Deeper Commentary
Deu 9:1 Hear, Israel-
Moses really wanted Israel's well-being, he saw so clearly how
obedience would result in blessing (e.g. Dt. 6:3; 12:28). This is a major
theme of Moses in Deuteronomy. There was therefore a real sense of
pleading behind his frequent appeal for Israel to "hear" or obey God's
words. "Hear,
O Israel" in Deuteronomy must have had a real passion behind it in his
voice, uncorrupted as it was by old age. He didn't rattle it off as some
kind of Sunday School proof. At least four times Moses interrupts the flow
of his speech with this appeal: "Hear
[‘be obedient’], O
Israel" (Dt. 5:1; 6:3,4; 9:1; 20:3). And a glance through a concordance
shows how often in Deuteronomy Moses pleads with them to hear God's voice.
So he was back to his favourite theme: Hear the word, love the word, make
it your life. For in this is your salvation. And the Lord Jesus (e.g. in
passages like Jn. 6) makes just the same urgent appeal.
You are to pass over the
Jordan this day-
They did not pass over that day because they mourned for Moses 30
days (Dt. 34:8). It is possible that Moses felt so despised by them that
he assumed there would be no period of mourning for him. He could be using
"this day" in a general sense of "at this time", but this may also be an
example of 'I tell you this day' being a solemn statement, as discussed on
Dt. 8:19.
To go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than
yourself, cities great and walled up to the sky-
"Drive out" is s.w. "possess". We must note the
difference between the Canaanite peoples and their kings being
"struck" and their land "taken" by Joshua-Jesus; and the people of Israel
permanently taking possession. This is the difference between the Lord's
victory on the cross, and our taking possession of the Kingdom. Even
though that possession has been "given" to us. The word used for
"possession" is literally 'an inheritance'. The allusion is to the people,
like us, being the seed of Abraham. The Kingdom was and is our possession,
our inheritance- if we walk in the steps of Abraham. But it is one thing
to be the seed of Abraham, another to take possession of the inheritance;
and Israel generally did not take possession of all the land (Josh.
11:23 13:1; 16:10; 18:3; 23:4). The language of inheritance / possession
is applied to us in the New Testament (Eph. 1:11,14; Col. 3:24; Acts
20:32; 26:18; 1 Pet. 1:4 etc.). Israel were promised: "You shall possess
it" (Dt. 30:5; 33:23). This was more of a command than a prophecy, for
sadly they were "given" the land but did not "possess" it. They were
constantly encouraged in the wilderness that they were on the path to
possessing the land (Dt. 30:16,18; 31:3,13; 32:47), but when they got
there they didn't possess it fully.
Deu 9:2 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?-
This was apparently a proverbial expression of the time, but it
caught hold of the minds of the spies who first entered the land, and came
to dominate the thinking of the generation who refused to enter the
Kingdom and were therefore condemned in the wilderness. We see here the
power of words and phrases; the little credos by which men live are often
taught by snatches of lyrics from popular songs, or half remembered
quotations once seen somewhere online. This is why we are to speak to
ourselves in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, and not allow our self
talk to be donated by the phrases of the secular world (Eph. 5:19). We are
to speak also to each other in these terms (Col. 3:16); for our self talk
is reflected in our words to others. And this is what happened to that
generation who failed to enter the land; it was exactly this repetition of
the words "Who can stand before the sons of Anak?", in their hearts and to
each other, which led to a generation of Israel being denied the Kingdom
which had been prepared for them.
Deu 9:3 Know therefore this day that Yahweh your God is He who goes over
before you as a devouring fire-
It was the Angel in the pillar of fire which was to go before Israel.
Deborah in Jud. 4:14 quotes the words of Dt. 9:3 concerning the Angel
going before Israel to drive out the nations to Barak, to inspire him with
courage in fighting them. She recognized that the work the Angels did when
they went out many years ago to do all the groundwork necessary for Israel
to destroy all the tribes of Canaan was done for all time. It was not too
late to make use of that work by making a human endeavour in faith. So
with us, the smaller objectives in our lives as well as our main goal of
reaching the Kingdom have all been made possible through the work of
Christ and the Angels in the past. Deborah's recognition of this is shown
in her song- Jud. 5:20: "They (the Angels) fought from Heaven; the stars
(Biblical imagery for Angels) in their courses fought against Sisera".
He will destroy them and He will bring
them down before you; so you shall drive them out-
The nations in the land being "subdued" or 'brought down' was the
outcome of Israel being obedient to the covenant (s.w. Dt. 9:3). We read
this word "subdued" used of how the land was at times subdued before
Israel (Jud. 3:30; 4:23; 8:28; 11:33). But each time it is clear that the
people generally were not obedient to the covenant. One faithful leader
was, and the results of his faithfulness were counted to the people. This
is what happened with the Lord's death leading to righteousness being
imputed to us.
