THE COVENANT SETTING EVENTS AT HOREB INSTRUCTIONS AT KADESH BARNEA DISOBEDIENCE AT KADESH BARNEA JUDGMENT AT KADESH BARNEA

Transcription

1 1 THE COVENANT SETTING EVENTS AT HOREB INSTRUCTIONS AT KADESH BARNEA DISOBEDIENCE AT KADESH BARNEA JUDGMENT AT KADESH BARNEA UNSUCCESSFUL CONQUEST OF CANAAN DEUTERONOMY 1:1-46

2 2 Text: THE COVENANT SETTING EVENTS AT HOREB INSTRUCTIONS AT KADESH BARNEA DISOBEDIENCE AT KADESH BARNEA JUDGMENT AT KADESH BARNEA UNSUCCESSFUL CONQUEST OF CANAAN Deuteronomy 1:1-46, 1. These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab. 2. It is eleven days journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea. 3. In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that the Lord had commanded him to give to them, 4. After he had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and Edrei. 5. Across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this law, saying,

3 The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7. Turn and set your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in all the lowland and in the Negev and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. 8. See, I have placed the land before you; go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to them and their descendants after them. 9. I spoke to you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear the burden of you alone. 10. The Lord you God has multiplied you, and behold, you are this day like the stars of heaven in number. 11. May the Lord, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand-fold more than you are and bless you, just as He has promised you! 12. How can I alone bear the load and burden of you and your strife? 13. Choose wise and discerning and experienced men from your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads. 14. You answered me and said, The thing which you have said to do is good. 15. So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and appointed them heads over you, leaders of thousands and of hundreds, of fifties and of tens, and officers for your tribes. 16. Then I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the cases between your fellow countrymen, and judge righteously between a man and his fellow countryman, or the alien who is with him.

4 You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not fear man, for the judgment is God s. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it. 18. I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do. 19. Then we set out from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, just as the Lord our God had commanded us; and we came to Kadeshbarnea. 20. I said to you, You have come to the hill country of the Amorites which the Lord our God is about to give us. 21. See, the Lord your God has placed the land before you; go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. Do not fear or be dismayed. 22. Then all of you approached me and said, Let us send men before us, that they may search out the land for us, and bring back to us word of the way by which we should go up and the cities which we shall enter. 23. The thing pleased me and I took twelve of your men, one man for each tribe. 24. They turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the valley of Eshcol and spied it out. 25. Then they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought us back a report and said, It is a good land, which the Lord our God is about to give us. 26. Yet you were not willing to go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; 27. And you grumbled in your tents and said, Because the Lord hates us, He has brought us out of the land of

5 5 Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. 28. Where can we go up? Our brethren have made our hearts melt, saying, The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified to heaven. And besides, we saw the sons of the Anakim there. 29. Then I said to you, Do not be shocked, nor fear them. 30. The Lord your God who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31. And in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place. 32. But for all this, you did not trust the Lord your God, 33. Who goes before you on your way, to seek out a place for you to encamp, in fire by night and cloud by day, to show you the way in which you should go. 34. Then the Lord heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and took an oath, saying, 35. Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers, 36. Except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and to his sons I will give the land on which he has set foot, because he has followed the Lord fully. 37. The Lord was angry with me also on your account, saying, Not even you shall enter there. 38. Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter there; encourage him, for he will cause Israel to inherit it. 39. Moreover, your little ones who you said would become prey, and your sons, who this day have no

6 6 knowledge of good or evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them and they shall possess it. 40. But as for you, turn around and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea. 41. Then you said to me, We have sinned against the Lord; we will indeed go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us. And every man of you girded on his weapons of war, and regarded it as easy to go up into the hill country. 42. And 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 before your enemies. 43. So I spoke to you, but you would not listen. Instead you rebelled against the command of the Lord, and acted presumptuously and went up into the hill country. 44. The Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do, and crushed you from Seir to Hormah. 45. Then you returned and wept before the Lord; but the Lord did not listen to your voice nor give ear to you. 46. So you remained in Kadesh many days, the days that you spent there. (NASB) Commentary: THE COVENANT SETTING Deuteronomy 1:1-5, These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab. It is eleven days journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-

