Deuteronomy 1:28
Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there. Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.
The verse belongs to the lessons given through Moses during the forty years of wandering to strengthen faith, part of the history of failures and victories in Deuteronomy just before Israel came into possession of Jericho. Moses was instructed to repeat that history over and over to Israel, and it should be rehearsed more often, with every new move made as a carrying out of the principles God had given.
The verse records Israel refusing to go up to possess the land set before them because the spies' fearful report discouraged their hearts. They focused on the greater and taller people, the great cities walled up to heaven, and the sons of the Anakim rather than trusting God's command and promise to give them the land. Their fear became complaint, murmuring and rebellion, showing unbelief in the God who had led and protected them, despite the good report about the land.
The discouraging report at Kadesh was in many respects correct: the cities were walled and very great, and giants and giant warriors with iron chariots dwelt there, in comparison with whom the Hebrews were mere pigmies. This became clear in the later conquest of Gilead and Bashan. But on the borders of Canaan Israel lost sight of the beauty and fruitfulness of the land through fear of the difficulties of occupying it, because they left God out of the question.
The fatal mistake was not in what Israel saw but in distrusting the power of God, and this distrust alone prevented them from at once entering the goodly land. The multitude echoed the unbelieving spies' decision that they were not able to go up because the people were stronger, and their words proved true so that they were not able to go up and wore out their lives in the desert. This illustrates the truth that as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.
The verse explains why the Lord refused to bring the adults of the army that left Egypt into the promised land, proving His promises are upon condition of obedience. Because they were discouraged from entering and failed to trust and obey, that generation was doomed to nearly forty years of desert wandering to die there, apart from Caleb and Joshua who wholly followed the Lord.
The verse exposes distrust and unbelief as Israel's great sin in refusing to go up, showing it was unsafe for them to rely on their own wisdom. With dissatisfaction, impatience, rebellion, pride and unbelief they were unprepared to enter Canaan and to represent a people whose God is the Lord, since they did not bear His character of purity, goodness and benevolence. Had they yielded in faith to God's direction, being governed by His judgments and walking in His ordinances, they would long before have been settled in Canaan as a prosperous, holy, happy people.
The long wandering and misfortunes were not chargeable to the Lord and were not caused by Moses, for He had been faithful to His promises while they broke their solemn pledge, transgressed His holy requirements, forfeited His favor by disobedience and kindled His wrath again and again. He was more grieved than they by the delay because He could not bring them into immediate possession and display before all nations His mighty power in their deliverance and protection from opposing nations. Their perversity and delay dishonored Him and detracted from His glory, yet He is shown not as a stern relentless judge but as a loving compassionate father who pardoned their transgressions, retained them as His people, and would pardon on true repentance and heartfelt sorrow.
As part of Deuteronomy 1, to be read whole together with Deuteronomy 7 and 8, the verse stands as the word of the Lord written for admonition upon those on whom the ends of the world are come. It requires learning, appreciating and obeying His voice by following His guidance fully rather than only up to the point that agrees with human judgment and then holding fast to human ideas, making human mind and judgment supreme, and refusing to be molded after His likeness. Everything must be viewed in the light of Christ's example, for He is the truth and the true light to be heard and copied in self-denial and self-sacrifice, looking to His merits for His glory of character to be bestowed and seeking perfection of character, living not to please self, because human standards are feeble reeds and the Lord's standard is perfection.