Deuteronomy 1:19-33--Israel's Refusal to Enter the Land

Deuteronomy 1:19-33
English Standard Version

Israel's Refusal to Enter the Land
19 “Then we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and terrifying wilderness that you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us. And we came to Kadesh-barnea. 20 And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is giving us. 21 See, the LORD your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not fear or be dismayed.’ 22 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.’ 23 The thing seemed good to me, and I took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe. 24 And they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. 25 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.’

26 “Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. 27 And you murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the LORD hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28 Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.”’ 29 Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. 30 The LORD your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31 and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ 32 Yet in spite of this word you did not believe the LORD your God, 33 who went before you in the way to seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go.

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Moses is retelling their history here how the people set out from Horeb (probably Mount Sinai) on their way to the Promised Land by way of Kadesh-barnea (we've skipped all the way to where the spies are being sent out in the story).  It seemed good to Moses and the people to send out spies from each of the twelve tribes to decide what was the best way to conquer the Land (but they did not need to do this since the LORD had always led them and told them exactly where to go and when and who to fight and fought their battles for them).  It seemed like they had some idea that the LORD was going to stay in the wilderness once they entered the Promised Land and somehow it was now up to them to figure everything out on their own.

Once they saw the cities and the giant people there they were afraid, and even though the land was "flowing with milk and honey" like they were told, they saw themselves in comparison to the people that lived in the land and they felt like grasshoppers.  But Joshua and Caleb had a different perspective seeing that these Canaanites and there fortifications were nothing when compared to the LORD who was with them and had commanded them to go and take the land that had been not just promised but covenanted to them.

The bad report from the ten spies stirred up a great rebellion among the people that caused the people to try to kill Moses and chose a leader for themselves that would take them back to Egypt.  The LORD said that entire generation (save Joshua and Caleb) would die in the wilderness and all ten of the spies with the bad report died of a plague that day.  The people then tried to go up and take the land anyways on their own after the LORD told them not to (again, they were just being rebellious, they were not really repentant) and they were soundly defeated.  So they turned back towards the Red Sea and they wandered in the wilderness for forty years until all of that generation died off.

Now they have once again come back to the borders of the Promised Land and are within eyesight of what the LORD had commanded them to take possession of by faith.  This new generation must choose to be obedient where their parents chose to be rebellious.  They must choose to go where the LORD leads instead of trying to make their own way, and they must choose to be careful to obey everything the LORD commands of them so that none of the plagues that fell on the Egyptians or their parents fall on them and that the LORD is able to continue to live among them and lead them--lest His presence consume them in His holy judgment.

In spite of everything the LORD continued to lead His people day and night with the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire and to protect them and fight their battles for them and He fed them with manna from heaven during the entire forty years.  Even in judgment the LORD provided for His people and He will continue to do so until they enter the Promised Land and are able to reap a harvest to feed themselves from fields that they did not plant.