Deuteronomy 9
Remember, do not forget, how you provoked YAHWEH your God to wrath in the wilderness
In Deuteronomy 9, Moses reminds the people that God is giving them the land because of these nations evil, not their righteousness. He also reminds them of their rebelliousness against YAHWEH.
Bible Passage:
9:1 Hear, O Israel! You are to pass over the Jordan this day, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, 2 a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’ 3 Know therefore this day, that YAHWEH your God is he who goes over before you as a devouring fire; he will destroy them, and he will bring them down before you. So you shall drive them out, and make them perish quickly, as YAHWEH has spoken to you. 4 Speak not in your heart, after YAHWEH your God has thrust them out from before you, saying, ‘For my righteousness YAHWEH has brought me in to possess this land.’ But for the wickedness of these nations, YAHWEH does drive them out from before you. 5 Not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations YAHWEH your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which YAHWEH swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
6 Know therefore, that YAHWEH your God does not give you this good land to possess it for your righteousness; for you are a stiff-necked people. 7 Remember, do not forget, how you provoked YAHWEH your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you went forth out of 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, and YAHWEH was angry enough with you to destroy you. 9 When I had gone up onto the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, even the tablets of the covenant which YAHWEH made with you, then I dwelt on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I did not eat bread, nor drink water. 10 YAHWEH delivered to me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which YAHWEH spoke with you on the mountain out of 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, even the tablets of the covenant. 12 YAHWEH said to me, ‘Arise, get down quickly from here. For your people that you have brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molten image.’ 13 Furthermore YAHWEH spoke to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and, behold, it is 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 a nation of you mightier and greater than they are.’ 15 So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16 I looked, and, behold, you had sinned against YAHWEH your God; you had made yourselves a molten calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way which YAHWEH had commanded you. 17 And I took hold of the two tablets, and cast them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes. 18 I fell down before YAHWEH, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I did not eat bread, nor drink water; because of all your sin which you sinned, in doing that which was evil 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 furious enough against you to destroy you. But YAHWEH listened to me that time also. 20 And YAHWEH was greatly angry with Aaron, enough to destroy him; but I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. 21 And I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire, and stamped it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. I cast the dust of it into the brook that descended out of the mountain.
22 Then at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, you provoked YAHWEH to wrath. 23 And 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, and you did not believe him, nor listened to his voice. 24 You have been rebellious against YAHWEH from the day that I knew you.
25 So I fell down before YAHWEH the forty days and forty nights that I fell down, because YAHWEH had said he would destroy you. 26 And I prayed to YAHWEH, and said, ‘O Lord YAHWEH, do not destroy your people and your inheritance, that you have redeemed through your greatness, that you have brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not to the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin, 28 lest the land from where you brought us out say, “Because YAHWEH was not able to bring them into the land which he promised to them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.” 29 Yet they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’
Reflection:
I don’t claim to speak for Moses as I say this, but I just can’t imagine any scenario in which Moses was not livid about missing out on the promised land. Listen to the overwhelming examples of the nation’s rebelliousness against YAHWEH and it is still currently preparing to enter the land even as Moses speaks to them. He lists time after time that they were grumbling and disobedient: with the golden calf, at Taberah, at Massah, at Kibroth-hattaavah, and at Kadesh-barnea. To know that his immense faithfulness ends just outside of the destination he was leading the people to would be so hard to bear. Honestly, it speaks to the character of Moses that he didn’t try to just enter the land anyway, despite God’s instruction. He was the faithful servant to the end.
Questions and Answers:
Verse 14: Is this Moses’ first time telling the people that God wanted to destroy them? [Monique, 33]
Narratively, yes. There is no spot anywhere in the Torah prior to this where Moses explicitly says that God wanted to destroy the people after the golden calf event. It’s possible Moses told them, but it wasn’t recorded. As far as what we have, he first says it here.
It does seem pretty clear though, that even if Moses hadn’t told the people directly that God wanted to destroy them in that moment, they generally thought and were worried that that was God’s intent. The countless number of plagues and consuming of the people in response to their grumbling and disobedience led them to think that God was going to kill them in the wilderness. It seems they misunderstand the character of YAHWEH thoroughly.
As far back as Exodus 16, the people are complaining and wishing that YAHWEH had killed them when they were still back in Egypt, the implication being that they thought he had brought them out into the wilderness to die. They were wishing God had just ended them back there rather than starving in the desert; they didn’t seem to even consider that God would provide for them to keep them alive. This is despite the fact that they had seen everything YAHWEH had done to free them from slavery. There was a disconnect between the provision the people constantly saw and their understanding of who YAHWEH was. So whether Moses had already told them or not, they had already experienced judgment many times, and they must have understood that YAHWEH was not pleased with them.
Verse 23: What happened at Kadesh-barnea? [Gwendolyn, 9]
Kadesh-barnea is the place the nation of Israel was at when they were just about to enter the land. Rather than enter from there, they sent spies into the land to gather information about what type of land it was, the people who dwelt there, the produce of the land, and the best routes to travel through the land. When the spies returned, they confirmed how good the land was, but gave a report to the people that they couldn’t possibly conquer the land. Joshua and Caleb told the people to trust in YAHWEH, but the people refused and wanted to return to Egypt.
Kadesh-barnea is also the place where YAHWEH swore that the first generation to leave Egypt would never enter the promised land, and only their children would be allowed to enter after 40 years of wandering in the desert. This is a significant moment in Israel’s history, you can find these events recorded in Numbers 13 and 14.
Recording of the Passage:
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