7 7 barnea. In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that the Lord had commanded him to give to them, After he had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and Edrei. Across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this law, saying, (NASB) Almost all of Deuteronomy is made up of speeches by Moses during the final months of his life. The first chapter of this book begins with a brief preamble to what follows. It then launches into the first of Moses speeches. This speech relates the history of Israel from the Exodus to their encampment at Sinai, and the report of the faithless spies. It concludes with Israel s defeat at the hands of the Amorites who lived in the hill country before they were turned back to the wilderness by God. Deuteronomy 1:1-5 gives us the setting for what follows in this book. This part of the book appears to have been written by someone other than Moses, because it refers to him in the third person in verse 1. Moses would not have done so. Therefore, it is likely that this preamble was added by a later scribe. The purpose in doing so was to insure that readers in any generation would easily understand that Moses actually spoke these words to Israel. The description of the geographical setting in verse 2 is a little confusing since it contains references to places that were actually on the route from Sinai to Canaan on the west side of the Jordan river valley. We wonder about this description because verse 5 clearly sets the location as in the plains east of the Jordan river.

8 8 This was an area that belonged to the Moabites and was very near the natural fording place that was across from Jericho. It is possible that the references to the locales on the western side of the Arabah were intended to show the route by which Israel came to the Jordan after the forty years of wandering. It may also be that the unknown author of the preamble was showing how quickly the Israelites had lost faith after leaving Sinai. It was only eleven days travel from Sinai to Kadeshbarnea, from whence the spies entered Canaan, and from whence Israel was turned back into the wilderness. In verses 3, 4 the time frame for Deuteronomy is established. It was in the fortieth year and the eleventh month after the Exodus. The time of God s punishment was just about completed, and a new generation of Israelites would soon receive the land that had been promised to their ancestors. The passing of forty years was long enough for all the generation of adults who came out of Egypt to die in the wilderness. However, it was also long enough for many who were now adults would have had no personal awareness of the Exodus. Thus, the need for this book. For example, think of events from forty years ago in our country, and consider how twenty and thirty-year olds think about them. This will give an idea of the challenge before Moses as he wrote this book. Verse 3 reveals the source of this great book. Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all God commanded him. This means that this book carried the weight of God s authority. This was not just a collection of Moses reminiscences of his years as the leader of Israel. This was God s divine commands to them.

9 9 Verse 4 gives the immediate context for the book. It was written in the days following the defeat of Sihon, king of Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan. Although Israel had previously been victorious over the Amalekites (Exodus 17:8-13, Then Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rephidim. So Moses said to Joshua, Choose men for us and go out, fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand. Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought against Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. So it came about when Moses held his hand up, that Israel prevailed, and when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed. But Moses hands were heavy. Then they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other. Thus his hands were steady until the sun set. So Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. NASB), the current generation had not experienced battle. The victories over these kings showed Israel that they were able, with God s help, to drive out the Canaanite peoples in order to possess the land. EVENTS AT HOREB Deuteronomy 1:6-8, The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and set your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in all the lowland and in the Negev and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. See, I have placed the land before you;

10 10 go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to them and their descendants after them. (NASB) Moses first speech begins in verse 6. He started this narrative with Israel at Sinai (the name Horeb is often used for Mt. Sinai). Israel had come to Horeb in the third month after the Exodus (Exodus 19:1, In the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. (NASB)). They spent about eleven (11) months at the mountain of God, receiving the Law and the instructions for building the tabernacle (Numbers 10:11-12, Now in the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth of the month, the cloud was lifted from over the [a]tabernacle of the testimony; and the sons of Israel set out on their journeys from the wilderness of Sinai. Then the cloud settled down in the wilderness of Paran. (NASB)). At this point God commanded them to leave Horeb and head for Canaan. As Moses related it, God directed Israel directly toward the promised land. The geographical references in verse 7 are to areas on the west side of the Jordan river. It appears that God s original intent was for Israel to go into the land from the south, rather than from the east. The summary of the territories into which God was leading them is a concise re-statement of the original land promise that God had made to Abraham (Genesis 15:18-21, On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the

