Israel’s History after the Exodus
1 These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite [a]Suph, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab. 2 It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea. 3 In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that the Lord had commanded him to give to them, 4 after he had [b]defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth [c]and Edrei. 5 Across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this law, saying,
6 “The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, ‘You have [d]stayed long enough at this mountain. 7 Turn and set your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the [e]Negev and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. 8 See, I have placed the land before you; go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to them and their [f]descendants after them.’
As the Israelites were about to finally enter the land God had promised them, Moses gives this address to the people. And he reminds them first, that He is giving them the land. Most important that He is the one doing the work and giving them the land.
Most certainly, they must follow his instructions to occupy the land promised, but He has given it to them, and it is their inheritance. Now, they’ve heard this over and over, probably talked about it countless times over the last forty years. But Moses reminds them again, because they were a bit fickle and forgeful.
And this is one reason we need to be reminded of God’s promises to us. We are forgetful, we can certainly be fickle, and we try to go back to the “land of our captivity”. Keep following God, and remember His promises. Fickle though we may be, God never changes, and his promises are eternal.