And make them perish
quickly, as Yahweh has spoken to you-
See on Josh. 5:13,14; Jud. 1:8. The implications that we should respond ‘quickly’ to the Gospel surely
mean that we should not have any element of indifference in our response
to the call of God, and yet the foundations of a true spiritual life
cannot be laid hastily. The Father drove out the tribes from Canaan
slowly, not immediately- or at least, He potentially enabled this to
happen (Jud. 2:23). But Israel were to destroy those tribes “quickly” (Dt.
9:3). Here perhaps we see what is meant- progress is slow but steady in
the spiritual life, but there must be a quickness in response to the call
of God for action in practice. Compare this with how on one hand, God does
not become quickly angry (Ps. 103:8), and yet on the other hand He
does get angry quickly in the sense that He immediately feels and
responds to sin (Ps. 2:12); His anger ‘flares up in His face’.
Deu 9:4 Don’t say in your heart-
Time and again, Moses speaks of the state of their
heart. He warns them against allowing a bad state of heart to develop, he
speaks often of how apostasy starts in the heart. Moses makes a total of
49 references to the heart / mind of Israel in Deuteronomy, compared to
only 13 in the whole of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. This indicates the
paramount importance which our Lord attaches to the state of our mind.
This was perhaps his greatest wish as He faced death; that we should
develop a spiritual mind and thereby manifest the Father and come to
salvation. Moses likewise saw the state of our mind as the key to
spiritual success. But do we share this perspective? Do we guard our minds
against the media and influence of a mind-corrupting world? It's been
observed that the phrase "The God of [somebody]", or similar, occurs 614
times in the Old Testament, of which 306 are in Deuteronomy. Our very
personal relationship with God was therefore something else which Moses
came to grasp in his spiritual maturity. Statistical analysis of the word
"love" in the Pentateuch likewise reveals that "love" was a great theme of
Moses at the end of his life (Moses uses it 16 times in Deuteronomy, and
only four times in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers).
After Yahweh your God has thrust them out
from before you, For my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess
this land; because Yahweh drives them out before you because of the
wickedness of these nations-
The thrusting out of Israel's enemies from the land was conditional
upon Israel's obedience (Dt. 6:18,19). They were disobedient, and yet
still God thrust out the tribes and warned them therefore not to think
that this was done because of their righteousness (Dt. 9:4). It was by
grace alone that they inherited the Kingdom, as with us. But there was
always a tendency for Israel to forget that they had been given the
Kingdom despite their lack of the required personal righteousness; they
became over familiar with living in it under such grace. And so the
warning comes down to us.
Deu 9:5 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-
The grace of God guarantees our salvation. Yet we find it so hard to
believe- that I, with all my doubts and fears, will really be there.
Israel were warned that they were being given the land (cp. salvation)
"not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thy heart... for
thou art a stiffnecked people" (Dt. 9:5,6). These words are picked up in
Tit. 3:5 and applied to the new Israel: "Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing
(baptism) of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit" - by His grace
alone.
And that He may establish
the word which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to
Jacob-
We could say that the promises to Abraham which form
the basis of the covenant are about grace. Dt. 9 spells out that Israel
would not inherit the land sworn to their fathers because they were
righteous- the implication was that it was a gift promised by pure grace.
Deu 9:6 Know therefore that Yahweh your God doesn’t give you this good
land to possess-
Because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked
people-
Like Paul in his time of dying, Moses in
Deuteronomy saw the importance of obedience, the harder side of God; yet
he also saw in real depth the surpassing love of God, and the grace that
was to come, beyond Law. This appreciation reflected Moses' mature grasp
of the Name / characteristics of God. He uses the name "Yahweh" in
Deuteronomy over 530 times, often with some possessive adjective, e.g.
"Yahweh thy God" [AV- i.e. you singular], or "Yahweh our God". He saw the
personal relationship between a man and his God. Jacob reached a like
realization at his peak.
Although the people were "stiff-necked", refusing to bow their necks in obedience, and thereby liable to destruction if God was amongst them (Ex. 32:9; 33:3,15), God was willing to give this stiff-necked people a place in God's Kingdom (Dt. 9:6). And so although God had said that He would not go in the midst of a stiff-necked people, yet Moses asks Him to do so (Ex. 34:9)- for He senses God's desire to save them by grace despite their hardened disobedience. We contrast this with the God who demands respect, the God who slew Uzzah and insists upon loyalty to Him.
Deu 9:7 Remember, don’t forget, how you provoked Yahweh your God to wrath
in the wilderness. From the day that you went forth out of the land of
Egypt until you came to this place you have been rebellious against
Yahweh-
We are left to imagine in what tone of voice Moses said that. Israel
had rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh through disbelief, and
therefore couldn't enter Canaan (Dt. 1:26; 9:7,23,24; 31:27; Num. 27:4);
they were as the rebellious son who rebelled against his father's
commandment (s.w. Dt. 21:18,20). For he himself had rebelled against the
commandment of Yahweh and because of this was also barred from entering
Canaan (Num. 20:24; 27:14). One reason for this was that he had called the
Israelites "rebels" (Num. 20:10), and no sooner had he done so, than he
himself rebelled against Yahweh's commandment just like them, but in a
different way.
