Deuteronomy 9

9 Notes

Summary: Moses says that it is not for the righteousness of the Israelites that they will occupy the land.

9:1 Hear, O Israel. You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky.

9:2 The people are strong and tall—Anakites! You know about them and have heard it said: “Who can stand up against the Anakites?”

9:3 But be assured today that the LORD your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly, as the LORD has promised you.

9:4 After the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “The LORD has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is going to drive them out before you.

9:5 It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the LORD your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

9:6 Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.

Moses begins this chapter in telling the Israelites that they are going to quickly conquer the Promised Land because God is going to go ahead of them and subdue the current inhabitants. Moses tells the Israelites that it is not because of their own righteousness that they are receiving the land, but because of the wickedness of the current inhabitants of the land and because of the promise God swore to their ancestors.

9:7 Remember this and never forget how you provoked the LORD your God to anger in the desert. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against the LORD.

9:8 At Horeb you aroused the LORD’s wrath so that he was angry enough to destroy you.

9:9 When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water.

9:10 The LORD gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God. On them were all the commandments the LORD proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.

9:11 At the end of the forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.

9:12 Then the LORD told me, “Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have turned away quickly from what I commanded them and have made a cast idol for themselves.”

9:13 And the LORD said to me, “I have seen this people, and they are a stiff-necked people indeed!

9:14 Let me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.”

9:15 So I turned and went down from the mountain while it was ablaze with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands.

9:16 When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you.

9:17 So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes.

9:18 Then once again I fell prostrate before the LORD for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the LORD’s sight and so provoking him to anger.

9:19 I feared the anger and wrath of the LORD, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you. But again the LORD listened to me.

9:20 And the LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I prayed for Aaron too.

9:21 Also I took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain.

9:22 You also made the LORD angry at Taberah, at Massah and at Kibroth Hattaavah.

9:23 And when the LORD sent you out from Kadesh Barnea, he said, “Go up and take possession of the land I have given you.” But you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You did not trust him or obey him.

9:24 You have been rebellious against the LORD ever since I have known you.

9:25 I lay prostrate before the LORD those forty days and forty nights because the LORD had said he would destroy you.

9:26 I prayed to the LORD and said, “O Sovereign LORD, do not destroy your people, your own inheritance that you redeemed by your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

9:27 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness and their sin.

This is a little odd because, the Israelites themselves were so wicked that they were almost destroyed by God twice. Moses reminds them of these incidences: the Golden Calf idol incident (Exodus 32), where God wanted to “blot out their name from under heaven,” and when the Israelites were afraid to go into the Promised Land the first time because of the false reports of the spies (Numbers 13).

9:28 Otherwise, the country from which you brought us will say, ‘Because the LORD was not able to take them into the land he had promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to put them to death in the desert.’

9:29 But they are your people, your inheritance that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.”

Final Thoughts on Chapter 9:

So, what we’ve learned is that the Israelites were wicked enough to be destroyed by God multiple times, but they were only left alive because God promised something to some men hundreds of years ago, and because Moses reminded God of that promise. This means that his chosen people are not really special at all; God is not choosing them based on righteousness or good works. He is making an arbitrary decision, deciding their eternal fate, based on a promise instead of their works. This is not evidence of love, but in reality a case of lottery. People who believe in free-will will say that the responsibility falls on the individual to choose God, but Paul’s words in Romans 9:16-21 prove the opposite is true:

“It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden. One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?”