Deuteronomy 1:6-8
What We May Not Know
Have you ever heard the saying, "What you don’t know won’t hurt you?"
I can’t say there is no truth in it, but I can say that when it comes
to government and God, it definitely is not true. Neither government
nor God will give you a pardon for ignorance. The Jew found that out
during the Exodus.
Deut 1:6 The LORD our God spake unto us in
Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this
mount:
7 Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the
mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places
nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and
in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea
side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto
Lebanon, unto the great river, the river
Euphrates.
8 Behold, I have set the land before you: go
in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto
your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give
unto them and to their seed after them.
The children of Israel arrived at Mount Sinai a little over 2 months
after they had left Egypt \\#Ex 19:1\\. They stayed there just a few
days short of a year \\#Num 10:11-12\\. The command to leave Sinai
was actually given in \\#Exodus 33:1\\, but the remainder of the
Exodus is devoted to giving details of the Law and the building of
Tabernacle so that Exodus never recorded the Jews departure from
there. The book of Leviticus picked up with more of the same. It is
not until \\#Numbers 10:11\\ that the Jews actually packed up and
left.
Deuteronomy is a summary of the journey of Israel. The verses we are
looking at picked up with the command to leave Mount Sinai.
Let's notice first what God said, then what Moses said.
I. What God Said
A. \\#6-9\\ God said, "Get off this mountain."
1. The children of Israel had spent almost a full year on
this mountain.
2. Compared to what they had been through, this mountain-top
experience must have seemed like a vacation.
a. In Egypt, they had been oppressed for hundreds of
years, pushed down the ranks from the comfortable
life they had when Joseph was 2nd only to Pharaoh to
the lowest spot on the totem pole, slaves.
b. But they were pushed even lower in that they were
treated like enemy slaves, being forced to make
brick, beaten when they did not achieve their
quotas, and even forced to slay their own male
children so their population would not become too
large.
c. They cried out to God for deliverance, but when God
answered their prayer and sent Moses, things did not
get better but got worse.
(1) After Moses spoke to Pharaoh, obeying God’s
command to him, Pharaoh took the straw
necessary to make the bricks away.
(2) Their quota was the same, but now the Jews also
had to find and scrape together uncultivated,
discarded, and trash straw with which to make
the bricks.
(3) And if they did not meet their quotas, which was
impossible, they were beaten.
d. Of course, God stepped up to the plate.
(1) He sent 10 plagues upon Egypt, but during some of
first plagues, the Jews also seemed to suffer.
(2) It is not until \\#Ex 8:22\\, the fourth plague
flies), that the Bible specifically tells us that
God put a separation between Israel and Egypt.
(3) If that is the case, the Jews also suffered from
the water being turned to blood, the frogs, and
the lice.
(4) But even after that, it was not a pleasant
journey.
(5) I’m sure there was much tension and fear.
(a) The Egyptians feared the Jews and their God.
(b) Pharaoh despised the Jews and their God.
(c) Then there was that Death Angel business.
e. Then, at last, they left.
(1) That must have been a relief.
(2) They even got to "borrow" whatever they wanted
from the Egyptians before they left.
(3) I’m sure the people would have stayed happy all
the way to Mount Sinai, had Pharaoh not
followed them.
(4) Then came the Red Sea where it looked like they
were going to be slaughtered by the Egyptian
army.
(5) Of course God steps up again, but you have to
admit, most people—even Moses—were a bit
confused about how they were going to get out
of that.
3. I say all of that to say, being on Mount Sinai must have
seemed a little like heaven.
a. For the first time in their lives and in almost 400
years, they were not slaves.
b. Not one military force came against them at Mount
Sinai.
c. There is no record of them being hungry or thirsty
while there.
d. They had no farm or fields so there was a lot more
rest at Sinai than they had ever known.
e. And God kept showing up. You could see His presence
on the top of the mountain.