Deu 9:8 Also in Horeb you provoked Yahweh to wrath and Yahweh was angry
with you to destroy you-
God can be provoked to anger (Dt. 9:7; Ezra 5:12), His wrath ‘arises’
because of sinful behaviour (2 Chron. 36:16). He drove Israel into
captivity in anger and fury (Jer. 32:37). The wrath of God ‘waxes hot’
against sinful men, and Moses begged God to ‘turn’ from that wrath (Ex.
32:11,12). The whole intercession of Moses with God gives the impression
of God changing His mind because of the intercession of a mere man.
Admittedly the idea of anger flaring up in God’s face and then Him
‘turning’ from that wrath is some sort of anthropomorphism. The very same
words are used about Esau’s wrath ‘turning away’, i.e. being pacified, as
are used about the pacification of God’s wrath (Gen. 27:45). But all the
same, this language must be telling us something. The wrath of God did
come upon Israel in the wilderness (Ps. 78:31; Ez. 22:31), but Moses
‘turned’ God from executing it as He planned (Ps. 106:23). Many times He
turned away from the full extent of His wrath (Ps. 78:38). It is by
righteous behaviour and repentance that the wrath of God turns away (Dt.
13:17; 2 Chron. 12:12; 29:10; 30:8). Ezra 10:14 speaks of God’s wrath
turning away because those who had married Gentile women divorced them.
God’s wrath is also turned away by the death of the sinner- the heads of
the sinners in Num. 25:4 were to be ‘hung up’ before the Lord so that His
wrath would turn away. A similar example is to be found in Josh. 7:26.
Jeremiah often comments that God’s wrath is turned away by the execution
of judgment upon the sinner (e.g. Jer. 30:24). In this sense His anger and
wrath are poured out or ‘accomplished’, i.e. they are no more because they
have been poured out (Lam. 4:11). The fact that men such as Moses and Jeremiah (Jer.
18:20) turned away God’s wrath without these things happening, or simply
by prayer (Dan. 9:16) therefore means that God accepted the intercession
of those men and counted their righteousness to those from whom His wrath
turned away. We shouldn’t assume that these righteous men merely waved
away God’s wrath. That wrath was real, and required immense pleading and
personal dedication on their behalf.
Deu 9:9 When I had gone up onto the mountain to receive the tablets of
stone, the tablets of the covenant which Yahweh made with you. Then I
stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights-
Ex. 24:16 says that Moses was six and a half days on the mountain
waiting for the call to meet God, so he was with God for 33 and a half
days. This perhaps looks forward to the 33 and a half years ministry of
the Lord Jesus.
I neither ate bread nor drank water-
It could be argued that this is not speaking of absolutely not eating
nor drinking (it would be hard not to drink for 40 days), but rather that
He didn't eat bread nor drink water. The implication is that He had food
to eat from God, associated with the word given him, which others weren't
aware of. The Lord may allude to this in Jn. 4:32. This is the third
period of 40 days which Moses was there, and the Rabbis calculate that he
would have therefore returned from the mountain (cp. the Lord's second
coming from Heaven) on the Day of Atonement.
Deu 9:10 Yahweh delivered to me the two tablets of stone written with the
finger of God-
The tables themselves were made by God, and were written on both sides
(Ex. 32:15,16). As they were small enough to be carried, we assume they
contained the ten commandments and not the rest of the laws given to
Moses. They were the tables of the covenant, and so the letter of the law
which was to give way to the spirit of the new covenant therefore includes
the command about the Sabbath. For that was one of the ten commandments.
And on them were all the words which Yahweh spoke with you on the mountain
out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly-
Moses graciously doesn't mention that they shied away from Yahweh's
appearance at that time and wanted him only to engage with Yahweh. Grace
and speaking graciously about others' weaknesses is a sign of spiritual
maturity, and we see it in Moses now at the end of his life.
The references to fire, smoke, furnace, earthquake and the descent of Yahweh (Ex. 19:18) is very similar to the language of Divine judgment, especially of Sodom (Gen. 19:28; Rev. 9:2). And we know from the prophets that Israel were considered by God as Sodom. We could read this as His wrath with Israel for breaking His simple commandments about not touching the mountain, and for not having sufficiently sanctified themselves (see on Ex. 19:10,14,18). The argument of Heb. 12 appears to be that the scene here is one of condemnation of sinful man- and we have not been called to that, but to salvation by grace in the new covenant in Christ. But out of that condemnation, God earnestly wished to reach out to His people, with words of covenant salvation.
