Fear or Faith

If you don’t believe you won’t receive.

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 1

Moses is reviewing events that delayed Israel from entering the Promised Land. After they had been organized with judges and commanders, they were ready to invade Canaan. Except that most of their advance scouts came back with discouraging reports. The natives are tall, their cities are too well-fortified.

The scouting report persuaded the Israelites to ignore the LORD’s command to invade. The LORD that had miraculously brought them out of Egypt, led them by the pillar of cloud/fire (aircraft?) could no longer be trusted.

The generation that chickened out would be condemned to die in the wilderness, to be replaced by a new generation who remembered little if anything from Egypt and mainly knew just the wilderness.

The “sin,” or mistake of the older generation was fear, which happens when one judges by appearances. They believed the…