Daily EncouragementSample

Moses is reminding the people of how they rebelled against the Lord at the border of the promised land. He emphasizes that the root of this failure was unbelief: “You did not trust in the Lord your God.” And this in spite of all that God had done for them - redeeming them out of Egypt, caring for them in the way and going before them “to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go” (Deut. 1:29-33).

“In spite of this . . . ” How easily we forget what God has done in the past and begin to grumble or give way to despair. Such “little faith” is evident not only in the big issue of entering some promised land, but in more mundane things like bread: “You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? . . . Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?” (Matt. 16:8-9).

No wonder, then, that “Remember” is a key word in Deuteronomy; no wonder an apostle writes, “I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them” (2 Pet. 1:12); no wonder the Lord Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:24).