Deuteronomy 9:1-10:11
Chapters 9 and 10 continue Moses’ sermon on
the Ten Commandments, most specifically on the First Commandment, which says,
“You shall have no other gods before” (Exodus 20:3 and Deuteronomy 5:7). The
thematic verse of chapter eight is verse eleven, which says, “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today.” In chapters 9 and 10, Moses spoke about righteousness and
the Israelites lack of it through five examples. The theme of these two
chapters revolves around the word “possess.” Moses used the word repetitively,
as well as its opposite, “dispossess.” You find these two words nine times in
these verses of chapters nine and ten. As you read these two chapters, another
key word encountered is “righteous.” “Righteous” and “upright” occur four times
and their opposite, “wickedness,” “stubbornness,” “rebellious,” and related
terms occur eighteen times. The verses state the result of their stubbornness,
such as “destruction,” nineteen times. From such extensive use of these words,
Israel’s stubbornness and sinfulness juxtaposes with the word “possess” and the
First Commandment. If the Israelites worshipped and trusted the one true God
instead of their selves, then God would have called them righteous. Today’s study
today shows they were not righteous. The Israelites’ disobedience and fear
showed their lack of reverence of God and doubt in His supremacy. They did not
believe Deuteronomy 6:4 wholeheartedly, which says, “Hear O Israel, the LORD is
God, the LORD is one.” Moses gave five commands in these forty verses
and they each occur within the first seven verses of chapter nine. Verses 1 to
3 include the two commands “Hear O Israel” and “know.” The first three verses
are the call to holy war with God as the Israelites’ leader. In the first
verse, Moses spoke as if the Israelites were the ones to route the nations in
Canaan. He said, “Hear, O Israel, you are crossing over the Jordan today to go
into dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, great cities fortified
to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of Anakim, whom you know and of
whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’” He clarified
what he said in verse three. First, though, let us look at these two verses
closer.
In the first verse, the command “hear” comes
from the same root word as the word “keep” (shamar)
and it means to hear and obey. In these two verses, Moses did not give them
instructions for how God wanted them to defeat the nations. Moses reminded them
of the bigger and stronger nations in Canaan with the giant people the twelve
spies encountered (Numbers 13:28 & 33) forty years ago. These giant people
were from the tribe called the Anakim who come from the descendents of Anak,
the son of Arba (Joshua 15:13 and 21:11). The Anakim were giants among men.
Their name means “long-necked.” In Hebrews, the writer recorded them as
descendents of Anok who lived near Hebron before the Israelites conquered them.
They were the descendents of the Nephilim who dominated the pre-Flood world
(Genesis 6:4 and Numbers 13:33). Only God could give the Israelites victory
over nations bigger and mightier than they could. The size of this tribe of
people frightened people. Still, though, God did not tell them how to defeat
them. They were still to “hear,” which includes obey, so they must still listen
and follow God.
To make sure the Israelites did not interpret
the command of verses one through two wrong and go in and route the Canaanites
their own way, Moses told them in verse three, “Know therefore today that it is
the LORD your God who is crossing over before you as a consuming fire. He will
destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that you may drive them out
and destroy them quickly, just as the LORD has spoken to you.” This verse gives
the “how” of the Canaanite peoples’ destruction. The LORD will consume them. The
Israelites’ obedience included following God into Canaan. (Remember in
Deuteronomy 8:2, when God said He led them, the word “led” is halak in Hebrew and means He walked with
them.) God did not tell them to cross the Jordan River without Him. He was with
them every step of the way. God gave them victory over Egypt, the desert, and
the Amorites. He would give them victory over the Canaanites. God receives the
glory, not the Israelites. If the Israelites thought they were the ones
defeating the Canaanites or feared that they were to defeat them by themselves,
then they usurped God’s place of preeminence and worship in their lives. Their
fear dethroned God in their lives. If the Israelites thought afterwards that they
destroyed the Canaanites, Moses made sure they understood God crossed over the
Jordan River before them to consume and destroy the Canaanites. The Israelites were
foot soldiers in God’s army. They were one part of God’s plan. Remember in
chapter seven God spoke of using hornets and confusion to defeat the
Canaanites. Knowing (yada) God in the
way Moses stated meant that, through time and their relationship with God, they
perceived, then recognized, acknowledged, and confessed God was almighty God,
the one true God, just as the Shema states in Deuteronomy 6:4. By knowing God
in this way, they could have said as Paul did in 2 Timothy 1:12, and as we do
in a hymn, “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to
keep that which I’ve committed unto Him against that day.” This depth of knowing
God came during their forty-year wilderness experience. God took the time to
discipline them, to know them, and they to know Him (Deuteronomy 8:2-5).
