Thru the Bible - #160-Deuteronomy 9- Israel Provoked God

Transcript

Welcome And Today’s Text

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Bereen's Corner, the podcast where we go through books of the Bible chapter by chapter and verse by verse. Wherever you are in the world, thank you for joining. Grab a glass of water, a cup of coffee or tea, and let's get into today's lesson. Alright, welcome back, and thank you for joining me here on Through the Bible. As always, it is uh an honor to have you here, and I thank you uh for taking time to join me. Open your Bible to Deuteronomy chapter nine. The title of today's lesson is Israel provoked God. Deuteronomy chapter 9, and let's read, and may the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his word.

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Deuteronomy 9. Here, O Israel. You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky. The people are strong and tall, Anakites. You know about them and have heard it said, Who can stand up against the Anakites? But be assured today that the Lord your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them, he will subdue them before you, and you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly, as the Lord has promised you. After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness. No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land, but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you to accomplish what he swore to your fathers to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people. Remember this, and never forget how you provoked the Lord your God to anger in the desert. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against the Lord. At Horeb, you aroused the Lord's wrath, so that he was angry enough to destroy you. When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water. The Lord gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God. On them were all the commandments the Lord proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. At the end of the forty days and forty nights, the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. Then the Lord told me, Go down from here at once, because your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have turned away quickly from what I commanded them, and have made a cast idol for themselves. And the Lord said to me, I have seen this people, and they are a stiff-necked people indeed. Let me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven, and I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they. So I turned and went down from the mountain while it was ablaze with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands. When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes. Then once again I fell prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the Lord's sight, and so provoking him to anger. I feared the anger and wrath of the Lord, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you. But again the Lord listened to me, and the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. But at that time I prayed for Aaron too. I also took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it, and ground it to powder as fine as dust, and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain. You also made the Lord angry at Keberah, at Masa, at Kibroth Hatha. And when the Lord sent you out from Kadesh Barnia, he said, Go up and take possession of the land I have given you. But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You did not trust him or obey him. You have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I have known you. I lay prostrate before the Lord those forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had said he would destroy you. I prayed to the Lord and said, O sovereign Lord, do not destroy your people, your own inheritance that you redeemed by your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness and their sin. Otherwise, the country from which you brought us will say, Because the Lord was not able to take them into the land he had promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to put them to death in the desert. But they are your people, your inheritance that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.

