1Hear, Israel: Thou passest this day over Jordan to go to possess nations great and strong above thee; cities great and fortified to the heavens: 2A people great and high, sons of Anakims, whom thou knewest, and thou heardest, Who shall stand before the sons of Anak? 3And know thou this day that Jehovah thy God he is passing over before thee; he is a consuming fire, he will destroy them, and he will humble them before thy face, and drive them out and destroy them quickly, as Jehovah spake to thee. 4Thou shalt not say in thy heart in Jehovah thy God's thrusting them out from before thee, saying, For my justice Jehovah brought me forth to possess this land; and for the injustice of these nations Jehovah dispossessed them from before thee. 5Not for thy justice and for the straightness of thy heart thou goest in to possess this land, but for the injustice of these nations Jehovah thy God dispossesses them from before thee, and order to lift up the word which he sware to thy fathers, to Abraham and to Isaak and to Jacob. 6And know thou that not for thy justice did Jehovah thy God five to thee this good land to possess it; for thou a people of a hard neck. 7Remembering, thou shalt not forget that thou didst provoke Jehovah thy God to anger in the desert: from the day thou didst go out from the land of Egypt till your coming to this place, ye were rebelling against Jehovah. 8And in Horeb ye provoked Jehovah to anger, and Jehovah will be angry with you to destroy you. 9In my going up to the mount to take the tables of stone, the tables of the covenant which Jehovah made with you, and I shall dwell in the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate not bread and I drank not water: 10And Jehovah will give to me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and upon them according to all the words which Jehovah spake with you in the mountain out of the midst of the fire, in the day of the gathering. 11And it shall be from the end of forty days and forty nights, Jehovah gave to me the two tables of stone, the tables of the covenant. 12And Jehovah will say to me, Arise, go from this mountain; for thy people were corrupted which thou broughtest forth from Egypt; they turned aside quickly from the way which thou didst command them; they made to themselves a molten thing. 13And Jehovah will say to me, saying, I saw this people, and behold, it a people of hard neck: 14Desist from me and I will destroy them, and I will wipe off their name from under the heavens: and I will make thee into a nation strong and many above them. 15to And I shall turn and come down from the mount, and the mount burnt with fire: and the two tables of the covenant upon my two hands. 16And I shall see, and behold, ye sinned against Jehovah your God; ye made to you a molten calf; ye turned aside quickly from the way which Jehovah commanded you. 17And I shall lay hold upon the two tables and I shall cast them from out of my two hands, and shall break them before your eyes. 18And I shall fall down before Jehovah as at the first; forty days and forty nights I ate not bread and I drank not water on account of all your sins that ye sinned to do evil in the eyes of Jehovah to provoke him 19For I was afraid from the face of the anger and emotion with which Jehovah was angry against you to destroy you. And Jehovah will hear to me also in this time. 20And with Aaron Jehovah was greatly angry to destroy him: and I shall pray also for Aaron in that time. 21And the sin that ye made, the calf, I took and I shall burn it with fire, and beat it, and grinding small till it was beat small to dust: and I shall cast its dust into the torrent going down from the mount. 22And in Taberah and in Massah, and in Kibroth Hatavah, ye were provoking Jehovah to anger. 23And in Jehovah's sending you from Kadesh-Barnea, saying; Go ye up and possess the land which I gave to you: and ye will rebel against the mouth of Jehovah your God, and ye trusted not to him, and ye heard not to his voice. 24And ye were rebelling against Jehovah from the day I knew you. 25And I shall fall down before Jehovah forty days and forty nights, as I fell down; for Jehovah said to destroy you. 26And I shall pray to Jehovah, and say, Lord Jehovah, thou wilt not destroy thy people and thine inheritance which thou didst redeem in thy greatness, whom thou broughtest out of Egypt with a strong hand. 27Remember thy servants, for Abraham, for Isaak, and for Jacob, thou wilt not look to the stubbornness of this people, and to its wickedness, and to its sin: 28Lest they of the land where thou broughtest us from there shall say, For Jehovah was not able to bring them in to the land which he spake to them; and for his hating them he brought them out to destroy them in the desert 29And they are thy people and thine inheritance whom thou broughtest out by thy great strength and by thine extended arm.
