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well welcome back to session two of the law is good if one uses it lawfully um we're going to undertake our uh detailed study of Moses
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first discourse which I read last week um I've begun setting up playlists on uh YouTube and things like that so that things will be easier to find um so I hope that benefits you if you need a
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refresher or need to hear it uh read aloud again to understand the thrust of the text um but uh so if you turn with me in your Bibles we'll be starting in
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Deuteronomy 1 verse one word One these are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the
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wilderness in the arabah opposite suf between Pon and topel Laban hazarat and djab it is 11 days journey from HB by
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the way of Mount say to cadesh Bara in the 40th year on the first day of the 11th month Moses spoke to all the people of Israel concerning all that
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Yahweh had given him in commandment to them after he had defeated seon the king of the amorites who lived in heshbon and OG the king of bosan who lived in ashot
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and in adre beyond the Jordan and the land of Moab Moses undertook to explain this law so immediately I noted last week
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that's a that's a mouthful um I have a quotation from a from a commentator uh that I think sums up the issue we have when we see all of this in
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in our text um one Dr Theodore geel uh said a book reading parrot named hooie the words in this book are all fooy when
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you say them your lips will make slips and back flips and your tongue may end up in St Louis now I realize that that isn't a comment on scripture but I think it does kind of describe where most of us find
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ourselves when we try to read this uh particularly if we're called to read read it out
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loud but we're not just talking about geography are we we're talking about geography in the word of God uh which which presents us a unique challenge we have to make a decision about it um I if
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we skip over it and don't pay attention that's a decision we're making about God's word not just about anything uh if we go at it hammer and tongs that's another decision we're making and we're
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we feel responsible for at least I do feel responsible for how I divide the word of word of Truth um as to Faith I think the first I
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was trying to trace the decisions that one makes uh when when you come to things you don't understand in scripture like this so with regard to geography I think the first is a decision as to
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Faith uh either it is completely accurate it is partially accurate or completely or mostly inaccurate and I think that kind of describes the
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landscape that we'll come to with the with kind of the next problem that we have and that's the problem of scholarship when we see these things because we're not language experts and we're not experts in neare eastern
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history and uh we're not uh experts in archaeology or have any experience thereof we uh have to go to people who have studied these things and we find
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among them varying motivations uh that I think can be Troublesome all on their own so we've got a lot of good tools that can help us
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but those tools also have their own problems the first of which is that they are studying a history that is written by people and they are themselves people
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studying history and archaeology and people have too many M problems that muddy the waters for us they lie and they die um people have a tenuous grasp and
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relationship with the truth and we have short memories U the the writers the keepers of the records were not necessarily telling the truth uh and they may not have lived long enough to
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get their facts straight and the same is true on the scholarship side of things um and then you get into the more nuanced aspects of our human nature the varying opinions uh which come from
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varying motivations and I'm I'm tracing a few motivations as I see it in the landscape of scholarship and the first being to the motivation to discredit the Bible it's not I would say the majority
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or even the most significant uh proportion of geog I'm sorry of uh scholarship but it is a significant fraction among scholarship people like Bartman um are seemingly taking
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undertaking their scholarship with nothing but the intent to erode the foundations of Faith um under this motivation inconsistencies in the text which is ultimately what we're talking
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about I didn't say this but I've underlined in pink here um the only two geographical terms that occur anywhere else in the Peno so immediately in the
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location of whatever this is locating we've got three different place names that don't occur anywhere else you recognize this word maybe but that's a place name not a person's name um so
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we've got the pro the immediate accusation of maybe maybe this wasn't all that accurate uh because it doesn't match um so in in the motivation for
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discrediting the scriptures we'll find that in consistency served to show us that the author or authors were not eyewitnessing uh real events U they were they were cobbling
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things together later and that's why that's why we don't necessarily expect full consistency and any Geographic accuracy under this motivation is usually construed as an artifact of much
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of the Bible just having been produced nearby to where the event supposedly happened so they were over here in general they were bound to get something right uh is kind of the attitude the
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more majority case for scholarship is a motivation to conform to academic Norms um in this motivation inconsistencies are to be expected uh as in any work of
