My parents used to get Readers Digest. The idea was to take interesting articles from other places and condense them for folks too busy to read. That is what Deuteronomy 1-4 is like, Moses is giving a digest of the events from the Exodus to the end of the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. If you had trouble following the flow from Exodus through Numbers, here is a summary.
The theme is Obedience. We might think it was easier to know what to obey at that time – they had Moses, and the Pillar of Cloud, and the Tabernacle and various wonders to give them direction. (We have no note for the record, that they seemed confused and they grumbled about their leaders frequently.)
We do not have such direct guidance. How are we to proceed? There is a change from the initial miraculous to the less spectacular keeping of the laws and wisdom of the scriptures.
What do you think? Is it harder or easier today to follow the Lord?