Deuteronomy 1: Go. Do.

In the second half of Deuteronomy 1, Moses gives the people a brief rundown of their past mistakes, so they would not be prone to them again. He reminds them of the fact that God "set the [Promised Land] before them..." and all the people had to do was "Go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of their fathers, has told them." This was a simple command: Here is the Land...go get it. Furthermore, God told them to "not fear or be dismayed" for "the LORD goes before them and will Himself fight for them, just as He did for them in Egypt, before their eyes." They had seen first hand in Egypt what God was capabable of (if you need to be reminded, read the book of Exodus).


However, they refused to simply trust God for the Land and sent in spies to be sure they were gauranteed victory. What they saw terrified them, and so they rebelled. They completely forgot God's power and promises. They believed they would have to fight on their own, and given that scenario, yeah, they would all be dead. However, God said He would fight for them. Unfortuantely, they allowed what they saw and felt to determine what they beleived instead of what God said. So, they actually claimed that God hated them and lead them into the wilderness to brutually slaughter them (Deuteronomy 1:26-27). I find this slightly humorous because the Israelites had been a royal pain in the butt up until this point and God certainly could've and even threatened to wipe them out before this time. If they only knew Who they were really grumbling to...


I am convicted by this entire first chapter. I have stayed at my Mt. Horeb for far too long...making my excuses and wallowing in self pity. God wants me to move forward. I leave, still looking back, however, afraid to fully rest in God's grace. I come to a new adventure and God asks me to simply trust. I am scared and take matters into my own hands, and decide to spy (or analyze, think about, talk about) the situation before I move. When I decide that what God is asking me to do is just too hard, I complain that He hates me. Do you feel me? Yeah, we have all been there. Let's remember that God is the One fighting for us...we just have to go and do what He asks us to go and do. We cannot complicate our lives. He has made it easy...we just have to follow regardless of how we feel, what people say, or the circumstances.


As the car commercial says, "Go. Do."