Deuteronomy 2:7-12: a reflection

7For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has known your walking through this great wilderness. These forty years, the LORD your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing. 8So we passed by from our brothers, the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir, from the way of the Arabah from Elath and from Ezion Geber. We turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab. 9The LORD said to me, “Don’t bother Moab, neither contend with them in battle; for I will not give you any of his land for a possession, because I have given Ar to the children of Lot for a possession.” 10(The Emim lived there before, a great and numerous people, and tall as the Anakim. 11These also are considered to be Rephaim, as the Anakim; but the Moabites call them Emim. 12The Horites also lived in Seir in the past, but the children of Esau succeeded them. They destroyed them from before them, and lived in their place, as Israel did to the land of his possession, which the LORD gave to them.)

As Moses recounts Israel's journey, he pauses to remind them of God's faithful care through the long, hard wilderness years. The LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands, he says; he has known your going through this great wilderness; these forty years the LORD your God has been with you, and you have lacked nothing. Looking back over the whole hard journey, Moses can say: through it all, God was with them, and they lacked nothing.

Notice the testimony of looking back: through the long, hard journey, God was with them, and they lacked nothing. The forty years in the wilderness had been full of hardship, wandering, trial; and yet, looking back, Moses can see God's faithful hand through it all, sustaining them so that they lacked nothing they truly needed. What might have felt, day by day, like bare survival, is seen, in retrospect, as God's faithful provision through the whole long journey.

That backward look is worth taking over our own long journeys. In the midst of a hard, prolonged stretch, it can be hard to see God's provision; day by day, it may feel like bare survival, or even lack. But looking back over the whole journey, we often see, as Moses did, that God was with us through it all, and that we lacked nothing we truly needed. Take time to look back over the hard stretches of your life, and see God's faithful provision through them. You may find, as Israel found, that through the whole long journey God was with you, and you lacked nothing you truly needed, even when it did not feel so at the time. Let the backward look strengthen your trust for the road ahead; the God who sustained you through the wilderness behind you, so that you lacked nothing, will be with you on the journey still to come.

Lord, as Moses recounted Israel's journey, he reminded them that through the long, hard wilderness years you were with them, and they lacked nothing; looking back over the whole journey, he could see your faithful hand sustaining them through it all. Help me take that backward look over my own long journeys. In the midst of a hard, prolonged stretch, it can be hard to see your provision; day by day, it may feel like bare survival, or even lack. But looking back over the whole journey, I often see, as Moses did, that you were with me through it all, and that I lacked nothing I truly needed. Help me take time to look back over the hard stretches of my life, and see your faithful provision through them. Let me find, as Israel found, that through the whole long journey you were with me, and I lacked nothing I truly needed, even when it did not feel so at the time. Let the backward look strengthen my trust for the road ahead; you, who sustained me through the wilderness behind me, will be with me on the journey still to come. Thank you for your faithful provision, Lord, through all my journey.