Deuteronomy 9

CHAPTER 9THEME: God knew Israel’s past failureGod is reviewing for this new generation the past of the nation Israel. Their past was not good. God did not save them because they were good. He didn’t call them because they were an outstanding nation. They were not. God has not saved us because we are outstanding, or superior, or even good. The only kind of people God is saving is bad people. I am reminded of an incident when I was walking behind some members of the church I was serving. As we were walking through a park, a bum begged them for some money. We had encouraged our members to send such people to the mission where they would be helped. But this fellow didn’t want thathe wanted money to buy wine.

When I came along, the beggar told me that the folk ahead, who had gone into the church, thought they were better than anybody else. I answered him, “It’s quite interesting that you say they think they are better than anyone else. I happen to know them, and I remember the day they came to Christ. Do you know why they came?” He looked at me in amazement. “They came because they thought they were worse than anybody else. They thought they were sinners and needed a Savior. That is why they came to Christ.” You see, he had the idea, which is commonly expressed, that the church is made up of people who think they are better than other folk.

Now that may be true in some cases. If it is true, the church is certainly not a church in the New Testament sense. God saves us because we are bad, because we are sinners.

Deuteronomy 9:1

“This day” does not refer to a twenty-four hour day, but to the time when they will enter the land.

Deuteronomy 9:2

God gives a report on the land which is worse than the report the spies had brought back. God knew the land and God knew who was in the land, yet God had told them to go in. They had refused to go in because they didn’t believe God. God knew that the people there were giants. He knew all the difficulties. He had promised to go into the land with them. It was Martin Luther who said, “One with God is a majority.” My friend, if you are with God, you are with the majority. Actually, Christians belong to a minority group down here in this world. But I’ll tell you something the world doesn’t know: with God, we are a majority. One with God is a majority.

Deuteronomy 9:3

God takes the responsibility of putting them out of the land. God is the Landlord. He is the Creator. He has a right to do this. When I hear a fellow who is liberal in his theology complain about this, I feel like saying, “You little pip-squeak, you keep quiet. You and I are just little creatures down here.” God is the sovereign Creator; we are the creatures.

Deuteronomy 9:4

God is saying that He is driving the other nations out because they are wicked nationsnot because the people He is putting in there are righteous. God makes that abundantly clear.

Deuteronomy 9:5

God did not come down to deliver Israel because they were a wonderful people. He knew all the time that they were a stiff-necked people, but He heard their cry in Egypt. And friend, if you recognize that you are a sinner and need a Savior, then you will need to cry to Him for salvation. He will hear you. Do you know why? Not because of who you are, but for Christ’s sake. If you will turn to Christ in faith, He will save you.

Deuteronomy 9:6

Do you know that God does not save you and me because we are good? We are sinners. He saves us for Christ’s sake, not for our sake. Friend, if you think that somehow or other God will find something in you that merits salvation, forget it, because you will be disappointed. God knows you, and He says He can’t find anything righteous in you at all. It is for Christ’s sake that God saves us, and God finds everything we need in Him. How wonderful that is! You see that in this passage of Deuteronomy there is the seed for the gospel of the grace of God.

Deuteronomy 9:7

ISRAEL’S PAST FAILUREMoses directs them back over their past history and refers specifically to the time when they made the golden calf. If we turn back to Exo_32:4 we read, “And he received them at their hand …,” referring to the golden earrings. The women, and the men, too, took off their golden earrings and gave them to Aaron. Those golden earrings were a sign of idolatry (generally they were worn in one ear only). These people had lapsed back into idolatry very quickly. Aaron took the golden earrings, and with a graving tool he fashioned a molten calf.

And they said, “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” Now God calls them to remember this. God reminded them of that again in Psa_106:19. “They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped the molten image.” God asked them to remember, but they forgot.

Deuteronomy 9:8

Moses goes on with his narrative:

Deuteronomy 9:12

At the very time they were making the molten calf, Moses was on the Mount getting the Commandments, and two of these commandments were against that very thing: “Thou shalt have no other gods. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.” Notice that God says to Moses, “They’re your people. You brought them out of Egypt.” Moses will answer that in just a moment.