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antiquity uh and they're therefore just a piece of the puzzle of what really happened um expert opinion on language and archaeology and the history of other neare Eastern cultures or even
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scholarship on the how the Bible is put together as literature um often deny those who are not experts any part in that discussion uh as to Academia so
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we're really forced to take the experts at their word in a lot of cases um which presents a problem to us and furthermore the need to publish among academics presents the need to be within the the
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boundaries of what's considered respectable in one's academic field uh which limits which experts opinion which expert opinions actually make it into the data um I'd be interested whether
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you have any comments on that do you think that's a fair characterization of Academia yeah okay anything to add uh perhaps really I mean I think that's across the board you want to be accepted
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you want to be pushing the edges of the envelope but only in acceptable wayss a little bit um contradictory and if you step outside you you may not be able to
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publish or you may find your publication decried by other experts as unreliable will tell you you need to change okay in order to be published that the editors
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will will monkey with it yeah but it's interesting that there's even evolution in that because in any given generation there will be a Maverick and that person will manage to
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get himself public or herself because of associations or even self-publish but often that maveri view will become conventional wisdom within
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another generation and that's the evolution that takes place within theological writings I'm sure academic writings yes that you know they become settled answers that nobody questions
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until someone until someone does cycle keeps going we all want to believe that whatever is the settled opinion has has always been this way or or or rather that we've been undertaking
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a gradual March where we what we know now is always the best of what we've ever known uh which is not true at all um there's often great wisdom to be
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sought in opinions that have been dropped in the past uh and and vice versa um there's some wonderful discoveries that are made and and I I want to make clear for the record that I am not pro or anti- Academia um I I view
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Academia like I would view a hammer it's a tool um there's great things to be gained from it but you misuse it and it will hurt you um and and then there's
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the confusion of just how many you know Solomon said of the making of many books there's just no end and and that's very very true uh in our scholarship we have the problem of having too much uh
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scholarship um some people have had the problems of not having enough I think some of the early church fathers show uh show that that maybe they needed a little more study uh before they popped
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off um but with regard to to geography I found a quotation a real quotation from an actual commentator uh that I think sums up the landscape very well with
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regard to geography and I found this very very helpful this is Gordon J winam uh from numbers and introduction and commentary saying the ordinary Bible reader may be forgiven for supposing
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that there is little difficulty in knowing exactly which routes the Israelites followed on their wanderings his convictions will be enhanced by the clearly marked routes and precisely
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identified Town sites found in atlases of the Holy Land but in fact the problems of the place of The Exodus the location of sini and the subsequent wanderings are some of the most
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intractable that are faced by biblical Scholars we're getting to see behind the curtain a little bit we have our opinion but we don't think we know is what he's saying that's I think it's very good for
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us to hear he goes on there are two principal causes for our predicament firstly place names survive only if there is a continuity of settlement at the places concerned even then there may
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be changes of name for social political or religious reasons and here he gives actually some biblical references that show that happening in The Narrative of scripture and if a name has survived
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from Biblical times to the present it can often have become attached to a different place Old Testament Jericho is now called tell ES sulan the name
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Jericho survives in the Arab town a reha not far from the ancient Mound but in the case of Arad and heshbon there are no remnants of the conquest period at
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the Modern sites bearing these names and it looks as though the biblical sites must have been elsewhere in the wilderness the problems are compounded the inhabitants have been fewer and more
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mobile and there is very little Assurance of the biblical names having been preserved at all let alone always attached to the correct site and there is always the suspicion that when a Biblical sounding name is found it may
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not rest on Ancient tradition but have been coined by a local sometime in the past trying to help a pilgrim searching for holy sites so we have a
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multi-pronged approach to misnaming places that is just really messing us up this is not ancient though because I'm I'm reading a summary of just a history
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of World War II in the Eastern theater the the Russian front and the towns He he'll list a town like lots and then in
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parenthesis three more names right the German name the austr Hungarian name and the Russian name yes because whenever they were overrun they would change the name MH and so that's not that's a