Deu 9:11 At the end of forty days and forty nights Yahweh gave me the two
tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant-
The tables had the ten commandments written upon them, for this was
the old covenant which was made with Israel (Dt. 4:13). We are not now
under the old covenant, but under the new. Which means we are not bound to
keep the Sabbath, seeing this was one of the ten commandments. Knowing the
apostacy of Israel, God still gave Moses the tokens of the covenant. The
implication was that there was grace as the basis of the giving of that
covenant.
Deu 9:12 Yahweh said to me Arise, get down quickly from here, for your
people whom you have brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They
have quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have
made themselves a molten image-
When God told Moses to leave Him alone to
destroy them, and go back down to the people immediately (Dt. 9:12), Moses
stayed on to plead with God not to destroy them. And God listened (Ex.
32:7-14). He repented of the evil He had thought to do. He changed His
mind, because Moses stayed on. There is an element of striving with God in
prayer, knowing that His mind is open to change (Rom. 15:30). Jacob is a
symbol of us all. He became Israel, he who struggles with God. And this is
a key feature of all those who comprise the true Israel. This is what
stimulates me to what intensity in prayer I can muster. That God is open
to hearing and even changing His holy mind about something. Such is His
sensitivity to us. Such is His love, that God changing His mind becomes
really feasible as a concept. And such is the scary implication of the
total freewill which the Father has afforded us. This is why God could
reason with Moses as a man speaks to his friend and vice versa. It was a
dynamic, two way relationship in thought and prayer and being.
Deu 9:13 Furthermore Yahweh spoke to me saying, I have seen this people
and truly it is a stiff-necked people-
Pharaoh was condemned and Egypt overthrown because of his hard heart- but
the very word is used to describe the hardness of Israel's heart at the time
(Ex. 32:9; 33:3-5; 34:9). Israel were really no better than Egypt- just as
Egypt was plagued "so that they could not drink the water" (Ex. 7:24), so we
find Israel in the same situation right after leaving Egypt (Ex. 15:23). As
the Egyptians were stripped of their jewellery, so Israel stripped
themselves of it before the golden calf (Ex. 12:36; 33:6). Although the
people were "stiff-necked", refusing to bow their necks in obedience, and
thereby liable to destruction if God was amongst them (Ex. 32:9; 33:3,15),
God was willing to give this stiff-necked people a place in God's Kingdom
(Dt. 9:6). And so although God had said that He would not go in the midst
of a stiff-necked people, yet Moses asks Him to do so (Ex. 34:9)- for He
senses God's desire to save them by grace despite their hardened
disobedience. We contrast this with the God who demands respect, the God
who slew Uzzah and insists upon loyalty to Him.
Deu 9:14 let Me alone-
This reflects the amazingly close relationship between God and Moses.
It’s as if God is saying: ‘I know you might persuade Me to change My mind
on this one, but please, don’t try, I might give in, when really they do
need to be destroyed’. We too can have this level of intimacy with God.
This seems to suggest that God knew both Himself and Moses well enough to know that Moses could well persuade Him to change His mind, against His ideal intention. And Moses doesn't leave God alone, and does persuade Him. We marvel at the humility and humanity of God, and His extreme openness to human intercession.
Think of God's bitter disappointment with Israel when
He invites Moses into the mount as their representative, in order to enter
into further covenant with them. Down below, they started worshipping
other gods. When God says to Moses "Leave me alone..." (Ex. 32:10), He may
well refer to the desire for isolation / solitude which a person in
extreme grief desires. And of course we are aware of how Moses reasons
with God, and asks God to consider His own future and how it might turn
out, and how that can be avoided. And God takes Moses seriously, with
integrity, and appears to even acquiesce to his arguments. It's amazing.
This God is our God.
That I may destroy them and blot out their name
from under the sky, and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater
than they-
Moses prayed that his name
would be ‘blotted out’ instead (Ex. 32:32). To be blotted out of the book
God had written may have been understood by Moses as asking for him to be
excluded from an inheritance in the promised land; for later, a ‘book’ was
written describing the various portions (Josh. 18:9). The connection is
made explicit in Ez. 13:9. If Israel were to be blotted out there and then
in the wilderness, then Moses wanted to share this experience, such was
his identity with his ungrateful people; and yet this peak of devotion is
but a dim shadow of the extent of Christ’s love for us. In Dt. 9:18 he says
that his prayer of Ex. 32:32
was heard- in that he was not going
to enter the land, but they would. Hence his urging of them throughout
Deuteronomy to go ahead and enter the land- to experience what his
self-sacrifice had enabled. In this we see the economy of God, and how He
works even through sin. On account of Moses’ temporary rashness of speech,
he didn't enter the land. And yet by this, his prayer was heard. He was
temporarily blotted out of the book, so that they might enter the land.
This is why Moses stresses now at the end of his life that he wouldn’t
enter the land
for Israel’s sake (1:37; 3:26;
4:21). He saw that his sin had been worked through, and the essential
reason for him not entering was because of the offer he had made. It “went
badly with him
for their sakes” (Ps. 106:32).
