Chapter 9 Let Them Not Become Self-righteous, for They Are A Very Stubborn People.
The thought of their forgetting Yahweh and taking the credit for themselves about their possession of the land and its wealth (Deuteronomy 8:17) and turning to graven images is now taken up. He fears lest when they have taken possession of the land they will convince themselves that it was because of their own righteousness that they had received the land, and become self-satisfied and heedless of God's voice. Thus let them ‘Hear, O Israel' and take note of what the real truth is.
“Hear O Israel” always signals something of special importance. Compare Deuteronomy 5:1 where they were to ‘Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances which I speak in your ears this day, that you may learn them, and keep, and do them,' that is, they were to respond wholly to the covenant, and Deuteronomy 6:4 where they were to ‘Hear, O Israel, Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one, and you shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.' It introduces subjects of great importance to which he wants to draw attention.
Here it is because having brought to them again the details of Yahweh's declaration of His covenant in Deuteronomy 5; and having stressed their need to love their covenant God with their whole being, and having warned them against forgetting how He delivered them from Egypt, and against submission to false gods, in Deuteronomy 6; and having confirmed His elective love and warned them again against forgetting His goodness and turning to false gods, reminding them also again of His deliverance from Egypt, in Deuteronomy 7; and having reminded them of how He had cared for them in the wilderness in chapter 8, again with a warning against turning to graven images; and having stressed all through that all that they are to receive has come to them because of His sworn promise to Abraham (Deuteronomy 6:10; Deuteronomy 6:18; Deuteronomy 7:8; Deuteronomy 7:13; Deuteronomy 8:1; Deuteronomy 8:18), he is now bringing them to the crunch moment when they are about to enter the land, and warns them not to take any credit for their coming victory to themselves. For he stresses that they are to remember how truly unworthy they are (Deuteronomy 9:5-6), as revealed in that same wilderness (Deuteronomy 9:7-24), and that it is Yahweh their covenant God Who alone can give them victory (Deuteronomy 9:3), and that this will not be for their sakes, but for their fathers' sakes (Deuteronomy 9:5; Deuteronomy 9:27; Deuteronomy 10:15), and because of the need for judgment on the people of the land. Thus no credit belongs to them. This is the essence of this chapter, which centres on their stubbornness.
(‘Thou' is used in the first seven verses being directed at the nation as a whole. From then on when speaking of Israel ‘ye' is used to indicate combined action).
The Real Reason Why Yahweh Is Taking Them In To Possess The Land (Deuteronomy 9:1-7).
The real reason why Yahweh is giving the land to Israel is not because of their righteousness, but because of the wickedness of the nations who are living there.
Analysis in the words of Moses:
a 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, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard say, “Who can stand before the sons of Anak?” (Deuteronomy 9:1-2)
b 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 shall you drive them out, and make them to perish quickly, as Yahweh has spoken to you (Deuteronomy 9:3).
c Do not speak 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,” whereas for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh drives them out from before you (Deuteronomy 9:4).
c 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 drives them out from before you (Deuteronomy 9:5 a).
b And that He may establish the word which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob (Deuteronomy 9:5 b).
a Know therefore, that Yahweh your God does not give you this good land to possess it for your righteousness, for you are a stiffnecked people (Deuteronomy 9:6).
Note that in ‘a' they are going in to dispossess a mighty people, even the Anakim, while in the parallel they are to recognise that while Yahweh is giving them the good land it is not because of their righteousness, for they are stiffnecked (a theme now to be taken up). In ‘b' it is Yahweh Who is going before them a a devouring fire to destroy those enemies, so that they will drive them out, and in the parallel it is so that He might establish the word which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. In ‘c' they must not say that it is because of their righteousness that Yahweh has done this for it is because of the wickedness of the nations that He is driving out, and in the parallel the though is repeated.
‘ Hear, O Israel, you (thou) 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, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard say, “Who can stand before the sons of Anak?” '
Israel must listen well. As they know, they are passing over Jordan in the near future (‘this yom' - ‘this day, at this time'), and it is in order that they might dispossess nations greater and mightier than themselves, that they might face cities great and fortified up to heaven (with high walls), and that they might face the spooky Anakim, a people great and tall of whom they have heard the proverb, ‘who can stand against the Anakim?'
Note how Moses boasts about the difficulties. They bring no concern to his heart, for He knows the might of Yahweh. And he has already pointed out how both the Moabites and the Ammonites have already defeated the equivalent of the Anakim because their land was given to them by Yahweh because they were the sons of Lot (Deuteronomy 2:10; Deuteronomy 2:21). Why then should Israel fear who have the promises made to their fathers to rely on?
‘ 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 shall you drive them out, and make them to perish quickly, as Yahweh has spoken to you.'
Therefore this day they were to know and recognise that it was Yahweh their God Who would go before them as a devouring fire. All will be burned up before Him. He Who had put His pillar of fire between them and the mighty Egyptian army, will send the same fire before them (compare Numbers 10:35). He had spoken to them from the midst of fire (Deuteronomy 4:12 and often). And this time it will be a devouring fire (compare Deuteronomy 4:24). This vivid illustration would speak vividly to them. All had experienced the sudden fires that could arise in the wilderness and rapidly devastate an area.
