Deu 1:29 | KingComments | STEP | Moses speaks to a generation that has scarce to non-existent awareness of what happened forty years ago. Yet he speaks to them as if it is about themselves: they were rebellious and did not want to go up, they grumbled in their tents. He can do this because he knows the germ of unbelief is also present in this generation. They are no better than their fathers. This new generation has also shown its unbelief and rebellion at the end of the journey ( ). The believer is a new creation in Christ, but his old nature is incorrigibly evil. If he does not keep it at the place of death ( ), even the believer will be able to come to the worst of sins. We can blame God for not providing sufficient resources to occupy ourselves with the blessings. But the real question is whether we truly appreciate the blessings. If we do that, we will have the resources and the time for it. Generations in previous centuries have had to work much harder and longer than we do today. Yet they knew the Scriptures through and through. How is that possible? They genuinely appreciated the blessings, while we let ourselves become wrapped up in earthly things. In Christ are “hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” ( ). The more we are occupied with Him, we will increasingly enjoy all that has been given to us in Him. A longing heart will learn from the truth that is in Jesus ( ). In we see how God has led His people through that ‘great and terrible wilderness’. What Moses was not able to do ( ), God did: He carried them like a man carries his child. In his speech in the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch, Paul points out how God has cared for His people with the tenderness of a nurse: “For a period of about forty years He put up with them in the wilderness” ( ; cf. ; ). This is His answer to their accusation that He hates them, an answer that should bring them to shame. The people have sent out spies before them. Moses recalls that the LORD Himself had gone out before them every time as a spy to find a suitable place for them to camp there ( ). It is better for them to rely on Him than to determine their way as a result of human perceptions.

‏ Deuteronomy 1:29

God’s Faithfulness and the People’s Unbelief

Moses speaks to a generation that has scarce to non-existent awareness of what happened forty years ago. Yet he speaks to them as if it is about themselves: they were rebellious and did not want to go up, they grumbled in their tents. He can do this because he knows the germ of unbelief is also present in this generation. They are no better than their fathers. This new generation has also shown its unbelief and rebellion at the end of the journey (Num 21:5).

The believer is a new creation in Christ, but his old nature is incorrigibly evil. If he does not keep it at the place of death (Rom 6:11), even the believer will be able to come to the worst of sins.

We can blame God for not providing sufficient resources to occupy ourselves with the blessings. But the real question is whether we truly appreciate the blessings. If we do that, we will have the resources and the time for it. Generations in previous centuries have had to work much harder and longer than we do today. Yet they knew the Scriptures through and through. How is that possible? They genuinely appreciated the blessings, while we let ourselves become wrapped up in earthly things. In Christ are “hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:3). The more we are occupied with Him, we will increasingly enjoy all that has been given to us in Him. A longing heart will learn from the truth that is in Jesus (Eph 4:21).

In Deu 1:31 we see how God has led His people through that ‘great and terrible wilderness’. What Moses was not able to do (Num 11:14), God did: He carried them like a man carries his child. In his speech in the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch, Paul points out how God has cared for His people with the tenderness of a nurse: “For a period of about forty years He put up with them in the wilderness” (Acts 13:18; cf. Isa 66:13; Psa 103:13). This is His answer to their accusation that He hates them, an answer that should bring them to shame.

The people have sent out spies before them. Moses recalls that the LORD Himself had gone out before them every time as a spy to find a suitable place for them to camp there (Deu 1:33). It is better for them to rely on Him than to determine their way as a result of human perceptions.