Deuteronomy 9

9 ¹Hear, Israel: today you cross the Jordan to go in and drive out nations greater and stronger than you—great cities fortified to the sky. ²A large, tall people, the descendants of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said: "Who can stand against Anak's sons?" ³Know today: your Father crosses ahead of you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and subdue them before you; you will drive them out and wipe them out quickly, as your Father told you.

⁴After your Father drives them out before you, don't say in your heart, "Because of my righteousness our Father brought me in to possess this land"—it's because of these nations' evil that he's driving them out before you. ⁵Not for your righteousness or your heart's integrity are you entering to take their land, but for these nations' evil your Father drives them out before you, and to keep the word your Father swore to your fathers—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ⁶Know then: your Father gives you this good land to own, not for your righteousness, since you are a stubborn people.

A People Who Tested Their Father

⁷Remember, don't forget how you angered your Father in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until you reached this place, you've rebelled against your Father. ⁸At Horeb you angered your Father, and your Father was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. ^a a v8 Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai, the mountain where our Father gave the covenant. ⁹When I climbed the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the covenant tablets your Father made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, eating no bread and drinking no water. ¹⁰Your Father gave me the two stone tablets, written by his finger, bearing all the words he spoke with you on the mountain from inside the fire, on the day of the assembly. ¹¹After forty days and forty nights, your Father gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.

¹²Then your Father told me, "Get up, hurry down from here, for your people you brought out of Egypt have ruined themselves. They quickly turned from the way I commanded them; they made themselves a cast idol."

¹³Furthermore, your Father said to me, "I have seen this people—they are a stubborn people. ¹⁴Leave me alone; I will destroy them, erase their name from under heaven, and make you a nation stronger and more numerous than they."

¹⁵So I turned and came down the mountain while it burned with fire, the two covenant tablets in my two hands. ¹⁶When I looked, I saw you had sinned against your Father: you had made yourselves a cast calf, turning quickly from the way your Father commanded you. ¹⁷So I grabbed the two tablets, threw them from my hands, and shattered them before your eyes. ¹⁸I fell before your Father as before, forty days and forty nights, eating no bread, drinking no water, because of all your sin you committed, doing evil in your Father's eyes, provoking him. ¹⁹For I feared the anger and burning rage your Father held against you, ready to destroy you. But your Father listened to me then too. ²⁰Your Father was very angry with Aaron, ready to destroy him, so I prayed for Aaron then too. ²¹I took your sin, the calf you made, burned it in fire, crushed it, ground it thoroughly until fine as dust, then threw its dust into the stream running down from the mountain. ²²At Taberah also, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked your Father to wrath. ²³When your Father sent you from Kadesh-barnea saying, "Go up, take the land I gave you," you rebelled against your Father's command, not believing him or obeying his voice. ²⁴You have been rebellious against your Father from the day I knew you. ²⁵So I fell before your Father those forty days and forty nights I lay there, because your Father had said he would destroy you. ²⁶I prayed to your Father, "My Sovereign Father, do not destroy your people, your heritage, whom you redeemed by your greatness and brought out of Egypt with a strong hand. ^b b v26 Moses falls before our Father and pleads for the people he could not save by himself — a shadow of the greater Mediator, Jesus, who would stand between our Father and his children to plead for them. ²⁷Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don't look at this people's stubbornness, their evil, their sin. ²⁸Otherwise the people of the land you brought us from will say, 'God couldn't bring them into the land he promised them, and he hated them, so he brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.' ²⁹For they are your people, your inheritance, whom you brought out by your great power and extended arm."