God’s Redemption, Not Ours

Hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning, we're at Deuteronomy chapter nine. We're going to get through the whole chapter. It is a story about Israel's unfaithfulness. And yet we learn something about God. And we see that Moses becomes an intercessor for God's people. The whole bunch of stuff for us to learn this morning.
Let's have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll get into God's word. Let's pray. Father, you are good. You've given us your word. You've given us this time, this opportunity, this morning to read your word. Father, we pray that we would understand it. Please, Lord, apply it to our lives. Teach us what you would have for us to do. Teach us how we should live. how we can enjoy you and glorify you in Jesus name. Amen.
All right. So Deuteronomy chapter nine, you're going to want to buckle up. We're going to get through the whole chapter. We're going to do this a little bit differently, right? I'm going to read a section, explain it, explain it, summarize it, stuff like that. So we're going to do the abouts as we go through. So paragraph by paragraph, we'll do the abouts. All right, here we go. Deuteronomy chapter nine.
Here, O Israel, you are to cross over this the jordan today and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves cities great and fortified up to heaven a great a people great and tall the descendants of the anakim whom you know and whom you heard it said who can stand before the descendants of anak Therefore, understand today that the LORD your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you. So you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as Jehovah has said, To them.
All right. So he's saying, all right, guys, you're going to go in, you're going to conquer them, even the Anakim, even the descendants of Anak, these giants in the land. But you're not to be afraid. The Lord's going to be with you. So that's verses one through three. Here we go. Second paragraph versus four through six.
Do not think in your heart after Jehovah your God has cast them out before you saying, because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in the possession of this land. And it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that Jehovah your God drives them out from before you. that he may fulfill the word which Jehovah swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Therefore understand that Jehovah your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.
All right. So in this paragraph, God is telling them, don't get all prideful on yourselves. It's not because you are the most upright people. No, I'm driving them out because of their own wickedness. Right. They sinned. And so this is the justice that God is pouring out on them. But I know that you are a stiff necked people. I made promises to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give them this land. They have fulfilled their time of unrighteousness. Now I'm pushing them out by your hand. But it's not because you are the most righteous. Now what does he describe them as? A stiff-necked people. So now verses 7 through 11.
Remember, do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. Also in Horeb, You provoked the Lord to wrath so that the Lord was angry enough with you to have destroyed you.
When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. Then Jehovah delivered to me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God. and on them were all the words which Jehovah had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. And it came to pass at the end of 40 days and 40 nights that the Lord gave me two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.
All right. So he says, hey, just remember, guys, we're going to take a history lesson. We're going to go back. You were not more righteous. You were not better than the Amorites and the descendants of the Anakim. No, we need to go back. Remember what happened at Sinai.
I went up, the Lord spoke, He gave me the stone tablets, I was there 40 days, 40 nights, no water, no food, just me and God. He gave me the stones of the covenant. And then verse 12 and following. Then the Lord said to me, Arise, go down quickly from here.
For your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molded image. All right, so as Moses is on the mountain, God says, I know what they're doing down there. This doesn't look like my people. You must have brought them out.
Verse 13, Furthermore, the Lord spoke to me, saying, I have seen this people, and indeed they are a stiff necked people. Let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make you I'll make of you a nation mightier and greater than they write the Lord. He says, remember, this is Moses speaking and say, the Lord told me I'm just going to wipe them all out. I'll restart with you, Moses. How did that story go? Well, verses 15 through 21. So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.
And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God, had made for yourselves a molded calf. You turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you. Then I took the two stone tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. fell down before Jehovah, as at the first forty days and forty nights I neither ate bread nor drank water because of all your sin which you committed in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and the hot displeasure which the Lord was angry with you to destroy you. But Jehovah listened to me at that time. And Jehovah was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him. So I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.
Then I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it and ground it very small until it was as fine as dust. And I threw its dust into the brook that descended from the mountain. Says, you remember what happened? Came down, I had those two stone tablets in my hand. I saw what you had done, the covenant you had broken. I took the stone tablet and I broke them on the ground.
