When God Asks the Impossible

Trinity Presbyterian Church

Deuteronomy 9:1-29
“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?’

3Know therefore today 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. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the
Lord has promised you.
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,’
whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them
out before you. 5 Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are
you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the
Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word
that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
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. 7Remember and do not
forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day
you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious
against the Lord.
8 Even at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was
so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. 9When I went up the mountain to
receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I

remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank wa-
ter. 10And the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and

on them were all the words that the Lord had spoken with you on the mountain out of
the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. 11And at the end of forty days and forty
nights the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. 12Then
the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have
brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have turned aside quickly out of the way
that I commanded them; they have made themselves a metal image.’
13 “Furthermore, the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stub-
born people. 14 Let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from un-
der heaven. And I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’

15 So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire.
And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16And I looked, and behold,

12 you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made yourselves a golden calf. You
had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. 17 So I took
hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before
your eyes. 18Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights. I

neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, in do-
ing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. 19 For I was afraid of

the anger and hot displeasure that the Lord bore against you, so that he was ready to
destroy you. But the Lord listened to me that time also. 20And the Lord was so angry
with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same
time. 21 Then I took the sinful thing, the calf that 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 the dust
of it into the brook that ran down from the mountain.
22 “At Taberah also, and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to
wrath. 23And 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 command-
ment 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.
25 “So I lay prostrate before the Lord for these forty days and forty nights, because the
Lord had said he would destroy you. 26And I prayed to the Lord, ‘O Lord God, do not

destroy your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your great-
ness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27Remember your serv-
ants, 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.’ “