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Scripture Passage
The Desert Years
2 “Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness of the Way of the Red Sea, as the Lord spoke to me, and we skirted Mount Seir for many days.
2 “And the Lord spoke to me, saying: 3 ‘You have skirted this mountain long enough; turn northward. 4 And command the people, saying, “You are about to pass through the territory of your brethren, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Therefore watch yourselves carefully. 5 Do not meddle with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as one footstep, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. 6 You shall buy food from them with money, that you may eat; and you shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink.
7 “For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He knows your trudging through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.” ’
8 “And when we passed beyond our brethren, the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir, away from the road of the plain, away from Elath and Ezion Geber, we turned and passed by way of the Wilderness of Moab. 9 Then the Lord said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab, nor contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession.’ ”
10 (The Emim had dwelt there in times past, a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim. 11 They were also regarded as giants, like the Anakim, but the Moabites call them Emim. 12 The Horites formerly dwelt in Seir, but the descendants of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their place, just as Israel did to the land of their possession which the Lord gave them.)
13 “ ‘Now rise and cross over the Valley of the Zered.’ So we crossed over the Valley of the Zered. 14 And the time we took to come from Kadesh Barnea until we crossed over the Valley of the Zered was thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war was consumed from the midst of the camp, just as the Lord had sworn to them. 15 For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from the midst of the camp until they were consumed.
16 “So it was, when all the men of war had finally perished from among the people, 17 that the Lord spoke to me, saying: 18 ‘This day you are to cross over at Ar, the boundary of Moab. 19 And when you come near the people of Ammon, do not harass them or meddle with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the descendants of Lot as a possession.’ ”
20 (That was also regarded as a land of giants; giants formerly dwelt there. But the Ammonites call them Zamzummim, 21 a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim. But the Lord destroyed them before them, and they dispossessed them and dwelt in their place, 22 just as He had done for the descendants of Esau, who dwelt in Seir, when He destroyed the Horites from before them. They dispossessed them and dwelt in their place, even to this day. 23 And the Avim, who dwelt in villages as far as Gaza—the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and dwelt in their place.)
24 “ ‘Rise, take your journey, and cross over the River Arnon. Look, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to possess it, and engage him in battle. 25 This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you, and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.’
New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Overview
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
Hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are at Deuteronomy chapter 2 verses 1 through 25. We're going to look through the things that happened as Israelites wandered in the wilderness. So Deuteronomy chapter 2 verses 1 through 25, they're wandering in the wilderness. Let's have some coffee. We'll pray. We're getting God's word. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word and for the blessing it is to have been woken up this morning. Lord, we thank you for the blessing it is to get to follow you. We thank you for the joy it is to get to call you our father.
Lord, we pray that you would please give us your Holy Spirit this morning. Please help us to read your word and help it to Take root in our hearts. Help us to understand it. Lord, we pray that you would please help it be applied to our lives in Jesus's name. Amen. Here we go. Deuteronomy chapter two verses one through 25.
Then he turned and journeyed into the wilderness of the way of the Red Sea as the Lord spoke to me and we skirted Mount Seir for many days. And the Lord spoke to me, saying, You have skirted this mountain long enough. Turn northward and command the people, saying, You are to pass through the territory of your brethren, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir, and they will be afraid of you. Therefore, watch yourselves carefully. Do not meddle with them, for I will not give you any of their land. No, not so much as one footstep, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.
You shall buy food from them with money that you may eat, and you shall also buy water from them with money that you may drink. For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He knows you're trudging through this great wilderness these 40 years. The Lord your God has been with you.
You have lacked nothing. and when we passed beyond our brethren, the descendants of Esau who dwelt in Seir. Away from the road of the plain, away from Alath and Ezion-Geber, we turned and passed by way of the wilderness of Moab. Then the Lord said to me, Do not harass Moab, nor contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession. The Emim had dwelt there in past times, a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim. They were also regarded as giants like the Anakim, but the Moabites called them Emim. The Horites formerly dwelt in Seir, but the descendants of Esau dispossessed them, and destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their place, just as Israel did, through the land of their possession, which the Lord gave them.
Now Ryzen crossed the valley of Zered. So we crossed over the valley of Zered. And the time we took to cross from Kadesh Birnea until we crossed over the valley of Zered was 38 years. until all the generation of the men of war was consumed from the midst of the camp just as the Lord had sworn. For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them to destroy them from the midst of the camp until they were consumed. So it was when all the men of war had finally perished among the people that the Lord spoke to me saying, this day you are to cross over the Arr, the boundary of Moab.
And when you come near the people of Ammon, do not harass them or meddle with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the descendants of Lot as a possession. that was also regarded as a land of giants. Giants formerly dwelt there, but the Amorites called them Zamzumim, a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim. But the Lord destroyed them before them, and they dispossessed them and dwelt in their place, just as he had done for the descendants of Esau, who dwelt in Seir when he destroyed the Horides from before them. They dispossessed them and dwelt in their place, even to this day. And the Avim, who dwelt in villages as far as Gaza, the Keftorim, who came from Keftor, destroyed them and dwelt in their place.