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modern example of what has always happened yeah it's not even an ancient problem it's a modern problem too it's a it's a universal human problem we we love to name places and then forget
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about it you're not going to take over a Polish town and keep its name right Russ you're going to change russan we're kind of unique in the American Empire in that respect I we name our states and towns and rivers we keep a lot of the the the
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native names uh that's that's actually rather rare maybe that's L us into a false sense of security with archaeology I don't know it's an interesting thought um but really often and and he
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actually goes on I'm not going to read it um because I think it'll kind of Muddy our discussion but he goes on also if you're familiar at all with the documentary hypothesis which is kind of the standard middle-of the road academic
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approach to the five books of Moses um he goes on to talk about some of the muddying of the waters that happens because they have a theory of how the pentiuk was put together and that ends up leading to certain conclusions about
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geographical claims you know I mentioned the idea that well these three aren't known so this writer sort of knew what he was talking about but got some things wrong that's that can grow very easily
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out of the mainstream of Academia we can cover that at another time but I just thought I'd mention that in sake of fairness for him that he's he's covering all his bases but really the the
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ultimate point is that with regard to the varying motivations in scholarship often competing claims mudy the Simplicity of the claim for us that
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these Geographic designations are made in a context we profess to be the word of God um and we profess it to be the word of God who is history's author and
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its perfect witness um so when looking for help in the experts and they say about this that falls very hard I think on our hearts I think it should
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fall very hard on our hearts and God is history's author and its perfect witness and this is what he provided to us um we need to reckon with that um another
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motivation to be found in scholarship definitely not in the mainstream is a motivation to found a true Bible inhand archaeology um I think this one I I can certainly sympathize with this we think we we
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would find it satisfying that they could go to the Holy Land consult their Bible and and find the place kind of like Inigo Monto sword
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just sort of find the find the hole but I think we know in our minds it really doesn't work that way um we'd love to think it was that simple but but
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it doesn't on the one hand their motiv considers inconsistencies perceived inconsistencies thus far I agree um I'm I'm unwilling to Simply write off
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something like this is ah well you know people change and they don't know what they're talking about um I I'd say further study needs to be done but the problem is that the problem for us with
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believing scholarship is that it can be legitimately accused often of confirmation bias of finding facts in modern land forms uh and place names to fit a particular theory of scripture
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that they have they are not simply following the text they do have a framework like we all do uh and they will find in the text and in the place names what they want to find often there
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are some really hard examples of that uh and there are some believing Scholars that are doing an exceedingly good job and are challenging mainstream uh timelines of various ancient societies
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and things like that are doing good work I I think from what I've heard of him David R is is one who is doing some great work on the other hand you have ones that are really a mixed bag like Ron Wyatt um who made some very very
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bold claims about things that really shouldn't have been able to last 3,000 years in a way that you could recognize them um I mean we're talk even rocks are not going to are not going to stand the
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test of time with sand blasting and and rain and uh that sort of thing so it's really uh it's it feels satisfying but I I don't think we want to put too much on
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the we can have the the true Bible hand uh historical study um and then the second proclivity that uh believing scholarship often suffers from as an
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anti-establishment bias there's nothing wrong with saying yeah I think there's more to the mainstream Academia but anti-establishment bias or an anti-traditional posture um I don't really think is a
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wise uh posture on its own um you can end up in that place where you're actually running Contra to the mainstream uh but to have that as your
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presupposed goal to militate against uh the the mainstream will mean that you end up throwing out as many or more relevant facts as you're accusing AC
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Academia of throwing out um we really must not be uh in a place where we're unwilling to take in information our job is to is to
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discern spiritually about the claims that are being made uh which can be done by anyone anyone can see where one scholar has has brought his bias to bear in a in
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a conclusion and another one has done the same and they agree or disagree and for what reasons those are things we can examine even if we cannot become Hebrew experts we cannot become ancient near Eastern uh experts in literature or
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archaeology um we can discern ours is a spiritual task uh which leads actually to a fourth uh stream within Academia and that's Jewish and rabinal scholarship um they uh I think as a
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whole tend to spiritualize uh even mere factual claims like geography uh which is another potentially satisfying way of dealing with it ah we don't need to deal
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with this as a place necessarily it's symbolic uh can be very satisfying um but uh when you when you read their
