Not Because of Your Righteousness
Deuteronomy 9:1–10:11 – Deuteronomy: Then You Shall Live
Fourth Sunday of Advent – December 22, 2019 (am)
Our goal this Christmas Sunday is simply to leave this place rejoicing in the great salvation of our God!
Over the past three Sundays we’ve heard Moses identifying obstacles to Israel’s obedience of God’s covenant stipulations as they prepare to enter the land: the idolatry of the Canaanites (c.7), their own self-sufficiency (c.8), now today their self-righteousness (c.9-10a). But, even as Moses presses on to ground Israel in the heart, soul, flavor of the covenant God has made with them, there is much indication that things aren’t going to go well—they just haven’t established a very good track record. But, in their instruction there are things we can learn. Let’s listen in. We’ll divide this text into three parts.
God’s Unvarnished Assessment of His Covenant People
Our text opens with Moses calling Israel to attention, then reminding them that today is the day they are to cross over the Jordan and begin to dispossess nations greater and mightier than [themselves], entrenched enemies who are bigger and stronger than they are! (1-2) [T]herefore, it is essential for Israel to 3 [k]now… that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the Lord your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. …
The victories you taste in the land will be due to the Lord your God fighting for you, dealing with His enemies as a consuming fire, as a God of just and holy judgment! So: 4 Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, “It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,” …. And just in case you missed this point, Israel, Moses repeats himself: 5 Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but, also repeated from v.4, because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, that’s why He’s doing it, and also, again, so that he may confirm the word that [He] swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
God is judging the seven nations (7:1) in the land for His own purposes, and at the same time He is blessing you, Israel! But that blessing comes by His grace which He dispenses also according to His own will and purpose! You have not earned it, nor could you! You’re just not deserving of it! Moses presses this point again and then again (6, 7): 6 Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. Then: 7 Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness…. And from there Moses uses the rest of this chapter to give example after example of how this happened in the wilderness.
Undeniable Evidence of the Truth of God’s Assessment
First and most egregious was the incident with the golden calf (8-21)—Israel’s, and indeed Aaron’s, crafting of an idol, a metal image (12, 16), and giving it credit for having delivered Israel out of Egypt (Exo.32:4). How was this any different than what was going on in the land that finally had God’s judgment standing at the door? And apart from Moses’ intercession on their behalf, 8 … the Lord was so angry with [them] that he was ready to destroy [them]. While Moses was on the mountain receiving the stipulations of the covenant (9-11), they were already breaking them in the valley down below (12-16); they were offending the very first and foundational Commandment. 17 So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands, Moses said, and I broke them before your eyes, symbolizing what they had already done by worshiping a false god. But Moses prayed for the people and for Aaron, he destroyed the calf (18-21), and He addressed this matter according to the direction of God (Exo.32:20-35).
But that’s not all they did to earn God’s firm assessment. 22 “At Taberah also, and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. 23 And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God and did not believe him or obey his voice. 24 You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you,” Moses said. And intercessory prayer has been the only thing that’s kept you from being destroyed!
A portion of Moses’ prayer is captured in vv.26-29 and it’s beautiful. It’s filled with expressions of the glory and grace of God, but it is also filled with reaffirmations of the truth of His assessment of Israel. 26 … O Lord God, do not destroy your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness or their sin, 28 lest the land from which you brought us say, “Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.” 29 For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm. And from there we’re set up to hear and appreciate and learn from how God answered.
God’s Demonstrations of His Amazing Grace and Mercy
Having been reminded of Israel’s shortcomings throughout c.9, we recognize that the opening verses were the very first demonstrations of God’s amazing grace and mercy. 1 Hear, O Israel: you are to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to heaven, 2 a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, “Who can stand before the sons of Anak?” By God’s grace you are appointed to be the ones through whom His judgment will fall on these people, stubborn and self-[righteous] though you are. You are the recipients of His covenant, but you’ve proven yourselves to be idolaters just the inhabitants of the land.
Still, in answer to Moses’ prayer and in manifestation of the very Name of your covenant-making, covenant-keeping God—the One who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, the One Who will [forgive] iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty (Exo.34:6-7), however that might work!—Moses here describes how the Lord not only didn’t destroy Israel (10), but he actually told Moses to cut… two new tablets of stone like the first and to come back up to [Him] on the mountain (10:1) so that He could write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that [Moses] broke! (2) God had mercy on Israel! He reaffirmed His covenant with them, even under these circumstances! And the tablets were put in the ark (5).
And then in some the travel notes that are included as a sort of parenthesis (6-9), we read of Aaron’s eventual death (6). That alone is no more remarkable than any of the other details here. But what is remarkable is how v.6 finishes: And his son Eleazar ministered as priest in his place. Aaron served as the first High Priest in Israel and, despite his leading role in the sin of the people at [Sinai], the priesthood remained in his family! Our God is not simply a God Who judges iniquity and transgression and sin, but He is also a God of [mercy] and [grace] and [forgiveness]! He is abounding in [covenant] love and faithfulness! (Exo.34:6-7) He was that way with OT Israel, He remains that way today, and He’ll be so forever!
Conclusion
Now, an astute listener would ask: How does He do that? If God is truly just in judging sin, then how can He choose to forgive sin without being unjust? How is justice achieved with regard to the sin of those He chooses to forgive? This is a very important question because if God ignores the sin of some people while He judges the sin of others, then He’s neither just nor [righteous], nor is He holy! Do you hear the problem? Israel did just what the inhabitants of the land were doing. But they were about to be judged and Israel was being [forgiven] by God. How is that just? How does God [forgive] iniquity and transgression and sin and still by no means clear the guilty? (Exo.34:6-7)
This is why we celebrate Christmas! This is why we are so diligent to remind ourselves of God’s demonstration of His amazing grace and mercy in the sending of His unique, only-begotten Son into this world to live a perfectly sinless life according to the law—to live in perfect conformity to God’s covenant stipulations—and then to lay down His life as a sacrifice, a substitute, for all who will trust in His death as the [atoning sacrifice] for their sin, as a propitiation, the one act that is able to absorb the full wrath of God against their sin and also remove their sin from them as far as the east is from the west (Psa.103:12).
Paul explained this to the Romans: There is just no way for us to deserve or earn the [forgiveness] God is so willing and intentional to give. So, how do we receive it? And how does He remain just while granting it? Talking about Jesus to the Galatians, Paul wrote: 4:4 … when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Then to the Romans he explained how this works: 3:21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. Those who trust in Him can receive it, … 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Paul is telling us that the baby born in Bethlehem—celebrated by angels, foreign dignitaries, and shepherds on the night-shift—came for the specific purpose of dying on a cross the rising from the grave to appease the just wrath of God against our sin so He could remain just even while forgiving sin and reconciling sinners to Himself!
This accumulating light that we’ve been marking the last four Sundays is reminding us of the Light of the world Who is our only hope—the only One that can enable us to know the [forgiveness] of Israel that is celebrated in this passage rather than the judgment of the Canaanites that was about to begin. We’re no more [righteous] than they were! We’re no more deserving of God’s [grace]! Yet, He has now sent His Son into this world to reconcile us to Himself! And He’s brought you here today to hear about it! How good is our God? And, how will you respond?
As for the rest of us, we will celebrate His life, His body and blood, which He offered to the Father as payment-in-full for the debt of sin that is owed by all who will trust Him! We will rejoice in the salvation of our God!