Message One God Fights For You

Message Two Blessing Not Earned

Message Three Remember The Golden Calf

Message Four The Power Of Intercession

Message Five A Pattern Of Unbelief

Message Six Mercy And Covenant Promises

Final Charge And Listener Encouragement

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SPEAKER_01 6:08

Now we never want to forget what God saved you from. We never want to forget what He saved us from. One of the biggest dangers for the people of God is spiritual pride. Now, it is easy to start believing that our blessings, our victories, our successes, our opportunities, those things come because we deserve them. Now that was the danger, and that danger was real for Israel. And honestly, it is a real danger for every one of us as well. See, Israel was standing on the edge of the promised land, and God was about to part the Jordan River and hand them over into the land flowing with milk and honey. The danger was that they would begin thinking, we earned this, we deserve this. This happened because we are righteous, as some of us do even to this day. Now, before we judge Israel too harshly, we have to remember that this was a thing that they did, it was a lesson for them, and it was a lesson to people even today. See, people talk about themselves sometimes. Uh, just listen to how people brag about their accomplishments, their money, their status, their success, even their spirituality. Pride has a way of creeping in to all of us. Now, Moses understood something very important. Pride will damage your relationship with God because pride causes you to forget grace. Israel needed to understand and they needed to remember that entering the promised land was not because of their greatness, it was because of God's greatness. It was not because of their faithfulness, it was because of God's faithfulness. In fact, during their journey to the promised land, Israel repeatedly angered God and rebelled against him. So the central truth of this chapter comes down to this. God does not want his people to live in delusional pride over their success. He wants them to be honest and remember their failures and his grace. Moses wanted Israel to remember that there were moments when they angered God so severely that he nearly destroyed them. Why? Because remembering that would keep them humble, dependent, and focused on God. That's what that remembering would do. Now, for the fourth time in Deuteronomy, Moses says, Hear, O Israel. That phrase means pay careful attention to what I'm about to say. Now, there are six important messages in this chapter that we would like to break down. Message number one: God will give you victory over your enemies, bigger and stronger than you. We see this in verses one through three. Here, O Israel, you are crossing the Jordan River today to go into dispossessed nations, greater and mightier than you are, great cities fortified to heaven, 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? Know before today that it is the Lord your God who is crossing over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and he will subdue them before you, so that you may drive them out and destroy them quickly, just as the Lord has spoken to you. Now, Moses tells Israel that when they cross the Jordan River, they are going to face enemies that are bigger, stronger, and more intimidating than they are. Some of these enemies were giants. This is referring to the Anakin. Israel had heard about them. They knew how powerful they were. But Moses tells them, do not focus on the size of the enemy, focus on the power of your God. God himself will go before them. God would fight for them. God will drive out their enemies. Their victory will not come because of military strength. It will become because God is a consuming fire and a divine warrior who fights for his people. Now, this is important for us too. Sometimes we face situations that seem impossible. We face spiritual battles, we face family battles, we face emotional battles, we face financial battles, we face ministry battles. But victory never comes from human strength alone. Victory belongs to the Lord. The Lord has told us this many of times that the victory is his, and if you let him fight, he will give you the victory. And one of the most dangerous things that can happen after victory is pride. People start acting like they accomplished things themselves. Moses wanted Israel to understand when you win, don't forget who gave you the victory. Some of us have been there, sometimes people we know have been there that we seem to forget where the victory comes from and you get in your pride. I like to talk about athletes a lot because there are athletes who will praise the Lord and give glory to God after a victory. It could be a track meet, it could be a football game, it could be you insert uh any sport you want, and sometimes they will forget the Lord. Sometimes they will thank the Lord and thank the Lord for getting them in that uh to that position of victory. But sometimes people forget. Sometimes they start thinking about, yeah, you know, I put in those 120 hours out there, I put this in, I did that, and they forget to give the Lord the glory. Which brings us to message number two. Do not think God gives victory because of your righteousness. Notice verses four through six. Do not say in your heart, when the Lord your God has driven them out before you, 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 dispossessing them before you. It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and Jacob. Know then it's not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess it, for you're a stubborn people. Moses makes this crystal clear. God was not giving Israel the land because Israel was righteous. God was judging the wickedness of the Canaanite nations. Those nations had become corrupt, immoral, and rebellious against God. Israel needed to understand their blessings were rooted in God's covenant grace, not their personal goodness. Moses even calls Israel stubborn and rebellious. That word means they were resistant to obeying God. Now, this is still true spiritually today. Nobody is saved because they earned salvation. Nobody gets grace because they deserve it. Salvation is entirely by the grace and the sovereignty of God. All have sinned, all fall short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, not even one. We need to remember that. So there is no room for spiritual arrogance. Everything we have from