Deuteronomy Chapters 1 and 2

Deut 1:19 "Then we set out from Horeb, and went through all that
great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the hill
country of the Amorites, just as the LORD our God had commanded us;
and we came to Kadesh-barnea."

I googled some of this and found out that Horeb is actually Mount
Horeb or Mount Sinai. And Kadesh-barnea means consecrated or holy.
God gave Moses the ten commandments on Mount Sinai, but it got to a
point where he wanted the people to leave and go to a holy and
consecrated place--Mount Sinai. Sounds good doesn't it?

Earlier in the chapter (verse 2), it just says that it is eleven days
journey from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea. Now, in verse 19, it says that
in those eleven days, you had to go through a "terrible wilderness."
Obviously going through that wilderness involved faith and obedience,
and it was absolutely necessary in order to be holy and consecrated
and to reach Kadesh-Barnea.

As we see in verse 2, the route to Kadesh-Barnea, was through Mount
Seir, which in the book of Ezekiel was cursed. This was also the land
which belonged to Esau and his descendants.

"...Behold, O Mount Seir, I am against you;
I will stretch out My hand against you,
And make you most desolate;
4I shall lay your cities waste,
And you shall be desolate.
Then you shall know that I am the LORD."
Ezekiel 35: 3,4

I guess what I got out of this passage is that to go where God wants
us to go and to be holy and consecrated, will involve difficulties and
trials. In the midst of our trials, we may go through a Mount Seir in
our lives. We may feel cursed. May we have to grace to be confident
that at those difficult times, we are exactly where God wants us.