Deuteronomy chapter 9

Victory by God’s grace. Remember the Golden Calf.

 


 

VICTORY BY GOD’S GRACE

 

VERSE 1. Hear, Israel! You are to pass over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to the sky,

dispossess nations. When the LORD God brought them into the Promised Land, God’s people killed the inhabitants and took their houses and cities. Read more »

 

VERSE 2. a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard say, “Who can stand before the sons of Anak?”

the sons of the Anakim. The Anakim were a race of giants. Their fearsome appearance had filled ten of the twelve spies with dread.

 

VERSE 3. Know therefore today that the LORD your God is he who goes over before you as a devouring fire. He will destroy them and he will bring them down before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the LORD has spoken to you.

he will bring them down before you. They will soon face the mighty Anakim.

But before the battle begins, the LORD God will take away the power of the mighty Anakim. This will guarantee Israel’s victory.

 

VERSE 4. Don’t say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out from before you, “For my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land;” because the LORD drives them out before you because of the wickedness of these nations.

For my righteousness. Moses makes it obvious that their own righteousness counts for nothing.

Instead, they are to trust the LORD God and his promise of victory.

Like Abram. Abram is often referred to as our father in faith. He wasn’t “saved” by good works or by keeping the Old Testament Law, but by trusting the words of God. Read more »

 

VERSE 5. Not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

Not for your righteousness. Moses makes it obvious that their own righteousness counts for nothing.

Instead, they are to trust the LORD God and his promise of victory.

Like Abram. Abram is often referred to as our father in faith. He wasn’t “saved” by good works or by keeping the Old Testament Law, but by trusting the words of God. Read more »

 

VERSE 6. Know therefore that the LORD your God doesn’t give you this good land to possess for your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.

your righteousness. Moses makes it obvious that their own righteousness counts for nothing.

Instead, they are to trust the LORD God and his promise of victory.

Like Abram. Abram is often referred to as our father in faith. He wasn’t “saved” by good works or by keeping the Old Testament Law, but by trusting the words of God. Read more »

 

REMEMBER THE GOLDEN CALF

See also: Exodus chapter 32

 

VERSE 7. Remember, and don’t forget, how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD.

 

VERSE 8. Also in Horeb you provoked the LORD to wrath, and the LORD was angry with you to destroy you.

 

VERSE 9. When I had gone up onto the mountain to receive the stone tablets, even the tablets of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water.

 

VERSE 10. The LORD delivered to me the two stone tablets written with God’s finger. On them were all the words which the LORD spoke with you on the mountain out of the middle of the fire in the day of the assembly.

two stone tablets. There were two tablets. They were made of stone.

What would a stone tablet weigh? How easy would it be to carry two of them?

On them were all the words. Many people imagine that what was written on the two stone tablets was the Ten Commandments.

However, Jewish people say there are 613 commandments. To write 613 commandments on only two stone tablets would be a challenge.

 

VERSE 11. It came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights that the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, even the tablets of the covenant.

at the end of forty days and forty nights. Moses spent 40 days on the mountain.

 

VERSE 12. The LORD said to me, “Arise, get down quickly from here; for your people whom you have brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned away from the way which I commanded them. They have made a molten image for themselves!”

 

VERSE 13. Furthermore the LORD spoke to me, saying, “I have seen these people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people.

they are a stiff-necked people. In those days, the people were quick to fall into idolatry. Their particular form of idolatry was the Golden Calf.

In our day, Christians are quick to fall into idolatry as well. The particular form is money. It is the root of all evil.

 

VERSE 14. Leave me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under the sky; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.”

 

VERSE 15. So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire. The two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.

the mountain was burning with fire. This is spectacular. And a promise of immanent destruction.

In the Bible, fire sometimes came down from heaven. It was a sign. Or it destroyed the wicked. Or it consumed a sacrifice. Or it was a counterfeit miracle. Read more »

 

VERSE 16. I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the LORD your God. You had made yourselves a molded calf. You had quickly turned away from the way which the LORD had commanded you.

 

VERSE 17. I took hold of the two tablets, and threw them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes.

threw them out of my two hands. The stone tablets were the most irreplaceable artifacts on earth. Why did Moses destroy them?

 

VERSE 18. I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you sinned, in doing that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, to provoke him to anger.

I neither ate bread nor drank water. Moses fasted.

forty days and forty nights. In our day, people often scoff at the Bible’s claim that Moses fasted for 40 days.

However, even in our day, many people have fasted for 40 days. Or even longer.

Fasting is an important part of the human experience.

 

VERSE 19. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the LORD was angry against you to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me that time also.

 

VERSE 20. The LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.

I prayed for Aaron. Moses acts as an intermediary.

 

VERSE 21. I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire, and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. I threw its dust into the brook that descended out of the mountain.

burned it with fire. That is, Moses burned the golden calf.

However, the statue was made of gold. Gold does not burn. Rather, if you heat it hot enough, it melts.

 

VERSE 22. At Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked the LORD to wrath.

 

VERSE 23. When the LORD sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, “Go up and possess the land which I have given you,” you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and you didn’t believe him or listen to his voice.

 

VERSE 24. You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.

 

VERSE 25. So I fell down before the LORD the forty days and forty nights that I fell down, because the LORD had said he would destroy you.

 

VERSE 26. I prayed to the LORD, and said, “Lord GOD, don’t destroy your people and your inheritance that you have redeemed through your greatness, that you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

I prayed to the LORD. Moses acts as an intermediary.

 

VERSE 27. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don’t look at the stubbornness of this people, nor at their wickedness, nor at their sin,

 

VERSE 28. lest the land you brought us out from say, ‘Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which he promised to them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.’

 

VERSE 29. Yet they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.”

 


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DEUTERONOMY

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