Deuteronomy 9: Occupation of Canaan—Not by THEIR Works, but the Works of Prior Generations
1 “Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, 2 a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?’ 3 Therefore understand today that Yahweh your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as Yahweh has said to you.
4 “Do not think in your heart, after Yahweh your God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land’; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that Yahweh is driving them out from before you. 5 It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that Yahweh your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6 Therefore understand that Yahweh your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.
“An unbelieving sluggard may say, ‘There is a lion in the way;’ a blind enthusiast may say, ‘There is no such thing;’ the true man of faith will say, ‘Though there were a thousand lions in the way, God can soon dispose of them’ [for hath He not said thus].” (C. H. Mackintosh)
“Hear, O Israel,’— this is very important— “‘you are to cross over the Jordan this day,’ meaning shortly.” (Geneva Study Bible) for “day is often used in scripture for the whole of a man’s life, for a season, and for a short time.” (Joseph Sutcliffe)— “‘and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anakim, whom THOU knowest.—The pronoun is emphatic. The twelve spies, two of whom were still living, had seen them, and their fame was doubtless notorious.“ (C. J. Ellicott) YET: “No obstacle could prevent their possession.” (Jamieson, Faussett, Brown) for Yahweh had determined it by His judgment.
“‘Therefore understand that Yahweh your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire.’ He Who had put His pillar of fire between them and the mighty Egyptian army, will send the same fire before them (compare Numbers 10:35). He had spoken to them from the midst of fire (Deuteronomy 4:12 and often). And this time it will be ‘as a devouring fire’ (compare Deuteronomy 4:24). This vivid illustration would speak vividly to them.“ (Peter Pett) But here the destruction was not by fire, but by their God “as a consuming fire.” “The force whereof is violent and irresistible.” (John Trapp) “As a consuming fire He shall destroy them, as a great fire might devour a handful of tinder, and He shall bring them down before thy face—‘so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly,’ that is, when any nation would be attacked, their aim should be its extermination in the shortest possible space of time; ‘as Yahweh has said to you,’ Exodus 23:23-27.” (Paul E. Kretzmann)
“‘Thou canst not drive them out, unless He destroy them and bring them down. But He will not destroy them and bring them down, unless thou set thyself in good earnest to drive them out.’
We must do our endeavour in dependence upon God's grace, and we shall have that grace if we do our endeavour.” (Matthew Henry)
However this judgment was not THEIRS; but that of others. Theirs would be based on their own future deeds. “‘Not for THY righteousness . . . dost thou go.—The pronoun is emphatic.” (C. J. Elliott) People use this verse to support a debasing doctrine of free grace for salvation, saying “Man by himself deserves nothing but God's anger, and if God spares anyone it comes from his great mercy.” (Geneva Study Bible) While this is true in general sense, it is not what is being taught here.
The opposite is the lesson set before that generation and us: “The Canaanites were a hopelessly corrupt race, and deserved extermination (Leviticus 18:24-25 : cf. Genesis 15:16); but history relates many remarkable instances in which God punished corrupt and guilty nations by the instrumentality of other people as bad as themselves [such as the children of the last generation of Israelites. Secondly and of equal importance:] It was not for the sake of these Israelites, but for His own sake, for the promise made to their pious ancestors, and in furtherance of high and comprehensive purposes of good to the world, that God was about to give them a grant of Canaan.” (Jamieson, Faussett, Brown)
“Was Israel really a righteous nation? No, Moses tells them, they were a stiff-necked people, that is, stubborn and rebellious.” (L. M. Grant)—
“like stubborn oxen who will not endure their masters yoke.” (Geneva Study Bible) “This revelation is important. In what He is doing He is acting as both moral Judge and faithful covenant God, punishing the evil and responding to the good.
It was not an act of favouritism against an innocent people, but a revelation of both the righteousness of God in the face of evil and the faithfulness of God to those who had faithfully followed Him.
