Believe to Receive

“We fail to receive God’s best when we fail to believe Him.”

Deuteronomy 1:29-36
(29)  Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them.
(30)  The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes;
(31)  And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place.
(32)  Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God,
(33)  Who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to shew you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day.
(34)  And the LORD heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying,
(35)  Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers,
(36)  Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the LORD.

Explanation

Deuteronomy 1 recounts part of the Israelites’ journey from Egypt. At this point in the retelling (the original account is found in Numbers 13-14), the people are now on the border of the “promised land,” ready to enter into the land God had promised He would win for them and give them. However, the majority of the people believed that the land would be too difficult to conquer. Though God had promised them He would give them the land, they would not believe His promise. Therefore, they could not enter the land.

Note: Believing Him involves obeying Him. Faith acts.

Photo by Natalie Grainger on Unsplash