Deuteronomy 1:31, commentary and pictures

The Lord carried and sustained Israel through the wilderness toward Canaan the way a father carries his son, guiding them safely to where they stood and fighting for them. That fatherly bearing shows him to be a loving and compassionate father rather than a stern relentless judge, pardoning transgression and holding to his promises even when his people broke their pledge. Having been so led and upheld, their fear and refusal to enter the promised land was a guilty failure to trust what they had seen, so the obedient condition of the promise left the adult generation that left Egypt shut out. The long delay was not his fault, for he grieved more than they did that unbelief and rebellion left them unfit to display his power before the nations and dishonored him in their sight. Recounting that deliverance and unfailing mercy is meant to convict of weakness, strengthen courage and faith, teach full obedience to his voice, and assure that he still carries his people toward recovery when hope seems gone.

God's Fatherly Wilderness Care

The Lord bore Israel in the wilderness as a man bears his son, carrying and caring for them, guiding and sustaining them through all the way they went toward Canaan. That bearing brought them safely to the place where they stood, with the Lord going before them and fighting for them. It is one of the lessons given through Moses to strengthen faith, rehearsed in the account of failures and victories through the forty years of wandering.

The fatherly carrying shows He is not a stern, relentless judge but a loving, compassionate father who with pitying tenderness seeks to awaken in His erring children true sorrow for sin and heartfelt repentance. In their past journeyings He showed that love by pardoning their transgressions and still retaining them as His people, remaining faithful to His promises when they broke their pledge and transgressed His holy requirements. The bearing described in verses 31-33 was the work of Christ as the divine leader and teacher who guided Israel for forty years, teaching through the pillar of cloud.

Israel's Distrust and Exclusion

God's promises to Israel were conditional on obedience, and this explains why the adult generation of the army that left Egypt was refused entry into the promised land. The adults were shut out because they did not obey and wholly follow the Lord, so what He had purposed to do for them was altered. Having been so carried and cared for through the wilderness as a father cares for his son, guided and sustained throughout the journey and brought safely to the place where they stood with the Lord leading before them, Israel's fear and refusal to enter the promised land was a culpable failure to trust His promise despite what they had witnessed.

When the conquest of Gilead and Bashan recalled what happened at Kadesh nearly forty years before, it proved the spies' report was in many respects correct that the cities were walled and very great and inhabited by giants beside whom the Hebrews were mere pigmies, yet the fatal mistake that doomed Israel to the long desert wandering and alone prevented at-once entrance into the goodly land was distrust of God's power. The long wandering and delay in possessing Canaan was not God's fault nor chargeable to Him, for He was more grieved than Israel that He could not bring them into immediate possession, because He desired to settle them there and thus display His mighty power in their deliverance before all nations. Their distrust and unbelief, impatience, rebellion, pride, and lack of purity, goodness, and benevolence left them unprepared to enter, because they did not represent a people whose God is the Lord and did not bear His character.

Had their fathers yielded in faith to God's direction, been governed by His judgments, and walked in His ordinances, they would long before have been settled in Canaan as a prosperous, holy, happy people. Their delay in entering the goodly land dishonored God and detracted from His glory in the sight of surrounding nations, yet when they truly repent He will pardon their sins.

Admonition and Strength for Later

Moses rehearsed before Israel how the Lord delivered them from Egypt and preserved them wonderfully in the wilderness, not hiding their unbelief and murmuring when brought into trial, nor the great mercy and loving-kindness that never forsook them. That recounting was meant to stimulate faith and strengthen courage. Heard aright, it leads later hearers to realize their own sin and weakness and to realize that God is their righteousness and strength.

The history given in Deuteronomy, with its failures and victories through the forty years of wandering, is to be kept before attention and rehearsed over and over to strengthen faith. Every new move is to be a carrying out of the principles given then. This was especially urgent as read just before Israel came into possession of Jericho. The words of the Lord in Deuteronomy 1 belong with the whole chapter and with Deuteronomy 7 and 8, written for admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come.

So read, what God did in bearing Israel through the wilderness teaches giving up human judgment, human ideas, and self-pleasing in order to learn the word of the Lord and to appreciate and obey His voice fully. It calls for following His guidance and being molded after Christ's similitude in self-denial and self-sacrifice unto perfection of character. The same divine Teacher who guided Israel for forty years and taught through the pillar of cloud later came to the world in human form with the same truths, yet the people He had led and taught in the wilderness did not recognize Him. The Lord still mercifully carries His people in His arms, so that when a life has been heedlessly jeopardized and all hope seems gone, He joins faithful watching, working, and prayer to save the dying and carry them again toward recovery.