The Law · Chapter 9 of 34

Deuteronomy 9

Moses warns Israel not to imagine they are conquering Canaan because of their own righteousness. They are a stiffnecked people; the nations are driven out for their wickedness and to keep God's promise to the fathers. Moses recounts the golden calf and his forty day intercession, when he pleaded with God not to destroy the people he had led out of Egypt.

What happens in Deuteronomy 9

Moses tells Israel they are about to cross the Jordan to dispossess nations greater than themselves, the fearsome Anakims, but the LORD Himself goes before them as a consuming fire. He forbids them to think their righteousness earned the land. It is given for the nations' wickedness and for the oath sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for Israel is stiffnecked. Moses recounts their rebellions, above all Horeb, where they made the golden calf while he received the tables of stone.

God threatened to destroy them and make Moses a great nation instead. Moses broke the tables, fell before God forty days and nights without food or water, ground the calf to dust, and prayed also for Aaron. He pleaded that God not destroy His inheritance, lest Egypt mock, and that God remember the fathers and His own great redemption. The LORD listened to him.

Deuteronomy 9 in context

Still in the second address on the plains of Moab, Moses dismantles a dangerous assumption forming as victory nears: that Israel deserves the land. He answers pride with a brutal honesty about their past, retelling the golden calf of Exodus 32 in first person memory.

The chapter is a sustained argument for grace, grounding Israel's future entirely in God's oath and mercy rather than in their record, which was rebellion from the start.

Main themes of Deuteronomy 9

Deuteronomy 9 (KJV)

1Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven, 2A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak! 3Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee. 4Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee. 5Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people. 7Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD. 8Also in Horeb ye provoked the LORD to wrath, so that the LORD was angry with you to have destroyed you. 9When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water: 10And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. 11And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the LORD gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant. 12And the LORD said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image. 13Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: 14Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they. 15So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands. 16And I looked, and, behold, ye had sinned against the LORD your God, and had made you a molten calf: ye had turned aside quickly out of the way which the LORD had commanded you. 17And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes. 18And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. 19For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also. 20And the LORD was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time. 21And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount. 22And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibrothhattaavah, ye provoked the LORD to wrath. 23Likewise when the LORD sent you from Kadeshbarnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then ye rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and ye believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice. 24Ye have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you. 25Thus I fell down before the LORD forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the first; because the LORD had said he would destroy you. 26I prayed therefore unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin: 28Lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say, Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness. 29Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power and by thy stretched out arm.

Verses to carry from Deuteronomy 9

“Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”Deuteronomy 9:5

“Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.”Deuteronomy 9:6

“And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.”Deuteronomy 9:18

Reflection

It is humbling to admit that our blessings are not earned. Where have you quietly assumed God's favor proves your goodness? Sit with the honesty of this chapter, then let grace become grace again. Thank God that your standing rests on His promise and mercy, not your record, and pray for someone as Moses prayed.

A prayer from Deuteronomy 9