1:7-8 - Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighboring peoples in the Arabah, in the mountains1, in the western foothills2, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates. See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore he would give to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—and to their descendants after them."

The expression of Yahweh's decision that Israel had stayed long enough at Horeb (v6) is followed by two commands (v7 & v8).

The first is the command to "break camp and to advance into the hill country of the Amorites . . . as far as . . . the Euphrates."

This broad geographical brush-stroke of the territories towards which they should advance (and take possession of, v8) is interestng for three reasons.

A. The areas described is far vaster than anything that Israel ever managed to occupy in her entire history. Even when Israel reached her territorial zenith under the reigns of David and Solomon, her sovereignty was only a fraction of what is depicted here.

B. This circumscription of the land does not anticipate the conquest of the Trans-Jordan land. This suggests that the territorial profile delineated here was not meant, therefore, to define a set of eternally-binding boundaries for Israel. Instead, it charts out the contours of possibility of what Israel could be when she obeyed.3

C. Horeb, from whence this command to see was issued, is located too far south—by at least 200km (125miles)—for the Israelites (GenA) to be able actually to see these territories. Their past experience as slaves in Egypt also means that these lands would be unfamiliar to them except by way of hearsay.

The call to see—Yahweh's second command—is, therefore, a call to exercise their imagination. It served, in effect, to summon GenA to faith—to see as Yahweh sees.4 This is the what the author of the letter to the Hebrews had in mind when he says, "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for" (Heb 11:1). Famous men often end their retirement speech with the customary humility of saying that, if they had accomplished much, it was because they have stood on the shoulders of giants. Scripture promises us a better deal: we can accomplish much because we stand—or rather get carried—on the shoulders of God as He carries us "as a father carries his son" (Deut 1:31). It is only there that we can see as Yahweh sees; only there that eternity can begin to frame the horizons of our lives; only there that we find the spring of boldness from which drank all the great men and women of faith who have gone before us.

This land is further defined in v8 as land once sworn to the patriarch "Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their descendants after them." This way of designating the land as "I/Yahweh swore to give" is very important for Deuteronomy's understanding of the land. The gift of the land in Deuteronomy is not a new act of God; it is simply Yahweh's fulfilment of an old promise made once to Israel's patriarchs. In commanding GenA, therefore, to go in and take possession of this land that He had once sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Yahweh engraved into perpetuity his character and reputation as the Keeper of His Promises.

Possession of the land would thus be in itself a monumental, tangible proof of the faithfulness of Yahweh to His promise. The land-gift tradition was a central factor in Israel's sense of dependence on Yahweh. They could never consider themselves an autochthonous people ("sons of the soil"), for they would have been no people and would have had no land apart from the divine gift. The land was thus also a proof of God's grace. But it was land that they had to go in and take.

Christopher Wright, Deuteronomy, 25
(emphasis his).

At the crucial moment at Kadesh Barnea—just eleven days away, according to v2—when the land could have been theirs, however, GenA refused to trust Yahweh. They absolutely rejected Joshua's and Caleb's plea that, with Yahweh' help, they can go in and take possession of it (Num 14:6-9). What were the thoughts that coursed through the hearts and minds of GenB as they listened to Moses recall of this event of their parents' sin? Whatever those thoughts may have been, one thing is certain; they would not have missed the point that an active faith, one that sees as Yahweh sees, and to act according to that vision, is needed for receiving the promise of God.

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