What can we learn from Israel’s 40 years of wandering in the wilderness? Are we learning to trust God? Are we learning not to make things worse when God disciplines us? Let’s look at Deuteronomy 1.
What history did Moses recount before Israel crossed the Jordan into Canaan?
These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on this side of the Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain opposite Suph, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea. Now it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him as commandments to them, after he had killed Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who dwelt at Ashtaroth in Edrei. (Deuteronomy 1:1-4 NKJV)
What were the Lord’s instructions regarding the land?
While the Israelites were in the land of Moab east of the Jordan River, Moses carefully explained the Lord’s instructions as follows. “When we were at Mount Sinai, the Lord our God said to us, ‘You have stayed at this mountain long enough. It is time to break camp and move on. Go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the neighboring regions—the Jordan Valley, the hill country, the western foothills, the Negev, and the coastal plain. Go to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, and all the way to the great Euphrates River. Look, I am giving all this land to you! Go in and occupy it, for it is the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to all their descendants.’” (Deuteronomy 1:5-8 NLT)
What had Moses told Israel about delegating the burden of leadership?
I spoke to you at that time, saying, “I am not able to bear you myself alone. Yahweh your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as the stars of the sky for multitude. Yahweh, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has promised you! How can I myself alone bear your problems, your burdens, and your strife? Take wise men of understanding who are respected among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.” (Deuteronomy 1:9-13 WEB)
How did Israel respond to Moses delegating leadership?
You answered me: “What you have proposed is a good idea.” So I took leading individuals from your tribes, people who were wise and well-regarded, and I set them up as your leaders. There were commanders over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, as well as officials for each of your tribes. At that same time, I commanded your judges: Listen to your fellow tribe members and judge fairly, whether the dispute is between one fellow tribe member or between a tribe member and an immigrant. Don’t show favoritism in a decision. Hear both sides out, whether the person is important or not. Don’t be afraid of anyone because the ruling belongs to God. Any dispute that is too difficult for you to decide, bring to me and I will take care of it. (Deuteronomy 1:14-17 CEB)
What did Moses do after instructing the judges?
After I gave these instructions to the judges, I taught you the Lord's commands. The Lord had commanded us to leave Mount Sinai and go to the hill country that belonged to the Amorites, so we started out into the huge desert. You remember how frightening it was, but soon we were at Kadesh-Barnea, and I told you, “We have reached the hill country. It belongs to the Amorites now, but the Lord our God is giving it to us. He is the same God our ancestors worshiped, and he has told us to go in and take this land, so don't hesitate and be afraid.” (Deuteronomy 1:18-21 CEV)
How did Moses choose the twelve explorers of the land?
Then all of you came near me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.’ The thing seemed good to me, and I took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe. And they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us, and brought us word again and said, ‘It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.’ (Deuteronomy 1:22-25 ESV)
How did the people react after the explorers gave further details?
But you were not willing to go up, rebelling against the command of the Lord your God. You grumbled in your tents and said, ‘The Lord brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites so they would destroy us, because He hated us. Where can we go? Our brothers have discouraged us, saying: The people are larger and taller than we are; the cities are large, fortified to the heavens. We also saw the descendants of the Anakim there.’ (Deuteronomy 1:26-28 HCSB)
What did Moses tell the Israelites after ten of the explorers discouraged them? Was the real problem trust in God?
Then I told you, ‘Don’t be terrified or afraid of them. The Lord your God is the One who will be going ahead of you. He’ll fight for you just as he did in Egypt before your eyes. In the desert you saw that the Lord carried you like a man carries his son, on every road you traveled until you reached this place.’ But despite this, you didn’t trust in the Lord your God, who walked ahead of you along the way to scout a place for you to pitch camp—by fire at night and cloud by day—to lead you on the way you should go.” (Deuteronomy 1:29-33 ISV)
What did God say about Israel’s lack of faith in Him?
And the Lord heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying, Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers. Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the Lord. (Deuteronomy 1:34-36 KJV)
Was God also angry with Moses? Who would lead Israel instead of Moses?
Yahweh was angry with me also on your account, saying, ‘Not even you shall enter there. Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter there; strengthen him, for he will cause Israel to inherit it. Moreover, your little ones who you said would become plunder, and your sons, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them, and they shall possess it. But as for you, turn around and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.’ (Deuteronomy 1:37-40 LSB)
Did Israel change their minds too late, because God had already made His decision?
“Then you replied to me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord; we ourselves will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ And every man of you strapped on his weapons of war, and you viewed it as easy to go up into the hill country. But the Lord said to me, ‘Say to them, “Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; otherwise you will be defeated by your enemies.”’ (Deuteronomy 1:41-42 NASB)
Did Moses try to prevent them from disobeying God?
So I told you, but you would not listen. You rebelled against the Lord’s command and in your arrogance you marched up into the hill country. The Amorites who lived in those hills came out against you; they chased you like a swarm of bees and beat you down from Seir all the way to Hormah. You came back and wept before the Lord, but he paid no attention to your weeping and turned a deaf ear to you. And so you stayed in Kadesh many days—all the time you spent there. (Deuteronomy 1:43-46 NIV)
Do we trust our lives to God and for Him to supply our needs? What did Jesus teach?
Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (Matthew 6:25-26 NKJV)
What can we learn from Israel’s 40 years of wandering in the wilderness? Are we learning to trust God? Are we learning not to make things worse when God disciplines us? You decide!
