Deuteronomy 9

GRACE, NOT MERIT

‘Understand therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.’

Deuteronomy 9:6

I. The address of Moses is very different from the addresses of most captains of armies under similar circumstances. (1) He makes no attempt to underrate the power of the enemies with whom the Israelites had to contend. He begins his address by telling the people that they are that day to pass over Jordan, to go in and possess nations greater and mightier than themselves. The reason for his giving such information was that the design of God was not merely to conquer the Canaanites, but to educate Israel, to teach them that by God’s power weakness may be made strength, and the mighty vanquished by the feeble. (2) Moses assures the people in plain language that no righteousness of theirs had gained them the land. They might be ready enough to admit that it was not their own courage or their own bodily strength, but they might still be disposed to think that they had deserved God’s favour, that if they had not been deserving of the victory, God would not have given it to them. Self-flattery is easy, and therefore Moses very wisely and decidedly protested once for all against such a view of God’s doings.

II. The principle of spiritual life with ourselves is precisely that which Moses laid down as the principle of national life for the Israelites. God gives us the land of promise for no righteousness of our own. Everything depends on God’s mercy, God’s will, God’s purpose; the certainty of victory depends, not upon any feelings, or experiences, or conflicts of ours, but upon the ever-present help of the almighty God.

—Bishop Harvey Goodwin.

Illustration

(1) ‘Moses would live over again the eventful years since he and their fathers had left Egypt, and bring vividly before the minds of the later generation the great events which thronged these forty years. Thus he spoke to them in the plains of Moab, and recounted the more important incidents in their history from the time of the breaking up from Horeb, until they arrived in the plain over against Jericho. In these burning words we hear the tender voice of a loving father and a great master, who is at once jealous for the honour of Jehovah, and anxious for the welfare of Israel. Here, as always, but here in a special manner, he is the mediator between Israel and Jehovah. He urges them by every possible motive to cleave to the God who brought them out of the land of Egypt.’

(2) ‘Moses set himself anew to convince the people that it was not on account of any worthiness in them that God was prepared to do such great things, in driving out their enemies before them. Let God go before you, and drive out your inward foes—not for your worthiness, but for His great mercy. Boasting is for ever excluded from all share, whether in our justification or sanctification.’

(3) ‘The bane of all high spiritual experience is pride. It is the foe to be feared above all other. It creates in us an unconscious feeling and attitude of superiority. Our joy in Jesus, and our victories are too real to be denied; but pride attributes them to our diligence, prayer, earnestness, etc., and this is deadly to soul-health. Yet all the while we deem ourselves both humble and spiritual!’