the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 1 of 5
Deuteronomy 2:14-25
Israel’s long wandering through the wilderness was a just punishment for her unbelief. There was, however, another reason for the duration of the journey. As long as Israel had gallant men of war, the people were in danger of attributing the conquest of the land to their own power. So thirty-eight years were required for that generation of men of war to die (v. 14). John 5 tells the story of the cripple whom Jesus healed at the pool of Bethesda. It was also at the end of thirty-eight years that this unfortunate person completely gave up on any human help. He has to admit: "I have no man . . . , and it is then that Jesus makes him walk. Now the adults are dead and only the little children remain, of whom the people had said that they would be a prey; it is rightly they who are going to enter into the land (Deuteronomy 1:39). Carried in the arms of the LORD they are more powerful than all the men of war. When man’s power had gone, God’s hour sounded (Deuteronomy 32:36). He has prepared astounding victories and says to the people: "Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: . . . begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle" (v. 24). He takes care of everything else.
