Deuteronomy 1:44
And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah. And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah.
The verse records what happened after Israel first refused God's command to enter the land and then tried to enter on their own without His presence and protection, when the Amorites came out against them and chased them to destruction with swarming persistence. The attack began with the Amorites who dwelt in the mountain coming out, and ended with Israel driven back in Seir as far as Hormah. There Israel's numerical strength could not overcome enemies who were fresh and held the high ground. The rout left thousands slain because Israel went in direct opposition to God's command without Moses the appointed leader, without the cloudy pillar that signifies the divine presence and leading of the Son of God, and without the ark. That absence reverses what happens when Moses is present to strengthen hearts with hope and faith, when the divine leader goes before them, and when the sacred ark accompanies the host.
The verse helps explain why the adult generation of the army that left Egypt was not brought into the promised land: they had disobeyed and had not wholly followed the Lord. God's promises are upon condition of obedience, so disobedience forfeits the promised blessing. The defeat, together with God's refusal to heed Israel's cries afterward, shows that presuming on divine mercy while rejecting clear commands brings retributive justice. Divine mercy and forbearance have a limit, and even professed people are not protected when they refuse warnings.
By contrast the verse teaches that God will work just as powerfully for all who trust Him and obey His requirements. Everyone seeking to follow duty will be assailed by doubt and unbelief and seemingly insurmountable obstacles, but must go forward and do duty at any cost in humble trust in God. Then the dreaded difficulties will vanish in the path of obedience.
The chapter around the verse recounts the consequences of refusing God's direction and relying on human judgment, and it is to be read with the following chapters on the same theme as warning and instruction for those living at the end of the world. Applied to the end time, the verse warns against following the Lord's guidance only up to the point that agrees with human judgment and then holding to one's own ideas and refusing to be molded into divine likeness. Instead one should ask in everything whether it is the Lord's will, view everything in light of the example of Christ who is the truth, copy His self-denial and self-sacrifice, and look to His merits for character reflecting His glory. Human standards are weak and unreliable like feeble reeds, while the Lord's standard is perfection of character.