God is because of his mercy and his grace. Which brings us to message number three. Never forget how you provoke God to anger. We see this in verses 7 through 17. Remember, do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness from the day that you left the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place. You have been rebellious against the Lord. Even in Horeb, you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he would have destroyed you. When I went up to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord had made with you, then I remained on the mountain forty days and nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. And the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written by the finger of God, and on them were all the words which the Lord has spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And it came about at the end of forty days and nights that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. Then the Lord said to me, Arise, go down here quickly, 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 a molding image for themselves. The Lord spoke further to me, saying, I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stubborn people. 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. So I turned and came down from the mountain, and while the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands, I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves a molten calf, and you turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you. And I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands and smashed them before your eyes. Moses says, Remember and do not forget. What he wanted them to remember was not their righteousness, but their rebellion. From the moment Israel left Egypt, they repeatedly rebelled against God. They provoked God so deeply that he nearly destroyed them. Now, Moses reminds them of Mount Sinai. He went up the mountain for 40 days and forty nights to receive the word of God. God himself wrote on the tablets of stone. But while Moses was receiving God's word, the people were down below making a golden calf. God told Moses, Go down from this mountain. The people have corrupted themselves. God even said he was ready to destroy them and start all over, just like the Lord did with the flood. That shows how serious their sin was. Moses came down and saw the people worshiping the golden calf. He smashed the tablets before them. Now, the point is not that we spend our lives trapped in guilt under, and uh and I should say over uh sin God has forgiven. The point is never become so proud that you forget how desperately you need God. See, we should never reach a point where we think I can do life on my own. I don't really need God's word, I know better than God. Humility keeps us dependent on God, and that's something that Israel forgot, and that's why they were down there acting a fool on the bottom of that mountain, making that golden calf. Which brings us to message number four. Never forget the power of intercession. We see this in verses 18 to 21. And I fell before the Lord at the first 40 days and nights, I neither ate bread nor drank water because of all your sin which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was wrathful against you in your order to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me that time also, and the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. So I also prayed for Aaron at the same time. And I took your sinful thing, that calf, which you made, and burned it with the fire, and crushed it, girding it very small until it was fine as dust, and I threw it as dust into the brook that came down from the excuse me, the brook that came down from the mountain. Now, Moses reminds Israel that if he did not intercede for them, they would have been destroyed. That's why Moses said he fell down. He fell before the Lord for 40 days and 40 nights, fasting and praying, because judgment was hanging over the nation. Moses understood how serious the situation was. God was also angry with Aaron because of the golden calf incident, and Moses prayed for him too. See, Aaron was the spiritual leader of the people. He was Moses' right hand. And Aaron, instead of Aaron stepping up and telling the people, No, my people, we cannot do this. Did you just remember what the Lord did for us? Aaron gave in to the people, and he did what the people wanted. And see, a lot of ministers or so-called ministers, even to this day, are still doing this. They know that they should be standing in the pulpit preaching the word of God chapter by chapter and verse by verse, just like we do here on Barina's Corner going through the Bible, so you get every word that the Lord has given. But yet, and still there are people, there are men who have given in to the people. I have actually heard men with my own ear say that, well, the reason I don't teach that way is because it wouldn't keep the people's interest. So instead of him giving the people every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God, they decide that you know what, I'm gonna do what the people want. I'm going to uh, so to speak, make a golden calf. See, Moses destroyed the idol completely. He burned it, he crushed it, he scattered it. Israel needed to understand they were not surviving because they deserved to survive, they were surviving because of God's mercy. And honestly, this is true for us too. None of us deserve salvation, none of us deserve eternal life. Everything we have spiritually is because of grace. And I hope and I pray that you and I always remember that. Which brings us to the fifth message. Israel repeatedly provoked God through unbelief and rebellion. Look at verses 22 to 24. Again at Tirabai and at Messiah and at uh Kibrath Hata Avah, you provoked the Lord to wrath. And when the Lord sent you from Kedash Barnea saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you, then you rebelled against uh the command of the Lord your God. You neither believe him nor listened to his voice. You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day I knew you. See, the golden calf was not Israel's only failure. Again and again they rebelled against God. Moses reminds them of four different places. He reminds them of Tabarah. They complained against God shortly after leaving Sinai, and God sent fiery serpents. You all remember that incident? They complained at Messiah. They grumbled and tested God because of water. Remember