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Deuteronomy 1 (ESV)
1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, 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 people of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment 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 in Edrei. 5 Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying, 6 “The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7 Turn and take 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 the lowland and in the Negeb and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. 8 See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.’
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.”’
REFLECTION:
Moses began his plains-of-Moab sermon by going over what the people had been through during their wilderness wanderings. It wasn’t their enemies, and it wasn’t the forbidding terrain that stretched eleven days of travel into almost forty years of wandering. It was because they complained against God in their tents (v27).
God had promised the people that he would take care of them and bring them into the Promised Land. However, faced with visible threats, they immediately lost faith and turned against God.
What about me? Is my life today also full of obstacles to faith? Does it often seem as if God isn’t taking good care of me or is in control of my life? Do I hide myself in tent under dismal conditions, even desperate conditions and grumbled against the Lord?
My Choice: Do I hide in the tent and find something to gripe about – the way the wilderness generation did? Or do I find something to be grateful for, giving thanks in all things, the way Paul did (Phil 2:14-15, 1 The 5:18, 21)?
PRAYER:
Think about my choice, tell God about the obstacles of my faith. Ask for strengthened faith in facing the challenges and difficulties in life.
