Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Deuteronomy · About this commentary
The Presumptuous Attempt
Deuteronomy 1:34-46
34 Yahweh heard the voice of your words and was angry, and swore, saying, · WEB
The generation that would not go when told is beaten when it goes untold, and obedience turns out not to be transferable to a later date.
The sentence is passed on a whole generation: surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land Deuteronomy 1:35. Caleb is excepted, on a ground stated in four words — because he has wholly followed Yahweh Deuteronomy 1:36.
Then a clause that will recur three times in this book and that a reader should not pass quickly: also Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, saying, 'You also shall not go in there' Deuteronomy 1:37.
Moses ties his own exclusion to the people. The specific occasion came later, at the rock, and the book does not rehearse it here. What he says in this retelling is that their failure and his are connected, and he says it without self-pity and without excusing himself.
He is also told to encourage Joshua Deuteronomy 1:38 — the man who will do the thing he is forbidden to do. That instruction is given in the same breath as the refusal, and he carries it out for the rest of the book.
And the children are the reversal. The people had said their little ones would be captured or killed Deuteronomy 1:39; those exact children are the ones who will inherit. The fear given as the reason for not going becomes the reason the next generation goes instead.
What follows is the strangest episode in the chapter. Told to turn back into the wilderness, the people change their minds: we have sinned against Yahweh. We will go up and fight, according to all that Yahweh our God commanded us Deuteronomy 1:41.
The words are correct. They confess, they name the command, and they arm themselves to do exactly what they had refused. And it is refused, because the moment has passed: don't go up and don't fight; for I am not among you Deuteronomy 1:42.
The lesson is uncomfortable and it is the point of the passage. Obedience is not a thing that can be performed later at the doer's convenience. Yesterday's command, carried out today against today's command, is not obedience at all — and the account names it for what it was: they rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh, and were presumptuous Deuteronomy 1:43.
They are beaten and chased as bees do Deuteronomy 1:44, and the closing note is the bleakest in the address: you returned and wept before Yahweh, but Yahweh didn't listen to your voice Deuteronomy 1:45. Tears after a decision are not the same as trust before it.
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