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The Consequences of Rebelling against God9 Hear, O Israel! You are about to cross the Jordan today, to go in and dispossess nations larger and mightier than you, great cities, fortified to the heavens, 2a strong and tall people, the offspring of the Anakim, whom you know. You have heard it said of them, “Who can stand up to the Anakim?” 3Know then today that the L ord your God is the one who crosses over before you as a devouring fire; he will defeat them and subdue them before you, so that you may dispossess and destroy them quickly, as the L ord has promised you. 4 When the L ord your God thrusts them out before you, do not say to yourself, “It is because of my righteousness that the L ord has brought me in to occupy this land”; it is rather because of the wickedness of these nations that the L ord is dispossessing them before you. 5It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to occupy their land; but because of the wickedness of these nations the L ord your God is dispossessing them before you, in order to fulfill the promise that the L ord made on oath to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 6 Know, then, that the L ord your God is not giving you this good land to occupy because of your righteousness; for you are a stubborn people. 7Remember and do not forget how you provoked the L ord your God to wrath in the wilderness; you have been rebellious against the L ord from the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place. 8 Even at Horeb you provoked the L ord to wrath, and the L ord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. 9When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the L ord made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water. 10And the L ord gave me the two stone tablets written with the finger of God; on them were all the words that the L ord had spoken to you at the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. 11At the end of forty days and forty nights the L ord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. 12Then the L ord said to me, “Get up, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have been quick to turn from the way that I commanded them; they have cast an image for themselves.” 13Furthermore the L ord said to me, “I have seen that this people is indeed a stubborn people. 14Let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and more numerous than they.” 15 So I turned and went down from the mountain, while the mountain was ablaze; the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16Then I saw that you had indeed sinned against the L ord your God, by casting for yourselves an image of a calf; you had been quick to turn from the way that the L ord had commanded you. 17So I took hold of the two tablets and flung them from my two hands, smashing them before your eyes. 18Then I lay prostrate before the L ord as before, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin you had committed, provoking the L ord by doing what was evil in his sight. 19For I was afraid that the anger that the L ord bore against you was so fierce that he would destroy you. But the L ord listened to me that time also. 20The L ord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him, but I interceded also on behalf of Aaron at that same time. 21Then I took the sinful thing you had made, the calf, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it thoroughly, until it was reduced to dust; and I threw the dust of it into the stream that runs down the mountain. 22 At Taberah also, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, you provoked the L ord to wrath. 23And when the L ord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, “Go up and occupy the land that I have given you,” you rebelled against the command of the L ord your God, neither trusting him nor obeying him. 24You have been rebellious against the L ord as long as he has known you. 25 Throughout the forty days and forty nights that I lay prostrate before the L ord when the L ord intended to destroy you, 26I prayed to the L ord and said, “Lord G od, do not destroy the people who are your very own possession, whom you redeemed in your greatness, whom you brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; pay no attention to the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness and their sin, 28otherwise the land from which you have brought us might say, ‘Because the L ord was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to let them die in the wilderness.’ 29For they are the people of your very own possession, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.” New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. 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1. Thou art to pass over Jordan this day. The whole of this passage contains an eulogy on the gratuitous liberality of God, whereby He had bound the people to Himself unto the obedience of the Law. But this (as we have already seen) ought to have been a most pressing stimulus to incite the people, and altogether to ravish them to the worship and love of God, to whom they were under so great obligation. The design of Moses, then, was to shew that the Israelites, for no merit of their own, but by the signal bounty of God, would be heirs of the land of Canaan; and that this entirely flowed from the covenant and their gratuitous adoption; in order that, on their part, they should persevere in the faithful observation of the covenant, and so should be the more disposed to honor Him. For it would be too disgraceful that they, whom God had prevented by His grace, should not meet Him, as it were, by voluntarily submitting to His dominion. Moreover, lest they should arrogate anything to themselves, he commends the greatness of God’s power, in that they could not be victorious over so many nations, unless by the miraculous aid of heaven. With this view, he states that these nations excelled not only in greatness and multitude, but also in military valor. He adds that their cities were great and impregnable; and, finally, that in them were the children of the giants, formidable from their enormous stature. For Anak (as is related in Joshua 15246246 Or, more fully in Numbers 13:33. ) was a celebrated giant, whose descendants were called Anakim. And, to take away all doubt about this, he cites themselves as witnesses, that they were so terrified by their appearance as to wish to turn back again. We now understand the object of all these details, viz., that God’s glory may shine forth in the victories and success of the people. The words “whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard,” have reference to the spies;247247 “Qui avoyent este envoyez pour descouvrir la terre;” who had been sent to descry the land. — Fr. for these giants had not yet become openly known to the people; but he transfers the case of a few to them all, because, by the account the spies had given, terror had invaded the whole camp, as though they had actually come into conflict with them. Since, then, they had been persuaded of their inferiority to their enemies, and utterly disheartened by the report they received, Moses convicts them on their own evidence, lest, perchance, they might hereafter assume to themselves the praise which was due to God alone. But we are taught in these words, that such is the ingratitude of mankind, that they obscure, as much as they can, God’s bounties, and never yield, except when driven to conviction. |