Value of Reviewing Our History

(This week I am reading Deuteronomy chapter 1)

See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land the Lord swore he would give to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—and to their descendants after them.” Deuteronomy 1:8

Deuteronomy is a book in which Moses prepares the people for entering the Promised Land. Most of it is his teaching them how to apply the 10 Commandments, but the first few chapters are a review of the past 40 years—years of wandering in the desert because they had failed in the 1st Commandment, trusting God. It is good for us to look back, to see God’s blessings AND to see where we have gone through difficult times because we did not listen so well to him. You see (vs.8), God had wanted to give them the Promised Land 40 years earlier. Now they would still get that land, but they also had 40 years of learning why trusting God in the first place is always a good approach. I can think back to tough lessons learned in my life, what about you. Thank God for his patience and his desire to always bring us to blessing!