do the right thing at the wrong time. Not wise. Catastrophic in fact! (I spelt ‘catastrophic’ right at one go!)

Joyce Voysey