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their texts I think that you're dealing with a motivation to relate statements about the land in the case of geography to people that no longer have the land
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um so it makes sense that they would spiritualize it from Ott's commentary on Deuter Deuteronomy 1:2 and so entirely so entirely has the geography
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of Deuteronomy 1:1 been lost by tradition that all the taram and Jewish commentators agree in spiritualizing the passage and say these are the words of
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reproof which Moses spake to all Israel in respect of their behavior at these various places that's how they paraphrase it leban points to their murmuring at the white Mana believe that
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word shares a root with white or means white uh djab to the golden calf again I think it has a root with gold uh and so on even Rashi usually a most literal
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commentator says Moses has enumerated the places where they wrought provocation before the place a rabinal name for Jehovah for the whole world is
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his place though his place is more than the whole the whole world and I know less than half of you half as well as I should like and I like less than half of you half as well as I
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deserve um I don't know that that's the most helpful way of doing things I think we need to First reckon with the idea that this is a narrative history and so deal with it that way and if it has spiritual import let that work from the
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facts not the other way around um a fifth motivation is I don't care and I want to make sure I bring that out we may most of us be in the place of why in
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the world should I bother with such things I hope to make a case why some attention should be given to it but it is a motivation doesn't matter that's not the point of the text we're going to really get to the meat of it but I would
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like to make the to make the case that you cannot actually get down to the meat of the text without dealing with these kinds of things um we just have to figure out how um with regard to
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scholarship you know I'm I'm not an academic uh in these fields uh but I've studied this studied this um for a long time I set my heart to
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study the word of God as a as a as a youth uh and so over the time of growing up I've come across a lot of the claims that at the time were very disturbing to
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me um and from dealing with those claims knowing that I needed to teach my children uh wanting to be a benefit to God's people wanting to know for myself
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wanting to know that um I was not running in vain um I've kind of put together a summary of where I've landed with regard to really difficult things
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in the text especially where there's perceived inconsistency so if you'll bear with me a brief excursus on sort of my view of the difficulties in scripture sure yeah isn't it isn't it possible to
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say that some of these things are unknowable I mean to say that I'm going to dig so hard of this particular thing which really has no consequence
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yeah can cannot one say okay I just need to understand other things besides I mean I don't know I guess I'm asking yeah is it always we
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have to so hard something that's yeah the question the question is that like do should do we need to drill so hard down on this and is this really not knowable that that's what I hope to
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answer uh here um short version um I think drilling down too hard on it is actually detrimental to Faith okay and and secondly we do need to at least know
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what to do with them I know I I don't know that this is that we can know where this is and any archaeological claim that says it's right here like on you have maps in front of you you got three
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Maps part of your uh session one uh outline like that you'll see the place names are are designated in different spots and I purposefully did that you'll also see that in the same map like the
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route of the Exodus they're tracing four different ways and what do you do with that um no I don't I don't know that you can know them for sure um but I I I kind
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of think that we need to settle on why not uh and have an idea of what we're supposed to do with them since again they are in God's word
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um I was pointing you over there way I'm sorry I think it goes back to what you've already said about the different approaches you absolutely give up on the historical accuracy then you're forced
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into a spiritualizing hermeneutic which is what you're going to take into the rest of the book right so whereas it's it's I think it's it is
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absolutely certain to sanity that you cannot find all these places right but does that mean we have to throw out their literal historical
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existence right and adopt either origin or Rashi you know whoever right you know that spiritualizing approach and I think that's where it's
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for me that's where it's important have to find every single place you know right should it might come to a shock that the maps in your Bible are not
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infallible right and and that's what I hope to lay out here today is a is kind of is a road for that but so you know my assumptions when coming to any of these things that we're going to discuss now or and weeks to follow I want to go
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ahead and lay this out so you understand where I'm coming from on this um so uh first all scripture is God breathed superintended by the Holy Spirit In other words it's intentional I start
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with the assumption that what scripture says is true not that it is easy to understand that's very important if I perceive a factual contradiction in the
