Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:
Psalm 78 recounts the rich blessings God bestowed on Israel and the poor response and return they made for those benefits. It presents their history as a record of divine goodness met with failure to acknowledge and remember God as they should. In that account Israel appears as constantly working against a good God.
Their failure to believe in God and to trust His care and His salvation was expressed in dissatisfaction with the food He provided and in disregard of His requirements. It was expressed also in complaining when trials came, forgetting the source of their strength. That unbelief and distrust was disobedience that brought them into the condition that was the sure result of their own course of action. God's discipline in the wilderness was for their good, but their self-indulgence produced physical and mental weakness instead of the strength and clear judgment they could have had.
Their pattern was to repent under rebuke and chastisement and then to fall again under temptation, self-indulgence, and self-gratification. Their failure to believe and trust stands as a solemn lesson for God's people to consider as they seek a deeper understanding of eternal realities. In contrast, those who have Bible religion with Christ abiding within them and heavenly truth fully received will keep advancing in the divine life and be sanctified, and will not complain and forget God in trial as Israel did.
Psalm 78 recounts the rich blessings God bestowed on Israel and the poor response and return they made for those benefits. It presents their history as a record of divine goodness met with failure to acknowledge and remember God as they should. In that account Israel appears as constantly working against a good God.
Their failure to believe in God and to trust His care and His salvation was expressed in dissatisfaction with the food He provided and in disregard of His requirements. It was expressed also in complaining when trials came, forgetting the source of their strength. That unbelief and distrust was disobedience that brought them into the condition that was the sure result of their own course of action. God's discipline in the wilderness was for their good, but their self-indulgence produced physical and mental weakness instead of the strength and clear judgment they could have had.
Their pattern was to repent under rebuke and chastisement and then to fall again under temptation, self-indulgence, and self-gratification. Their failure to believe and trust stands as a solemn lesson for God's people to consider as they seek a deeper understanding of eternal realities. In contrast, those who have Bible religion with Christ abiding within them and heavenly truth fully received will keep advancing in the divine life and be sanctified, and will not complain and forget God in trial as Israel did.