Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see the good land ,.... The land of Canaan; not only not one of the spies that brought the ill report of that land, but of that body of people that gave credit to it, and murmured upon it: which I sware to give unto your fathers ; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; see Deuteronomy 1:8 . read more
Irrecoverableness of wasted opportunity. I. THE CULMINATION OF OPPORTUNITY OFTEN FINDS A MAN UNPREPARED TO OCCUPY IT . The point of time referred to here was the supreme moment in Israel's history. They had relinquished Egypt, endured privation, performed a toilsome journey, for one object, viz. to possess Canaan; yet, when they touched the threshold of the inheritance, they failed to rise to the conception of their privilege. They hesitated, dawdled, feared—and... read more
Moses endeavored to rouse the drooping courage of the people, and persuade them to go up by reminding them that God, who was with them, would go before them, and fight for them as he had often done before; but without success, so that God was angry with them, and forbade their entrance into Canaan. This is not mentioned in Numbers, probably because Moses' appeal was unsuccessful. The whole of that generation was bound to fall in the wilderness, except Caleb and Joshua; only their children... read more
The grievous consequences of unbelief. Moses rehearses in the hearing of Israel the strange story of "their manners in the wilderness," and reminds them how their unbelief had provoked the Lord to anger, and had deprived vast numbers of them of the rest they had hoped to enjoy. We ought to be at no loss how to apply this to present day uses. The Holy Ghost, by the mouth of David, renews the warning voice. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, both by argument and exhortation,... read more
The excluded and the admitted. I. THE EXCLUDED . 1. That whole unbelieving generation , with two excerptions ( Deuteronomy 1:35 ). Note: 2. The holy Moses ( Deuteronomy 1:37 ; cf. on Deuteronomy 3:26 ; Deuteronomy 4:21 ; Deuteronomy 34:4 ). The exclusion of Moses will be more fully considered afterwards, but we learn from it here that God's apparent severity is often greatest to his own people ( Amos 3:2 ), and that the share which others have had in leading... read more
The heirs of promise. We have in this passage the result of unbelief. The dread of the people was lest their little ones should become a prey to their gigantic foes in Canaan. The Lord now declares that these little ones shall be the possessors of the land, while they themselves shall be denied an entrance, since they refused it when offered to them. The only exceptions are to be Joshua and Caleb, who made the good report and gave the good counsel. Even Moses is included in the doom of... read more
They were all, the whole generation of them, evil, and therefore not a man of them should see the good land which God had promised to their fathers, with the exception of Caleb, who had wholly followed the Lord—had remained steadfast and faithful whilst the others fell away. Joshua also was exempted from this doom; but before mentioning him, Moses refers to himself as having also come under the Divine displeasure. read more
1:1-4:43 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTIONIn style similar to that of ancient treaty documents, Deuteronomy opens by recounting all that Yahweh, Israel’s covenant God, has done for his people. It reminds them of his gracious acts on their behalf and calls from them a fitting response of covenant loyalty. The section summarizes events recorded in greater detail in Numbers 10:11-32:42.From Sinai to Kadesh (1:1-46)It was only eleven days’ journey from Mount Sinai to Kadesh-barnea, and about the same from... read more
II. MOSES’ FIRST MAJOR ADDRESS: A REVIEW OF GOD’S FAITHFULNESS 1:6-4:40". . . an explicit literary structure to the book is expressed in the sermons or speeches of Moses; a substructure is discernible in the covenantal character of the book; and a theological structure is revealed in its theme of the exclusive worship of the Lord as found in the Ten Commandments, particularly in the First Commandment and its positive expression in the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)." [Note: Patrick D. Miller,... read more
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Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Deuteronomy 1:19-46
Moses here makes a large rehearsal of the fatal turn which was given to their affairs by their own sins, and God's wrath, when, from the very borders of Canaan, the honour of conquering it, and the pleasure of possessing it, the whole generation was hurried back into the wilderness, and their carcases fell there. It was a memorable story; we read it Num. 13:1-14:45; but divers circumstances are found here which are not related there. I. He reminds them of their march from Horeb to... read more