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text the fault is in me not in the author's retelling of the facts I believe such a standpoint of humility is required by the belief that these men spoke from God as they were carried
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Along by the Holy Spirit conversely the Holy Spirit did not will to teach us something by inspiring the authors of scripture to record factual inaccuracy since he is history's author and perfect
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witness uh holding on to the idea that scripture is factually pristine is not endangering our faith that's what we do with that with that um presumption but I've seen some pretty
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bad attempts at harmonization I think how bad they are usually Ste stems rather from being unwilling to say that there are certain things that we are just not told in
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scripture uh for example John's gospel states that he was selective and he says that and then says a tell a leave nothing out account of the ministry of Jesus would just it take up too many
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Scrolls we can't do that um he had to be selective and I also fully uphold the wisdom of reading each book of your Bible as its own
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composition uh according to its own assumptions uh since what the authors chose to tell and even in the narrative where they chose to tell it was purposeful um but the idea that there
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are factual inaccuracies in God's word is really neither spiritually appropriate nor is it necessary if God works all things according to the counsil of his will then he does not
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need to have the facts misrepresented in any way to teach us something since he works all things then I can expect that when I come across these things that this is my understanding running behind
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scripture's understanding scripture is telling me something that that I am incapable yet of fully appreciating uh not the other way around so my
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understanding always Trails behind What God Says in his word I always want to encourage a simple Faith toward God and a simple confidence in his word but and and I also respect any attempt to
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explain hard things in Scripture or in nature that conscientiously starts with God's word only that we grow up into maturity okay in the knowledge and the
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grace of Christ with all wisdom this is the this is the real Mandate of of looking at the word of God we are to grow in the grace and knowledge of
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Christ not to stagnate okay we can have innocent assumptions but as we if we have children or have observed children we do not want to leave them in their innocent assumptions they may be pure as
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as to a seven-year-old but they are completely inappropriate for somebody who's 70 um we need to grow um and so hence hence why I would even T tackle this uh up front so really our problem I
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think is not um can we TR can we trust the word of God and I don't think our problem is scholarship I think our problem is problem is uncertainty because it's hard what can we rest on what can we draw spiritual
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meaning from uh can we draw spiritual meaning from things like place names and genealogies um should we just ignore them is a is a question um I think
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observing I I think the observation of the facts actually does lend Clarity to the teaching being presented amidst those facts um but they are also subject to a wide variety of evidence that we
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may not immediately have in front of us and I that's the real key I see um discussions of scriptures infallibility and of these difficult to topics often
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being discussed as if we could place ourselves back where they were and we can't we don't have some information that they had but didn't record and if
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bearing that in mind I think the difficulties become much less um because now we're just asking the question of whether our God left us and our faith toward him subject to these kinds of
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details um did he leave us subject to the academics he leave us subject to being peppered with every objection uh to the scriptures do we have to know the exact answers to these difficult
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questions before we're able to speak to scriptures reliability or before it's able to guide our faith and practice uh and on the other hand do we have to abandon these kinds of details entirely
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before we can be said to be living by faith and not by sight um in other words it's kind of two proclivities Among Us I definitely have the first that of being
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potentially arrested by every difficult deal detail and losing the thrust of the text on the other hand we can become accustomed to passing over any information we don't understand
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immediately and both are unhelpful to knowing what scripture says um so to take it seriously but on the other hand to conscientiously grow away from our
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fleshly proclivities uh I think is our job so I have to conscientiously move on um there may be some among you that need to conscientiously stop and think for a
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moment about huh why don't I understand this what possible use could this be to me if I did understand it um we we have our proclivities and we need to we need to know how how we are to grow again in
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the grace and knowledge of Christ um please historically and historically and consistently one of the chief attacks
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within the within the church has been to BR bring doubt fall the fall the scriptures so whereas it may not be profitable for us to engage the
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unbelieving world in its attacks I don't see how we can ignore it within the body itself right and that's
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where it it has been most destructive yes apologetics focuses outward it doesn't really focus so much on what are we doing as a body with this information
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if anything I we're building arcs in Kentucky right but we're falling apart within the local congregations right right and the aim of this study is to is
