Deuteronomy 1:8, commentary and pictures

The command was given at Horeb as God's direction to leave the mountain and go toward Canaan to take possession. It was addressed to Israel encamped east of the Jordan after years in the wilderness, called to enter and take the promised land. It belongs to the history Moses was instructed to repeat to Israel, recounting their failures and victories as the lessons God gave during forty years of wandering, and it stands in the account just before entering and taking possession of Jericho. God Himself set the land before them and commanded them to go in and possess it as the inheritance He had sworn by oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give to them and to their seed and descendants after them.

Entering and possessing depended on obedience to God's law as taught before receiving the inheritance, meaning wholly following Him. Because they broke that condition, God refused to bring in the adult army that left Egypt. The men from twenty years old and upward discouraged hearts, refused to go over, and did not wholly follow Him, so He altered His purpose toward them and kindled His anger against them. He made them wander in the wilderness forty years until that evil generation was consumed, and brought in only Caleb and Joshua who wholly followed Him, and afterward their children.

Deuteronomy 1, and with it chapter 8, is to be read in full as the word of the Lord, written for the admonition of those upon whom the ends of the world are come. The verse requires following the Lord's guidance fully rather than only to the point agreeing with human judgment, giving up personal judgment, ideas and opinions, and asking whether a course is the Lord's will. It requires being molded after His similitude and meeting His standard of perfection of character rather than feeble human standards. It requires viewing everything in the light of Christ's example as the truth and true light, copying His self-denial and self-sacrifice, looking to His merits for glory of character, and living not to please self. Only those who learn, appreciate and obey His voice are to be connected with His institutions.

The same condition of obedience governs God's work now, so disobedience, unthankfulness and unholiness hinder His work and prolong the time before its fulfillment, while He bears long so all may hear.