Despite knowing their weakness and his own righteousness, Moses showed a marvellous softness and humility in that speech recorded in Deuteronomy. When he reminds them how God wanted to reject them because of their idolatry with the golden calf, he does not mention how fervently he prayed for them, so fervently that God changed His expressed intention (Dt. 9:14); and note deeply, Moses does not mention how he offered his physical and eternal life for their salvation. That fine, fine act and desire by Moses went unknown to Israel until the book of Exodus came into circulation. And likewise, the depth of Christ's love for us was unrecognized by us at the time. Moses had such humility in not telling in Israel in so many words how fervently he had loved them. The spiritual culture of the Lord is even greater. See on Ex. 32:32.
There is almost a pattern with God- to devise His purpose, and then in the 'gap' until its fulfillment, be open to the persuasion of His covenant people to change or ammend those plans. This could be what Am. 3:7 is speaking of: "Surely the Lord God does nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets". It's as if He reveals His plans to them so that they can then comment upon them in prayer. And maybe this is why God tells Jeremiah not to pray to Him to change His stated plans against Israel (Jer. 7:16 cp. Jer. 11:14; 14:11; 15:1), and why He asks Moses to 'leave Me alone' and not try to persuade Him to change His mind (Ex. 32:10). He didn't want, in these cases, His stated plans to be interrupted by the appeals of His people to change them. Interestingly, in both these examples, Moses and Jeremiah know God well enough, the relationship is intimate enough, for them to still speak with Him- and change His mind. Those who've prayed to God in cases of terminal illness [and countless other situations] will have sensed this 'battle', this 'struggle' almost, between God and His friends, His covenant people, and the element of 'persuasion' which there is going on both ways in the dialogue between God and ourselves. The simple fact that God really can change- there are over 40 references to His 'repentance' in Scripture- is vital to understand- for this is the basis of the prayer that changes things, that as it were wrestles with God.
Deu 9:15 So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was
burning with fire-
See on Ex. 32:30. Moses in great humility doesn't mention how he
persuaded God through intense intercession not to do this. The “pillar of fire” was only “as it were the
appearance of fire” (Num. 9:15) but the record elsewhere speaks of it as
“fire”, because that’s what it looked like to the Israelites. The
Scriptures speak of how a pillar of fire was with Israel in the wilderness
(Ps. 105:39). But actually when it first appeared, it was described as “the
appearance of fire” (Num. 9:15). It wasn’t fire, it appeared as fire.
And yet it’s spoken of later simply as “fire”. There’s no inspired
footnote reminding us that, well, actually, it wasn’t really fire.
Likewise “the mount [of Sinai] burnt with fire” (Dt. 9:15). The mountain
didn’t catch fire. But that’s how it looked to the Israelites from a
distance; and so that’s how it’s described.
They were not therefore that large, and fitted within the ark, which
was also not large. They would not have had space on them for all the law,
just the ten commandments.
Deu 9:16 I looked and truly-
This implies Moses had such a high view of Israel and hope or them,
that he didn't fully believe what God had told him about their apostacy.
Admission of past failings was a sign of his spiritual maturity, speaking
now on the last day of his life.
You had sinned against Yahweh your God; you had
made yourselves a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly out of the way
which Yahweh had commanded you-
"Molten" is literally 'covered'. They had presumably made the calf of
the common acacia wood, and covered it with gold- just as the tabernacle
furniture was to be constructed in a similar way. Again we see that they
were mixing Yahweh worship with idolatry.
As explained on Ex. 32:4-6, they were worshipping an idol in the name of Yahweh worship. They had corrupted or turned aside the glory of God into the form of an ox which eats grass (Ps. 106:20). And this is the abiding temptation for us all. The glory of God was visible to them on Sinai at the time. God's glory was in His invisible leading of them through the Angel (Ex. 32:1). But they changed that into the visible and secular. They were not totally rejecting Yahweh, but making an ox / calf similar to one facet of the cherubim. This is classic apostacy, mixing truth with error.
It appears that Israel identified the golden calf with the Egyptian
goddess Hathor. “The Egyptian goddess Hathor came in the form of a cow, a
woman with a cow’s head, or a woman with cows horns and / or cows ears.
She bore several other titles including The Golden One and Mistress of
Music. She was the patron of love, motherhood, drunkenness, fun, dance and
music. The worship of Hathor degenerated into immorality and she is
depicted in some scenes and statues as a sensual young woman. Hathor was
the protector of travellers from Egypt to various areas including Sinai”.
So Israel so quickly forgot the lesson so artlessly taught them – that the
idols / demons of Egypt were of no power at all, seeing they had all been
targetted by the plagues.
The following references to Hathor provide further insight; supporting
references are to be found in my book "The Real Devil" section 4-2-3:
Hathor had several forms including, a cow, a women with a cow’s head, or a
woman with cows horns and or ears.