So let them be aware that all this is not because of their righteousness. They enter the land, not as those who have achieved righteousness, but as those who, having been delivered from bondage, must begin to reveal righteousness in their lives, by obeying His statutes and ordinances. They must seek righteousness. If they seek first the kingly rule of God and His righteousness all things will be added to them (Matthew 6:33). But if they become self-righteous they will be lost.” (Peter Pett)
How happy are God's redeemed. "What has Zion to fear from the proud, the great, the wicked of the earth. If the Lord look at them through his fiery cloud, they are confounded, they perish and die, like the daring host of Egypt. If God be for us, it is not who can stand before the children of Anak, but who can stand before Omnipotence?” (Joseph Sutcliffe)
Deuteronomy 9: A Continuous Provocation Begins with the Golden Calf
7 “Remember! Do not forget how you provoked Yahweh your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against Yahweh. 8 Also in Horeb you provoked Yahweh to wrath, so that Yahweh was angry enough with you to have destroyed you. 9 When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which Yahweh made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. 10 Then Yahweh delivered to me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words which Yahweh had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. 11 And it came to pass, at the end of forty days and forty nights, that Yahweh gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.
12 “Then Yahweh said to me, ‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for 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 themselves a molded image.’
The church in the wilderness— corporately, nor individually— had not repented. The purpose of this entire discourse is to evoke obedience, not to make a case for the unmerited mercies of God. “Nothing is so hard as to be humbled; for man is a proud, cross creature, that would be something at home, whatever he is abroad; and comes not down without a great deal of difficulty. Hence it is, that Moses so sets it on here, and with one knock after another drives this nail home to the head, that he might cripple their iron sinews, bring their stiff necks to the yoke of God’s obedience.” (John Trapp)
“‘Remember! Do not forget how you provoked Yahweh your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against Yahweh’ (7) — The church was in a continuous state of rebellion. This was important for if the children of the last generation had repented of the sins of their parents then the Word of God towards them would be different. Their lives for which they were of accountable as children of the Commandments was a continued course of rebellion against Yahweh.
“‘Also in Horeb ye provoked the Lord to wrath,’ in the matter of the golden calf, ‘so that the Lord was angry with you to have destroyed you,’ Exo_32:4-10.” (Paul E. Kretzmann) “That was a sin so heinous, and by several aggravations made so exceedingly sinful, that they deserved upon all occasions to be upbraided with it. It was done in the very place where the law was given by which they were expressly forbidden to worship God by images, and while the mountain was yet burning before their eyes, and Moses had gone up to fetch them the law in writing.” (Matthew Henry) The tablets— the covenant reminder — were said to be “‘written by the finger of God’ that is, [perhaps metaphorically] miraculously, and not by the hand of men.” (Geneva Study Bible)—
Or perhaps, literally by Jesus manifest in the flesh on the Mount, He is both the Creator and the Law Giver… and He will be the judge. To whosoever is interested, His judgment all be on the basis of His Word.
12 “Then Yahweh said to me, ‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for 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 themselves a molded image.’
13 “Furthermore Yahweh spoke to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed they are a stiff-necked people. 14 Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’
15 “So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire; and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16 And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against Yahweh your God—had made for yourselves a molded calf! You had turned aside quickly from the way which Yahweh had commanded you. 17 Then I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. 18 And I fell down before Yahweh, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you committed in doing wickedly in the sight of Yahweh , to provoke Him to anger. 19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which Yahweh was angry with you, to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me at that time also. 20 And Yahweh was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him; so I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. 21 Then I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it and ground it very small, until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the brook that descended from the mountain.
