The people had been given the chance to obey the Lord and go into the Promised Land. However, they had refused to trust in the Lord. But then when they heard the punishment of the Lord for this refusal, they mourned and cried. And the next morning some of them got up early and told Moses that they were now willing to go into the Promised Land.

This may seem like a good thing. The people have turned around. They hadn’t been willing to obey the Lord before, but then they were. But were they really sorry for not listening to the Lord earlier? No, they weren’t. If they had been truly sorry, they wouldn’t have woken up early in the morning and gone off to Canaan without their God-appointed leaders and the ark of the Lord. Instead it would have been better if they had put on sackcloth and ashes and gone to the tabernacle in true repentance. They should have confessed their sins to God and asked for forgiveness.

So what happened to them? Because they went off without the Lord’s blessing, they were all destroyed by the enemy. They thought that because God had promised them the land, they could still claim it. They thought they could win the land on their own, even though they didn’t listen to the Lord. But God showed them that it was now too late. They should have obeyed the Lord in the first place. They couldn’t just receive God’s promises without obeying him.

We, too, can’t expect to receive God’s promises without obeying him. The Lord gives you many times in which you can obey him. Do you do this? Do you obey God and the parents he has given you? And when you do sin, do you repent and ask God for forgiveness?

When you do truly repent from your sins, God is full of grace and will forgive you. Even though the children of Israel were not allowed into the Promised Land, they were allowed into eternal life. So when we repent, God forgives us and we are allowed into eternal life too.

Reflection with your child:

Why were the Israelites destroyed when they went to Canaan?

Source: Rev. J. VanWoudenberg