Deuteronomy Chapter 2

So then Moses recounted the epic travels - 38 years' worth - in one sentence: "Then we turned around and went back into the wilderness following the route to the Red Sea, as Godhad instructed me. We worked our way in and around the hills of Seir for a long, long time." (v1)

A lifetime. It must have seemed never-ending.

So do our troubles. When difficulties come, we often lose sight of the good times and are tempted to lose hope. BUT:

Then God said, “You’ve been going around in circles in these hills long enough; go north.

As Lysa Terkeust says in @FirstFive, we need 'go to' Scriptures to remind ourselves of our purpose and destinies and this verse, Deuteronomy 2:2, can be one of them: I was made for more than to be stuck in a vicious cycle of defeat.

I can turn north, out of the wilderness, towards the promises God has for me.
I can turn away from my past and move into the future.
I can turn away from temptation.

The Israelites then travelled peacefully through different areas, obeying God's commands not to cause any trouble. But when they arrived in Hesbon, God "made his (the king of Heshbon's) spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate in order to give him into your hands, as he has now done. The Lord said to me, ‘See, I have begun to deliver Sihon and his country over to you. Now begin to conquer and possess his land.’" (vv 30- 31)

The Israelites were about to step into the future God had for them, because it seems that they had now learned to obey God.

"And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?" Deuteronomy 10:12 - 13

My challenge too: obedience - to God - in everything.