1: 1-2 - These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel in the desert east of the Jordan—that is, in the Arabah— opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab1. (It takes eleven days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by the Mount Seir road.)2[T - OL]
In these two verses the narrator introduces us to the book he has put together from the sources he has of Moses' addresses to GenB. Though his book would eventually become the authoritative canon the narrator recognizes that, first and foremost, that authoritiy derives from being Moses' words. We know nothing about this narrator (or narrators) who did this work that has since transformed worlds and lives he could not have possibly imagined. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit he has planted a tree under whose shade he never sat; its shade and fruit now nourish and challenge us. What a life well spent!
A life well spent seems too to be the narrator's own thought, for he adds a side remark in v2 that it takes only "eleven days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea" by the route that his ancient forebears, GenA, had taken. At the end of eleven days they would have been at Kadesh Barnea, the very doorstep into the Promised Land. They could have conquered the Promised Land beginning just two years after they had left Egypt. Yet, thirty-eight years later, their children (i.e., GenB) were only "in the desert east of the Jordan" where they were being taught by Moses.3 We see how the narrator nudges his audience aside with this verse to ask why a journey that needed only eleven days had ended up four decades long. His audience would have understood: by their disobedience, GenA had squandered the years away. Located at the beginning of his recounting of Israel's experience on the plains of Moab, the narrator goads his audience not to repeat the errors of their forefathers. Stretching across the vast reaches of time Deuteronomy speaks to us still, to warn and to teach us how we too must not fritter away our days. Reading his book challenges us to ask what trees we are planting by and in our lives.
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, rev., 2021