Chapter 1

This verse tells what this book will be about, and sets the stage for what is coming next:

5 Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying, 6 "The LORD our God said to us in Horeb, 'You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7 Turn and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negeb and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. [Deu 1:5-7 ESV]

Moses explains that it is time to go into Canaan and take the land that the Lord has promised them.  He goes on to recount the journey of the Israelites from Egypt to now.  He reminds them of how good men were set over them to help judge, because they were too many and too burdensome for Moses alone.  He reminds them of the 12 spies, and how they refused to enter the land because of their report.  Moses tells them how God was angry that they would not enter the land, and swore that not one of them of age would enter the land.  And the wandering in the desert started.  The whole history of Israel since Egypt is summarized here, the milestones recounted.  It is interesting that the milestones are the times that Israel refused to do what God had told them to do.  Those who left Egypt are best described as a generation of tiny faith.  They had been slaves for 430 years, and they always wanted to be looked after, taken care of, and provided for.  They never wanted to stand on their own two feet and do the best they could.  Another characteristic was that they always looked to man and not to God for their help.  They always complained to Moses or Aaron.  And when they did, they blamed either them, or they blamed God for their troubles.  They never remembered that it was God who always delivered them from their problems.  They never learned to trust God, even given example after example, object lesson after object lesson.  They just seemed incapable of building on God's faithfulness.  And because of that, an entire generation is buried in the sands of that wilderness.

2023 - This verse:

39 And as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. [Deu 1:39 ESV]

I consider this to be the OT type for the age of accountability.