As a Man Carries His Son - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2025

In the wilderness you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.
Deuteronomy 1:31 NKJV

As a Man Carries His Son
There are a few verses in Scripture that describe God's behavior towards His people as the behavior of a father towards his son. In today's verse, we have, "as a man carries his son." Moses in Deuteronomy is looking back on the forty years of wandering in the desert and how God carried them through in His mercy and grace. That these forty years of wandering in the wilderness were the result of their unbelief is not the point here. But the grace of God who carried them through all these years is compared to a father who takes his son into his arms, carrying him when the terrain was too difficult or when his son got tired and could no longer walk. The apostle Paul, when speaking of the journey of the people of Israel, used a similar term: "and for a time of about forty years he nursed them in the desert" (Acts 13:18 jnd).

Is there not much to learn for us when we look back on our lives? Do we not have to praise God's goodness and faithfulness in carrying us even as a man carries his son? How carefully—and yet with what strength—He has carried us through. And He will do so until we reach our desired destination: the end of our wilderness journey. How comforting are those words, "as a man carries his son," giving us again a reason to worship our God and Father.

-- Michael Vogelsang

Thou God of grace our Father,

We now rejoice before Thee;

Thy children we, and loved by Thee,

'Tis meet we should adore Thee.

-- S. P. Tregelles