What time period does Moses go back to in Deuteronomy?
Deuteronomy has Moses going back to the period after Israel departed from Horeb, that is Mount Sinai, and journeyed through the great and terrible wilderness to Kadesh Barnea, the time when they were ready to enter the Promised Land, before the sending of the twelve spies.
Les explains that Deuteronomy is a synopsis, a repeat of everything. Moses goes back to the time when the Israelites first came away from Mount Sinai and were ready to go into the Promised Land, as recorded in Exodus. In Deuteronomy 1:19-20, Moses recounts how they departed from Horeb, that is Mount Sinai, went through the great and terrible wilderness by way of the mountain of the Amorites, and came to Kadesh Barnea. There the Lord set the land before them and commanded them to go up and possess it. Les points out that God did not tell them to send in the twelve spies; that was the Israelites' own idea. They backed off, weak in faith, forgetting all the power their God had manifested, and said they could not go in until they knew what they were up against. God condescended. Les imagines the Jews must have wished those twelve had never gone in, because their report made Israel weak and afraid, saying, 'We can't do it.'