In verse four, Moses commanded them a third time
in this chapter. He said,
Do
not say in your heart when the LORD your God has driven them out before you,
‘Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,’ but
it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is dispossessing
them before you. [NASB]
When
the Israelites, in their obedience, drove the Canaanites out and destroyed
them, they were an arm of God. The word “drive” in this verse comes from the
same Hebrew word, yarash, as “possess”
and “dispossess” and means to take possession of something or dispossess
someone. By dispossessing the Canaanites, the Israelites were gaining the
inheritance of Abraham from God. God fulfilled His covenant with Abraham in this
way. Moses said this in Deuteronomy 7:24. He warned the Israelites that their
human nature would encourage them to think they routed the Canaanites by
themselves and that God gave them the land because they were righteous. Moses,
in later verses, showed them they must not determine their righteousness based
on the Canaanite nations’ unrighteousness, but on God’s righteousness. God’s
righteousness is based on His right acts in His works and judgments (Genesis 18:25,
Deuteronomy 32:4, et al). The Israelites experienced God’s righteousness when He,
in faithfulness, kept His covenant with Abraham. Moses brought to the
Israelites’ memory their unrighteousness as compared to God’s righteousness.
In verse five, Moses told the Israelites that
the wickedness of the nations dispossessed them from their own land, not the
righteousness of the Israelites. The LORD drove out the Canaanites for another
reason. He drove these nations from Canaan because of their unrighteousness. The
other reason God gave Canaan to the Israelites was that He “confirmed” His oath
to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God fulfilled His covenant with them (Genesis 12:7).
In verse six, Moses commanded them, “Know (yada),
then, it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving
you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people.” In this emphatic
reiteration of verse five, Moses told them precisely what God judged in them that
kept them from righteousness, their stubbornness. God knew the Israelites to be
stubborn or stiff-necked (Deuteronomy 9:13, 10:16, 31:27). They provoked God to
wrath.
In verse seven, Moses commanded them to
remember and not forget they provoked God to wrath from the day they left
Egypt. He said they were rebellious. In earlier chapters, Moses commanded the
Israelites to remember God provided for them, rescued them, and loved them. He
commanded they remember and keep their covenant with God from Mount Sinai, too.
In this verse, Moses reminded them of their faults and rebelliousness, their
unrighteousness. Sin is unrighteousness. Sin is rebelling against God. They
provoked the LORD to wrath in the wilderness because of their rebelliousness.
They displeased God and made Him angry at their disobedience. Remember, God’s
characteristic of righteousness has another side. The other side is judgment.
God cannot be in the presence of sin. As a loving Father, He must give judgment
on the sinner. The word “rebellious” in verse seven is the Hebrew word marah, which means contentious and
disobedient. If the Israelites complained or griped against God, they contended
with God. When they chose to follow God in their own way, they were
disobedient. This still happens today. God may tell someone He has called him
or her into the ministry. They may hear that and then run with it on their own.
The fruit of their ministry is not godly fruit, but instead selfish and greedy
seeking for aggrandizement and material gain. God must guide each step of life not
just the first step when He tells you where He wants you to serve Him. As
another example, a parent tells his or her child, “Do not let me see you doing
that anymore.” The child decides to follow the parent’s command literally and
does what he or she wants, but not when the parent is watching. Each of these
examples shows contending and disobedient people sidestepping the will of God.
Moses, in the next twenty-two verses, reminded
the Israelites of five instances where they disobeyed their covenant with God
and where they provoked God to anger against them. In verses eight through
twenty-two, he reminded them of the golden calf they made and worshipped when
he was on Mount Sinai forty days and nights with God in which time God inscribed
the Ten Commandments on two stone tablets (vs. 8-11). After those days, God
told Moses, “Your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly.
They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have
made a molten image for themselves” (vs. 12). First, note God no longer claimed
the Israelites as His people. They were now Moses’ people. Second, notice they
broke the First Commandment within forty days after making their covenant with God.
Third, God wanted to destroy them and make a new nation from Moses’ family. The
Israelites did not keep their covenant with God. They heard God speak the Ten Commandments
from the mountain that was on fire, but were too afraid to go up the mountain
and meet with Yahweh God, so they sent Moses as their representative. Within
forty days, the Israelites showed their faithlessness. From this point, Moses
took on a new role. He interceded for them with God and became a savior for them.
This was the first image of a messiah the Israelites had. Moses descended the
mountain, destroyed the calf, reminded the people of their covenant with God,
proclaimed their rebelliousness against God, destroyed their idol (just as God
commanded the Israelites do to the gods of Canaan in chapter 8), smashed the
two tablets containing the Ten Commandments that represented the broken
covenant, and then ascended the mountain again to intercede, mediate, and save
the Israelites from God’s wrath. The second time up the mountain was the second
time he interceded for the Israelites (vs. 18-19). The third time of
intercession occurred when the LORD wanted to destroy Aaron for leading the
Israelites astray by breaking the First Commandment and by taking God’s glory
for himself at Meribah (Numbers 20:8-12). Moses recorded Aaron’s death in
Deuteronomy 10:6. While the Israelites waited to cross the Jordan River, Moses
recalled to them their molding a god for themselves while he was on Mount Sinai.
