Deuteronomy Failure to believe & listen

seekeroftruth

Well-Known Member
Deuteronomy 1:26 But you were unwilling to go up; you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. 27 You grumbled in your tents and said, “The Lord hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. 28 Where can we go? Our brothers have made our hearts melt in fear. They say, ‘The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites there.’”

29 Then I said to you, “Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. 30 The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, 31 and in the wilderness. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.”

32 In spite of this, you did not trust in the Lord your God, 33 who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go.

34 When the Lord heard what you said, he was angry and solemnly swore: 35 “No one from this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your ancestors, 36 except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he followed the Lord wholeheartedly.”

37 Because of you the Lord became angry with me also and said, “You shall not enter it, either. 38 But your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will enter it. Encourage him, because he will lead Israel to inherit it. 39 And the little ones that you said would be taken captive, your children who do not yet know good from bad—they will enter the land. I will give it to them and they will take possession of it. 40 But as for you, turn around and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea.[a]”

41 Then you replied, “We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight, as the Lord our God commanded us.” So every one of you put on his weapons, thinking it easy to go up into the hill country.

42 But the Lord said to me, “Tell them, ‘Do not go up and fight, because I will not be with you. You will be defeated by your enemies.’”

43 So I told you, but you would not listen. You rebelled against the Lord’s command and in your arrogance you marched up into the hill country. 44 The Amorites who lived in those hills came out against you; they chased you like a swarm of bees and beat you down from Seir all the way to Hormah. 45 You came back and wept before the Lord, but he paid no attention to your weeping and turned a deaf ear to you. 46 And so you stayed in Kadesh many days—all the time you spent there.​

a. Deuteronomy 1:40 Or the Sea of Reeds

This is from the easy English site.

The Israelites doubted God’s promise. They refused to obey him because they did not trust him. They believed that God had brought them out from Egypt to kill them. They did not think that they could capture the cities. They were afraid because the people in those cities were very tall and strong. Moses told the Israelites that they need not be afraid. God would look after them in the same way that a father would look after them. A father carries his son if his son is too weak or tired. God had led the Israelites through the desert, but they would not trust him.

These verses describe God’s anger. None of the Israelites who left Egypt entered into the country. Only Joshua and Caleb went in, because they obeyed God completely. Even Moses did not get in because Moses did not obey God about another matter. Numbers 20:1-13 tells the story. God told Moses to speak to a rock and then the rock would provide water. Moses did not trust God enough just to speak to the rock. Moses was angry and he hit the rock. That was a serious error. Moses was the leader but he did not obey God. So God said that Moses was not suitable to lead the Israelites into the country. This shows that God has very high standards for leaders.

Still, the Israelites wanted to go into the country. God had told the Israelites to turn round. They had to go back. When the Israelites heard that, they tried to attack their enemies. But the Amorites defeated them. God did not help the Israelites because they did not obey him. They tried to win the battle by themselves. But they could not do anything unless God was with them. They had to learn that fact.

This first speech is going on for a couple of chapters. If I hang in there, I'll not only remember something I read before, but I'll probably learn something new.

:coffee:
 
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