Section 1192
I. The place wherein they were led, and the time in which they were led in this wilderness
Thou shalt remember all the way in which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness. As soon as the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, they came into a wilderness: when they had passed through the Red Sea, they came into the wilderness of Shur (Exodus 15:22). There they traveled for three days to find water: after that, we hear of their coming to the wilderness of Sin (Exodus 16:1): and from thence to the wilderness of Sinai (Exodus 19:1), where the law was given them, and where they took instructions for the tabernacle, and made all things pertaining thereunto. They staid there for some time; and from thence they went to the wilderness of Paran (Numbers 10:12): and so they went from one wilderness to another and indeed were always in a wilderness from first to last. Front Paran they sent forth spies into the good land, (for they were then very near it); but these spies, in general, bringing a bad report of the land, the people murmured against God and his servant; which was so highly resented, that the Lord gave orders that they should return and go into the wilderness by the Red Sea again. As it was threatened them, so it was, that they wandered about in the wilderness forty years; that is, thirty-eight years more, making up in all that period.
At this time they were in the plains of Moab, and the forty years were almost up. They were in the fortieth year of their travels, when these words were expressed by Moses, which we are about to improve.
Now the wilderness which they had been led in, for forty years past, may be considered either as an emblem of an unregenerate state, or of this world. Of an unregenerate state (in which the Lord’s people are, by nature, as well as others; and out of which they have been brought by grace). This is like a wilderness, which is uncultivated: there is nothing sown or planted in it; there is nothing but the mere produce of nature; so in an unregenerate man’s heart, there is no seed of grace, no engrafted word, no fruits of righteousness. In a wilderness there is a want of provisions; so a man that is in a state of nature, has no spiritual provisions, no heavenly food, no divine refreshments; there is no bread of life here, only husks which swine do eat; therefore, souls which are in such a flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life? These are what natural men feed upon; but these are not food for the saints. There are many by-paths in this wilderness; and in it the Lord’s people are led, are instructed, and kept as the apple of his eye.