Okay, so lesson two is entitled Remember Where You Came From. And I titled that because if you remember in the first lesson when we went over the structure of Deuteronomy, the structure is basically a series of homilies or sermons, speeches that Moses gives before he dies, it's his last one in Testament, the first of which is chapters one through four in which Moses focuses on various themes of Israel's past, right? He's trying to make some some homiletical points and some encouragements and some warnings in chapters one through four to encourage them, right, to obey God. And so he touches upon various stories in their past, right?
So remember where you came from is the title for this lesson. And to kick this whole thing off, when we're looking at the history of Israel, and honestly chapters one through four, it's not really all that long, especially when you consider Moses is talking about their past, he really is very selective about the various events that went on from Exodus and Leviticus in the book of Numbers. And so one of the questions that people ask, or they should be asking at least, is why does Moses only focus on these particular stories and not anything else? Why these particular rebellions and the motives, the reasons for those rebellions and nothing else, right?
There is a reason, there is a method to the madness here. And that's really what I want you to take away from this lesson is understanding what he's trying to do, why he's trying to do it, and order that the second generation of Israelites, the wilderness generation, might be in courage and have no fear, because really honestly, one of the biggest themes in this entire lesson, chapters one through four, Moses is telling them, do not fear, do not be afraid. Trust in God, he will take care of you, and I'm going to take you through all the verses as we say that. It's really beautiful, I think in fact chapter four is one of the most beautiful chapters in this entire book.
So let's begin though with this quotation, and there are various other similar quotations in your footnotes. From your Catholic introduction, you'll testament, this says, the purpose of this retrospective history is to make a homiletical point. Reflection on God's faithfulness and their own infidelity during the wanderings and the wilderness should motivate the Israelites to gratitude and obedience. And that's a great quote, and there are some others very similar to it, like for example here from your handbook, the Pentateuch, it says Moses' recall of the past is not merely repetitive, it is interpretive.
This is what Moses is trying to interpret and apply the themes of their past, especially their parents' generation here, to spur them on to gratitude, to obedience, and I would even add to this quotation here, trust. You need to trust, don't be afraid as I was saying here. So that kind of sets up the whole theme of what we're talking about, remember where you came from, now let's read verses one through five and kick this thing off here. So this one through five is like this introductory prologue here.
It says in verse one, these are the words, by the way, that's the title of the book, remember we talked about last lesson, Elephadaberem, these are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan and the wilderness in the Arabog and Sufic, etc. Verse two, it is an 11 days journey from Horel that's Mount Sinai by way of Mount Sarah to Kadesh Barnea. And in the 40th year, on the first day of the 11th month, Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, according to all that the Lord had given to him, and commanded to them, after they defeated Cihon, king of the Amorites who live in Heshban and Og, these two characters are going to be very important for this lesson. Okay, these great kings, they defeated Cihon and Og, and then it goes on verse five, beyond the Jordan and the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law.
All right, let's stop there and make some points here. So it says, these are the words that Moses spoke to the sons of Israel. So again, as I clarified in the last introductory lesson, God never speaks once in this entire book. That doesn't mean that God is not behind it, because in fact, it clearly says in verse three, as well as other passages chapter four, chapter 29, Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, God doesn't speak to them, Moses does, but Moses speaks according to all that the Lord had given to him, right?
So God is behind all of this, right? Because Moses does nothing without God's permission, but still nevertheless, there's this theme that something has changed here, right? Back in Exodus, as Moses will clarify, God spoke to them directly through on the mountain through the fire and they heard his voice. That, none of that happens here.
Okay, so this teaches us that something is different, that sin has really separated the people from God. And we discussed all this in the last lesson. The covenant has been renewed and restored, but it is, it is shaken, right? It is, it is very different now.
Okay, and ultimately Christ will reverse all of it. So in any case, this is the first of his three speeches as we talked about in a clarifies that they're here east of the Jordan River in the plains of Moab. Okay, and it makes this really interesting contrast that first, there should only be an 11 days journey from Mount Sinai to Kadeshbarnae, 11 days, that's all it should take them. You could round up with potty breaks and say that's 14 days, two weeks, okay?
So when all of the years are like, you know, are we there yet, are we there yet and then you have to make your potty break? 14 days, two weeks, they could have gotten to this place. But instead, the scriptures say it took them 40 years. Why?
Well, it's because of their rebellions. And Moses is going to unpack this here in chapter one very clearly. It took 40 years. All right, for them finally to get from point A to point B, when it could have taken them just two weeks.