Note the favourite literary device of repetition, ‘He will destroy them and He will bring them down before you' and ‘So shall you drive them out and make them to perish quickly', both stressing the certainty of the actions described by repetitive phrases. He will destroy their enemy and drive them out. He will bring them down and make them perish quickly. Note also that on the one hand the action is Yahweh's, on the other it is theirs. Their total success in ridding the land of their foes will be because Yahweh goes before them, but they would have to play their part in it. Yahweh rarely does His work without us.
‘ Do not speak 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,” whereas for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh drives them out from before you.'
And once this has happened they must not say within their hearts, ‘Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land because of my righteousness.' The reason that He is intending to drive them out is not because of their righteousness, but because of the Canaanites' extreme wickedness. Yahweh alone is deserving of the land. It is of His graciousness that they will be allowed possession so that they can prove whether they will be faithful or not. Indeed if they become self-righteous they will shortly be heading for expulsion. Both God and Moses were well aware of the dangers of self-satisfaction. All needed to constantly recognise that their dependence was on God.
‘ 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 drives 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.'
Indeed this fact is stressed in the repetition typical of many ancient narratives, intended to drive home the point. It is not because of their righteousness and their uprightness of heart that Yahweh is doing this, it Isaiah 1). because of the depraved lives and idolatry of the inhabitants, and 2). so that He might establish His word given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
This revelation is important. In what He is doing He is acting as both moral Judge and faithful covenant God, punishing the evil and responding to the good. It was not an act of favouritism against an innocent people, but a revelation of both the righteousness of God in the face of evil and the faithfulness of God to those who had faithfully followed Him.
So let them be aware that all this is not because of their righteousness. They enter the land, not as those who have achieved righteousness, but as those who, having been delivered from bondage, must begin to reveal righteousness in their lives, by obeying His statutes and ordinances. They must seek righteousness. If they seek first the kingly rule of God and His righteousness all things will be added to them (Matthew 6:33). But if they become self-righteous they will be lost.
The idea behind this is not that they were being given permission to be unrighteous. They were expected to be righteous (Deuteronomy 6:25). But the point is that their required righteousness could only come from the Righteous One. They must not look to themselves for righteousness, for it was not there in them as their past makes clear, they could only look to Him. It was only by response to Him through the way provided through sacrifices and the shedding of blood, and through continual dependence on Him, that they could hope to fulfil the righteousness that was required of those who would dwell permanently in the land. Yes, He did require them to be righteous if they wished to remain in the land, but let them recognise that this would not come from what they were in themselves. It would come as they looked in faith and trust to Yahweh and as they obeyed Him fully.
To be righteous in these terms is to be ‘in the right', to be seen as acceptable to God. Abraham had believed God and it had been counted to him for righteousness (Genesis 15:6). It was his trust in God that was important, a trust that resulted on obedience. If they are to be in the right that too will only be through their believing God and responding to His call. It is He Who puts men in the right, judicially through the sacrificial system, and practically through His working in their hearts. Repentance is therefore needed, a circumcision (total change) of the heart (Deuteronomy 10:16). Then they may have hope. This moral lesson is then reinforced in no uncertain way.
‘ Know therefore, that Yahweh your God does not give you this good land to possess it for your righteousness, for you are a stiffnecked people.'
Note the repetition of ‘know therefore' (compare Deuteronomy 9:3). Two things they were to understand, firstly that it is Yahweh who will give success (Deuteronomy 9:3), and secondly that it is not because of their own righteousness (as here). Yahweh their God is not giving them this good land as a possession because they are so righteous and have deserved it. Indeed that is far from the truth, for they are a stiff-necked (obstinate and arrogant) people, a people who are stubborn in their refusal to obey Yahweh. They may seem willing now but God had no illusions about them.
What He is doing is offering them a new kind of deliverance, a deliverance from the slavery of sin and obstinacy. Moses thus brings out what God was planning for them. It was a transformation of His people within the land as they responded to the covenant to which they had bound themselves. God had provided the means, they must respond to it and cease being stiffnecked.
The implications of this statement are huge. It is saying that it is not anything in them that brings them within Yahweh's purposes, it is all of His mercy. He has chosen them because of His love for their fathers (Deuteronomy 4:37; Deuteronomy 10:15), and because of His sovereign love (Deuteronomy 7:8) and that is why they are acceptable before Him, and that is why He is bringing them into the land. It is all of His grace, His positive and unmerited love in action towards the undeserving. They have been delivered from Egypt by His gracious act, and they are entering the land by His gracious act. All He requires of them is the faith to respond. Nevertheless the result must be that they become righteous in response to His love That is the purpose of His bringing them into the land, and if they do not they will be thrust out of the land.
We too must recognise that if we are to experience His saving work it will not be by our claiming to be righteous, but by admitting that we are aware of just how unrighteous we are. Then He can supply us with the righteousness of Christ and begin to work righteousness within us as a result of His grace, His undeserved love in action. But the result must then be obedience to Him, for that will be the evidence of the work that God has wrought in us (Philippians 2:13).
Calling them ‘stiffnecked', which signified the unwillingness to turn the head, the unwillingness to deviate from their own chosen path, probably seemed to them a harsh way of speaking, so he spells it out in detail.