May 6, 2019: Day 9 – Deuteronomy 9

A verse in this chapter that we would do well to remember is verse 24 where we read the Lord saying to the people: “You have been rebellious against the Lord as long as he has known you.”  This chapter is an accounting of the times that the people of Israel had been rebellious against the Lord.  We find the locations listed in this chapter: Horeb where Moses was presented with the stone tablets but told to hurry off the mountain because the people were making a golden calf, Taberah, Massah, Kibroth-hattaavah, and finally Kadesh barnea where the people were told to take the land and they balked.

In this chapter we read about the locations where the people of Israel had hesitated because they did not see how they could do that which was impossible, even if the Lord encouraged them and told them to do it.

There is also the constant reminder, which really sets everything up here, that God was giving the people of Israel the promised land not because they were in any way faithful or righteous.  No, in fact, it seems like all of this was happening in spite of the unfaithfulness of the people of God simply to underscore the faithfulness of the Lord.  We also see Moses as lifting himself up as the Savior of the people, which I guess in some ways he was.   But also in some ways he is doing a bit what the Lord told them not to do, which was take any credit at all from what has happened.  All of this is the doing of the Lord, not of us.