Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God,
The rebuke belongs to the lessons given through Moses to strengthen faith, drawn from the history of failures and victories during the forty years of wandering when every new move was to be a carrying out of the principles given to Israel, and it belongs to the history just before coming into possession of Jericho. Moses was instructed to repeat this history over and over, and the book of Deuteronomy with its wonderful experiences is to be kept before God's people and rehearsed more often. He was directed to recount dealings in deliverance from Egypt and wonderful preservation in the wilderness, calling to mind unbelief and murmuring when brought into trial and the great mercy and loving-kindness that never forsook them. That recounting was to lead to realizing personal sin and weakness and that God was righteousness and strength, and so to stimulate faith and strengthen courage.
The unbelief was refusal to trust and enter Canaan despite the promise to give the land and to fight for them, despite past deliverance in Egypt, care on the journey and through the wilderness, going before to find places to camp, and guidance by fire at night and cloud by day. Christ Himself had led and taught for forty years, giving through the pillar of cloud the same truths later taught in human form, yet He was not recognized as the heaven-sent Teacher. At Kadesh the fathers distrusted God's power, feared the people of Canaan, and accused God of bringing them out of Egypt to destroy them. The spies' report was in many respects correct, for the cities were walled and very great and were inhabited by giants, in comparison with whom the Hebrews were mere pigmies, yet the fatal mistake was distrust alone.
The great sin was distrust and unbelief despite faithfulness to promises, joined with pride, impatience, murmuring, disobedience, and rebellion. Because the people did not bear God's character of purity, goodness, and benevolence, they were unfit and unprepared to enter and to represent a people whose God is the Lord. This unbelief alone prevented at once entering the good land and brought judgment that the rebellious generation, the adults of the army that left Egypt, would not enter the promised land, with Caleb excepted for wholly following the Lord. The conquest of Gilead and Bashan nearly forty years afterward made clear that distrust had doomed Israel to the long desert wandering and delayed possession of the land.
The long wandering and delay were not God's fault, for He longed to give the land and was more grieved than they by the delay, wanting to bring them into immediate possession to display mighty power in deliverance before all nations. Had they yielded in faith to direction, been governed by judgments, and walked in ordinances, they would long before have been settled in Canaan as a prosperous, holy, happy people, but broken pledge, transgression of requirements, and delay dishonored God and detracted from His glory in the sight of surrounding nations. God's punishment was just, yet He remained a compassionate father, pardoning the repentant and retaining Israel as His people. The exclusion proves promises are upon condition of obedience and keeping statutes and judgments.
The chapter including this rebuke is the word of the Lord to be read in full and heeded, written for admonition for those upon whom the ends of the world are come. It calls for learning the word of the Lord and appreciating and obeying His voice by asking in everything if it is the will of the Lord and viewing everything in the light of Christ's example. It warns against following guidance only up to the point that agrees with one's own judgment and then clinging to one's own ideas, relying on human wisdom, and refusing to be molded after the Lord's likeness and to copy His self-denial and self-sacrifice unto perfection of character. Refusing to trust and obey in this way prevents His people from showing His character and receiving His promised blessings.
The rebuke belongs to the lessons given through Moses to strengthen faith, drawn from the history of failures and victories during the forty years of wandering when every new move was to be a carrying out of the principles given to Israel, and it belongs to the history just before coming into possession of Jericho. Moses was instructed to repeat this history over and over, and the book of Deuteronomy with its wonderful experiences is to be kept before God's people and rehearsed more often. He was directed to recount dealings in deliverance from Egypt and wonderful preservation in the wilderness, calling to mind unbelief and murmuring when brought into trial and the great mercy and loving-kindness that never forsook them. That recounting was to lead to realizing personal sin and weakness and that God was righteousness and strength, and so to stimulate faith and strengthen courage.
The unbelief was refusal to trust and enter Canaan despite the promise to give the land and to fight for them, despite past deliverance in Egypt, care on the journey and through the wilderness, going before to find places to camp, and guidance by fire at night and cloud by day. Christ Himself had led and taught for forty years, giving through the pillar of cloud the same truths later taught in human form, yet He was not recognized as the heaven-sent Teacher. At Kadesh the fathers distrusted God's power, feared the people of Canaan, and accused God of bringing them out of Egypt to destroy them. The spies' report was in many respects correct, for the cities were walled and very great and were inhabited by giants, in comparison with whom the Hebrews were mere pigmies, yet the fatal mistake was distrust alone.
The great sin was distrust and unbelief despite faithfulness to promises, joined with pride, impatience, murmuring, disobedience, and rebellion. Because the people did not bear God's character of purity, goodness, and benevolence, they were unfit and unprepared to enter and to represent a people whose God is the Lord. This unbelief alone prevented at once entering the good land and brought judgment that the rebellious generation, the adults of the army that left Egypt, would not enter the promised land, with Caleb excepted for wholly following the Lord. The conquest of Gilead and Bashan nearly forty years afterward made clear that distrust had doomed Israel to the long desert wandering and delayed possession of the land.
The long wandering and delay were not God's fault, for He longed to give the land and was more grieved than they by the delay, wanting to bring them into immediate possession to display mighty power in deliverance before all nations. Had they yielded in faith to direction, been governed by judgments, and walked in ordinances, they would long before have been settled in Canaan as a prosperous, holy, happy people, but broken pledge, transgression of requirements, and delay dishonored God and detracted from His glory in the sight of surrounding nations. God's punishment was just, yet He remained a compassionate father, pardoning the repentant and retaining Israel as His people. The exclusion proves promises are upon condition of obedience and keeping statutes and judgments.
The chapter including this rebuke is the word of the Lord to be read in full and heeded, written for admonition for those upon whom the ends of the world are come. It calls for learning the word of the Lord and appreciating and obeying His voice by asking in everything if it is the will of the Lord and viewing everything in the light of Christ's example. It warns against following guidance only up to the point that agrees with one's own judgment and then clinging to one's own ideas, relying on human wisdom, and refusing to be molded after the Lord's likeness and to copy His self-denial and self-sacrifice unto perfection of character. Refusing to trust and obey in this way prevents His people from showing His character and receiving His promised blessings.