It’s interesting in the notes at the bottom of Deuteronomy 1: {The Israelites spent 40 years on a journey that should have lasted 11 days. It wasn’t distance that stood between them and the promised land. It was the condition of their hearts. The 40 years of desert wandering come to an end in this book. The events cover only a week or two of the 11th month of the 40th year.}

Deuteronomy is Moses speaking to the Israelites reminding them of everything that has happened from Mount Horeb (Sinai) until now. He’s reminding them of the unfaithfulness that plagued their hearts and what happened to them as a result. In spite of this, you did not trust in the Lord your God, who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go. v. 32-33.

Last night in our MidWeek group, we started a year-end examen of looking back and reflecting on where we have been responsive to God’s leading us and where we have resisted His leading. It got me thinking this morning about the wilderness the people wandered through and that in a sense our lives are very much like that. How different is what God wants for us the way we should go…and the paths we choose. Lifetimes of choices.

Deuteronomy will be a review of all God is teaching them and what is He teaching us? A prophecy about John the Baptist by his father, Zechariah: And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace. Luke 1:76-79.

Preparation. Without God we walk in a wilderness of our own making. With Him we are guided into the path of peace…the way we should go. We need to learn just as the Children of Israel needed to learn, just as the people in John the Baptist’s day needed to learn. It’s individual this learning we must each undergo. We don’t undergo our journey alone. After John was put into prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” Mark 1:14.

Do we believe God?