I wept and I cried and I pleaded with God that he would not destroy you because you were a stiff necked people, because you had committed this great sin. You had turned away from him. And I prayed for you all, and I prayed for Aaron, that God wouldn't destroy all of you because of this stiff necked sin that you had committed. I got rid of that idol. And then verse 22 and 23, 24.
Also at Terribah and Manasseh, at Kibrath Hathavah, you provoked the Lord to wrath. Likewise, when Jehovah sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you, then you rebelled against the commandment of Jehovah your God.
And you did not believe him or obey his voice. You have been rebellious against Jehovah from the day that I knew you." He's saying, guys, you cannot go into this land, into this promised land to possess the land of Canaan, thinking that you were more righteous.
Remember everything that happened in the wilderness. You were disobedient with the golden calf. You were disobedient at Kadesh Barnea. You guys are stiff-necked people. We know this in our hearts. This is what you're like. that you can't go in there in your own righteousness because you don't have it.
You've been rebelling against the Lord from the day that I knew you. And then the last paragraph, verses 25 through 29. Thus I prostrated myself before the Lord. Forty days and forty nights I kept prostrating myself, because the Lord had said he would destroy you.
Therefore I prayed to the Lord and said, O Lord God, do not destroy your people and your inheritance, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not look on the stubbornness of this people or on the wickedness of their sins, lest the land from which you brought us should say, because the Lord was not able to bring them out of the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness. Yet they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out by your mighty power and by your outstretched arm.
Moses goes to the Lord and he pleads with God. Remember that God himself made a covenant. That God himself had redeemed them out of Egypt. Moses hadn't done that. And what would happen to God's name? Moses says, Lord, remember, I prayed. I prayed for them. I prayed to you because of your name.
This is why they were at the place they're at, waiting to cross over into the promised land, waiting to go over the Jordan River. Not because they were righteous. This whole section is about not thinking with pride that they were righteous enough to enter into the promised land, but it was because of God's plans.
What's the best verse to summarize this? Well, I think in my Bible, I have a whole bunch underlined that teaches me a lot of things. But I think specifically I have verses 4 through 6 underlined. Verses 4 through 6 underlined. Especially verse 6, I have part of that double underlined. Maybe you underline something else, that's fine. You can send me a message, write a comment or something, let me know.
Well, last see calling, what are we called to do? Why did God save you? Was it because you were good enough? Is it because you think you were faithful enough? Is it because you were somehow more powerful or better or more beautiful than all the other people? No. God has redeemed us because he chose to redeem us. God has loved us because he chose to love you.
It's not because we're any better. It's not because somehow ontologically in my being, in my person, I have qualities, attributes that are better than everybody else. No, I'm not stronger, not more faithful, not better than anyone else. This is why Paul goes out of his way. The Holy Spirit tells us in Ephesians that by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. That this is the gift of God, not of works. We can't brag about it. We can't boast about it. We can't put ourselves up on a pedestal. No, by grace we have been saved. It's by God's choice, His redemption, His blood, His mercy. And so we trust in Him. We rejoice in Him. We look to him because we have an even better mediator than Moses, right? Moses prayed for the people. Moses pled with God.
But we have the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, who takes our prayers and makes them perfect. Listen up to Jesus and Jesus as our high priest, as our mediator, hears our prayers and remembers that he poured out his blood for you and me. And he makes our prayers absolutely spotless and perfect before the sight of God, who remembers that even though we were once those who were the breakers of the covenant, we broke the covenant of works all over the place, yet God himself satisfied his justice and his wrath and his son. and remembers us through him and his grace. What a great God. What an amazing gospel. Let's pray.
Father, you know our hearts, that we are prone to idolatry and sin. That left to ourselves, Lord, we go our own way. We do our own thing. But you are good. You have saved us. So Lord, please let us put away pride. Let us take joy in who you are. And by the spirit that lives in us, Lord, we pray that you would please teach us to walk in your ways now. Out of thankfulness for your grace. In Jesus's name. Amen. May the Lord bless you. May you walk in that joy and peace that comes that knowing Jesus Christ has paid the price for you. I'll see you next time. Bye.