Throughout the first few chapters of Deuteronomy, Moses wants the people to know one thing: When they get into Canaan, it won’t be their own strength that takes the land—it’ll be God’s.
Those subtle hints are dropped all through this section. He reminds them of all that God has done for them (Deuteronomy 2:7), he says God gave them the command to leave the mountain (Deuteronomy 2:1-3), and that they “wept before the Lord” (Deuteronomy 1:45), implying they naturally look to Him as their Provider.
Other verses are not so subtle. Various incidents are described as direct action by God, such as when God exterminated all the fighting men of Israel before the end of the forty years of wandering (Deuteronomy 2:15). Or when God destroyed the Horites (Deuteronomy 2:22) and Sihon (Deuteronomy 2:33).
But even though these events are attributed to God in hindsight, I’m not sure many of the people would’ve seen it at the time.
Think on the story of the men falling in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 2:15). Even though God promised that would happen, it’s not as if He put a timer on everyone’s forehead so they knew their time was almost up.
Instead, they perished in a lot of different ways. Korah died because the earth opened up underneath him, while his friends were killed by fire (Numbers 16:31-35). Others died from the bronze serpent (Numbers 21:6). A plague during the Balaam saga killed 24,000 (Numbers 25:9).
In the moment, did they view all of those as a direct fulfillment of God’s statement that all over the age of 20 would die in the wilderness? Probably not.
But when Moses reminded them of this prophecy in Deuteronomy 2, they were all able to look back and see the hand of God working to fulfill His promises.
That’s how the hand of God operates. We almost never see it happening in real-time (unless you’re Mordecai — Esther 4:14); instead, we see it in hindsight. It’s the culmination of events that allow us to see God at work.
The challenge for Israel was to have faith that, many years into the future, they would look back at their conquest of Canaan and see the hand of God working in their time. Even if they didn’t see it as they destroyed various cities on the other side of the Jordan, they needed to have faith it was happening.
That’s our challenge, too. I’ve talked to lots of people near the end of their life that tell me they look back fondly at their years and see where God helped them. Maybe it was providence, maybe it wasn’t, but they were convinced it was the hand of God at work.
Does that give me faith, as I approach my fortieth birthday, to trust that God is working even now? Will I trust that when I pass through my own metaphorical “conquest,” I’ll look back and see God’s handiwork?
I should.