Deuteronomy 1:26-33 – The devastating effect of unbelief

Deuteronomy 1:26-33  show us the devastating effect of unbelief. This is the clear warning from these eight verses. Somehow, unbelief tends to make one forgetful. It has a way of erasing one’s remembrance of the past good deeds that God had already done in one’s life. When we forget the wonderful grace that has already showered upon us, we become ungrateful and rebellious. Instead of progressing with God, one would be unwilling to go forward with Him.

These verses show that the children of Israel could see that Canaan was a good land. We learn from Numbers 13 that their recce team came back with clusters of grapes that they had cut down from the valley of Eschol. They could affirm that it was a land flowing with milk and honey and obviously a good land. But sadly they focused their eyes on the wrong thing and greatly feared the inhabitants of Canaan. What they saw was a large walled-up city, a land that would swallow its inhabitants. Seeing the Anakim, the giants that dwelt in the land, made them seem like grasshoppers in their own eyes.   

Despite the assurance of the Lord and the good reports of Joshua and Caleb, they rebelled against the commandment of the Lord. Here Moses listed out how serious their rebellion was. Not only did they grumble in their tents, but they also doubted the goodness of God and His unfailing love for them. Worst of all they had the audacity to insinuate that the Lord hated them.

In their grumbling mood, they failed to see how baseless their complaints were. In verses 30-31, Moses brought up the evidence of God’s faithfulness since the day He took their fathers out of Egypt. Reminding the new generation of what God had done for their fathers, he said, “The Lord your God who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place.’ Yet in spite of all the clear demonstration of God’s faithfulness and grace, they refused to bulge. They held on to their unbelief.  

We need to know that unbelief is sin as far as God is concerned. Unbelief will not only give birth to sin but will also foster sin. Furthermore, unbelief will render us incapable of acting right and walking right with God. When the future before us is not as rosy as we will love it to be, don’t ever doubt God! Don’t focus on the bigness of our circumstances but on the bigness of our God. Victory for us rests in our faithful God. With faith in God, there are no insurmountable problems. With unbelief, every problem becomes insurmountable. So “Today, if you would hear His voice, do not harden your hearts….”