Moses’ intercession for a rebellious people. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also. Deu 9:19
INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT
The Law Repeated for the New Generation
II. MOSES’ SECOND DISCOURSE, Deuteronomy 5-28
1. Repetition of the Decalogue and Exhortation to Cleave unto God, Deuteronomy 5-11
16. Where and how had Moses intervened to save them from destruction?
INTRODUCTION
This is again the Greek name for this book, and signifies the “second giving of the Law.” It contains the records of public addresses to Israel, delivered in the eleventh month of the fortieth year of their wanderings through the Wilderness. As Moses uttered them on the eve of his own speedy removal, he was able to speak with unusual emphasis and urgency. The allusions to the natural features amidst which these addresses were given are consistent with the place and speaker. It has been shown also by competent scholarship that Deuteronomy has all the peculiarities of Moses’ style; and any differences of hortatory entreaty and appeal may be accounted for by the mellowing effect of age.
The special references to this book in the New Testament are very significant. Our Lord quoted from it thrice in His Temptation, Mat_4:4; Mat_4:7; Mat_4:10. See also Rom_10:19; Act_3:22; Act_7:37. There are touches by a later writer, and an appendix, Deu_34:1-12; but the origin of the treatise as a whole must be ascribed to the great Lawgiver.
THE GOLDEN CALF
Furthermore, the LORD said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, they are stiff-necked (stubborn, obstinate) people.
Let Me alone, so that I may destroy them and wipe 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 while the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.
And I saw that you had indeed sinned against the LORD your God. You had made for yourselves a molten calf (idol). You had turned aside quickly from the way which the LORD had commanded you. [Exo_32:1-10]
So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my two hands and smashed them before your very eyes!
Then, as before, I fell down before the LORD for [another] forty days and forty nights; I did not eat food or drink water, because of all the sin you had committed by doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke Him to anger.
For I was afraid of the anger and absolute fury which the LORD held against you, [enough divine fury] to destroy you, but the LORD listened to me that time also.
The LORD was very angry with Aaron, angry [enough] to destroy him, so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time.
I took your sinful thing, the calf which you had made, and burned it in the fire and thoroughly crushed it, grinding the metal thoroughly until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the brook that came down from the mountain.
“At Taberah also and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the LORD to wrath.
And when the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God, and you did not believe and rely on Him, nor did you obey His voice.
You have been rebellious against the LORD from the [first] day that I knew you.
“So I fell down and lay face down before the LORD forty days and nights because the LORD had said He would destroy you.
Then I prayed to the LORD and said, ‘O Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people, even Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought from Egypt with a mighty hand.
Remember [with compassion] Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look at the stubbornness of this people or at their wickedness or at their sin,
so that the [people of the] land from which You brought us will not say, “Because the LORD was not capable of bringing them into the land which He had promised them and because He hated them He has brought them out to the wilderness [in order] to kill them.”
Yet they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You have brought out by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm.’
Comments by
F.B.Meyer
On
Deuteronomy 9:15-29
MOSES’ INTERCESSION FOR A REBELLIOUS PEOPLE
During the remainder of this chapter Moses continues to remind the people of their rebellions. It is well, when we are tempted to self-adulation, to listen to that faithful monitor, conscience, recording our evil past. We are apt to forget our many provocations of God, especially when the smart of the rod is over. But we have all had our Horebs, Taberahs, Marahs, Kibroth-hataavahs and Kadesh-barneas, 1Co_10:11.
Again and again would the people have been destroyed, if human justice had decided their case. But Moses, the mediator, knew the holy love of God’s heart; and expressed it in his prayers on their behalf. See Deu_9:18; Deu_9:20; Deu_9:25-29. We are reminded of Him who ever liveth to make intercession for us within the veil, Heb_6:20; Heb_7:26-27; Heb_9:24. Let us imitate Moses in his life of intercessions; and mark well his arguments that we may use them for ourselves and others.
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