11 11 Rephaim and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite. (NASB)). Moses was quoting God in these verses, and we notice the confident way in which God spoke to them (verse 8). God told them that He had laid the land before them. They were to go up and possess it, just as He had promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There is no hint in God s words that they would have any difficulty in doing so. Looking at it from our perspective, we know that the conquest would have been very easy for them if they had remained faithful to God. Deuteronomy 1:9-18, I spoke to you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear the burden of you alone. The Lord you God has multiplied you, and behold, you are this day like the stars of heaven in number. May the Lord, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand-fold more than you are and bless you, just as He has promised you! How can I alone bear the load and burden of you and your strife? Choose wise and discerning and experienced men from your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads. You answered me and said, The thing which you have said to do is good. So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and appointed them heads over you, leaders of thousands and of hundreds, of fifties and of tens, and officers for your tribes. Then I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the cases between your fellow countrymen, and judge righteously between a man and his fellow countryman, or the alien who is with him. You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not fear man, for the judgment is God s. The case that is too hard

12 12 for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it. I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do. (NASB) In verses 9-15 Moses related the need for, and the appointment of, qualified men to share the burden of leadership in Israel. This was actually a suggestion of Moses father-in-law, Jethro (Exodus 18:13-26, It came about the next day that Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood about Moses from the morning until the evening. Now when Moses father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge and all the people stand about you from morning until evening? Moses said to his father-in-law, Because the people come to me to inquire of God. When they have a dispute, it comes to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbor and make known the statutes of God and His laws. Moses father-in-law said to him, The thing that you are doing is not good. You will surely wear out, both yourself and these people who are with you, for the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone. Now listen to me: I will give you counsel, and God be with you. You be the people s representative before God, and you bring the disputes to God, then teach them the statutes and the laws, and make known to them the way in which they are to walk and the work they are to do. Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens. Let them judge the people at all times; and let it be that every major dispute

13 13 they will bring to you, but every minor dispute they themselves will judge. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this thing and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace. So Moses listened to his father-in-law and did all that he had said. Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens. They judged the people at all times; the difficult dispute they would bring to Moses, but every minor dispute they themselves would judge. (NASB)), but God gave His approval of it. Retelling the account of the origin of the various levels of leaders in Israel was necessary so the current generation of Israelites would understand that these men exercised authority under Moses direct orders. In verses Moses repeated the charge that he had given to the original men who had served in this capacity. They were to judge justly, because judgment belongs to God (v. 17). This reminder would have been intended for the current leaders as well as for the people. Both needed to understand the grave responsibility that these men bore, and the importance of submitting to their leadership. INSTRUCTIONS AT KADESH BARNEA Deuteronomy 1:19-25, Then we set out from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, just as the Lord our God had commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea. I said to you, You have come to

14 14 the hill country of the Amorites which the Lord our God is about to give us. See, the Lord your God has placed the land before you; go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. Do not fear or be dismayed. Then all of you approached me and said, Let us send men before us, that they may search out the land for us, and bring back to us word of the way by which we should go up and the cities which we shall enter. The thing pleased me and I took twelve of your men, one man for each tribe. They turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the valley of Eshcol and spied it out. Then they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought us back a report and said, It is a good land, which the Lord our God is about to give us. (NASB) In verses Moses summarized the short journey to the edge of the promised land, and the selection of twelve men to spy out the land. In this brief summary, Moses again related the confidence with which God commanded them to possess the land (verse 21). He also reminded them that the spies had found the land just as God had promised. These events took place at Kadesh Barnea, which coincides with verse 2. DISOBEDIENCE AT KADASH BARNEA Deuteronomy 1:26-33, Yet you were not willing to go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; And you grumbled in your tents and said, Because the Lord hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. Where can we go up? Our brethren have made our hearts