“God was very angry with them for their sin. Let them not think that God overlooked what they did amiss, and gave them Canaan for what was good among them. No, God had determined to destroy them (Deuteronomy 9:8), could easily have done it, and would have been no loser by it he even desired Moses to let him alone that he might do it, Deuteronomy 9:13,14. By this it appeared how heinous their sin was, for God is never angry with any above what there is cause for, as men often are. Moses himself, though a friend and favourite, trembled at the revelation of God's wrath from heaven against their ungodliness and unrighteousness (Deuteronomy 9:19)... They had by their sin broken covenant with God, and forfeited all the privileges of the covenant, which Moses signified to them by breaking the tables, Deuteronomy 9:17. A bill of divorce was given them, and thenceforward they might justly have been abandoned for ever... God had, in effect, disowned them, when he said to Moses (Deuteronomy 9:12), ‘They are thy people, they are none of mine, nor shall they be dealt with as mine.’” (Matthew Henry)
“Moses was more troubled for the people than the people were for themselves; so was Daniel for Nebuchadnezzar, [Daniel 4:10] and Nahum for the Chaldeans. [Nahum 3:16]” (Trapp) Moreover, Yahweh was very angry with Aaron, Deuteronomy 9:20. “By the tide of popular clamor, Aaron had became a partaker in the guilt of idolatry and would have suffered the penalty of his sinful compliance, had not the earnest intercession of Moses on his behalf prevailed.” (Jamieson, Faussett, Brown) “No man's place or character can shelter him from the wrath of God if he have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.” (Henry) “I prayed for Aaron. Many a one would die for his sin, if he had not a brother or friend to stand in the gap, and pray for him.“ (Sutcliffe)
“Aaron that should have made atonement for them if the iniquity could have been purged away by sacrifice and offering, did himself fall under the wrath of God: so little did they consider what they did when they drew him in. It was with great difficulty and very long attendance that Moses himself prevailed to turn away the wrath of God, and prevent their utter ruin. He fasted and prayed… This was enough to make them sensible how great God's displeasure was against them, and what a narrow escape they had for their lives. And in this appears the greatness of God's anger against all mankind that no less a person than his Son, and no less a price than his own blood, would serve to turn it away.” (Matthew Henry) He ground up the tablets and threw it in the brook here told, but not before he did make them drink of some. (Exodus 32:20) Obedience must come from within. But so shall every unrepentant sinner be made to drink of the cup of God's wrath at the end of time, after the Judgment.
Deuteronomy 9: Wrath of God Revealed
22 “Also at Taberah and Massah and Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked Yahweh to wrath. 23 Likewise, when Yahweh sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, ‘Go up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh your God God, and you did not believe Him nor obey His voice. 24 You have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day that I knew you. 25 Thus I prostrated myself before Yahweh; forty days and forty nights I kept prostrating myself, because Yahweh had said He would destroy you.
“In all these places they had ‘provoked Yahweh to anger/wrath’ by their behaviour (compare Deuteronomy 4:25; Deuteronomy 9:7-8; Deuteronomy 9:18; Deuteronomy 31:29; Deuteronomy 32:16; Deuteronomy 32:21).” (Peter Pett) Sinners died in each place. Others were saved by analogy of “snatching them from the fire” (Jude 1:23) through the intercession of Moses. But it’ll be literal fire at the end of time.
These stories revealed the nature of God’s wrath. Horeb was not an isolated incident. “The burning at Taberah, the pestilence at Massah, the graves at Kibroth, and the sentence at Kadesh to die in the desert,” are other examples of the wrath of God against sin and unregenerate sinners. And if a man be offended by the wrath of God, "he must be more offended still with his own heart, which will continue to repeat the sermon, with all the emphasis of irresistible evidence.” (Joseph Sutcliffe) God’s ways are not our ways. We are not innocent until proven guilty but rather born under the curse of the law until we are redeemed by Messiah.
26 Therefore I prayed to , and said: ‘O Lord God, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27 Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look on the stubbornness of this people, or on their wickedness or their sin, 28 lest the land from which You brought us should say, “Because Yahweh was not able to bring them to the land which He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.” 29 Yet they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your outstretched arm.’
Repeatedly in the wilderness, it was only through Moses’ “intercession that God had not destroyed every last man of them, Aaron included, man, woman and child.” (Peter Pett) The length of their probation had been extended each time. He bought time for individuals to be saved. “And what had been the basis of his prayer? Not the deserving of the people, that was certain. He was praying that they would not get what they deserved.” (Peter Pett) The reputation of God was at stake, as well as fulfillment of the promises to the patriarchs— Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them [by His Word]. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.” (Romans 1:26-23)
People are saved from death—not from eternal torment— by Jesus. And the Romans passage is not about God’s nature being revealed though nature but rather through His Word. At first it was by word of mouth, after the fall when Yahweh covered Adam and Eve with the skins of innocent animals. The wrath of God was exacted on the victim instead of the sinner. Then God gave the same revelation to Moses in the form of the Genesis stories. Throughout that book and the rest of Pentateuch and the rest of the history books of the Bible, as well as the Gospels and other New Testament epistles, the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven.
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”— Corinthians 1-18
These excerpts from a great book by Edward William Fudge, revealing this great truth, will change your mind forever.