Moses dissuadeth them from the opinion of their own righteousness, by rehearsing their several rebellions.
Deu 9:1 Hear, Israel: You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky.
The appointed time for the possession of Canaan was at hand. Israel was to prepare to pass over in the immediate future. The death of Moses and a month of mourning for him were to come before the actual crossing of the Jordan.
Deu 9:2 The people are strong and tall—Anakites! You know about them and have heard it said: “Who can stand up against the Anakites?”
Anakims. Literally, “the long-necked ones.” They appear to have descended from Anak. Arba, founder of Hebron (Joshua 14:15; 15:13), was a chief of the Anakim. They were scattered over the hill country of Judah (see Num. 13:22, 28, 33). Children of Anak.
After the Israelite conquest none of the Anakim remained in Judah, but a small remnant survived in Philistia (Joshua 11:22; 2 Sam. 21:16; 1 Chron. 20:4). It is thought that Goliath was a descendant of the Anakim (Num. 13:33; Joshua 11:22; 1 Sam. 17:4).
Deu 9:3 But be assured today that the LORD your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly, as the LORD has promised you.
He will destroy them. The pronoun “he” is emphatic; “he which goes over before you0,” “he shall destroy them,” and “he shall bring them down.”
The conquest of Canaan was to be achieved by His power—“so shalt thou [Israel] drive them out.” The glory would be His, not theirs (see Joshua 3:1–11; 11:21–23).
Deu 9:4 After the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “The LORD has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is going to drive them out before you.
My righteousness. Their evil conduct since leaving Egypt made it evident that they were not being given the land of Canaan because they deserved it (vs. 7–27).
Wickedness. When Abraham sojourned in Canaan “the iniquity of the Amorites” was “not yet full” (Gen. 15:16). During their 215 years in Canaan, Abraham and his descendants bore a faithful witness to the true God, so that the inhabitants of the land might have an opportunity to amend their ways.
It was not until the nations of Canaan had irretrievably sinned away their day of grace that God dispossessed them of their land (see Lev. 18:24–28; 1 Kings 14:23, 24; 21:26).
Deu 9:5 It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the LORD your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Drive them out.
God had originally allotted Canaan to the Amorites and other tribes Israel found there (Deut. 32:8; Acts 17:26), but they forfeited their right to it by their evil ways. Should Israel imitate the ways of these nations they too would be driven out. This eventually happened (see Ex. 34:24; Deut. 4:38; 11:23; Joshua 23:5, 9).
Deu 9:6 Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.
Stiffnecked. The word translated “stiff” is from a root meaning “to be hard,” “to be heavy,” and thus figuratively “to be 6obstinate,” “to be stubborn.”
A “stiff” neck is a neck that has been hardened (2 Kings 17:14; Neh. 9:16, 17, 29; Prov. 29:1).
The same word is used of the “hardening” of Pharaoh’s heart (Ex. 7:3). God pleads with His people not to “harden” their hearts (Ps. 95:8). This, however, they often did (Ex. 32:9; 33:3, 5; 34:9; see on Ex. 4:21).
Deu 9:7 Remember this and never forget how you aroused the anger of the LORD your God in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against the LORD.
Rebellious. On the least imaginary provocation they were up in arms against God, so much so that Moses called them “rebels” (Num. 20:10).
Deu 9:8 At Horeb you aroused the LORD’s wrath so that he was angry enough to destroy you.
Also, in Horeb. The rebellion at Mt. Sinai was most reprehensible in view of the impressive evidence God had recently accorded them (Ex. 32:7, 8). The rebelled in His very presence.
Deu 9:9 When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water.
When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water..
Went up. See Ex. 24:18; 34:28. Eat bread nor drink water. Exodus does not mention fasting in connection with Moses’ first 40 days and nights on Sinai, but does mention it in relation to the second ascent (Ex. 34:28).
Fasting often accompanied periods devoted to meditation on sacred themes, for it tends to clarify spiritual vision.
Deu 9:10 The LORD gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God. On them were all the commandments the LORD proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.
Two stone tabled. See also Ex.31:18; 32:15,
Deu 9:16 When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you.
A reference to the notable occasion on which Israel assembled to hear God proclaim His holy law (chs. 10:4; 18:16).
Deu 9:14 Let me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.”
Destroy them. Israel’s intentional departure from God’s revealed will left them without excuse before Him, and they no longer deserved His forbearance. Deliberate, premeditated sin may bring the day of probation to a sudden close.
There must be a new start, a genuine reformation to avert the hour of judgment (see Ex. 32:10).
Deu 9:16 When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you.
Only a few weeks earlier the people had been commanded not to make graven images (Ex. 20:4) and had promised to obey (Ex. 24:3).
Deu 9:17 So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes.
Brake them. The broken tables of stone typified the broken law and the broken covenant (Ex. 32:19). God severed relations with Israel, and the covenant, which had been ratified a month earlier, became null and void.
It was only upon the intercession of Moses that Israel was readmitted to divine favor, and that on a conditional and probationary basis (Ex. 32:10–14, 32–34).
Deu 9:18 Then once again I fell prostrate before the LORD for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the LORD’s sight and so arousing his anger.
Fell prostate. In intercession on behalf of the people. In Oriental lands even today prostration is the posture of complete submission. As at the first. That is, as during the first 40 days and nights. This was the morning after he had broken up the golden calf (Ex. 32:30–32).
Three times prior to this there had been major disobedience on the part of Israel—at Marah (Ex. 15:23), in the Wilderness of Sin (Ex. 16:2, 3), and at Massah (Ex. 17:2–7).
Deu 9:19 I feared the anger and wrath of the LORD, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you. But again the LORD listened to me.
Deu 9:20 And the LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I prayed for Aaron too.
Aaron considered Moses too severe with people, and thought it better to be more conciliatory, and to meet their wishes in part. But such compromising with sin was ruinous. Little wonder that God was ready to destroy him; his guilt was greater than that of the people. Why God did not do so is not stated. The fact that he was permitted to live and to become high priest testifies to the mercy and long-suffering of God.
Deu 9:21 Also I took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain.
Sinful thing. Burnt it. As recorded in Ex. 32:20. The calf had presumably come forth from the fire (v. 24) and was therefore appropriately consigned to the flames once more.
Into a sream. That is, the stream that flowed from the rock in Horeb, which Moses had struck with his staff (Ex. 17:6), and which constituted their water supply.
Deu 9:22 You also made the LORD angry at Taberah, at Massah and at Kibroth Hattaavah.
Taberah. See Num. 11:1–3. Massah. See Ex. 17:2–7. Kibroth-hattaavah. See Num. 11:4–34.
Deu 9:23 And when the LORD sent you out from Kadesh Barnea, he said, “Go up and take possession of the land I have given you.” But you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You did not trust him or obey him.
Kadesh-barnea. See Num. 13 and 14.
Deu 9:27 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness and their sin.
Remember your= servants. An appeal to the covenant promises as a reason for not yet rejecting Israel, despite their perversity (see Ex. 32:13).
Deu 9:28 Otherwise, the country from which you brought us will say, ‘Because the LORD was not able to take them into the land he had promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.’
Not able. See on Ex. 32:12.
Deu 9:29 But they are your people, your inheritance that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.”