But you
were unwilling to go up; you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You grumbled in your tents and said, “The Lord hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the
hands of the Amorites to destroy us. Deuteronomy
1:26-27
In spite
of this, you did not trust in the Lord your God, who went ahead of you on
your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for
you to camp and to show you the way you should go. Deuteronomy 1:32-33
Then
you replied, “We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight, as
the Lord our God commanded us.” So every one of you
put on his weapons, thinking it easy to go up into the hill country. Deuteronomy 1:41
The Israelites were rescued by God
in Egypt, then guided by God through the wilderness for forty years. They saw his presence daily and yet they
still rebelled. Why?
They did not trust God and instead
trusted their own instincts and plans.
They sinned against God by not
listening to him and preferring to listen to themselves.
Both of these point to
selfishness. If we don’t get our way
then we’ll rebel until we do.