15 15 melt, saying, The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified to heaven. And besides, we saw the sons of the Anakim there. Then I said to you, Do not be shocked, nor fear them. The Lord your God who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, And in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place. But for all this, you did not trust the Lord your God, Who goes before you on your way, to seek out a place for you to encamp, in fire by night and cloud by day, to show you the way in which you should go. (NASB) In verses Moses reminded them of the results of the spies bad report. The people grumbled in their tents (verse 27), and lost their courage (verse 28). He also reminded them that he had urged them not to fear the people of the land, but to obey God s command to go up and possess it. His greatest criticism of them, however, is in verses 32, 33. Moses said the people of that generation did not trust the Lord their God. JUDGMENT AT KADESH BARNEA Deuteronomy 1:34-40, Then the Lord heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and took an oath, saying, Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers, Except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and to his sons I will give the land on which he has set foot, because he has followed the Lord fully. The Lord was angry with me also on your account, saying, Not

16 16 even you shall enter there. Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter there; encourage him, for he will cause Israel to inherit it. Moreover, your little ones who you said would become prey, 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. (NASB) In this section Moses related the judgment that God passed on Israel at that time. God declared that none of that generation would enter the land of Canaan, except Caleb (verse 36) and Joshua (verse 38). He repeated for this generation their ancestors complaint that their wives and children would become prey, but God s declaration that only these (their children) would enter the land (verse 39). Here we find an instance of Moses reporting an event out of chronological order. In verse 37, he alluded to his sin at the waters of Meribah (Numbers 20:9-13, So Moses took the rod from before the Lord, just as He had commanded him; and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock? Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank. But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them. Those were the waters of Meribah, because the sons of Israel contended with the

17 17 Lord, and He proved Himself holy among them. (NASB)) as he spoke of God s judgment against the faithless spies. This event occurred forty years after the bad report of the spies, but Moses included it here because it related to the sins that kept that generation out of the promised land. In verse 40 Moses related God s command for Israel to turn back and return to the wilderness. UNSUCCESSFUL CONQUEST OF CANAAN Deuteronomy 1:41-46, Then you said to me, We have sinned against the Lord; we will indeed go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us. And every man of you girded on his weapons of war, and regarded it as easy to go up into the hill country. And 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 before your enemies. So I spoke to you, but you would not listen. Instead you rebelled against the command of the Lord, and acted presumptuously and went up into the hill country. The Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do, and crushed you from Seir to Hormah. Then you returned and wept before the Lord; but the Lord did not listen to your voice nor give ear to you. So you remained in Kadesh many days, the days that you spent there. (NASB) This part of Moses narrative ends with a recitation of Israel s rebellion and subsequent defeat at the hands of the Amorites. In verse 41, after hearing God s judgment against them, the Israelites tried to enter the promised land anyway. God instructed Moses to warn them not to attempt the conquest

18 18 because He would not be with them (verses 42, 43), but they ignored this warning. In verse 44 Moses told of their crushing defeat and the mourning which ensued. Verse 46 tells us that Israel was at Kadesh Barnea where they remained encamped for a while.

19 19 Questions on Deuteronomy 1: How many days journey is it from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea? (1:2) 2. Where was Israel when Moses spoke the words recorded in the book of Deuteronomy? (1:5) 3. What did Moses command Israel to do in order to ease the burden of leadership? (1:13) 4. What instructions did Moses give to these appointed leaders? (1:16-17)

20 What did the Israelites want to do before entering the Promised Land? (1:19-23) 6. How did Israel rebel against God after hearing the report of the spies? (1:26-28) 7. What evidence did Moses present to try to persuade Israel to go up into the land? (1:29-31) 8. What was God s reaction to Israel s refusal to enter the land? (1:34-36)

21 Who were the only Israelites of that generation to enter the Promised Land? (1:36-38) 10. How did Israel sin after God commanded them to go back into the wilderness? (1:41-43) 11. What was the result of Israel s sin? (1:44)