Deuteronomy 1:26-34 – “Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. And you murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. Where are we going up? 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.” ’ Then I said to you, ‘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, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ Yet in spite of this word you did not believe the Lord your God, who went before you in the way to seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go. And the Lord heard your words and was angered . . .

THEME OF THE DAY. UNBELIEF AND THE GOD WHO IS. Today’s scripture is the middle of the account of God’s people failing to believe Him and take up possession of the land He promised them. To get the full force of what is happening, it would be good to go back and read from verse nineteen through today’s scripture and continue to the end of the chapter. This is serious stuff and don’t be duped to think this is ancient history of God’s people in the desert. No. This is relevant for us; as relevant as the current situations, circumstances, and trials we each are encountering.

When we ponder the Lord in His grace, mercy, and love to us, we must be very careful in our thinking and living not to become imbalanced. God is a God of love. Cling to this, but He is also the God of truth and holiness. Yes, He is love, holy love, but He is also a God who gets angry, even with His children. That is why Biblical theology and sound doctrine matter. We need to understand, as much as possible, all of God’s attributes. If we are constantly bent to only thinking of Him as love, then we are not building our understanding of Him based on the Bible. We are creating a God we want in our imagination and not the God who is revealed in our Bibles. Here is the danger of such an approach. If we only see love; only see mercy; only see grace; then we will grow soft on our sin. We will also tolerate disobedience in our lives. And something else will happen if we only allow our theology, doctrine, and thinking to be on God’s love. We will rebel when we hear teaching and preaching showing us God is also a God of wrath and judgment, sovereign, a consuming fire, and He will not tolerate any sin in His children. This is not the “dark side” of God but the whole picture of the God of the Bible. In fact, go back up and look at the last verse in today’s scripture. I highlighted it. God does indeed get angry at His children. Jesus did with the disciples and He does with us . . . if we deserve it. But always remember, His anger is not like ours. We get angry over people when they don’t do what we want and more often than not, our response is sinful. It upsets our schedules, desires, and inconveniences us. Not so with God. He expresses holy anger as a loving Heavenly Father who comes to us with painful parental correction and never with sinful anger manifested in selfish punishment. And likely the highest expression from us to Him which evokes His holy displeasure and anger is what occurs in today’s scripture; the sin of unbelief.

I am not sure anything more displeases our God than the sin of unbelief. He chastened His children of old severely for it. Many did not enter the promised land because of this evil sin. Jesus, Himself, chided the disciples for their unbelief, and it was the unbelief of people which hindered His works (Matthew 13:58). Why such displeasure by the Lord when we commit the sin of unbelief? Two reasons. It attacks His Word by saying, “I don’t trust it.” And it attacks His Person by saying, “I don’t trust You.” None of us wants either of those said of us. To ensure it isn’t true, we must fight unbelief daily and diligently. It is a serious issue, but through prayer, the Word, and obedience, we can consistently defeat it and bring pleasure to the Lord, not displeasure.

PRAYER: “Father, please help me not to give into feelings and circumstances but to boldly live by faith.”

QUOTE: “Exercising faith or giving into sinful unbelief is a choice we make daily and throughout each day”