how the people cried and said, Oh Lord, you brought us out here and we're gonna die of thirst, uh, of thirst. He reminded them what happened at Kid Brav Hata Avi. They complained about the manna and lusted after food. They complained about the food, what they were gonna eat. Uh, and uh they also uh he also reminds them what happened at Kadesh Barnia. They refused to enter the promised land because they listened to fearful spies instead of trusting God. See, Israel had a pattern complaining, they had a pattern of unbelief, they had a pattern of rebellion, they had a pattern of disobedience. So Moses says, How can you possibly think you earned this land through righteousness? See, their history proved otherwise. And honestly, if we are truthful, we can see moments in our lives where we resisted God, where we doubted God, where we complained, where we even rebel. That should humble us. Which brings us to the sixth message. Never forget the mercy of God. We see this in verses 25 to 29. So I fell down before the Lord the 40 days and nights, which I did because the Lord had said he would destroy you. And I prayed to the Lord and said, O Lord, O Lord God, do not destroy thy people, even thy inheritance, whom thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, whom thou hast brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not look at the stubbornness of this people, or at their wickedness or their sin. Otherwise, the land which thou uh did bring us may say, Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which he had promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to slay them in the wilderness. Yet they are thy people, even thine inheritance, whom thou hast brought out of thine great power. And dying our stress arm. Moses closes by reminding Israel that he once again fell before God in prayer, asking him not to destroy the people. In this prayer, Moses emphasized nine truths. The first was Israel belonged to God. So he pointed out, Lord, these are your people. Number two is Israel was God's inheritance. That he promised them an inheritance. Number three was God redeemed them by his power. He brought them out of Egypt how by his mighty hand, his mighty power. Number four, God made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. See, he's a God who can't lie. He's a God who a God who cannot ever go back on his word. And he made that promise, and Moses is saying to the Lord, Lord, remember the promise that you made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The fifth is Moses asked God not to focus on Israel's stubbornness. I know I've been in a situation where I needed that. Don't focus on their stubbornness, Lord. Focus on your promises and what you said you would do. The sixth point is Moses asked God not to focus on their wickedness and their sin, and there were many. The seventh point was if God destroyed Israel, other nations would question God's power. This is solid right here. If God would have destroyed Israel right there and would have just started all over, then the other nations who heard of all these great things that God had did, they would have said, see, their God didn't even get them and do for them what he said he would do. Number eight, the nations would wrongly assume God brought Israel out of Egypt only to destroy them. Exactly. That's what they would have said. Wow, I thought that this God was gonna bring them out and take them into this land flowing with milk and honey. Yet instead he brought them out and destroyed them. And the ninth point is Israel was still God's people whom he delivered by his power. He reminded them, Lord, they are your people. So that brings us to a conclusion. The conclusion is this everything we are and everything we have is because of the grace of God. The moment we begin thinking that we deserve God's blessing, we are drifted to a dangerous spiritual pride. God wants his people to stay humble. God wants his people to remember grace. God wants his people dependent on him and obedient to his word. And let us never forget your victories are because of God's power. Your salvation is because of God's grace, and your future is secure because of God's faithfulness, not your perfection, not something you did, but in the Lord's faithfulness and in his security. Alright, that brings us to the end of Deuteronomy chapter 9. As always, I hope that you got something out of this lesson. I hope that it blesses you. And I hope that you've been following us chronologically through the Bible as we put this whole thing together like the puzzle that it is. I ask you always to continue to pray for me, pray that I stay steadfast in the scriptures, stay that I stay on the straight and narrow path. And you know what? Listen to this uh lesson right here. I uh I hope that you can forgive me for my allergies kicking in. I have some moments where I paused and I was sniffing a little bit. But hey, nothing stops this word of God, nothing stops this tray and it's gonna keep on rolling as long as the Lord gives me strength. And as always, I am praying for you. I pray that you are staying strong in your faith. I pray that you are doing well. I pray that these lessons strengthen you and you see this story come together, how God called the people unto himself, and how God has something uh a blessing for each and every one of us. Wherever you are, I thank you. I appreciate you a great deal. You don't know how much it means to me that you take time out of your morning, your afternoon, your evening to go through this word of God with me. I appreciate you all a great deal. That brings us to the end of Deuteronomy chapter 9. That is all for now. God bless. Thank you for listening to Berean's Corner. We appreciate you joining us as we dive into God's word and seek biblical truth together. If this episode encouraged or challenged you, be sure to subscribe, share, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. You can find Berean's Corner on BuzzSprout, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, Amazon Music, and more. Let's stay connected. If you have questions, comments, or prayer requests, reach out to us at Bereans Corner.buzzsprout.com where you can follow along with show transcripts and leave a message in the fan mail slot. Also follow us on YouTube at Berean's Corner and don't forget to subscribe. We'd love to hear from you. Until next time, keep searching the scriptures like a Berean. Stay discerning, stay faithful, and God bless you.