B. God said, "Go into the land."
1. But then, in \\#Deut 1:6\\, God says it is time to go.
2. \\#Deut 1:7\\ And God made no pretense about where they
were going.
a. The mount of the Amorites—who were not going to take
Israel’s coming very well.
b. To the land of the Canaanites—whose land the Jews were
going to take.
c. Even up into Lebanon and to the River Euphrates—some
of which the Jews never did get to claim because they
rebelled against God’s commands and started
compromising with the enemy.
d. Even so, God was giving the people the command, "You
must leave this mountain of comfort, of feast, of
fellowship with God, and go back down into the plains
where there is danger, hardships, and war.
e. Not a very happy prospect, is it?
3. Question: Why would God command these people to go into
that kind of fight?
a. I do not know for certain. God’s ways are much higher
than ours.
b. I do have some guesses. I have some guesses because I
believe they are pretty much the same reasons God
commands us to go into some battles.
(1) God wants us to marvel at the One we’ve met.
(a) God wants us to see Him in action and stand
in awe and wonder.
(b) God does not need praise, but after an
infinite past of no one ever being there to
see and marvel at Him, God decided to
create someone who could.
(c) So He created us.
(2) God wants us to use the truths we have learned.
(a) It is not just about Him. It’s about us
too.
(b) God reveals things to us about faith and
obedience, then He wants us to use them.
(c) The best time to use faith and obedience is
when problems come so God let’s some
problems come.
(3) God want to give us rewards for the things we
will do.
(a) As much as God has given to His people, God
wants to give us more and better, so God
rewards us, both on earth and in heaven,
when we obey Him.
(b) These Jews were being offered land on earth,
but God had more and better things to give
them.
4. But the people refused to go into the Promised Land when
they got there.
a. Not right away.
b. First, they travelled to the entrance to the Promised
Land.
c. The journey from Mount Sinai to the Promised Land was
around 200 miles.
d. On foot, that would be about 3 weeks of traveling.
https://www.quora.com/How-long-did-it-take-the-Israelites-to-get
from-Mt-Sinai-to-the-Promise-Land
e. Then there was 40 days that the spies were in the
land.
f. But just 60 or so days after leaving Mount Sinai, the
rebel against God.
Deut 1:26 Notwithstanding ye would not go up,
but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD
your God:
27 And ye murmured in your tents, and said,
Because the LORD hated us, he hath brought us
forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us
into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.
28 Whither shall we go up? our brethren have
discouraged our heart, saying, The people is
greater and taller than we; the cities are great
and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have
seen the sons of the Anakims there.
5. And they did not just want to go back to Mount Sinai.
a. They wanted to go all the way back to Egypt!
b. Now, what kind of welcome do you suppose they were
going to get if they did that?
c. It had only been maybe 14 to 15 months since the
entire Egyptian army was drowned in the Red Sea.
d. I don’t know but I’m thinking Pharaoh might be the
kind of guy would hold a grudge.
C. \\#34-35\\ God said, "You will never go in."
Deut 1:34 And the LORD heard the voice of your
words, and was wroth, and sware, saying,
35 Surely there shall not one of these men of
this evil generation see that good land, which I
sware to give unto your fathers,
1. Their rebellion cost them 40 more years of wilderness
living and the deaths of that entire generation.
2. That was a steep price, especially when you find out what
they either did not know, forgot, or refused to believe.
II. \\#30-33\\ What Moses Said
A. Moses was speaking for God, relating what God had told them
then and what he had learned since.
B. Moses revealed three truths to the Jews did not know, did not
remember, or did not believe.
1. \\#30\\ The Lord was going before them.
Deut 1:30 The LORD your God which goeth before
you….
a. It should never be a surprise to one that knows God to
find out that He has gone before you.
b. If God is a God who is everywhere, then there is no
place we can go that He is not already at.
c. Obviously, an Omni-present God is all ready
everywhere.
d. However, Moses was not speaking just of God’s
omnipresence.
