Deuteronomy 1:39-40 (ESV)
And as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. [40] But as for you, turn, and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.''
Who you said would become a prey. God is talking about this comment that they had made:
Numbers 14:3 (ESV)
Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?"
These people thought that God was bringing them into the land only to kill them. They had thought that God wanted evil for them, though God wanted and promised them nothing but good to them. They thought that God wanted the worst for their children, to make them fall by the hands of the Amorites. They believed that it was for destruction that God had saved them from the land of Egypt.
Their problem was that they didn't know the heart of God. They did not understand the love of God. Only if they knew and understood the plan of the Gospel of God! Only if they knew that it was through them, through the nation of Israel that the Saviour of the world would be born who would bless the world with the Spirit of God! And they also didn't know and believe who they were, that is, the offspring of Abraham. For if they would have believed who they were, they would have believed that God had promised the good land for them. But that they do not believe, clearly showing that they were not the children of Abraham by spirit, only of the flesh. As John the Baptist said:
Luke 3:8 (ESV)
Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ''We have Abraham as our father.'' For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.
They ought to have circumcised the foreskin of their hearts by faith and became the true children of Abraham in their hearts. Then they would have been worthy to be called children of Israel, that they may have the faith to inherit the promised land. But they did not, showing that they were never Abraham's children.
When we don't know God, nor have the assurance that we are God's children, our foundation is insecure, and we begin to worry. We have no root in ourselves, as Christ says:
Matthew 13:20-21 (ESV)
As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, [21] yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.
These people were worried that their children would perish in the hands of the enemies, but God overthrows their worries, saying that the children whom they said would perish would inherit the land. God was showing these Israelites that He cares more about their children than they do. Here we learn something. Worrying about our family and friends is not loving them. We must TRUST them to God if we want to truly love them. Why? Because worrying about someone doesn't help them at all. It doesn't do anything:
Matthew 6:27 (ESV)
And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
Knowing that God cares more about our family and friends more than we do, we must entrust them to God. We must pray for them. Being anxious for them is a sign of our unbelief, and not of our love toward them. Let us love them though faith in God.
And your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. God is saying that only the children, who have not yet reached the age of discerning between good and evil, shall enter into the land. Here we learn something of God's election. God chooses this second generation to inherit the land of Canaan, even though they currently have no knowledge of what is good or evil, neither of faith or unbelief. As it is written:
Romans 9:10-13 (ESV)
And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, [11] though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad-in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls- [12] she was told, "The older will serve the younger." [13] As it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."
Though this second generation had no knowledge of good and evil, God elects them to possess the land of Egypt. We see here then that first generation were not chosen, nor given mercy, since they had no faith to inherit the land. The second generation, though they are weak and only children, them God gives the faith. Christians were likewise elected, from the foundation of the world, thousands of years even before they were created, that it may be of God's grace and not of any of the elects' works.
God has chosen the weak and the foolish of the world, that they may be the heirs of eternal life:
1 Corinthians 1:26-29 (ESV)
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. [27] But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; [28] God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, [29] so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
God teaching here a parable that the generation that has received the Law, with whom God made the covenant of works, will not inherit the Kingdom of God, but those who have received election, with whom God has made the covenant of grace, will inherit the Kingdom of God. It is not because a person does anything good will receive the favour of God, not will anyone who does anything bad will be refused the grace to believe. Why? It is because it is solely due to God's election. It was not because this second generation was better than the first, but simply because God chose the second over the first. Likewise we ought to be thankful for God's grace that chose us, and made us worthy to inherit the Kingdom, not of anything we have done, but because of His calling. Let us thank God who chose us, whether we were evil or bad, so that God may get all the glory.
But as for you, turn, and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea. If we reject the new way that God has shows us to walk, the only way is to turn back to where we came from. God tells them to go back, all the way to the beginning, the Red Sea. When we are not obedient to God, nor believe in Him, we will never go to the new places that God has prepared for us. It will always be the same old routine and drudge, as dry and dead as the wilderness. We will always be hearing, but never understanding, seeing but never perceiving. We will always be just coming out of the Red Sea, never growing, never escaping the beginning, being an infant forever.
There are many Christians who rely on their reminiscences of the past walk with God as though that carries them into the Kingdom of God. But God is concerned about today, and now. God is concerned about our future and our growth, until the moment that we enter into glory with Christ. This first generation were going back to the wilderness, and they saw no more new things, only accept the new thing God showed in destroying the rebels in their midst:
Numbers 16:30 (ESV)
But if the LORD creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the LORD."
When we do not trust God and are willing to walk with Him where He is, we will never see anything new and fresh from the Lord apart from new sins and new destructions. There are Christians whose growth stops after a certain age, and all they have is the miracles God has shown for them in the beginning of their salvation. This is not enough.
God will make us to walk the old ways until we come to the end of our selves, until the old man die, and the new man made in the likeness of Christ be clearly formed in us. Then we are ready for the new ways. God likewise subjected us under the Law, under the law of sin and death, until the knowledge of our condemnation killed us. Then God revived us with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The only we were ready to accept the New Testament. As Christ said:
Luke 5:39 (ESV)
And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ''The old is good.''"
Until the man is sick to death of the old wine of Law, the man will never desire the new wine of Christ. God exercises our senses do that God gradually makes us to refuse the evil, and to embrace the good.
By saying "as for you", God was telling them that, just as the portion of their children shall be the promised land, the portion of this unbelieving generation will be the wilderness. Those who disobey God will inherit the desert, the land of serpents and thirst and of tribulation. Since they had so misunderstood God that He had brought them out of Egypt only to destroy them, destruction shall be their portion and lot. This was the new promise that God was making overriding the Gospel promise. When we reject the Gospel promise, then God will give the promise of destruction to those who not believe. Just as sure is the promise of Gospel for salvation, just as sure is the promise of God for damnation for those who scorns Christ:
John 8:24 (ESV)
I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins
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