Assurance of Success

When you believe, you can do anything.

Welcome to the Daily Bible Chapter. My name is James Leroy Wilson and I invite you to join me as I attempt to read the Bible with fresh eyes, as if I don’t know anything about it, and without consulting experts on what it “really” means.. Let’s see where this takes us!

I’m reading Young’s Literal Translation (YLT) and the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Deuteronomy 3

Two or three times in the last few chapters Moses says something like “the LORD was angry with me on your account” to explain why the LORD would not Moses enter the Promised Land. It’s actually because Moses lost his temper.

Because Moses kept blaming the Israelites for his own actions, that might be why the LORD didn’t change his mind.

Perhaps the most important message in Deuteronomy 3, however, is this:

21 … I charged Joshua as well at that time, saying: ‘Your own eyes have seen everything that the Lord your God has done to these two kings [Sihon and Og]; so the Lord will do to all the kingdoms into which you are about to cross. 22 Do not fear them, for it is the Lord your God who fights for you.’

The Israelites spent forty years in the wilderness for this very thing: fear and lack of faith that…