Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy Chapter 9

• Deuteronomy 9:1 Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven,

Yes, nations then and even now surround Israel. Their enemies have always been greater in number and might since Israel existed as a nation. But the thing we tend to forget is that God is greater still than any nation in the past, in the present and in the future. Great is any nation whose God is the Lord. God chose Israel and called them for His purpose. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. God doesn't change His mind concerning Israel. Israel is still a called out people for the purpose of bringing forth the salvation of Jesus Christ to the whole world. This calling went to all those that received Jesus Christ after Israel as a nation rejected Christ but that original calling is still there.

Israel's sins, idolatry and rejection of Jesus Christ have caused all of her problems. No nation can defeat Israel unless God withdraws His hand of protection. As long as God defends Israel there is nothing no one can do to defeat her. Babylon defeated Israel when God allowed it as did other nations but only when God allowed it to happen because of their sin. 70 AD's defeat was because of Israel's rejection of Christ. 

Still through it all, God has not turned His back upon Israel. We see this in 1948 when they once again became a nation opening the door to the fulfillment of end time bible prophecy.

• Deuteronomy 9:2 A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, who can stand before the children of Anak! 

They were great and mighty as far as giants go but not greater than the God of Israel.

• Deuteronomy 9:3 Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee. 
• 4 Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to 
  possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee. 

God wants to make it clear that He is allowing Israel to drive out the inhabitants of Canaan, not because Israel is righteous and great but because the nations they were driving out were very wicked. I have mentioned before the type of sins the idolatrous nations were committing, one of them being child sacrifice to idol gods. 

• Deuteronomy 9:5 Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 

God in His foreknowledge knew that the nations would get to the point of no return even in the days of Abraham. That is why He promised him the land of Canaan; but He waited until the nations sinned beyond any hope of redemption before He allowed Israel to possess the promised land. 

• Deuteronomy 9:6 Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people. 
• 7 Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until 
  ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD. 
• 8 Also in Horeb ye provoked the LORD to wrath, so that the LORD was angry with you to have destroyed you. 
• 9 When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount 
  forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water: 
• 10 And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake 
  with you in the mount 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 the LORD gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant. 
• 12 And the LORD said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they 
  are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image. 
• 13 Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: 
• 14 Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they. 

Moses (God knew he would), interceded and plead for God to spare Israel and not blot them out. Moses was a type of Christ who got between God and His wrath toward Israel. This is what Jesus did in that He interceded on the behalf of all who truly believe in Him by turning from their sins and turning to Christ by faith. Jesus paid for every single sin we ever committed. If it wasn't for Jesus, the wrath of God would come upon all who sin against God. However, this all is God's plan. In His mercy He looks for those who will stand in the gap and intercede for the souls of mankind. In order to be cleansed from sin, we have to genuinely be sorry for sin and turn away from it. We can't do this apart from faith in Christ to remove sin and cleanse us from sin. That is the only power great enough and powerful enough to redeem and save us from sin, "The shed blood of Jesus Christ the perfect lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world". 

• John 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. 

This is a good thing, not a bad thing. Jesus said those that bring the message of the gospel will be hated as they hate Him. Hard to understand why the offer of eternal life causes the world to hate us but when people want to hold onto their sins and live anyway they want, they will reject anything and everybody that tries to warn them of sin. God wants good for us but unfortunately the majority of mankind chooses evil instead. Look at the United States today. They want nothing to do with anything holy and good. They choose disease over health, evil over good, and sin over holiness.  Everything that brings death and destruction is chosen before life everlasting. Yet it doesn't have to be that way.

• 1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

God wants good for us but we continually choose evil instead and go so far as to call evil good and good evil. Confusion and chaos is the result of such choices.

• Deuteronomy 9:15 So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands. 
• 16 And I looked, and, behold, ye had sinned against the LORD your God, and had made you a molten calf: ye had turned aside quickly out of the way which the LORD had commanded you. 
• 17 And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes. 
• 18 And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. 
• 19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also. 
• 20 And the LORD was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time. 

Moses kept Aaron and his family from being destroyed by the wrath of God just like Christ saves us from eternal fire by His death, burial and resurrection. Our faith in Him is counted for righteousness. When we believe, we are forgiven of sins and clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ who is the only man who walked the earth without sinning or breaking God's law in any point. Only an unjust clean sacrifice can be substituted to pay the price of sins for any one of us. Jesus was exactly that. 

• Deuteronomy 9:21 And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust: and I 
  cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount. 
• 22 And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibrothhattaavah, ye provoked the LORD to wrath. 
• 23 Likewise when the LORD sent you from Kadeshbarnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then ye rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and ye believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice. 

Just as unbelief caused many of them not to enter the promised land, unbelief can cause a soul to be eternally lost. Unbelief leads to more sin. When a soul begins to sin and get away from God, unbelief is the root cause. When we fail to believe in something, we lose our faith. This causes us to depart from God, from His word and then opens the door to allow sin to steal, kill and destroy our very souls. 

• Deuteronomy 9:24 Ye have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you. 
• 25 Thus I fell down before the LORD forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the first; because the LORD had said he would destroy you. 
• 26 I prayed therefore unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which 
  thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 
• 27 Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin: 
• 28 Lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say, Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, 
  he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness. 

Moses was concerned that if God destroyed Israel, it would cause their enemies to gloat and say that God doesn't keep His promises. When the church or any one of us returns to sin, we actually lose our testimony and we bring reproach upon the gospel of Jesus Christ. The world will see us and gloat.  

• Deuteronomy 9:29 Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power and by thy stretched out arm. 

Moses was a man after the God's own heart in that He wanted God's plan for Israel to be fulfilled. This plan was more than just material prosperity and land. It included God's whole plan of salvation and a way to open up God's plan of salvation even to Gentile nations. 

In spite the many failures of the church both past and present, we can see clearly that the world became a better place since the coming of Christ. This is only hindered when the church becomes apostate and gets away from God's word in their teachings and in their lifestyle. It is very important for the church to stay close to God and obey His word continually walking in perfect love. 

Substituting commandments and ordinances of men in place of God's word is just as very dangerous. The reason is that our own substitute religions will cover up the true gospel that saves. On the other hand watering the gospel down and making it cheap will destroy the gospel's effect also. The gospel is holy.

The gospel is simply this: Jesus came to die for sin and save all who turn from sin and trust in Him for salvation. 

To add to this by making a bunch of unscriptural rules and regulations whether we call it creeds or whatever will cover up the simple truth of the gospel. 

To deceive ourselves into thinking we can return to sin and still be covered by the grace of God is to take away from the truth of the gospel. 

• Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 
• 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 
• 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
• 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 
• 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 
• 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 
• 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. 
• 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 
• 9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 
• 10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 
• 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
• 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 
• 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your 
  members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 

Sin destroys but Christ makes alive. To really receive Christ and love God, we will hate it when we sin and we will turn away from it quickly. To really believe in Jesus Christ for salvation is to also believe enough to turn from sin. 

We see by studying Deuteronomy the law given to point us to Christ. We see the failure of Israel to live above sin and we can see the great need of something greater than the law to cleanse from sin and grant eternal life to God's creation. DC

Deuteronomy 10