He told them it was a disobedient and rebellious act against God.
Added to this instance, Moses recalled four
other instances of the Israelites’ wickedness/unrighteousness/rebelliousness.
He reminded them of their time at Taberah when the greedy rabble-rousers instigated
the people to complain to God (Numbers 11:3). Their complaining showed their
rebelliousness, fear, and greed. They did not trust God. They tested Him with
their complaining and God’s anger burned against them. Moses interceded for
them and the fire died. At Massah, which means temptation, the people
complained to God and tested Him about providing food and drink for them. They
said He brought them from Egypt to the desert to make them die of thirst (Exodus
17:1-7). The people tested God and complained. They did not trust the LORD to give
everything. He was not a god to them. Again, in Kibroth-hattaavah, which means
graves of greediness, when God supplied quail for them, the people in their greed
collected more quail than they could eat before it spoiled (Numbers 11:22 &
34). Their greed showed their fear and that they did not look to the LORD as the
one true God. The Israelites’ fear and stomachs became their god. The final
instance of which Moses reminded the Israelites of their wickedness and
unrighteousness occurred when they camped at Kadesh-barnea in the extreme south
of Judah (Numbers 13:26; 32:8; Deuteronomy 1:2, 19-25; 9:23). From this place in
southernmost Judah, Moses sent twelve spies into Canaan to scout the land and
people. When the spies returned, ten of them convinced the Israelites the
people of the land were giants and they could not defeat them. The Israelites’
fear made them disobey God when He told them to go into the land He was giving to
them in fulfillment of His oath to their forefathers. The LORD burned with
anger then and Moses interceded for the people so He would not destroy them.
Moses told God the nations around them and Egypt would laugh at the Israelites
and their God because He took them out of Egypt to destroy them (Deuteronomy 9:23-29).
God’s anger relented, but He said those who were adults at that time would die
before He gave the Promised Land to the Israelites.
Chapter 10 gives more detail of what occurred
when Moses descended the mountain a second time with the Ten Commandments (vs. 1-5).
God enacted his punishment on Aaron of not entering the Promised Land (vs. 6).
God set apart (consecrated) the tribe of Levi to be His priests and declared
their inheritance (vs. 7-9). Verses 10-11 give us more detail of what occurred
after Moses descended Mount. Sinai the second time, placed the tablets in the
art of the covenant, and set apart the Levites. The LORD listened to Moses’
intercession for the Israelites and did not destroy them. He gave His blessing
for the Israelites to go in and possess the land.
Many times, the Israelites broke covenant
with God. The righteousness of God requires judgment be administered when
wickedness and disobedience occur. Moses reminded the Israelites of five times
they rebelled against God and deserved His judgment. The Israelites were not righteous
by God’s standard. Because of this, they did not deserve God’s blessings - the
Promised Land and its wealth. Yet because of God’s faithfulness to His
covenants and promises to their forefathers, He gave the Israelites the
Promised Land. He fulfilled His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The
Israelites were stubborn and not worthy of God’s blessings. They lived in a way
that said God was not big enough to give them what they needed, He could not
take them into Canaan, and He could not route the nations there. Fear became
one of their gods. God was not their one God. Their fear removed God from the
premier spot in their lives. God is worthy of complete devotion, love,
reverence, and obedience as Moses taught them in chapters six through eight. He
is one as Deuteronomy 6:4 says. God’s love for the Israelites was due to His
covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and nothing to do with the Israelites’
worthiness. His election/choosing of every person has nothing to do with the
person’s worthiness and everything to do with His love and grace.
God does not give blessings because of what a
person is or has done. He gives blessings because of who He is and His love for
humankind. Every person has rebelled against God and His rules. Everyone
deserves judgment. God loves humankind so much that He had a plan from the
beginning of time to rescue us from our sin and the future that brings. He sent
His Son, Jesus Christ, to take the penalty of every person and pay the
redemption price for our lives with His life. In this way, God made a way for
us to be with Him forever. This shows His great love and grace. We do not
deserve God’s love, but instead deserve punishment. As the loving Father, He
created the way for us to return to Him. Our inheritance with Him is completely
about His love and has nothing to do with our worthiness. God says this in John
3:16.
God waits for you to come to Him. He will not
push you to give your heart and life to Him. God promises in Matthew 7:7-8 that
when we seek Him we will find Him. The hymn, “The Savior is Waiting,” comes to mind
when I think of God wanting and waiting for us to ask, seek, and knock for Him.
Will you ask Him to come into your life?
The Savior is Waiting
Time after time, He has waited before
And now He is waiting again,
To see if you’re willing to open the
door,
Oh how He wants to come in.
