“Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God.” Deuteronomy 1:26
Every adult who came out of Egypt in the exodus eventually died in the desert. None of them entered the Promised Land, except for Joshua and Caleb. So almost everyone who entered the Promised Land was under 40 years old and had been born in the desert. This was a young nation with no one over age 60 except for Moses, Caleb, and Joshua.
So when Moses says, “The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain’” (1:6), he is talking about something that happened 40 years ago when most of the people weren’t even born and many of the rest were too young to remember.
But notice what Moses says, “You were unwilling to go up. You rebelled against the Lord” (1:26). “You grumbled in your tents and said, ‘The Lord hated us.’” (1:27). “You did not believe the Lord your God” (1:32). Why is Moses saying these things to them?
If you had been in the crowd that day, you might have raised your hand and said, “Excuse me, Moses. Why are you saying this to us? This wasn’t our fault. It was our parents’ fault!”
Is Moses blaming the children for the sins of their parents? No! His message is simple: What was in your parents is also in you. You will face the same temptations and the same struggles they did. What defeated them, you must overcome.
What are some of the greatest temptations and struggles from your family legacy that you must learn from and overcome?