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary 1 The call to attention (
Deut 9:1),
Hear, O Israel, intimates that this was a new discourse, delivered at some distance of time after the former, probably the next sabbath day.
I. Moses represents to the people the formidable strength of the enemies which they were now to encounter,
Deut 9:1. The nations they were to dispossess were mightier than themselves, not a rude and undisciplined rout, like the natives of America, that were easily made a prey of. But, should they besiege them, they would find their cities well fortified, according as the art of fortification then was; should they engage them in the field, they would find the people great and tall, of whom common fame had reported that there was no standing before them,
Deut 9:2. This representation is much the same with that which the evil spies had made (
Num 13:28,
Num 13:33), but made with a very different intention: that was designed to drive them from God and to discourage their hope in him; this to drive them to God and to engage their hope in him, since no power less than that which is almighty could secure and prosper them.
II. He assures them of victory, by the presence of God with them, notwithstanding the strength of the enemy,
Deut 9:3. Understand therefore what thou must trust to for success, and which way thou must look; it is the Lord thy God that goes before thee, not only as thy captain, or commander-in-chief, to give direction, but as a consuming fire, to do execution among them. Observe, He shall destroy them, and then thou shalt drive them out. 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.
III. He cautions them not to entertain the least thought of their own righteousness, as if that had procured them this favour at God's hand: Say not.
For my righteousness (either with regard to my good character or in recompence for any good service)
the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land (
Deut 9:4); never think it is for thy righteousness or the uprightness of thy heart, that it is in consideration either of thy good conversation or of they good disposition,
Deut 9:5. And again (
Deut 9:6) it is insisted on, because it is hard to bring people from a conceit of their own merit, and yet very necessary that it be done:
Understand (know it, and believe it, and consider it) that
the Lord thy God giveth thee not this land for thy righteousness. Hadst thou been to come to it upon that condition, thou wouldst have been for ever shut out of it,
for thou art a stiff-necked people. Note, Our gaining possession of the heavenly Canaan, as it must be attributed to God's power and not to our own might, so it must be ascribed to God's grace and not to our own merit: in Christ we have both righteousness and strength; in him therefore we must glory, and not in ourselves, or any sufficiency of our own.
IV. He intimates to them the true reasons why God would take this good land out of the hands of the Canaanites, and settle it upon Israel, and they are borrowed from his own honour, not from Israel's deserts. 1. He will be honoured in the destruction of idolaters; they are justly looked upon as haters of him, and therefore he will visit their iniquity upon them. It is
for the wickedness of these nations that God
drives them out, Deut 9:4, and again,
Deut 9:5. All those whom God rejects are rejected for their own wickedness: but none of those whom he accepts are accepted for their own righteousness. 2. He will be honoured in the performance of his promise to those that are in covenant with him: God swore to the patriarchs, who loved him and left all to follow him, that he would give this land to their seed; and therefore he would
keep that promised mercy for thousands of those that loved him and kept his commandments; he would not suffer his promise to fail. It was for their fathers' sakes that they were beloved,
Roma 11:28. Thus boasting is for ever excluded. See
Ephes 1:9,
Ephes 1:11.
7 That they might have no pretence to think that God brought them to Canaan
for their righteousness, Moses here shows them what a miracle of mercy it was that they had not long ere this been destroyed in the wilderness:
Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the Lord thy God (
Deut 9:7); so far from purchasing his favour, thou hast many a time laid thyself open to his displeasure. Their fathers' provocations are here charged upon them; for, if God had dealt with their fathers according to their deserts, this generation would never have been, much less would they have entered Canaan. We are apt to forget our provocations, especially when the smart of the rod is over, and have need to be often put in mind of them, that we may never entertain any conceit of our own righteousness. Paul argues from the guilt which all mankind is under to prove that we cannot be
justified before God by our own works,
Roma 3:19,
Roma 3:20. If our works condemn us, they will not justify us. Observe, 1. They had been a provoking people ever since they came out of Egypt,
Deut 9:7.
