Commentary - Deuteronomy 9:7-21

Bird's-eye view

Moses, in this great sermon that is Deuteronomy, is preparing the second generation of Israelites to enter the Promised Land. But before they go in, he must perform a necessary spiritual inoculation. He must vaccinate them against the virus of self-righteousness. The central point of this section is to remind them, in no uncertain terms, that they are not inheriting the land because of their own righteousness or the uprightness of their heart. To make this point, Moses brings up the most shameful episode in their recent history, the golden calf incident at Horeb. This is Exhibit A in the case against Israel's native goodness. This is a lesson in the spiritual necessity of remembering sin. Not so that we might wallow in it, but so that we might be perpetually astonished by the grace that overcomes it. The narrative recounts God's righteous fury, Moses' faithful intercession, and the utter destruction of their idolatry. It is a stark reminder that our only hope lies not in our own stiff necks, but in a mediator who stands in the gap.

Outline

Commentary

Deuteronomy 9:7

Remember, do not forget how you provoked Yahweh your God to wrath in the wilderness; from the day that you went out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against Yahweh.

Moses begins with a command that is doubled for emphasis: Remember, do not forget. This is not a suggestion to engage in sentimental reminiscence. This is a command to actively engage in the spiritual discipline of historical memory. And what are they to remember? Not their glory days, but their sin. They are to remember how they provoked Yahweh your God to wrath. This provocation was not a one time slip up. It was a pattern of life, a constant state of being, from the moment of their redemption from Egypt right up to the present moment. You have been rebellious against Yahweh. Forgetting this central fact of their own depravity would lead to the fatal sin of pride. Remembering it is the necessary prerequisite for gratitude.

Deuteronomy 9:8-11

Even at Horeb you provoked Yahweh to wrath, and Yahweh 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 Yahweh had cut with you, then I remained on the mountain forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water. And Yahweh gave me the two tablets of stone written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which Yahweh had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. Now it happened at the end of forty days and nights, that Yahweh gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.

Moses now drills down to the worst instance of their rebellion. Even at Horeb. This is Sinai, the very mountain of God, the place where the covenant was being formalized. While their representative, Moses, is in the throne room of the universe, fasting for forty days and nights in communion with God, the people below are committing high treason. While Moses is receiving the marriage contract, the tablets of the covenant, Israel is down below committing adultery with a golden calf. Notice the majesty of what they are spurning. These tablets were written with the finger of God. This is a direct, personal, and authoritative revelation from the Almighty. The sin was not committed in ignorance, but in the very face of the blazing glory of God.

Deuteronomy 9:12-14

Then Yahweh said to me, ‘Arise, go down from 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 molten image for themselves.’ Yahweh spoke further to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, they are a stiff-necked 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 more numerous than they.’

God Himself breaks the news to Moses. And notice the language God uses. He says your people whom you brought out of Egypt. In His righteous anger, God rhetorically disowns them and hands the responsibility to Moses. They have acted corruptly, meaning they have ruined themselves. And they did it quickly. Sin does not amble; it sprints downhill. God gives His own assessment of their character: they are a stiff-necked people. This is the image of an ox that refuses the yoke, fighting the farmer's guidance at every step. This is the natural state of the sinner. Then comes the terrible and glorious test for Moses. God says, Let Me alone, that I may destroy them. God offers Moses a deal that would appeal to any ambitious man: I will wipe them out and make a greater nation from you. This is a test of the mediator's heart. Will he seize the opportunity for personal advancement, or will he stand in the gap for the rebellious people?

Deuteronomy 9:15-17

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 Yahweh your God. You had made for yourselves a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly from the way which Yahweh had commanded you. And I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands and shattered them before your eyes.

Moses, having passed the test, descends into the chaos. The mountain is still ablaze with the glory of God, a visible manifestation of the very holiness the people are offending. He holds in his hands the covenant they have already broken. And when he sees the sin with his own eyes, the pathetic golden calf and the debauched worship, he performs a prophetic act. He shatters the tablets. This was not a fit of temper. This was a judicial declaration. It was a visual sermon, demonstrating what the people had done in their hearts. They had shattered the covenant with God, and so the physical representation of that covenant was shattered before their eyes. The relationship was broken.

Deuteronomy 9:18-20

And I fell down before Yahweh, as at the first, forty 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 Yahweh to provoke Him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and the wrath with which Yahweh was provoked against you in order to destroy you, but Yahweh listened to me that time also. And Yahweh was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time.

Here we see the heart of the mediator. Moses returns to the presence of God and prostrates himself for another forty days and nights, fasting and praying. He is identifying with the people in their sin, bearing their burden before God. He does this because he rightly understands the peril they are in. For I was afraid of the anger and the wrath. This is not a servile, cowering fear, but a right and holy terror in the face of a consuming fire. Moses understood what we have largely forgotten: sin is a terrifying evil, and God's wrath against it is perfectly just and fearsome. But in this furnace of wrath, intercession is effective. Yahweh listened to me. Moses even intercedes for Aaron, the high priest, whose sin was particularly heinous. No one stands on his own two feet before a holy God. Everyone needs a mediator.

Deuteronomy 9:21

Now I took your sinful thing, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the brook that came down from the mountain.

The intercession is followed by purification. The object of their treason, the sinful thing, had to be utterly demolished. Moses does not just hide the idol or put it in a museum of embarrassing artifacts. He subjects it to a process of total destruction. It is burned, crushed, and ground into dust, a picture of complete and final judgment. Then, its dust is thrown into the stream coming from the mountain. This is what must be done with all our idols. They must be exposed as the powerless nothings they are and ground to powder. There can be no peace with the idols of the heart. They must be destroyed.

Application

This history lesson for Israel is a mirror for us. We are the stiff-necked people. Our hearts are, as Calvin said, perpetual idol factories. We quickly turn aside from the commands of God to fashion gods of our own making, whether they be made of gold or of ambition, comfort, or approval. We deserve the full measure of the wrath that Moses feared. We deserve to be blotted out from under heaven.

But the good news of the gospel is that we have a greater mediator than Moses. Jesus Christ did not just plead for us from a distance. He came down from the mountain of heaven, took on our sinful flesh, and stood in the gap for us. God did not offer to make a new nation out of Him; God made Him to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. The broken tablets point us to the broken body of our Lord on the cross. He absorbed the full, fiery wrath of God that we deserved. His intercession for us is perfect and unending.

Therefore, we must remember our sin, as Moses commanded. We must never forget what we are apart from grace. But we do not remember it in order to despair. We remember it in order to magnify the glorious grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, our true Mediator. And having remembered, we must then take up the task of grinding our remaining idols to dust, casting them into the stream, and drinking the bitter water of repentance, which for us has been sweetened by the cross.