Moses has been warning the new generation not to make the same mistakes their fathers did who were too afraid of the report of ten of the spies to enter the promised land. Their fathers accused Moses (and by extension, the Lord) of bringing them to the borders of Canaan just to let them to fall to the enemy sword and to allow their wives and children to be taken captive. But just the opposite was true. The Lord brought them to the borders of Canaan to give them a great blessing, but it was going to take faith to take hold of the blessing.
Because the generation who came out of Egypt didn't trust the Lord to give them victory in Canaan, He said to them, "And the little ones that you said would be taken captive, your children who do not yet know good from bad---they will enter the land. I will give it to them and they will take possession of it. But as for you, turn around and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea." (Deuteronomy 1:39-40) If you'll recall from the book of Numbers, they didn't turn back. The people wanted to turn back until the Lord told them to turn back. Isn't that just like human beings, though? As long as something is our own idea, we want to do it, but when we're told we must do it, we don't want to. After hearing the negative report of ten of the spies, most of the Israelites wanted to turn back all the way to Egypt, but now they don't want to turn back even as far as the Red Sea. Now that the Lord isn't giving them a choice, they realize they've lost out on a blessing by being weak in their faith. They won't see the promised land. They've forfeited their God-given right to this blessing. Their children will receive it, but they themselves will miss out on it.
When the Lord told them to turn back from the borders of Canaan, they saw the error of their ways. They repented, which was a good thing, but in their distress over their mistake they made another one. "Then you replied, 'We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight, as the Lord commanded us.' So every one of you put on his weapons, thinking it easy to go up into the hill country." (Deuteronomy 1:41) Their reaction is the type of reaction we've all had at one time or another when we realize we've made a big mistake. We make a mess out of things and then try to fix the mess in our own strength, often creating an even bigger mess. The best thing to do when we realize we've gotten out of the will of God is to confess it to Him and repent of it and then ask Him what we must do next. We need to get back into His will as quickly as possible, not make more wrong decisions. Repenting is a good thing but trying to fix our mess in our own strength and by our human way of thinking can actually make a bad situation worse. What looks like the correct route to us may be completely wrong. That's what happened to the Israelites. They said, "Okay, we see we've really messed up. We're so sorry about that. We sinned against You and failed to believe You would do what You said You would do. Now we're ready to go up and fight." But the Lord had already issued the command to turn back. If they go up, they go up in their own strength, not with the power of the Lord behind them.
Moses tried to talk them out of this idea, to no avail. "But the Lord said to me, 'Tell them, 'Do not go up and fight, because I will not be with you. You will be defeated by your enemies.'" (Deuteronomy 1:42) The people sinned against the Lord, and He was angry with them over it, but He didn't want to see them defeated in battle. Like any loving father, he wanted to spare them from the consequences of mistakes. He warned them not to go up because He wouldn't be fighting on their side. If they go up they will reap the consequences of doing the wrong thing because, again like a loving father, the Lord knows that sometimes the only way to teach a lesson is to let a stubborn child experience the natural consequences of disobedience. The lessons we tend to remember most are the lessons we learn the hard way.
The people were still in the frame of mind that, "We can fix this! We know we messed up but we can fix it. Just give us a do-over and we'll make it right." That's why they went up anyway. "So I told you, but you would not listen. You rebelled against the Lord's command and in your arrogance you marched up into the hill country." (Deuteronomy 1:43) If in our own strength we can't help messing up from time to time, what makes us think that in our own strength we can fix our mistakes? The best thing they could have done at this time was obey the command to turn back, even though this command wasn't what they wanted to hear. I've missed out on blessings because of disobedience. I've had to turn back. It's not pleasant. It's a bitter pill to swallow when I realize I'm the one to blame for missing out on something good and for causing myself hardship at the same time. But it's far better to turn back at the Lord's command than to charge ahead without Him. That only causes more hardship. And I've made that mistake too! There have been times when I've gotten ahead of the Lord and times when I've gone places He never intended me to go. That always makes a bad situation worse. When we realize we've sinned, we need to repent and get back with the program fast. We need to say, "Lord, I'm sorry. I disobeyed You. I've made a mess out of things and I can see that now. What would You have me do next? I want to get back in Your will and do what You want me to do."
The army experienced defeat because they were not in the will of the Lord. "The Amorites who lived in those hills came out against you; they chased you like a swarm of bees and beat you down from Seir all the way to Hormah. You came back and wept before the Lord, but He paid no attention to your weeping and turned a deaf ear to you. And so you stayed in Kadesh many days---all the time you spent there." (Deuteronomy 1:44-46) When the soldiers brought defeat upon themselves by acting in disobedience to the Lord, He was not sympathetic to their plight. Instead He said, "I told you so." This too reminds me of a parent who has warned a child not to do a particular thing, then the child did it anyway, and upon seeing that the child was upset over the consequences of his mistake, said, "I told you not to do that."
I'm reminded of a particular time when I was a little girl and my mother warned me to stop doing something. A neighbor child and I were running madly up and down my gravel driveway and the gravel dead end road in front of my house while my mom and the other child's mom sat in the front yard. It had rained recently and there were some pretty large mud puddles and I was running awkwardly in my slightly too large rain boots. My mom called to me, "You're going to fall!", but I ignored her and fell headlong into the biggest mud puddle out there, completely soaking myself head to toe. Nothing was hurt except my pride, especially since my little friend was laughing at me, and my mom commented drily from her chair in the front yard, "I told you not to do that." We can see why she wasn't sympathetic to my plight and we can see why the Lord wasn't sympathetic when the army forged ahead, against His will, and suffered defeat.
Time and time again we've talked about how necessary it is to consult the Lord on all our big decisions. While we are all going to experience hardships in this life that are beyond our control, a great deal of the hardships we endure in this life are hardships we bring on ourselves by either going in the right direction at the wrong time or by going in the wrong direction altogether. We need to daily pray for the Lord's protection and guidance. He knows the path we should take and He knows when we should take it. The last thing we should ever want is to go anywhere without Him.
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