The Evidence Is Now Given That They Are A Stiffnecked People (Deuteronomy 9:7-29).
Taking up from Deuteronomy 9:6 he now establishes that they are a stiffnecked people. It may be argued that the sins which will now be described were mainly of their parents, and that is true, but some of them were certainly willingly involved as youngsters, and they would not have denied their collective responsibility for the sins of their fathers, which tended to be reproduced in themselves. Furthermore they knew that they were just as capable of grumbling themselves, and behaving in the same way as their fathers had, as the two incidents at places given the nickname ‘Meribah' make clear, for one was at the beginning and resulted from the attitude of the first generation and one was at the end of the forty years when the first generation had nearly died out (Exodus 17:1-7; Numbers 20:1-13).
There are many parallels between the following words, Exodus 24:12-18; Exodus 32:7 onwards and Exodus 34, and Moses expected Israel to be aware of them. He was speaking of things that they were well aware of. That was what gave extra force to his arguments. But he necessarily abbreviates the narrative. This is a speech not a history. He is calling to mind, not making a record of events.
Moses Reminds Them of The Incident of The Molten Calf And How They Had Broken the covenant Even Before They Had Received It (Deuteronomy 9:7-12).
Moses now reminds them of the incident of the molten calf, and of how Yahweh had determined to destroy them, at the time when he went up to collect the completed covenant from Yahweh. For even when they were on the very point of receiving the confirmation of the covenant in stone they had rebelled against Yahweh.
Analysis in the words of Moses:
a Remember, do not forget, how you (as a nation) provoked Yahweh your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you went forth out of the land of Egypt, until you (as a number of people, the children of Israel) came to this place, you have been rebellious against Yahweh, and in Horeb you (all) provoked Yahweh to wrath, and Yahweh was angry with you to destroy you (Deuteronomy 9:7-8).
b When I had gone up into the mount to receive the tablets of stone, even the tablets of the covenant which Yahweh made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water (Deuteronomy 9:9).
b And 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 in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly, and it came about at the end of forty days and forty nights, that Yahweh gave me the two tablets of stone, even the tablets of the covenant (Deuteronomy 9:10-11).
a And Yahweh said to me, “Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They are speedily turned aside out of the way which I commanded them. They have made them a molten image” (Deuteronomy 9:12).
In ‘a' He reminds them how they continually provoked Yahweh to wrath from the day that He brought them out of the land of Egypt and especially at Horeb where Yahweh determined to destroy them, and in the parallel the words of Yahweh resulting from that incident at Horeb are supplied, indicating that they have provoked Him to wrath, and reference is made to the fact that Yahweh had brought them out of Egypt. In ‘b' Moses describes how he went into the Mount to receive the tablets and was there for forty days and nights, and then how Yahweh delivered the tablets to him at the end of the forty days and forty nights.
‘ Remember, do not forget, how you (thou - you as a nation) provoked Yahweh your (thy) God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you thou) went forth out of the land of Egypt, until you (ye - you as a number of people, the children of Israel) came to this place, you (ye - most of you) have been rebellious against Yahweh.'
(Note the change to ‘ye'. When speaking of Israel it is now ‘ye' from here to the end of the chapter. The change in pronouns here may be intended to bring out how they set out from Egypt as one people, bound together by their shared experience, and then subsequently how most of them (but not the whole people) proved themselves to be rebellious against Yahweh).
Let them then remember, let them not forget, (a double warning), how from day one they had provoked Yahweh their God to anger in the wilderness. Why, from the day when they left Egypt to this very day they had continually been rebellious against Him. For the sad story of this see Exodus 20 onwards and Numbers.
The need to remember and not forget in the light of the great experience described in Deuteronomy 5 and what it spoke of (deliverance, mercy and a new opportunity) has been the emphasis from Deuteronomy 6 onwards (Deuteronomy 6:12; Deuteronomy 7:12; Deuteronomy 8:2; Deuteronomy 8:5; Deuteronomy 8:11; Deuteronomy 8:14; Deuteronomy 8:19). But the bad side had to be remembered too (Deuteronomy 9:7). Learning the lessons of the past would be essential for the future. That is why we too must constantly study His word, for it keeps us in remembrance of what we are and what He is.
‘ Also in Horeb you (ye all) provoked Yahweh to wrath, and Yahweh was angry with you to destroy you.'
Yes, they had even provoked Yahweh to wrath in Horeb, before the very mountain where they had trembled before His revelation of Himself and had pleaded to be hidden from it. Even there they had deliberately and almost unbelievably quickly (except to those who know peoples' hearts) disobeyed the covenant, so quickly had they forgotten what they had seen. They had worshipped a graven image. Those who cling to experiences forget that the effect of them soon passes away. It is the heart set on God that perseveres.
