Scripture: Deuteronomy 9:1-22 (NKJV)
1 “Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to
dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and
fortified up to heaven, 2 a people great and tall, the descendants of the
Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the
descendants of Anak?’ 3 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
the LORD has said to you. 4 Do not think in your heart, after the LORD your God
has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the LORD has
brought me in to possess this land’; but it is because of the wickedness of
these nations that the LORD is driving them out from before you. 5 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 the
LORD your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word
which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6 Therefore
understand that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess
because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.
7 “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. 8 Also in Horeb
you provoked the LORD to wrath, so that the LORD was angry enough with you to
have destroyed you. 9 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 forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor
drank water. 10 Then the LORD delivered to me two tablets of stone written with
the finger of God, and on them were all the words which the LORD had spoken to
you on the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. 11
And it came to pass, at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the LORD
gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. 12 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 themselves a molded image.’
13 “Furthermore the LORD spoke to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and
indeed they are a stiff-necked people. 14 Let 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 greater than they.’ 15 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. 16 And I looked, and behold, you had sinned
against the LORD your God—had made for yourselves a molded calf! You had turned
aside quickly from the way which the LORD had commanded you. 17 Then I took the
two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes.
18 And I fell down before the LORD, 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.
19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the LORD was
angry with you, to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me at that time also.
20 And the LORD was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him; so I
prayed for Aaron also at the same time. 21 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.
22 “Also at Taberah and Massah and Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked the LORD to
wrath.”
Devotion
The Lord says to His people, “Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan
today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself…. It
is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you
go in to possess their land…. God drives them out from before you.” God makes
it clear that the Old Testament Israelites didn’t deserve the gifts God gave
them.
We New Testament children of God don’t deserve the gifts God gives us either.
In Romans 3 St. Paul writes, “What then? Are we better than they? Not at all….
As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who
understands; There is none who seeks after God…. There is no fear of God before
their eyes.’”
That is an exact description of us; of our hearts. We are all guilty before
God. But Paul goes on to tell us of God’s mercy, “Therefore by the deeds of the
law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of
sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being
witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God which is
through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. For there is no
difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being
justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
Thanks be to God that He has been merciful and made us His people. Amen.
The Lutheran Herald is a publication of the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of
North America. These daily devotions are authored by the bishop, pastors, and
deacons of the diocese. Daily posts are provided by The Reverend Jeffrey A.
Ahonen.
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