‘ And you returned and wept before Yahweh, but Yahweh did not listen to your voice, nor did he give ear to you.'
The result had been deep sorrow, so much so that they came and wept before the Tabernacle, ‘before Yahweh'. But they had wept in disappointment, not because they were repentant of how they had let Yahweh down. So Yahweh did not hear, for their hearts and intentions were not right, and they had disobeyed Him. His ears were thus now closed to them. His head was turned away. We may think that we can continue praying when we have been disobedient to God, but the truth is that until we truly repent He will not listen to us. The word He wants to hear is a genuine ‘sorry', and for these it was not possible. Their hearts had become set in the wrong direction. They might express remorse, but they would not be ‘sorry'.
‘ So you abode in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you abode there.'
Thus for many days they had remained at the oasis at Kadesh. Moses could not remember how long it was, and so he adds ‘for the number of days that you abode there'. But eventually they had had to move on. Possibly their large numbers had affected the waters of the oases round about so that they were for a time no longer usable or sufficient. Or perhaps there were too many of them for permanent residence there. Compare Numbers 20:2.
‘Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea, as Yahweh spoke to me.'
Then finally they had had to submit to what God had said, and they had begun their wanderings. Whether it was because Moses had insisted at God's command, or because conditions had made it inevitable, they had left Kadesh and taken the route by ‘the way to the Reed Sea', just as Yahweh had said. And for a considerable time they had wandered around Mount Seir, the range of mountains south of the Dead Sea. They had not, however, been very happy about it and it had resulted in the attempted coup by Dathan and Abiram (Numbers 16).
So the parameters have now been laid down. Although his hearers did not realise it the whole history of Israel has been laid out in microcosm. Moses has laid down the foundations for the future. The land and the future is Yahweh's. It is available for all who will respond to Him in belief and will obey Him. He has done His part. He has multiplied them. He has established them as a righteous nation. Now it is up to them. If they respond to His covenant they may enter into it and enjoy its blessing and Yahweh's protection. If they do so respond He will lead them and fight for them. He will be to them like a father bearing his son. But if they fail to go on believing, if they fail to go on obeying Him, then He will also drive them out of the land, as He drove out their fathers, so that they too will be for ever wandering around, getting nowhere. The choice lies with them.
The principles that lie behind this first chapter will be continually repeated throughout the book. He is giving His people the land, but if they fail to respond truly to Him they will lose it.
It should be stressed that nothing of all this determined the eternal destiny of these people. As with us that was determined by their own personal individual response to the way of forgiveness that God had laid open to them. He had not forsaken them completely. But we may see in this chapter a parable of the Christian life. For the newly converted Christian, life often seems like a wilderness journey, but as he learns to trust Christ more he can enter into rest, the rest of trust and obedience. Sadly, however, many fear what obedience to God will result in and so do not go forward, thus sentencing themselves to a life in the wilderness. The writer to the Hebrews used it as an illustration of life as an unbeliever in contrast with life as a believer (Hebrews 3-4).