Moses is looking back on Israel's forty years in the wilderness and he speaks some words to encourage Israel for the work that will be involved in taking over the promised land.
Almost four decades earlier, after being defeated when trying to go up to the promised land after the Lord said that first generation out of Egypt had forfeited entry into it, Moses says, "Then we turned back and set out toward the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea, as the Lord had directed me. For a long time we made our way around the hill country of Seir." (Deuteronomy 2:1)
Seir was a mountainous region occupied by the Edomites, the descendants of Jacob's brother Esau. The Israelites were the kinsmen of the Edomites. Because of this the Lord didn't intend to give any of the land of the Edomites to the Israelites. "Then the Lord said to me, 'You have made your way around this hill country long enough; now turn north. Give the people these orders: 'You are about to pass through the territory of your relatives the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, but be very careful. Do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put their foot on. I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his own. You are to pay them in silver for the food you eat and the water you drink.'" (Deuteronomy 2:2-6) The Israelites weren't to take anything from the Edomites for free, either by force or by compelling the Edomites to provide refreshment due to familial obligations.
You'll recall that the Israelites never got a chance to pay the Edomites any money in exchange for refreshments. The Edomites treated them unkindly and refused to allow them to pass through their territory even though they could have profited monetarily from granting them safe passage.
Next we come to a verse that means something personal to me. The Lord used it to give me a spiritual victory over discouragement and depression one dark winter morning. As Israel stands poised to enter the land of promise, the Lord reminds her of the way He's always protected her and provided for her in the past. She can trust Him to continue protecting and providing. Moses assures the people they can trust the Lord by saying, "The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything." (Deuteronomy 2:7)
How did the Lord use a verse regarding Israel to make me feel better about my own life? I woke up the morning of my fortieth birthday feeling heavily burdened down. Several things in my life weren't going well at that time and I recall frequently thinking to myself, "How did I get here?" I'd made very careful choices for my life. I'd been certain that my big decisions were made according to the will of the Lord and yet things had happened that I never saw coming. We've often talked about the fact that we can bring a lot of trouble upon ourselves by not seeking the Lord's counsel when making decisions, but sometimes we can be living smack dab in the Lord's will and still have troubles come into our lives. We live in a fallen world, surrounded by fallen mankind, and things can go wrong even when we're trying our best to do right. I haven't always made the right choices, but in that season of my life I knew I had made those particular choices prayerfully and with the guidance of the Lord, and still my circumstances had become nearly unbearable. While it's true that some of our hard times in life are the consequences of going in the wrong direction, it's also true that we can be going in the right direction and the Lord will allow us to enter a difficult season in order to accomplish some purpose other than correction. Whenever trouble comes, it's smart to get alone with the Lord and to search our consciences to determine whether our situation is the result of sin so we can repent of it and get back on the right track. But there will be times when we'll come to the conclusion that troubles have come upon us for some other purpose, even though that purpose may not be clear to us at the time or even in this lifetime.
I felt very discouraged on the morning I woke up forty years old. I felt little had been accomplished by my life because at that moment everything I'd worked hard for seemed to be turning to ashes. I was disappointed and somewhat bitter at how things had turned out for me. I could look around me and observe several people close to me who didn't care whether they were in the Lord's will or not and things seemed to be going along fine for them. I had the same attitude that morning as the psalmist Asaph who was distressed by the way the wicked prospered and by the way he---who was trying to live right---was going through hard times. He said to himself in his disappointment and bitterness, "Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments." (Psalm 73:13-14) He said, "Why did I bother to do what was right? Where did it get me? It didn't spare me trials and tribulations. Yet I know people who are living in sin and living it up. They're getting along great without a care in the world." If you have time to read the entirety of Psalm 73, you'll see how the Lord lovingly gave Asaph an attitude adjustment. By the end of Psalm 73 you'll find Asaph's perspective completely changed and you'll find him praising the name of the Lord for His goodness. The Lord gave me an attitude adjustment too.
On the morning I turned forty I hopped on my exercise bicycle in an angry mood with an ugly scowl on my face. I figured things were going wrong for me but that neglecting my health wasn't going to help anything so I might as well get some exercise. I reached over to the bookcase near my stationary bicycle where I was in the habit of keeping the Bible and also a fictional book so I'd have reading material while I exercised. That morning I grabbed the Bible, thinking, "Maybe this will improve my mood," but not really believing it. I need to point out that I'm not a proponent of randomly opening the Bible and taking the advice of the first verse your eye or your finger lands on; that's not how the Bible is meant to be studied. It's not a Magic 8 ball. If we could ask the Lord questions and then flip the Bible open and ram our pointer finger down onto a page and immediately find the answer, we'd never do any in-depth studying and as a result we would maintain only a shallow relationship with the Lord. But on the morning of my fortieth birthday I grabbed my Bible in my hand and just started reading on the page where the book naturally flipped open and the first verse to meet my gaze was, "The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything." (Deuteronomy 2:7)
I have never had my attitude adjusted so fast! I've never gone so quickly from crying the blues to shouting hallelujahs as I did when the Lord said to me, "I've protected you and provided for you thus far. I've watched over your journey through this vast wilderness of a world and have kept you safe. I've never allowed you to go hungry or thirsty or without clothes on your back or without a roof over your head. These forty years I have been with you, and you have not lacked anything you needed." Did I have everything I wanted in that moment? No, several things in my life weren't at all the way I'd have liked them to be. But did I have everything I needed? Yes! I was in a warm house on a cold January morning with clothes on my back, with water I could turn on at the tap, and with food in my refrigerator and in my cabinets. I had family members and friends who loved me. I had pets who loved me. I had a job to get ready to go to after I finished my exercise. There were a lot of things that seemed wrong in my life but there were a lot of things that were right, and those things were the things I needed---the things that were sustaining me.
I'm fifty-one years old now and on every birthday since my fortieth I've remembered the way the Lord used Deuteronomy 2:7 to give me victory over intense feelings of sadness and discouragement. I've remembered the way He took my focus off myself (the way I was moaning about life not turning out the way I expected and about not having accomplished as much as I felt I should have) and put my focus on Him (on all the ways He had protected me and provided me for forty years). If we're feeling down and we keep focusing on ourselves, our mood isn't likely to improve very quickly. But if we fix our thoughts on the Lord and on all the ways He's taken care of us up til now, we'll find ourselves encouraged. We may not always find it easy to encourage ourselves this way; I know sometimes it feels easier for me to wallow in self-pity. But I'm reminded of the time David encouraged himself in the Lord even though his family had been abducted, his settlement at Ziklag burned, and all his property stolen. The same things had happened to the band of men with him and they blamed him for their predicament and wanted to stone him to death. Even in those trying circumstances, the Bible tells us, "But David found strength in the Lord his God." (1 Samuel 30:6b) David was facing more troubles at one time than probably you or I will ever face at one time. So how did David find strength in the Lord? I think he did it by thinking back on all the times the Lord had helped him before. This gave David the strength to believe the Lord would help him again.
Moses is reminding the Israelites of how the Lord has helped them during their forty years in the wilderness so they will have the strength to believe the Lord will help them in the promised land. The road ahead won't always be easy but the Lord has brought them through a lot already. He's still as powerful as He ever was. He will give Israel victory, no matter how fierce the battles ahead may appear.
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