‘ When I had gone up into the mount to receive the tablets of stone, even the tablets of the covenant which Yahweh made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water.'
He reminds them that this was when he had gone up into the mountain to meet with God (as they had requested) in order to receive the tablets of stone containing the covenant, the very covenant that Yahweh had so recently made with them, and to which they had promised obedience. And he had remained there for ‘forty days and forty nights' (Exodus 24:18) neither eating bread nor drinking water. (We can compare here Exodus 34:28 where it was, however, another visit to the Mount. But Yahweh's presence was clearly such that Moses was in this state each time he went up, and no one knew better than him). He had endured the hardship of that period but it was they who had been worn down by it, for they had had little to occupy themselves with and their faith was small.
As often ‘forty days and forty nights' is probably an approximation for ‘just over a moon period'. But he had been quite remarkably sustained during that period, for he had not even had anything to drink. Going without food was one thing, but going so long without drink was another. It is clear that he saw himself each time as having been sustained in the presence of Yahweh. His body may well have been in a suspended state because of the experience he was going through. Experiencing what he had experienced is something beyond our understanding and beyond man's present experience.
‘ And 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 in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.'
And during that time Yahweh had given him the two tablets of stone on which had been written by ‘the finger of God' the very words which Yahweh had spoken to them on the mount out of the midst of the burning fire in the day when they had assembled before the mountain. Note how he tries to emphasise the whole of the experience. He wants the whole scene to come back to them.
“Written with the finger of God” (not ‘of Yahweh') may suggest mysterious writing as in Daniel (Daniel 5:5; Daniel 5:24). Compare Exodus 24:12; Exodus 31:18; Exodus 32:16 and also Exodus 8:19 where the Egyptians described evidence of God's activity in this way. Or it may mean that Moses had inscribed them while under inspiration but that they had come from God Himself, because Moses was under divine constraint being the finger of God in action. (Compare Exodus 31:18).
‘ And it came about at the end of forty days and forty nights, that Yahweh gave me the two tablets of stone, even the tablets of the covenant.'
At the end of this period of waiting on Yahweh, God had given him the tablets to take with him. Here was a precious gift from God indeed. Here were two permanent ‘witnesses' guaranteeing the fact and certainty of the covenant, and that it was now ratified and witnessed. How grateful the people would be, he must have thought.
‘ And Yahweh said to me, “Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They are speedily turned aside out of the way which I commanded them. They have made them a molten image.” '
But the news that was given to him at the same time was not good. It was that the people that he had brought forth from Egypt had corrupted themselves already (compare Exodus 32:7). With almost unbelievable speed they had turned aside (Exodus 32:8) from the way that God had commanded them to walk in. They had made themselves a molten image (in Exodus 32:8 a molten calf, but Moses is here concerned to connect it with the previous forbidding of images - Deuteronomy 5:8; Deuteronomy 7:5; Deuteronomy 7:25. See, however, verse 16 where the golden calf is mentioned). All that Yahweh had done for them was forgotten. They had so quickly turned from obedience to His words.
“ Your people whom you have brought forth out of Egypt.” This either indicated that Yahweh had disowned them, or was intending to move his heart by linking them closely with him. The former seems more probable in the light of what followed (see Deuteronomy 9:13), although both implications may be included.
Note that while Moses was there in all innocence Yahweh was perfectly aware of what was going on. While the people thought that He had forgotten them He was remembering them, only too well for their own good. God does not forget us. Whatever our feelings He is very well aware of us. It is we who forget Him.
Perhaps a word should be said here about the molten calf. It is doubtful if Aaron would have made it if he had seen it as an image of another god. Indeed the people at this stage probably did not want another god. What they wanted was the Yahweh Who had delivered them from Egypt brought down to earth, and not in that dreadful Mount. We know from elsewhere that bulls and other animals were often seen as the pedestal that supported the god. Hadad, Canaanite god of storm, is depicted as standing on a bull. Thus the idea may have been that here was the place where they could visualise the presence of their invisible God. But many, if not all, probably did see the calf as representing Yahweh, and that was always the danger.
However, Yahweh had forbidden the making of a molten image before which men bowed, for such an image regularly did indicate a god. Baal was regularly depicted as a bull. Thus what possibly began as a pedestal containing an invisible god would soon become a representation of God Himself. And that was unthinkable. Such blurring of the truth is always dangerous. It is very possible that much later worship of Baal by the Israelites began with their calling Yahweh ‘baali', ‘my Lord'. Then they may have persuaded themselves, or each other, that they could see Baal images as Yahweh's throne. It was not then long before many went the whole way and worshipped Baal.
This is probably also the explanation for the golden calves that Jeroboam would later make and set up in Bethel and Dan when he was desperate to prevent the people from seeking to Yahweh in Jerusalem (1 Kings 12:26-30).