Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today we drop back in on Moses' speech to the new generation of Israelites before they enter the

Promised Land. This is his final locker room talk. He's recounting all the ways they've made bad plays in the past and he's going over the plays they want to execute well in the future.

He tells them that the wilderness was a test to refine them, and it's clear that the promised land will be a test as well.

It's not some kind of end game for them, some kind of reward where they can just

kick back and do whatever they want. They personally won't retain the land unless they respond to God's

covenant promise by worshiping him alone. The promise land is just another part of

God's process to restore wicked humanity in relationship with himself.

And he knows how this next step will turn out too.

He's not testing them for his sake.

He's testing them for their sake.

This generation had yet to encounter anything that was really a result of their own actions.

They had to endure at least a portion of the 38 years of wilderness that their parents received as punishment,

but they weren't complicit in the rebellion at Kadesh Barnier.

So this wasn't a punishment for them, even though they had to endure it just like their parents

did.

I'm sure it felt like punishment at times, but it wasn't in response to anything they had done.

For them, it was discipline.

It was training and how to respond to hardship and how to trust God.

It's important to make a distinction between punishment and discipline.

And in fact, for those of us who know Christ, all our punishment has been absorbed by him on the cross.

If you've been adopted into God's family, you are his

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