Hathor was also known as ‘The Golden One’
Hathor was the protector of travellers from Egypt to various areas
including Sinai
Patron of drunkenness
Hathor had the title ‘Mistress of Music’
The worship of Hathor included playing on all kinds of musical instruments
together with dancing
The worship of Hathor was for the joy and pleasure of those who took part
Hathor is also the goddess of love
The worship of Hathor degenerated into immorality.
Deu 9:17 I took hold of the two tablets and cast them out of my two hands
and broke them before your eyes-
Ex. 32:19 adds: "Moses’ anger grew hot, and he threw the tablets out
of his hands, and broke them beneath the mountain". God’s anger “burned
hot” and so did that of Moses. But Moses asks God not to wax hot in anger
(Ex. 32:10,11,19). What are we to make of this? Surely, positively, Moses
was totally in tune with the feelings of God. And yet he does himself what
he asks God not to do. His anger growing hot was exactly the feeling of God. But unlike God,
he immediately broke the symbols of the covenant with Israel. Again, God
is revealed as more gracious and patient than man. As Moses had pleaded
with Yahweh not to be so angry, so Aaron was to do so with the furiously
angry Moses. Aaron in all his weakness therefore becomes as Moses, who was
also weak before God's presence.
Deu 9:18 I fell down before Yahweh as at the first, forty days and forty
nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which
you sinned, in doing that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh to provoke
him to anger-
At the very end of his life, Moses reeled off this great speech of
Deuteronomy, knowing full well that he was to die without entering the
land. In Dt. 9:18 he says that his prayer of Ex. 32:32 was heard- in that
he was not going to enter the land, but they would. Hence his urging of
them to go ahead and enter the land- to experience what his self-sacrifice
had enabled. In this we see the economy of God, and how He works even
through sin. On account of Moses’ temporary rashness of speech, he was
excluded- and yet by this, his prayer was heard. He was temporarily
blotted out of the book, so that they might enter. Moses’ fleeting
requests to enter the land must be read as a flagging from the height of
devotion he reached, rather like the Lord’s request to escape the cross in
Gethsemane. But ultimately he did what he intended- he gave his place in
the Kingdom / land so that they might enter [although of course he will be
in the future Kingdom]. This is why Moses stresses on the last day of his
life that he wouldn’t enter the land for Israel’s sake (Dt. 1:37; 3:26;
4:21). He saw that his sin had been worked through, and the essential
reason for him not entering was because of the offer he had made. It “went
ill with him for their sakes” (Ps. 106:32).
God can be grieved [s.w. 'provoke to anger']. He has emotions, and His
potential foreknowledge doesn't mean that these feelings are not
legitimate. They are presented as occurring in human time, as responses to
human behaviour. This is the degree to which He has accommodated Himself
to human time-space limits, in order to fully enter relationship and
experience with us. As He can limit His omnipotence, so God can limit His
omniscience, in order to feel and respond along with us.
True prayer is to be "in secret". There should be an appropriate
modesty in speaking about it to others. Consider how Moses spent 40 days
in intense intercession for Israel, and succeeded in changing God's mind.
But he didn't tell them this for about 37 years, until Moses recounted it
to the people at the end of his life in Dt. 9:18.
Deu 9:19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which
Yahweh was angry against you to destroy you. But Yahweh listened to me
that time also-
Israel were certainly representative of us. The degree of love shown by Moses to Israel is only a shadow of the degree, the kind of love shown by Christ to us, who hopefully are not rejecting him as Israel did. The power of this point just has to be reflected upon. That Moses could love Israel, to the extent of being willing to give his life and salvation for them, is a fine, fine type of the devotion of Christ. There is another oft
emphasized aspect of Moses' love for Israel: the power of his mediation for them. We are told that God " hearkened" to Moses' prayers for them (Dt. 9:19; 10:10). He prayed for them with an intensity they didn't appreciate, he prayed for and gained their forgiveness before they had even repented, he pleaded successfully for God to relent from His plans to punish them, even before they knew that God had conceived such plans (Ex. 32:10,14; 33:17 etc.). The fact we will, at the end, be forgiven of some sins without specifically repenting of them (as David was in Ps. 19:12) ought to
instill a true humility in us. This kind of thing is in some ways a contradiction of God's principles that personal repentance is required for forgiveness, and that our own effort is required if we are to find acceptability with Him. Of course ultimately these things are still true, and were true with respect to Israel.
Deu 9:20 Yahweh was very angry with Aaron to destroy him, and I prayed for
Aaron also at the same time-
This must be given its full weight. Aaron comes over in Ex. 32:22 as
more worried about the wrath of Moses his brother than that of God: "Don’t
let the anger of my lord grow hot". And so it can easily be with us. We
can forget God's feelings and worry only about our image with our family
and brethren.