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to work toward the right way of doing things within the body here to to go ahead let's talk about it here we don't need to talk about this with our co-workers it's it's an irrelevant subject we believe that uh that a a man
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W walked Among Us who was God he was killed dead as a door nail and rose from the dead until we're you know really able to discuss that uh with with both
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sides believing that a lot of this is just really not going to matter uh but among us to to be able to undertake good study in God's word and to to act as uh
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I think the like skilled Craftsman was the is the phrase in uh one of the um uh uh personal Epistles um to to rightly divide the word of Truth something that
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this is for us we're to do that um I one very important consideration to be made is what Paul says about uh these things in 2 Timothy
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2:14 he says uh remind them of these things and charge them before God not to quarrel about words that has to do with our life in the
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body which does no good but only ruins the hearers he's warning us that one characteristic of teaching that Rex faith is a preoccupation with minutia such as genealogies and I would like to
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make the case that being accustomed to passing over information you don't understand is being just as preoccupied with minutia as being arrested by every detail okay neither are going to really
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give you understanding but I'm glad Abe that you asked the question that you asked as to whether whether it is God's intention to leave us fully not fully but um to leave us in
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the dark about a lot of these things whether there's purpose in that um I actually do think that there is a reason we should contemplate or at least we should contemplate the reality of the promises of God to us um in John 4 when
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the Lord was talking with the woman of Samaria this is verse 21 he said uh Jesus said to her woman believe me the hour is coming when neither on this
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mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the father geography you worship what you do not not know we worship what we know for
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salvation is from the Jews but the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshippers will worship the father in spirit and Truth for the father is
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seeking such people to worship him God is spirit and those who worship Him must Worship in spirit and Truth the God's promises to Abraham as
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to the land of Kanan had a geographical location the borders of which were actually really actually really important but Paul in making and also
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dealing with two geographical locations uh in Galatians this is Galatians 4 uh starting with verse 21 tell me you who
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desire to be under the law do you not listen to the law for it is written that Abraham had two sons one by a slave woman and one by a free woman but the son son of the slave was born according
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to the flesh while the son of the free woman was born through the promise now this may be interpreted Al allegorically these women are two covenants one is
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from Mount siai bearing children for slavery she is Hagar Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia she corresponds to the
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present Jerusalem for she is in slavery with her children but the Jerusalem above is free and she is our
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mother Paul is making the case that the Locust of God's promises is the city of God that will descend to Earth and all the nations will stream to it the location of God's promises to us is nowhere on Earth and and going back here
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will not help us ultimately our our mother is the Jerusalem that is above and in uh Peter's second letter uh
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in chapter in chapter 3 I think this corresponds uh to what to what I've been
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saying um starting at verse six uh and by means of these that is water the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished but by the same word the
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heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire being kept until the day of judgment and the destruction of the ungodly but do not overlook this one
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fact beloved that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count
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slowness but is patient toward you not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance but the day of the Lord will come like a thief and
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then the heavens will pass away with a Roar and the Heavenly Bodies will be burned up and dissolved and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed since all these things are
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thus to be dissolved what sort of people ought you to be in lives of Holiness and godliness waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be set on fire
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and dissolved and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn because of which okay like the Hasting and coming of the day of God because of which this creation will be
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dissolved okay but according to this promise rather his promise according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new Earth in which righteousness dwells and so I think that
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sets this geography in its proper place for us as to the spirit we are looking ahead to the Jerusalem that is above so now we study this in order to understand
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the point that Moses is making okay or what was happening to Israel that led to these things so firstly then and and the
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other difficulty that I've made a reference to is the relationship of these things to numbers we are dealing with different names and sometimes different sequences in Deuteronomy and if we just pass over that uh all they do
