Deuteronomy 1:1-5

Analysis and Annotations

I. THE FIRST DISCOURSE OF MOSES AND RETROSPECT

1. The Introduction

CHAPTER 1:1-5

The people were still on this side of Jordan in the wilderness. The second verse, containing a parenthetical statement, gives the story of their unbelief, as recorded in the Book of Numbers. “There are eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir unto Kadesh-barnea.” They might have reached the place they occupied now, facing Jordan and the land, in eleven days. It took them almost forty years. Unbelief had kept them back. It was towards the end of the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, that Moses began his wonderful addresses. In the first month of that memorable year Miriam had died (Numbers 20:1). His brother Aaron had died in the fifth month (Numbers 33:38). Moses was soon to follow him at the close of the fortieth year, at the ripe age of one hundred and twenty. Forty years were spent by Moses in the palaces of Egypt; forty years he was a shepherd in the land of Midian and forty years he was the leader of God's people through the wilderness. Before he went to the top of Pisgah to behold the land and to die, he pours out his heart in the presence of all Israel. His words were “according unto all that the Lord had given him.” All he had received from the Lord, he passed on faithfully to the Lord's people. “Moses verily was faithful in all God's house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things, which were to be spoken afterward” (Hebrews 3:5). Once more, therefore, he placed the words of the Lord before their hearts. This is the blessed object of ministry, to make known what God has revealed. True ministry is to deliver the message received. “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received” (1 Corinthians 15:3). Moses declared the Law unto them (verse 5). The Hebrew word “declare” means “to make plain.” it is used in Habakkuk 2:2 .