We can as it were do the work of the Saviour Himself, if we truly live as
in Him. In this spirit,
Moses’
faith in keeping the Passover led to
Israel’s
salvation, they left Egypt
by him (Heb. 3:16; 11:28); and when
Aaron deserved death, he was redeemed by Moses’ prayer on his behalf.
Sodom's destruction was largely due to Abraham's prayer for his
deliverance; without this, it would seem Lot was altogether too unprepared
and spiritually insensitive to have responded to the Angels' call in his
own strength. The Lord spared Aaron because of Moses' intercession for
him; and this is perhaps the basis for James' appeal to pray for one
another, that we may be healed, knowing that through our prayer and
pastoral work for others, we can save a man from his multitude of sins and
his soul from death (James 5:20). The very ability we have to do this for
each other should register deeply with us. And in response, we should live
lives dedicated to the spiritual welfare and salvation of our brethren.
It was only thanks to Moses' intercession for Aaron that Aaron's life was spared at this point. We see here how intercession even for the impenitent can be effective (for Aaron in Ex. 32:24 was impenitent, claiming the calf had jumped out of the fire ready made). This has huge pastoral implications for our ministry and prayer life, recalling how for the sake of the faith of the friends, the Lord pronounced the paralyzed man forgiven (Mk. 2:5; also James 5:20).
Deu 9:21 I took your sin, the calf which you had made-
"A great sin" (Ex. 32:21) is the phrase used of Jeroboam's golden calf, which was
based upon this calf (2 Kings 17:21). Aaron made the calf, but "you made"
it. People can be made to sin by
others- a sober reminder to watch our behaviour.
The Biblical record highlights the sin of Aaron and
the people; the Jewish literature excuses it by blaming it on Satan /
"mastema".
Time and again, the Jewish apocryphal literature wrongly sought to
distance God from doing anything negative in human life. Gen. 22:1 clearly
states that it was God who put Abraham to the test by asking him
to kill his son Isaac; Jubilees retells the story with "Prince Mastema",
the Satan figure, telling Abraham to do this (Jub. 17:15-18). Likewise Ex.
4:24 recounts how "the Lord", presumably as an Angel, met Moses and tried
to kill him for not circumcising his son; but Jubilees again claims that
Mastema / Satan did this (Jub. 48:1-3). Indeed, several times the Hebrew
word mastema ['hostility, enmity'] occurs, it is in the context
of urging Israel to see that they and their internal desires to
sin are the true mastema. Hos. 9:7 is an example: "Because your
sins are so many and your hostility [mastema] so great".
And burnt it with fire and stamped it, grinding
it very small until it was as fine as dust, and I cast its dust into the
brook that descended out of the mountain-
They were forced to drink / eat dust, just as Adam had to; for he was
dust and had to eat the fruit of the dust in punishment. His sin was the
essence of every man's sin, including Israel's at this time. The reference
to their being made naked (Ex. 32:25) is another allusion to Adam. Israel had
been an unfaithful wife to Yahweh, and so they were punished as the woman
tested for adultery was (Num. 5:24). "Grinding it very
small until it was as fine as dust" would have been necessary for it to
float on the surface on the water, as gold is so heavy.
Deu 9:22 (At Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked
Yahweh to wrath-
God can be grieved [s.w. 'provoke to anger']. He has emotions, and His
potential foreknowledge doesn't mean that these feelings are not
legitimate. They are presented as occurring in human time, as responses to
human behaviour. This is the degree to which He has accommodated Himself
to human time-space limits, in order to fully enter relationship and
experience with us. As He can limit His omnipotence, so God can limit His
omniscience, in order to feel and respond along with us. Idolatrous Israel never consciously tried to provoke Yahweh
to anger with their apostasy; the words of the prophets must have seemed
to them a gross exaggeration. But this was really how God saw it (2 Chron.
34:25). I have suggested that Deuteronomy was edited, under Divine
inspiration, during the exile. This statement has particular relevance to
the exiles, who had likewise "provoked Yahweh to wrath" and had therefore
been exiled, and were now to return to the land; just as Israel at the end
of the 40 year wandering (Ezra 5:12; Zech. 8:14).
Deu 9:23 When Yahweh sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying Go up and possess
the land which I have given you, then you rebelled against the commandment
of Yahweh your God, and you didn’t believe Him, nor listen to His voice-
Israel did not obey / hearken to the voice of Yahweh, and He did not
hearken to their voice in prayer (Dt. 1:45; 9:23; 28:15; Josh. 5:6; Jud.
2:20; 6:10 cp. Dt. 8:20 s.w.). 2 Kings 18:12 states this specifically. God
hearkened to Joshua's voice in prayer (Josh. 10:14) because Joshua
hearkened to His voice. It was to be the same with Saul. He didn't hearken
to God's voice (1 Sam. 15:19) and God didn't hearken to Saul's voice in
prayer in his final desperation at the end of his life (1 Sam. 28:18). If
God's word abides in us, then our prayer is powerful, we have whatever we
ask, because we are asking for things according to His will expressed in
His word (Jn. 15:7).