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is act as landmines for us later uh the place names listed in Deuteronomy often do not morphologically correspond to the place names listed in numbers uh or they occur in in an apparently different
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order uh Deuteronomy 10 is one of those places um places um but given that we're g given that uh this is its own work and standing apart
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the first the first step to understanding it is to understand its mechanics within itself so on on the first discourse uh it is a selective summary of
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summary of numbers the the narration in chapters 1 through 4 uh which is the part of Israel's history in the wilderness that Moses chose to talk about okay does begin and end at essentially the same
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places as numbers begins and ends which indicates an intentional relationship between them okay so now we're now we're getting somewhere okay and that's despite the differing place names so
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compared to the totality of numbers Moses first discourse is really a barebone summation but Moses brings out what is just basically a paragraph in numbers into major importance that is
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the wars with seon and O and makes them the sign to the new generation of what God is doing so he's you can see him being selective even though his discourse covers the same time period as
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numbers does you can see him being selected and enlarging things that were small in numbers and minimizing things that are large uh in numbers for a
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reason then the first four verses where we find this geography also then are a rough outline of the first discourse itself uh they they begin and with the the geography of where all the things
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he's going to talk about happened okay so in turning to examine the geography a little bit um I think the location and timing really can be deduced from the
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message uh and it helps us understand the message uh even if we're not clear on how exactly to divide it you may have heard me read this in a way that did not put a period here but just kept going uh
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last week don't know if you know notic that but I read it fast because I'm not exactly sure where this actually divides okay the in the wilderness okay he spoke to him beyond
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the Jordan we got that in the wilderness in the arabah opposite souf this is our first problem you can it could mean yamu the Sea of reeds which is what we call
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the Red Sea and as I can understand it from the scriptural data it can mean either Fork uh of of this body of water depending on context okay but is this the the sea did is this in the
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wilderness in the arabah opposite the sea or is there some place in Moab that's called suf that we don't exactly know about again we have another section
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in numbers 21 uh that's a poem from um from the book of the wars of Yahweh I think or is it the book of yosar book of the wars of Yahweh um so
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between Moab and the amorites therefore it is said in the book of the wars of Yahweh Wah in sufa and The Valleys of the Arn and the slope of The Valleys that extends to the seat of R and leans
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to the border of Moab okay so a related uh route there so suf could be talking about something up there and there's some scriptural data to suggest that so
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it may belong then with what goes before that this is where he spoke to them or it may belong with what goes ahead okay um what follows pertains then to two
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geographical possible locations okay either there a list of locations that surrounded Israel's camps on the plains of Moab okay or they denote the former
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the former generation's Journey Through the Wilderness the fact that it is 11 days journey from H by the way of Mount SE to cadesh Bara follows this suggests
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that it may belong uh with this the other thing that suggests that it belongs with the former generation's journey is the presence of two place names that we can identify where hazarat
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appears in the list of stations in numbers along their journey and it is somewhere between Sinai and Kadesh Bara if this is even right but it's not here
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um so there's some I I think personally that this belongs with what follows so that you should uh sort of divide the text here um either here or here and
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then uh depending this might belong up and this might belong down but that this stuff belongs together okay so between pan and topel Laban hazarat and djab it
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is 11 days journey from H by way of Mount seir to Kadesh Bara so whether I whether it goes up here or not whether I'm really sure of that or not um I I
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think the opening phrases are helping us to see what Moses is saying about the location and timing
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yesn't when it says in the 40th year forces us to think that this is a time up there because it's foring us to say This is 40 years later this is not right
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at the time of hor right if that it would certainly s control that it it it might the the problem is the the 11 days Journey from Horeb to cadesh Bara that
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is distinctly the former generation's Journey from the Mountain of God to where they rebelled uh later in the text in verse 19 it says then we set out from
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herab and went through all that great and terrifying Wilderness that you saw on the way to the Hill Country of the amorites as Yahweh Our God commanded us and we came to cadesh Bara so there are
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other markers in the text that seem to seem to suggest that what he's do what the person writing the introduction is doing is doing is identifying what the boundaries of the
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path were so what you're saying is that there's a difference between where Moses is giving these words and where these words took
