Tanak Foundations-Concepts in Deuteronomy-Chapter 9

Deut 9.1-29 is a warning against self-righteousness for the spiritual person, or “How not to be a religious person.”  It is Yehovah who gave Israel their victories.  Verses 1-6 starts right out by saying that Israel was not to think in their heart that Yehovah was giving them the land because they were so righteous. In addition, he is not doing it because of the wickedness of the nations only, even though verse 5 says that was a reason (based Gen 15.16).  In the overall picture, it was part of the bigger plan of God called the Abrahamic Covenant seen in Gen 15.1-21. The Lord is confirming his oath with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in Deut 9.5-6. After all, he says, “You are a stubborn people” and not the righteous people they think they are. Israel has pulled in the opposite direction God is going many times.

In Deut 9.7-21 Moses recounts what led up to the Golden Calf incident and proof from the past of their rebellion. Then in verse 22 he recounts how Israel complained about the manna, and at Massah and Meribah in Exo 17.7 (quarreling), how they tested the Lord by saying, “Is God with us today?” In Num 11.10-35 we have the quail incident at Kibrot-Hattaavah referred to here in v 22. They got the blessing and still complained. In Num 13, at Kadesh Barnea (Wadi Rum), they refused to go into the land. Moses is reminding them of all this, and how close they came to the Lord destroying them all (v 14).

Before we are too hard on Israel, we need to understand that we are just like them. We complain, we question and wonder “Is the Lord with me” even after he has done many great things for us. We don’t get our “wants” and that is one of the things wrong with the prosperity movement. It teaches “lust” for material things, the very things that Israel is criticized for.

After all that happened, Moses prayed for the people not to be destroyed (v 25-29). He calls them “they people, even thine inheritance, whom thou hast redeemed.” Moses is saying “You chose us, I wish we chose you, but we didn’t.” He wants the Lord to remember Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and not to look at the stubbornness of the people. Moses points out that the Canaanites will say Yehovah was not able to bring them into the land he promised because he hated them, and brought them into the wilderness to kill them. The Canaanites would then think that their gods are more powerful than Yehovah.

God’s purpose, therefore, in the world is not us (the body of Messiah). All of this is “for us” but it is for his names’ sake. We can partake and receive an inheritance, forgiveness, the blessings and all that but it’s not because of our righteousness that any of this happens. What we need to do is grasp how great Yehovah is and how his plan includes a true believer. The question then becomes, “How did I get here?” All the credit and glory goes to the Lord.  Go back to Deut 9.26 for a moment.

God chose us, we didn’t choose him. We are the children of the fathers he made these promises to, “the inheritance.” He paid for us and put the value on us. We are the work of his hands. We don’t want the Lord to look at us, we are sinners. We want him to remember his promises to our fathers (v 27). We want the Lord to remember the land. Does he want the Canaanites on it or a people who will worship him?

v 1…”Hear, O Israel!  You are crossing over the Jordan today (the immediate future) to go in to dispossess the nations greater and mightier than you, great cities fortified to heaven (well defended),

v 2…a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim (long-necked; proud), whom you know (having come into contact with Og-Deut 3.11) and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak (by the spies in Num 13.28).’

v 3…Know therefore today that it is the Lord your God who is crossing over before you as a consuming fire (before which their enemies cannot stand).  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 (Exo 23.27-31).

v 4…Don 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 the nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you.

v 5…It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

v 6…Know, 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 (Israel pulls in the opposite direction God is going).

v 7…Remember, do not 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 arrived in this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord.

v 8…Even at Horeb (SInai-18.16) you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he would have destroyed you.

v 9…When I went up to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made for you, there I remained on the mountain forty days and nights ; I neither ate bread nor drank water (Moses was required to abstain from these things, but the people thought nothing of all this and observed pagan customs and rituals).

v 10…And the Lord gave me two tablets of stone written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly (Yom Kahal-this would be Shavuot and it became an idiom for that festival-10.4, 18.16)

v 11…And it came about at the end of forty days and nights that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.

v 12…The the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down from here quickly, for your people (God repudiates Israel for their spiritual adultery and idolatry) whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly (thi alludes to the first coming of Yeshua).  They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made a molten image for themselves.’

v 13…The Lord spoke further to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a stubborn people.

v 14…Let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven; I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’

v 15…So I turned and came down the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire (as it had been for forty days, but this did not stop the Israelites), and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands (this version is condensed from the one in Exo 33).

v 16…And I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God.  You had made for yourselves a molten calf, you had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you.

v 17…And I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands, and smashed them before your eyes (the betrothal has been broken, this action was emblematic of that).

v 18…And I fell down before the Lord, as at the first, forty days and nights (not at first, but after he came down and ground the calf into dust and made them drink, rebuked Aaron and had the sons of Levi slay 3000 people; he then went back up the mountain again; this is a type of the ascension of Yeshua), I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you have committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger.

v 19…For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was wrathful against you in order to destroy you, nut the Lord listened to me that time also (as a mediator like Yeshua).

v 20…And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him (for his compliance with this) also, so I prayed for Aaron at the same time (and GOd forgave him and made him high priest).

v 21…And took your sinful thing, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small until it as as fine dut; and I threw its dust into the brook that came down from the mountain (it turned the water red, like the Red Heifer).

v 22…Again at Tabera (burning) and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah (graves of the greedy) you provoked the Lord to wrath.

v 23…And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea (Wadi Rum), saying, ‘Go up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; you neither believed him nor listened to his voice.

v 24…You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day I knew you (Before we are too hard on these people, we need to understand that we are just like them.  We complain, we question whether God is with us even after all the things he has done).

v 25…So I fell down before the Lord the forty days and nights (the second one), which I did because the Lord had said he would destroy you.

v 26…And I prayed to the Lord, and said, ‘Oh Lord God do not destroy thy people, even thine inheritance, whom thou hast redeemed (paid the price for) through thy greatness, whom thou brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

v 27…Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look at the stubbornness of this people or at their wickedness or their sin (God’s purpose in the world is not us, it’s for his name’s sake and the promises made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob).

v 28…Otherwise, the land from which thou didst bring us (Egypt) may say, “Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which he had promised them and because he hated them he has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.”

v 29…Yet they are thy people, even thine inheritance, whom thou hast brought out by thy great power and thine outstretched arm.’

Posted in All Teachings, Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Prophecy/Eschatology, The Festivals of the Lord, The Tanak, Tying into the New Testament

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