Forty years long, from first to last, were God and Moses grieved with them. It is a very sad character Moses now at parting leaves of them:
You have been rebellious since the day I knew you, Deut 9:24. No sooner were they formed into a people than there was a faction formed among them, which upon all occasions made head against God and his government. Though the Mosaic history records little more than the occurrences of the first and last year of the forty, yet it seems by this general account that the rest of the years were not much better, but one continued provocation. 2. Even in Horeb they made a calf and worshipped it,
Deut 9:8, etc. 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. They
turned aside quickly, Deut 9:16. 3. 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 (
Deut 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,
Deut 9:13,
Deut 9:14. 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 (
Deut 9:19):
I was afraid of the anger of the Lord, afraid perhaps not for them only, but for himself,
Pss 119:120. 4. 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, Deut 9:17. A bill of divorce was given them, and thenceforward they might justly have been abandoned for ever, so that their mouth was certainly stopped from pleading any righteousness of their own. God had, in effect, disowned them, when he said to Moses (
Deut 9:12), They are thy people, they are none of mine, nor shall they be dealt with as mine. 5. Aaron himself fell under God's displeasure for it, though he was the saint of the Lord, and was only brought by surprise or terror to be confederate with them in the sin:
The Lord was very angry with Aaron, Deut 9:20. No man's place or character can shelter him from the wrath of God if he have
fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. 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. 6. 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 full forty days and forty nights before he could obtain their pardon,
Deut 9:18. And some think twice forty days (
Deut 9:25), because it is said,
as I fell down before, whereas his errand in the first forty was not of that nature. Others think it was but one forty, though twice mentioned (as also in
Deut 10:10); but 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. Moses here tells them the substance of his intercession for them. He was obliged to own their stubbornness, and their wickedness, and their sin,
Deut 9:27. Their character was bad indeed when he that appeared an advocate for them could not give them a good word, and had nothing else to say in their behalf but that God had done great things for them, which really did but aggravate their crime (
Deut 9:26), - that they were the posterity of good ancestors (
Deut 9:27), which might also have been turned upon him, as making the matter worse and not better, - and that the Egyptians would reproach God, if he should destroy them, as unable to perfect what he had wrought for them (
Deut 9:28), a plea which might easily enough have been answered: no matter what the Egyptians say, while the heavens declare God's righteousness; so that the saving of them from ruin at that time was owing purely to the mercy of God, and the importunity of Moses, and not to any merit of theirs, that could be offered so much as in mitigation of their offence. 7. To affect them the more with the destruction they were then at the brink of, he describes very particularly the destruction of the calf they had made,
Deut 9:21. He calls it their
sin: perhaps not only because it had been the matter of their sin, but because the destroying of it was intended for a testimony against their sin, and an indication to them what the sinners themselves did deserve. Those that made it were like unto it, and would have had no wrong done them if they had been thus stamped to dust, and consumed, and scattered, and no remains of them left. It was infinite mercy that accepted the destruction of the idol instead of the destruction of the idolaters. 8. Even after this fair escape that they had, in many other instances they provoked the Lord again and again. He needed only to name the places, for they carried the memorials either of the sin or of the punishment in their names (
Deut 9:22): at
Taberah, burning, where God set fire to them for their murmuring, - at
Massah, the temptation, where they challenged almighty power to help them, - and at
Kibroth-hattaavah, the graves of lusters, where the dainties they coveted were their poison; and, after these, their unbelief and distrust at Kadesh-barnea, of which he had already told them (ch. 1), and which he here mentions again (
Deut 9:23), would certainly have completed their ruin if they had been dealt with according to their own merits.
Now let them lay all this together, and it will appear that whatever favour God should hereafter show them, in subduing their enemies and putting them in possession of the land of Canaan, it was not for their righteousness. It is good for us often to remember against ourselves, with sorrow and shame, our former sins, and to review the records conscience keeps of them, that we may see how much we are indebted to free grace, and may humbly own that we never merited at God's hand any thing but wrath and the curse.