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place it's um no I'm they were given then but then what they referred to I I'm saying that that this feels different from the location of where
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Moses spoke these words that bookend it that this is going to this is acting as a skeleton outline of what follows in chapter one this is saying it's a a
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standard 11 days journey from here to here presuming I've got this right from here to here to here 40 years later Moses is speaking these words over
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here what happened what happened so I I'm that that's the point I think that's being made is that this is the longest 11 days
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journey ever and there's a reason for that Moses is about to recount in summary starting at Horeb at the end of that 11 days journey coming here what
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Israel did when they got to cadesh they rebelled in the wilderness okay so that the location and timing is first a witness to the
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people's faithlessness we know he whoever's writing this knows where this is and it's a standard 11 days journey but then he goes on to talk about how 40 years
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went by before they made it back so this is the historical backdrop to Hebrews 3 and4 yes yes this the historical backdrop for Hebrews 3 and 4 those who
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fell in the wilderness yes absolutely so that's the first thing he's doing and I don't have to know where these things are to to be able to tell that's what he's doing that's what I'm trying to
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demonstrate at least that that the that the text will give you enough to deduce Moses point because what I didn't write uh right here is what uh Abe brought up
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um in the 40th year on the first day of the 11th month that's a that's a very jarring statement after recounting that it's a it took them longer than 11 days
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because they were like a million and a half people but but that it's a it's a standard 11 days journey from here to here what you'll see at the end of chapter one he'll Yahweh will tell them
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as for you this is verse 40 as for you turn and Journey Into the Wilderness in the direction of yam souf go back get out of here go back okay and as
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you know they said no no we'll do it we'll do it and they went up somewhere in here like a rod on your map will be like right here but as as the commentator said we don't know exactly
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where it was but they went up and tried to do battle and ended up getting their tails kicked all the way back to some you know uh all the way back to some other place um
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okay and then he'll go on to say that they they came back that they they hung around this place and Moses ends up making the point
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I think he's making the point later when he says we we began our Let's see we turned and journeyed this is chapter 2 verse one we turned and journeyed Into the Wilderness in the direction of yam souf as Yahweh told me they had hung
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around this area unsure what to do and he finally begins to take his journey toward a lot at to pass around uh Mount Seer which I I do think is what what is
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being intended by the text but this was the first real obedience that that was being done done by the people and it's after most of the first generation has passed away in the wilderness okay um
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this story that he's telling in his first discourse is the new generation story it's not the old generation Story the old generation story is necessary to point to God's faithfulness okay so this
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this is trying to explain why he makes a big deal out of the war with seon and O why that why that matters saying to them in paraphrase
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your fathers who said that Yahweh only brought them out to die in the wilderness are dead out there they're dead they're not here
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you're here ready to cross over into the land God has been faithful to you he did exactly what he said he would do they're dead it's not their story anymore it's the sign and witness to
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them that what their fathers said that our little one will become a prey of a people greater and taller than we not true God was faithful to his
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promise just as he said uh this is um verse 38 of chapter 1 Joshua the son of noon who stands before you he shall enter encourage him for he will cause
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Israel to inherit and as for your little ones who you said would become a prey and your children who today have no knowledge of good or evil they shall go in there and to them I will give it and
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they shall possess it and then at the end uh toward the uh back third of the of the discourse he picks up that same statement in encouraging Joshua I
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command this is uh chapter 3 verse 21 and I commanded Joshua at that time your eyes have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to these two kings so will
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Yahweh do to all the kingdoms into which you are crossing you shall not fear them for it is Yahweh your God who fights for you hence the point of his history and
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and the demonstration of God's faithfulness to his people um let's uh let's close our time in prayer if there's no questions all
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right father thank you for your faithfulness to faithfulness to us and thank you that we can know for certain that you have not Le left us
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orphans that what you have given us in your word is intentional I thank you that it is not an accident that we do not know where certain places
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certain places are I thank you that you have shown us your promise where wherever we are as far away from that land that you had promised to Abraham's descendants we may be we may call on you and find you
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near we thank you that you have never failed in any one of your promises and that though we are faithless that you remain faithful for you cannot deny yourself we thank you in Jesus name
