Although their parents died in the wilderness for their stubbornness, Israel could profit from the older generation's failure by remembering that God had used adversity to train them.

The faithfulness of God in the past fortifies believers for future challenges.

False teaching - anything that would weaken the believer's ties to his Lord - must be confronted wherever it appears, even if that confrontation requires painful correction.

Wisdom lies in recognizing the dangers that lie within us and doing battle with them daily.

There is no substitute for a firsthand encounter with the Word of God.

God warned Israel, "And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it" (Ex. 20:25). To pollute something is to make it ordinary. God insists that any approach crafted by human ingenuity will produce a worship system just like all the pagan systems in the world. In other words, it will be common or profane - just like everyone else's paganism.

Chastening is a mark of affection, not a sign of rejection.