Deut 1:33 Who went in the way before you, to
search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in
fire by night, to shew you by what way ye should
go, and in a cloud by day.
e. God had gone before them to select the route they
would follow, including the places where they would
sleep at night.
f. Every detail of their journey had been laid out by the
mind and heart of God so that nothing could possibly
happen to them that was beyond God’s control.
g. Note: Sometimes in the Bible, God humanizes Himself to
make it easier for us to identify with Him.
(1) I don’t know for certain, but I believe it is
possible that God is applying physical
characteristics to Himself whenever He speaks of
His face \\#Lev 20:6\\, His hands \\#Ex 7:5\\,
His eyes \\#Psalm 34:15\\ and so forth.
(2) The Bible says that God is a Spirit. I am not
certain that a spirit would have a face, eyes,
and hands.
(3) I think God is doing something like that in this
text.
(4) God does not have to walk a road to know what is
on it. He is God.
(5) As far as I know, God does not have to sit down
and think through every possible scenario to know
what is the best path to take. He is God.
(6) God paints this kind of a picture to the Jews to
show them how impossible it would have been for
them to have been defeated or even afflicted if
they had just crossed into the Promised Land
when they first arrived there.
h. However since God uses that image, I will stick with
it in thinking about our lives.
(1) Do we not know that God has gone down every road
that we could ever travel and has selected the
one that will be the best for us and bring Him
the most glory?
(2) Do we not know that He has even picked out the
places we will sleep at night?
(3) God has secured us both by day and night so that
nothing happens to us that He does not allow!
(4) God has gone before us!
(5) Let us not linger at the boundary! Let us not
look at the size of the enemy. Let there be no
talk of quitting or returning.
(6) God has gone before us!
2. God would fight for them.
Deut 1:30 The LORD your God which goeth before
you, he shall fight for you….
a. Taking the land was never the duty of the Jews.
(1) It was God’s duty.
(2) All the Jews had to do was to claim it.
(3) God was going to defeat the enemy FOR them.
b. Somebody might ask, "How do you know?" Answer: Because
that is exactly what He did when 40 years later!
(1) Yes, I know the Jews showed up on the
battlefields and that a few of them even died,
but God was there to do the fighting.
(2) You can see Him when He caused the walls of
Jericho to fall, when He held the sun in sky at
Gilgal, and as region after region fell before
the mighty moving of God.
c. Someone else might ask, "How were the Jews suppose to
know that?" Answer: By believing what God said and
trusting Him.
d. This truth applies to us as well!
(1) God never allowed an enemy into our lives that He
intended us to defeat.
(2) Listen:
(a) God knows the dirt of which He made us.
(b) He knows how weak and useless it is.
(c) He never intended us to do more than just
believe and do what He said.
e. Maybe they did not know. Maybe they did not remember.
Maybe they did not think. Maybe they did not
believe, but God would fight for them.
3. God was carrying them all along.
Deut 1:31 And in the wilderness, where thou hast
seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee, as a
man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye
went, until ye came into this place.
a. When you and I are in the will of the Father, we are
always in His arms!
b. Who can hurt us? Who can stop us? And if someone
does hurt us, does it not mean that this is what God
wanted for us? that somehow it was an opportunity to
be more for God or to know Him better?
c. Those that are in His arms are in the safest place
they can be!
In closing, notice that Moses three statements tell us something
else about God and Israel
1. The fact that He went before them told them He was always
guiding Israel.
2. The fact that He fought for them told them He was always
protecting Israel.
3. The fact that He carried them told them that He cared for and
was concerned for Israel, but I’m going to use a different
word. It told them that He loved Israel.
So God was guiding, protecting, and loving Israel. Did they not know
that? Did they know it and forget? Did they remember it and just
chose to rebel.
I don’t know but the real question is, "What about us?" Will we
believe these things? Will we remember them? Will we act accordingly?
It matters not what we think or say. The proof will always be in our
faith and obedience.
<OutlineIndex>
<Close Window>