And honestly, when I think about this typologically, like the moral sense of scripture, it really makes me reflect like how often do we delay God's blessings? Things take way longer than they need to take because we're rebellious, because we don't trust God, because we're like, you know, kicking and screaming. And you know, it's like, it's a really interesting application. Don't forget, I've said this so many times, we are Israel, right?
So you look at the moral sense of scripture and typology and how it applies to our life, everything is relevant. And I hope by the end of this single lesson here today that you're going to see how relevant Moses' message is to the people, how relevant it is to us as well. Like, Moses is speaking directly to us. So yeah, it just makes me reflect.
That's a good exercise in prayer. Like how many times have we delay God's blessing? I mean, it should have taken us two weeks to get some place and instead it's 40 years, you know, that might be true in the spiritual life as well, where we could advance into spiritual life very, very far, very, very quickly if we just trust in God. But the fact of the matter is we don't advance in the spiritual life very well because of our rebelliousness.
So even in that simple example, there's so much to learn if we just trust God and love him and cling to him and detach ourselves from earthly loves, holy moly, we can get to the promised land really quickly, okay, and advance in the spiritual life. So anyways, this is a personal reflection of mine. And again, I want you to see how beautifully relatable I think this is when you just take some time to pray about it. All right, well, in any case, here they are 40th year, the 11th month, that's t-shree, that's basically wintertime, January, February, and they arrived.
So they're about, give or take two, two three months or so before they're going to cross over the Jordan River, under Joshua's leadership. So here, as I said, Moses is giving his last one his testament here. And it says that he undertook to explain the law. That is touching upon a huge theme in the book of Deuteronomy, which is Catechesis, right?
When we went over all the general themes in the last lesson, this was one of them, right? The importance of Catechesis cannot be overstated. It is important for people to teach the faith in all contexts and everywhere. This is going to come up.
People very famously might recall the great Shama command and Deuteronomy six, we're going to talk about that in the next lesson. But even here in chapters one before over and over again, Moses says, teach your children, teach your children, teach your children, teach your children. It's pretty incredible here. If you don't teach the faith to the next generation, everything is going to come crumbling down.
Okay. And I think that's what we're seeing right now in the modern world that whole generation has not been taught the faith. And so now if you don't have it, you can't give it, right? If you don't know it, you don't love it.
And you're not certainly not going to share it if you don't love it. So this is what Moses again, once again, teaching the Israelites to teach the faith, to teach the law, and to encourage them to pass it down to next generations, as I will unpack for you, especially in chapter four, is very applicable to us. So with his Catechesis, here's a quote for you from the Catechesis, says, Catechesis is an education in the faith of children, young people and adults. Notice it's not just kids, it's everybody.
It includes especially the teaching of Christian doctrine, and part of generally speaking, in an organic and systematic way, with a view to initiating the hearers into the fullness of Christian life. That's a great quote there. And in fact, it's the Catechesis, I'm quoting another document on the hand of the faith. Catechesis, you can look at the foot note for that.
But in other words, if you want to live the fullness of Christian life, you got to study your faith. You really cannot be a disciple of Jesus. You really cannot be a Christian if you're not studying your faith. So kudos to you for following this Bible study.
Okay. Goodness to you for that. But you got to study your faith. And it's like you think of Ezra, Ezra chapter seven verse 10, Ezra set his heart upon to study the law to do it and to teach it.
Okay. So there's so many beautiful connections, all the other scripture on this. But my point to you is to live the fullness of Christian life, you got to study the faith. If you don't study it and know it, you're not a true full Christian.
All right. To follow Christ is to know him and to love him and to know him is to study his life and to study his teachings. All right. So we'll come to this multiple times throughout our Bible study on Deuteronomy and probably in so many other books as well.
Okay. All right. So that's the introductory prologue, the first five verses there. Now we're going to get here the rest of chapter one, all the way to verse 46.
Okay, the whole rest of chapter one, Moses talks about Israel's journey from Sinai to Kadesh Barnea, all right, which is where the story of the rebellious spies. So again, as I said, why is Moses focusing on just this rebellion and the motives for this rebellion? It's because this is a huge warning for the second generation. It's a warning, it's admonition, admonitions and exhortations for them to trust God.
Do not fear the people, even though they seem so tall and strong and formidable. Do not fear the fortifications of the cities on the tae specific verses to highlight because there is a direct correlation with what the spies and the first generation fear specifically and what God delivers into their hands of the second generation afterwards through the defeat of Og and Seahone. There's a direct correlation here that is key to understanding this whole section, okay?