“Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, ‘The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.’” Deuteronomy 1:28
Our sinful impulses not only affect how we relate to God, but how we relate to people and to circumstances.
3. By nature, we blame others.
“Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, ‘The people are greater and taller than we…’” (1:28).
When the spies came back from Canaan, ten of them said that it would be too difficult to conquer the land. Here the people blame the spies: It’s all their fault.
By nature, we blame others for all our problems. What’s wrong is always somebody else’s fault. By nature, we see a two-by-four in every other eye, and not even a speck of sawdust in our own.
4. By nature, we resist the truth.
Moses says to the people: “Do not be in dread or afraid of them. The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness…” (1:29-31).
Moses is pleading with the people here. They are full of fear, and so speaking as a prophet, Moses pours truth into their lives. But it makes no difference. The life-giving Word of God slides off them like water off a duck’s back. The truth doesn’t go in. It makes no difference. By nature, we are always seeing but never perceiving, always hearing but never understanding (see Mark 4:12).
Where have you been giving in to fear or blaming others?
