Deuteronomy 11 · a question people ask
Moses says "your eyes have seen". Hadn't the generation who came out of Egypt died in the wilderness?
The LORD had sworn that those counted "from twenty years old and upward" would fall in the wilderness (Numbers 14:29), and Moses has said that "all the generation of the men of war were consumed" (2:14). Yet here he says, "I don’t speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen" (11:2), "but your eyes have seen all of the LORD’s great work which he did" (11:7), and he says it again in 29:2. Christians read this in two main ways, each resting on verses; the two don't rule each other out. All agree that those who stood before Moses were to teach the LORD's words to their children: "You shall teach them to your children" (11:19).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Many had seen it when they were young
Those who hold this view note that only those "from twenty years old and upward" were to die (Numbers 14:29), that Caleb and Joshua were spared (Numbers 14:30), and that the LORD said, "I will bring in your little ones that you said should be captured or killed" (Numbers 14:31); Moses had repeated it: "your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, shall go in there" (1:39). On this reading, many who stood before Moses had seen Egypt, the sea and the wilderness with their own eyes, when they were young.
Numbers 14:29-31 · Deuteronomy 1:39
Moses speaks to Israel as one people
Those who hold this view note that Moses speaks the same way of the covenant made at Horeb (5:2): "The LORD didn’t make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive today" (5:3). Later he makes the covenant "with those who stand here with us today before the LORD our God, and also with those who are not here with us today" (29:15). On this reading, "your eyes" speaks to Israel as the one people the LORD brought out of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 5:2-3 · Deuteronomy 29:14-15
The verses
“Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were counted of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have complained against me,”
“The days in which we came from Kadesh Barnea until we had come over the brook Zered were thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war were consumed from the middle of the camp, as the LORD swore to them.”
“Know this day—for I don’t speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm,”
“but your eyes have seen all of the LORD’s great work which he did.”