Deuteronomy 1:34-46--The Penalty for Israel's Rebellion

Deuteronomy 1:34-46
English Standard Version

The Penalty for Israel's Rebellion
34 “And the LORD heard your words and was angered, and he swore, 35 ‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, 36 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the LORD!’ 37 Even with me the LORD was angry on your account and said, ‘You also shall not go in there. 38 Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. 39 And as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. 40 But as for you, turn, and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.’
​
41 “Then you answered me, ‘We have sinned against the LORD. We ourselves will go up and fight, just as the LORD our God commanded us.’ And every one of you fastened on his weapons of war and thought it easy to go up into the hill country. 42 And the LORD said to me, ‘Say to them, Do not go up or fight, for I am not in your midst, lest you be defeated before your enemies.’ 43 So I spoke to you, and you would not listen; but you rebelled against the command of the LORD and presumptuously went up into the hill country. 44 Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do and beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah. 45 And you returned and wept before the LORD, but the LORD did not listen to your voice or give ear to you. 46 So you remained at Kadesh many days, the days that you remained there.

---

I talked about some of this in yesterday's blog because it's hard to talk about the rebellion without talking about the consequences of that rebellion.  Immediately upon the people's rebellion when they listened to the majority report of the spies that were sent into the Promised Land instead of listening to the minority report from Joshua and Caleb, the LORD became angry and cursed the people because they refused to go up and take the land which he had promised to them and to their forefathers--Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  The also attempted to stone Moses, Joshua and Caleb and to choose new leaders for themselves that would go where they wanted to go (back to Egypt, even if that meant a return to slavery) because they thought they would rather be alive and enslaved than to be free men who were dead (they did not believe the LORD would protect them or fight their battles for them, even though He had done so ever step of the way so far).  As a result, that entire generation--everyone counted in the first census in the Book of Numbers--was sentenced to die in the wilderness.

But they still rebelled and all of them did the exact opposite of what the LORD told them to do.  When He told them to go up and take the Land, they refused to go.  When He told them to turn around because they would never enter the Land, they strapped on their weapons to try and take it by their own power.  The LORD told the people through Moses not do try to fight the enemy alone, because they would definitely be defeated, but the people didn't listen, so the LORD gave victory to the Amorites that day in order to keep that generation of people out of the Land, and they were driven all the way back to Edom or at least to the border with Edom as the other town mentioned seems to be a border town.

The people tried their same old song and dance of "We have sinned!" and "Moses, please pray for us!" hoping that that LORD would simply rebuke them and required them to make sacrifices and then go on their merry way, but that wasn't what happened.  The LORD did not change His mind.  They had crossed the line and even though Moses wanted them to be forgiven, God knew their hearts and knew that they were not ready to enter the Land.  If they did at this time, they would not be the people that He called them to be and they would refuse to follow His leadership from the priests and the other leaders that the LORD would put in place.  The people would eventually do this anyways, but God desired to use this as a visual lesson to them and us that not everyone who claims to have had a "salvation experience" (not even everyone who was baptized) has really been changed on the inside and been "born again" as Jesus would tell Nicodemus in John 3.   As Jesus would say in Matthew 7:21-23,


Matthew 7:21-23
English Standard Version

I Never Knew You
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’


We see this being played out here.  This is a picture of people who think they are saved, but they will not be allowed to enter the Promised Land that is a picture of the coming kingdom (though the actual coming kingdom will be even better because there will be no more enemies to fight, because Jesus will destroy all the enemies of God when He comes to establish His kingdom).  There are other passages that also make this connection for us such as Hebrews 3:7-4:13, Jude 5 and various references in 1 Peter and 2 Peter which urge the church to not turn away to a life of lawlessness that is in opposition to the rebellion of the authority of God, for that is what was going on here with these people.  We cannot simply call Him Lord with our mouths and not also do so with our lives.

We'll pick up next time with the people being turned back by the LORD to wander in the wilderness for 40 years.  Like the book of Numbers, we're going to have sections of history intermixed with sections of Law (and sometimes the two aren't separable because parts of the Law are to help the people remember their history and their redemption).  This is one of the books that we are commanded to meditate on and it is this book that Jesus went to in order to combat Satan's temptations.  This book was the one that sparked many revivals in the nation of Israel, and I believe that it can once again spark revival in our hearts and in our nation today if we too would let it examine us and reveal to us how we are a people not that different from the nation of Israel here and we too need to repent and follow the LORD with our whole hearts having a change in our nature and identity.