Feb 15

The Journey's End. Moses knows he will die soon and wants to review the journey with those who will soon enter the Promised Land. For someone who complained that he could not speak well, he certainly now has a lot to say!

Wandering in the desert was a punishment. But there were beautiful lessons in it. The Lord carried them like a father:

"In the desert, where you saw him carrying you along like a man carries his son. This he did everywhere you went until you came to this very place.” Deut 1:31

He provided for their every need. They lacked nothing.

The LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast desert. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything. Deut 2:7

God provided for them to pass through territory peacefully....

Do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put your foot on. I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his own. You are to pay them in silver for the food you eat and the water you drink.'" Deut 2:5-6

If they were not allowed to pass through peacefully, God gave them victory over them even if they were giants!

At that time we took all his cities. There was not one of the sixty cities that we did not take from them--the whole region of Argob, Og's kingdom in Bashan. Deut 3:4  (Only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaites. His bed was made of iron and was more than thirteen feet long and six feet wide. It is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.) Deut 3:11 ("Rephaim" can describe an ancient "race" of giants in Iron Age Israel, or the places where these individuals were thought to have lived. Wiki)

Now Moses encourages the people that this same God will be with them as they take over the Promised Land:

"You have seen with your own eyes all that the LORD your God has done to these two kings. The LORD will do the same to all the kingdoms over there where you are going. Do not be afraid of them; the LORD your God himself will fight for you." Deut 3:21-22

All these amazing things happened to them for a reason and we can be encouraged by their story because the same God loves and seeks us!

You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other. Deut 4:35