Deuteronomy: At Journey's EndSample

Lessons to be learned

In the course of the forty years that began at 2:1, crowds of people were caught up in the consequences of the sin of disobedience for which they could not be blamed – they had to wait for every one of that ‘evil generation’ to die (1:35) before they could enter the land (1:39). They would have been very different from us if they had never thought, ‘What have we done to deserve this – the inhospitable desert year after year!’ People often say that the Bible does not explain suffering, but that is not so; it offers many explanations – only they are not the sort of ‘explanation’ we think we need! Would Israel have learned in any other way the lesson of steady obedience? 

The command (2:4) was obeyed (v. 8); command and obedience went together (v. 13). When the Lord said, ‘Do not provoke’ (v. 5; cf. v. 9), they did not provoke. When he said, ‘cross’ (v. 13), they crossed over. Was there any other way they could have learned so vividly and effectively the loving, daily care of their God (v. 7; cf. 8:2–4)? They learned to live within the sovereign plan of God – indeed, if they did not know it already, they learned that he is sovereign over all the nations of the world. 

Notice the repeated ‘not give … have given …’ (vv. 5, 9, 19) and finally, the decisive ‘have given’ in relation to the dreaded king Sihon (v. 24). The Lord is a sovereign God indeed who does what he pleases in heaven and earth (Ps. 135:6). They learned that he is to be trusted when he says, ‘Do not’ (Deut. 1:5, 9); he is to be trusted for daily needs (v. 7); and he is to be trusted for the future – the Anakim were a danger lying ahead (1:28) which would have to be faced, but history showed that even such people were vulnerable under the hand of the Lord (2:10–12, 20). 

Hebrews 5:8 says of the Lord Jesus that he ‘learned obedience from what he suffered’. So did Israel in the forty years of wilderness discipline – lessons which, very likely, could not have been so well learned in any other way. In the hand of God everything has its time and purpose.

Reflection

Think about 2 Corinthians 4:17–18. The NKJV has the correct translation of verse 18: ‘while we do not look at … but at …’