Deuteronomy 9
9 1-2 Attention, Israel!
This very day you are crossing the Jordan to enter the land and oust nations that are much bigger and stronger than you are. You’re going to find huge cities with sky-high fortress-walls and gigantic people, descendants of the Anakites—you’ve heard all about them; you’ve heard the saying, “No one can stand up to an Anakite.”
3 Today know this: God, your God, is crossing the river ahead of you—he’s a consuming fire. He will destroy the nations, he will put them under your power. You will oust them and very quickly wipe them out, just as God promised you would.
4-5 But when God pushes them out ahead of you, don’t start thinking to yourselves, “It’s because of all the good I’ve done that God has brought me in here to dispossess these nations.” Actually it’s because of all the evil these nations have done. No, it’s nothing good that you’ve done, no record for decency that you’ve built up, that got you here; it’s because of the vile wickedness of these nations that God, your God, is dispossessing them before you so that he can keep his promised word to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
When it comes right down to it, the Israelites have been spoiled! Wake up in the morning and go collect manna. Need water? God causes streams to gush from barren rocks in the desert. Not sure which way to go? No worries! Just follow the pillar of cloud and God will show you the way. For the Israelites, life has settled into a safe familiar pattern, so safe and familiar that they might have forgotten that all of this traveling is for a purpose and not an end in itself.
God is about to lead the Israelites into Canaan and into battle with giants. God will go before the Israelites, intimidating the superpowers so that the Israelites will be able to conquer them. But before the Israelites begin strutting around, puffing out their chests and preening themselves, God wants them to know that He’s not helping them because they are so marvelous but because these other tribes are so wicked. And God is keeping his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These Israelites have just been fortunate enough to be born at the right time. And now Moses is going to remind the Israelites of just how bad they have been.
6-10 Know this and don’t ever forget it: It’s not because of any good that you’ve done that God is giving you this good land to own. Anything but! You’re stubborn as mules. Keep in mind and don’t ever forget how angry you made God, your God, in the wilderness. You’ve kicked and screamed against God from the day you left Egypt until you got to this place, rebels all the way. You made God angry at Horeb, made him so angry that he wanted to destroy you. When I climbed the mountain to receive the slabs of stone, the tablets of the covenant that God made with you, I stayed there on the mountain forty days and nights: I ate no food; I drank no water. Then God gave me the two slabs of stone, engraved with the finger of God. They contained word for word everything that God spoke to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.
11-12 It was at the end of the forty days and nights that God gave me the two slabs of stone, the tablets of the covenant. God said to me, “Get going, and quickly. Get down there, because your people whom you led out of Egypt have ruined everything. In almost no time at all they have left the road that I laid out for them and gone off and made for themselves a cast god.”
13-14 God said, “I look at this people and all I see are hardheaded, hardhearted rebels. Get out of my way now so I can destroy them. I’m going to wipe them off the face of the map. Then I’ll start over with you to make a nation far better and bigger than they could ever be.”
15-17 I turned around and started down the mountain—by now the mountain was blazing with fire—carrying the two tablets of the covenant in my two arms. That’s when I saw it: There you were, sinning against God, your God—you had made yourselves a cast god in the shape of a calf! So soon you had left the road that God had commanded you to walk on. I held the two stone slabs high and threw them down, smashing them to bits as you watched.
18-20 Then I flung myself down before God, just as I had at the beginning of the forty days and nights. I ate no food; I drank no water. I did this because of you, all your sins, sinning against God, doing what is evil in God’s eyes and making him angry. I was terrified of God’s furious anger, his blazing anger. I was sure he would destroy you. But once again God listened to me. And Aaron! How furious he was with Aaron—ready to destroy him. But I prayed also for Aaron at that same time.
21 But that sin-thing that you made, that calf-god, I took and burned in the fire, pounded and ground it until it was crushed into a fine powder, then threw it into the stream that comes down the mountain.
22 And then there was Camp Taberah (Blaze), Massah (Testing-Place), and Camp Kibroth Hattaavah (Graves-of-the-Craving)—more occasions when you made God furious with you.
23-24 The most recent was when God sent you out from Kadesh Barnea, ordering you: “Go. Possess the land that I’m giving you.” And what did you do? You rebelled. Rebelled against the clear orders of God, your God. Refused to trust him. Wouldn’t obey him. You’ve been rebels against God from the first day I knew you.
25-26 When I was on my face, stretched out before God those forty days and nights after God said he would destroy you, I prayed to God for you, “My Master, God, don’t destroy your people, your inheritance whom, in your immense generosity, you redeemed, using your enormous strength to get them out of Egypt.
27-28 “Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; don’t make too much of the stubbornness of this people, their evil and their sin, lest the Egyptians from whom you rescued them say, ‘God couldn’t do it; he got tired and wasn’t able to take them to the land he promised them. He ended up hating them and dumped them in the wilderness to die.’
29 “They are your people still, your inheritance whom you powerfully and sovereignly rescued.”
This chapter might be entitled “Moses and the Israelites-the rest of the story.” Before, we have seen Moses as a prophet and leader. Now Moses reveals how much intercession it took for God to relent and not wipe out the Israelites after they continued to sin. Moses had to pray continuously for forty days and nights before God changed His mind. Would God have destroyed the Israelites had Moses not prayed all that while? Possibly.
Many times, we fail to realize the true depth of intercessory prayer, that our prayers can not only hold sway with God but that the people for whom we are praying are also changing as we pray for them. All the time Moses was praying, God was changing the hearts and minds of the Israelites so that they would be more obedient in the future. When we pray and fail to see any changes in someone after a few days or weeks, it’s tempting to give up. But consider this story: George Mueller was a man of tremendous faith who founded orphanages in Bristol, England that cared for 10,000 orphans. Those orphanages depended solely on charitable donations for their support. Mueller not only helped support China Inland Mission, but he also circled the world preaching and teaching. One friend begged Mueller to pray for his wayward son, and Mueller prayed for the next several decades; meanwhile, the man immigrated to Canada. It was the news of Mueller’s death that the man read in a newspaper that finally brought him to repent and follow the Lord. Mueller did not see the fruits of his prayers in his lifetime; however, his prayers were eventually answered.
Luke 18 tells us, “Jesus told them a story showing that it was necessary for them to pray consistently and never quit.” Then Jesus tells the story of a poor widow who kept demanding justice from a corrupt judge until he gave up and helped her. Jesus concluded the story by saying, “Then the Master said, “Do you hear what that judge, corrupt as he is, is saying? So what makes you think God won’t step in and work justice for his chosen people, who continue to cry out for help? Won’t he stick up for them? I assure you, he will. He will not drag his feet. But how much of that kind of persistent faith will the Son of Man find on the earth when he returns?” (Luke 18:6-8)
How much faith did Moses have when God called him to stop herding sheep and to lead the Israelites? At that point, all Moses wanted was to raise his family, herd his sheep, and find grazing and water for them. Moses had no interest in returning to Egypt and struggling to lead a large group of rebellious people who would continually veer away from God’s commandments. But God called and Moses answered that call. All the wandering in the desert, all the times Moses had to deal with rebellion and outright sin among the Israelites, God was helping Moses to grow also.
Are you going through a tough time? No money and lots of challenges? You feel caught between a rock and a hard place? God can use those struggles to grow you just as He did Moses. Hang on! Don’t give up! God is still on the throne and He can still provide water out of rocks and manna each morning when necessary. Just make sure you are obeying what God has already told you to do.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to hang on and pray, trusting that You hear every prayer and that Your perfect answers are already on their way. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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