Deu 9:24 You have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day that I knew
you)-
They were disobedient from the day God knew them, i.e. Passover night.
The number of firstborn males after Israel left Egypt was remarkably
small (around 20,000, Num. 3:43). Women in most primitive societies have
an average of 7 births. this would mean that given a total population of
around 2,800,000 on leaving Egypt (Ex. 12:37), there should have been
around 400,000 firstborn males. But instead, there is only a fraction of
this number. Why? Did all Israel eat the Passover? Were many in fact
slain. My suggestion- and this is well in the category of things you will
never know for sure and can only ponder- is that many Hebrew firstborns
died on Passover night. Israel were warned that if they did not properly
keep the Passover, “the Destroyer” Angel would kill their firstborn (Ex.
12:23). “The Destroyer” is mentioned in 1 Cor. 10:10: “Neither murmur ye,
as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the Destroyer” (olothreutes;
this is a proper noun in the Greek). Who was the Destroyer? If
Scripture interprets Scripture, it was the ‘Destroyer’ Angel of Passover
night. In similar vein Heb. 11:28 speaks of “He (the Angel) that destroyed
(Gk. olothreuo) the firstborn”. Israel were side-tracked from what
should have been the central object of their attention: the blood of the
lamb.
Deu 9:25 So I fell down before Yahweh the forty days and forty nights
because Yahweh had said He would destroy you-
It is likely that this was the first time Israel knew about this. The
intensity of those 40 days intercession, after having spent 40 days also
in the mountain just days beforehand, was one of the most amazing and
intense spiritual achievements of anyone apart from the Lord Jesus. For
Moses succeeded in persuading God to change His mind about destroying His
sinful people, even without their repentance. But Moses didn't boast of it
nor tell anyone about it, until the day of his death. We like Israel can
live our lives unaware of the intensity of the Lord's mediation for us
over specific issues. For the Lord in Heaven with the Father, from which
He will return, was represented by Moses with God at the top of Sinai.
Deu 9:26 I prayed to Yahweh and said Lord Yahweh, don’t destroy Your
people and Your inheritance that You have redeemed through Your greatness,
that You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand-
"Corrupted" in :12 is s.w. "'destroyed" here. All judgment is finally
self inflicted. Sin is its own judgment; hence the Hebrew word for
"corruption" also means "destruction", for moral corruption is its own
destruction. God Himself does judge, but always prefers men to judge
themselves.
The might and "greatness" of Yahweh's hand was shown through His grace in as it were forcing Israel out of Egypt, when they actually wanted to remain there and He wished to destroy them (Ez. 20:8). They were idolatrous and had told Moses to leave them alone and let them serve the Egyptians. Yahweh's strength therefore refers to the power of His grace in continuing His program with them.
Deu 9:27 Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Don’t look at
the stubbornness of this people, nor at their wickedness, nor their sin-
"Corrupted" or 'destroyed' in :12 is the same word used of the
threatened destruction of everyone in Sodom, which Abraham's intercession
avoided (s.w. Gen. 18:28,31). That incident surely motivated Moses to rise
up to the same possibility of dialogue with God in order to change His
intended purpose. We too are to be motivated by Biblical examples of
intercession. God could have given legitimate answers to each of Moses' objections;
for there were indeed times when He did not turn from the fierceness of
His wrath (Ex. 32:12)- such as Jer. 4:8; 2 Kings 23:26. He intended to fulfil
the promises to Abraham, but through Moses. But such is His sensitivity
and pure pity that He accepted Moses' pleas.
Deu 9:28 lest the land You brought us out from say, ‘Because Yahweh was
not able to bring them into the land which He promised to them and because
He hated them He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness’-
Caleb and Joshua perceived that Israel were “well able” to overcome
the tribes and inherit the land, seeing that the Angel-hornet had gone
ahead and prepared the way; and yet due to Israel’s disabling of this
possibility at the time, it was in some ways so that God Himself was “not
able” to give them the inheritance, because they judged that
they were “not able” to take it (Num. 13:30,31; 14:16).
The way Moses pleaded with God to change His mind and not destroy Israel for the sake of what the surrounding nations would say is indeed inspirational to us all. It surely inspired David to pray likewise- for “wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now there God?” (Ps. 115:2). We see here God's sensitivity to how the Gentiles perceive Him, and this has big implications for how we act before them. For we are God's representatives, and how we represent Him before the world is so significant to Him. For effectively we are Him in this world, and it is our living example far more than our doctrinal explanations which will convert others to Him.
Deu 9:29 Yet they are Your people and Your inheritance, which You brought
out by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm-
We are God's portion / inheritance (Dt. 4:20; 9:29; Eph. 1:18), and
He is our inheritance (Ps. 16:5,6; 73:26; Lam. 3:22-24; Eph. 1:11 RV); we
inherit each other. There is a mutuality between God and His people.
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