The Command to Leave Horeb
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. It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea. 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, 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.
It should be noted that they above passage is a continuation of the end of the book of Numbers. Note:
Numbers 36:13 (ESV)
These are the commandments and the rules that the LORD commanded through Moses to the people of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
God’s Word is not written in a vacuum. It always carries context of place and time. We fail to really appreciate the Word if we don’t understand the time it is speaking about, the people it is speaking too and the place it was written and/or addresses. The above passage gives us a great example of that thought. The book of Deuteronomy opens in a way that ties it to the previous book of Numbers. It will end with way to connect it to the next book, Joshua. God’s Word is a story unfolding for us to understand His character, His ways and His plan.
In these opening verses of Deteronomy we read about the place and time this book is written and addressing. Israel, because of their disobedience was disciplined. That discipline would be wandering in the wilderness between Egypt and their Promised Land for 40 years. It was in the Sinai peninsula. This is the part that is hard to imagine. Moses, the author of the book, tells us that if they were to walk directly from land of the Jordan River to this Promised Land it would be an eleven day journey. Remember, this is a huge group of people; over a million. They had to take down tents, the Tabernacle, and gather all the flocks and children each time they moved from one place to another. But to say they wandered might be a word we don’t fully understand. They wandered because God would not let them experience what they could, at times, actually see. Their disobedience made them stuck in a place that must have become all too familiar. Young children must have said to their parents at one time or another, “Mom, Dad, didn’t we just go past this pile of rocks last week?” The amount of land they traveled in would be about the size of West Virginia (about 60,000 square kilometers). The point of the introduction of this book is to realize where they were, where they are going, and why it has taking so long. Their wandering was due to their disobedience and looks ridiculous from the outside. It should look dumbfounding. Imagine the surrounding nations watch them go back and forth, up and down in the same land for 40 years. They were right there and could not enter THE LAND. Disobedience to God looks so foolish from the outside. People wander in this world and don’t see the blessings God has for them if they only responded by faith to His Son and the salvation He offers by grace. And 11 day journey took them 40 years because of disobedience. Wow!!
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