Rise, take your journey, and cross over the river Arnon. Look, I have given into your hand Shaihan the Amorite, king of Heshbon and his land. Begin to possess it and engage him in battle. This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble in anguish because of you.
It was a lot. We need to ask ourselves three questions. Make sure we got this right. A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do? So what is this about? Well, this is they're wandering in the wilderness. and they're going through different lands and some of it the Lord says, I'm not giving any of it to you. Nope, I'm not giving, not even a footstep, right? Why? Because he had given that land to somebody else already. I remember the story.
Abraham had a son. His name was Isaac. Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau. Some of the land he'd given to Esau already. Esau already had that land. It wasn't theirs. He wasn't going to give it to him. Abraham had a nephew. His name was Lot. They weren't going to get any of his land. God had promised Lot some land and God gave it to him. That was his land. They weren't going to be able to have it. They had already gone in and dispossessed those people of the land and they were settled. No, Lord does know. I'm not giving you any of their land, specifically the land of Esau. When you go into that land, you're going to have to buy the stuff from them. So don't eat their food. Don't drink their water unless you buy it from them. And so there's a whole bunch of that.
But I think the heart of this passage, the heart of that passage, was verses 13 through 15. Now Orai's cross over the valley of Zered. So we crossed over the valley of Zered. And the time it took to cross from Kedesh-Birnia until we crossed over the valley of Zered was 38 years. 38 years to cross over a valley.
Why? Why in the world does this take 38 years? Well, God has a reason. Until all the generation of the men of war was consumed in the midst of the camp just as the Lord had sworn to them. For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them to destroy them from the midst of the camp until they were consumed. The Lord was disciplining the nation of Israel because of a unbelieving generation. They weren't going to be the ones to enter the promised land.
There's a reason the Lord keeps bringing it up. Kadesh, Kadesh Barnea, right? That's where they rebelled against him. That's where they didn't listen to those 10 spies, or they listened to those 10 spies, but they didn't listen to Caleb and Joshua. And he told them, this generation's not gonna get the promise. Mm-mm, it's not theirs. You're not gonna get the land. So they wandered in the wilderness for 38 years crossing over this valley. And now finally, now finally the Lord is saying, okay, it's time. That's what verses 24 through 25 is about.
Rise, take your journey and cross over the river Arnon. Look, I have given you the land of Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon in his land. Begin to possess it and engage him in battle. Right now, the Lord is saying, I'm demanding you cross over that river and go to battle.
Right. That land is yours. I've given you that land. This day, I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you. Right. God says now is the time. Now I put the fear of you, the dread of you in their hearts.
This is a Lord who's doing it. It's a Lord who's in control here. And if they believed him and followed him, they would have success. So what is this passage about? This is essentially the passage where the Lord is telling them about their wanderings through the wilderness, but also it's about the Lord now starting the conquest. All right, now go to battle. Now this is what I'm going to do in the hearts of the enemies. What's the best verse to summarize this?
Well, you know, it's funny, I have stuff underlined here when I went through this a number of years ago. But I think I'm gonna change. I'm gonna change what I think it is, because I have like verse 21 and 22 underlined, but I don't think that's what the best verses are. I think the best verses are verses 13 through 15, as well as 24 and 25.
That's what I have underlined in my Bible. What would you underline in your Bible? See, before I thought this was mainly talking about that land that was possessed by Lot and the land that was possessed by Esau and that's why they weren't allowed to have it. I don't think that's what this passage at the heart of it is.
It's about that disobedience and that 38 years in the Lord doing as he had promised and then as well, now the fear of the Lord is going to be on them. so see things can change as you read again and as you work through things again so that's what i think is the best verse but you can let me know if you disagree with you think the best verse would be a last seat calling what we called the doom well We know that when we walk, there's a few things here, right? I'm gonna say first, we know that when we walk in disbelief and disobedience, there's consequences for that, right? Even as God's people, there are consequences for that. And so the Lord gives us those consequences.
But I also think that we can know that when it's the Lord's timing for things, we can trust that his timing is perfect. We may not like it and it may take way longer than we think it's supposed to, but the Lord knows what he's doing and we can trust him. So we could trust the Lord's perfect timing. And last C, our last calling that I would run us to is that it took a long time for the final battle against the final enemy, the great giant to be slain, death himself. But Jesus Christ did that when he rose again from the dead. And we knew that this was a long, long coming promise, but the Lord's timing was good and Jesus was faithful.
So we can trust in God and walk in his ways. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for the great blessing you have given us to follow you. Please let us trust you and walk in your ways. You are good, Lord. In Jesus's name, amen. May God bless you and care for you. May you trust him and follow him all the days of your life. I'll see you next time. Bye.