“At Taberah also, and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the LORD to wrath. And when the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God and did not believe him or obey his voice. You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.
Most psychology teaches us to learn from the past but not live in the past. The extreme view is to get over it and move on and don’t linger on the past. There are some views that say we don’t even have to think about the past because we can’t change it. Some would say that the past can cripple our present and our future. In the above passage Moses is recounting some past failures of the nation of Israel. He has just outlined how Aaron made them a golden calf to worship while he was in the mountain talking to God. It was there he received the Ten Commandments, which contained the command to not worship idols. Before it was even written in stone, Aaron had lead them to already do so in their hearts. In the above verses we read some of the other times they complained, murmured and/or disobeyed God. Israel had a habit of complaining. They didn’t like the water, they didn’t like the food, they didn’t like the camping conditions, they didn’t like ... ! God is reminding them of their failings now because this is a new generation. This new generation is about to enter the promise land. God wants them to learn about the failings of their fathers so that they do not repeat them. A philosopher or government leader stated, “If we don’t learn from history we are destined to repeat history.” However, Moses said it before anyone else did. Moses’ version would be: “Don’t forget what your fathers did in rejecting God so that you don’t also reject Him.” We might be wise to recall when we have failed so that we don’t repeat the same conditions and fall into the same trap we have before.
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