Deuteronomy 9:13

The Lord repeats thisHe knew all the time that Israel was a stiffnecked people. He knows you and me also, and can probably say the same thing about us.

Deuteronomy 9:14

This must have been a temptation for Moses, but he resisted it. His pleading for Israel is recorded in Exo_33:12-17. Moses would not go up into the land without the presence of the Lord. He said, “If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.” Moses identified himself with the people. When Moses came down from the Mount, he saw what they had done.

Deuteronomy 9:16

At the very moment when God was giving them the Commandments, they were turning from Himyet they were saying they would obey Him. People can be more phony in religion than in anything else. It seems to be something that is characteristic of the human nature. Even people who are really sincere are as phony as can be. We all need to pray the prayer of the psalmist, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psa_139:23-24). Every child of God needs to pray this.

Paul has this admonition for the believers: “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” (2Co_13:5). Check whether you are in the faith or not. I believe and I preach the security of the believer, my friend. I believe that the believer is secure. But I also believe and preach the insecurity of the make-believer.

There are a lot of make-believers. We need to search our hearts, every one of us.

Deuteronomy 9:17

I want you to notice that Moses knew God. The psalmist says, “He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel” (Psa_103:7). The children of Israel saw the mountain smoke, they saw the judgment of God, they saw His glory, but they did not know Him. Moses knew Him! Moses knew His ways. Moses understood two things about God which are revealed here. They are paradoxical, but they are not contradictory. Moses knew that God hates sin. May I say to you that we today do not have the faintest conception of how God hates sin and how He intends to punish it. Moses went down on his face before God and fasted and cried out to God for forty days and forty nights! Why? Because Moses knew the ways of God. He knew how God hates sin. The average Christian today does not seem to realize how God hates sin in his life. My friend, God never ignores a sin we commit. God will deal with sin in your life and in my life. I have been a pastor for a long time, and I have observed church people over the years. I want to say to you that I have watched people in the church play fast and loose with God. I have seen them cut corners and put up a front.

The days melt into years, and then I have seen the hand of God move in judgment on their lives. Sometimes the judgment has been extremely severe. I can especially remember a man who came to me and actually dropped down on his knees and cried out that he just could not stand what God was putting him through. He had lost his children, lost his family. I can remember him as a young upstart, a young married man, who thought he could play fast and loose with God. God hates sin.

God punishes sin. Moses also knew the mercy of God. Moses comes to God because he trusts in His mercy. God will punish sin, but, my friend, we do not comprehend how wonderful He is. He is so gracious. He extends mercy to the sinner. He has extended His mercy to you, I am sure. I know He has to me. And the Lord extended mercy to Israel. Listen:

Deuteronomy 9:19

God did not hear the prayer of Moses because of who he was. God heard his prayer because He is merciful. Paul makes this clear in Rom_9:15, “For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” God is sovereign, and He sovereignly extends His mercy. How wonderful He is. You and I do not fully comprehend those two attributes of God: His hatred of sin and His mercy.

Deuteronomy 9:20

If this incident weren’t so tragic, it would be humorous. Moses makes the people drink their idol.

Deuteronomy 9:22

This is a summary. There never was a day when these people were really found faithful to God. What a picture! We tend to point to them in criticism, but what about the believer today? I am afraid there are many of us, even in conservative churches, who are not faithful to God for a single day. We boast that we are sound in the faithsound all rightsound asleep!

Deuteronomy 9:25

This was after they refused to go into the land at Kadesh-barnea. Moses knew God. Moses knew that God judges sin.

Deuteronomy 9:26

Moses knew how to pray. I wish I knew how to pray like that! Remember that back in verse Deu_9:12 God said, “For thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves.” Now imagine Moses saying to God that He has made a mistake! Moses says, “They are not my people; they are Yours. I didn’t bring them out of Egypt; You did. They belong to You.” Moses reminds God that the people in the land would think He was unable to bring Israel into the landthat He was able to bring Israel out of Egypt, but He was not able to bring them into the land. That kind of praying moves the hand of God. Here Israel stands, ready now to enter the land which reveals that Moses knew how to pray!