The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Remember” it comes from the Hebrew Word “zakar” which means “to remember, to call to mind.”
On the edge of the promised land, an old leader begins one final, long address to a new generation. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is Deuteronomy 1.
On the plains of Moab, forty years after leaving Egypt, Moses begins declaring “all that the LORD had commanded him” to this new generation of Israel. He reminds them that God originally told their parents to leave Horeb and go possess the land, and recalls appointing capable leaders over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens to help judge the people fairly, “for the judgment is God’s.”
Moses recounts sending twelve spies into Canaan, and how ten of them discouraged the people despite the land being genuinely good, causing the whole congregation to rebel against God’s clear command to go up and possess it. He reminds them of God’s anger at that unbelief, and His declaration that none of that generation, except Caleb and Joshua, would see the good land promised to their fathers.
Moses recalls his own exclusion from the land because of the people’s complaints, and how, despite God’s judgment, the people tried to enter the land anyway the next day without His blessing, only to be defeated decisively by the Amorites. He reminds them how they wept before the Lord afterward, though God would not listen, and how they remained at Kadesh for a long time as a result of their unbelief.
Moses opens his final address not with new instructions, but with an honest, unflinching retelling of the previous generation’s failure. Before moving forward into anything new, he made sure this generation understood exactly what had gone wrong before, so the same mistake would not simply repeat itself.
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