Deuteronomy 1-3 (Summary of their journey thus far)

Moses narrates a summary of the Israelites journey up to this point to the Israelites in the desert east of the Jordan . . .

God told the Israelites at Horeb, "You have stayed here long enough. Go and take possession of the land I had promised to your forefathers." [heavily paraphrased]

Moses asked each tribe to appoint a leader to be judge because he could not personally handle and arbitrate each case. They also sent spies to check out the land that they were going to enter.

The spies reported back of a rich and prosperous land that was walled, heavily fortified, and inhabited by giants. The Israelites began to grumble in fear, complaining that God had brought them out of Egypt to destroy them. They refused to go because they did not trust God. God was angry, telling them that none of them would enter (they would instead die wandering in the desert), with the exception of Joshua and Caleb.

Then the Israelites were remorseful, and changed their minds. "We have sinned against the LORD. We will go up and fight, as the LORD our God commanded us."


Bad idea. They thought it would be easy, but God told them NOT to go because he was not with them. They did not listen, and then totally got defeated.

God then guided the Israelites in a long roundabout way to the promised land. This basically killed time until all of that first generation passed. God would give them commands about how to approach each people group. If the Israelites obeyed God, then things would go their way. Here are some examples of those commands.

Moab at Ar: pass through; land is already given to descendants of Lot
Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his country: defeat, leave no survivors
Ammonites: do not take their land
Og king of Bashan: defeat, leave no survivors

Dividing Up the Land
At this point they had obtained quite a bit of land. If you remember from the end of Numbers, the Reubenites, Gadites, and Half Tribe of Manasseh wanted this to be their inheritance. Moses gave them the land here and they settled with their women and children. The men would continue to cross the river to get the Promised Land.

Moses pleaded with God to let him see the land, but God was angry and told him he would never enter. Instead, he brought him to the top of a hill and let him see it.