It is not because of your righteousness...that you are going in...
Deuteronomy 9:5
This passage is about provocation, corruptions, faith and promises. It is also about the Promised Land and a 400 hundred year old promise.
In spite of the Israelites’ stiff necks (an apparent reference to God’s people’s unwillingness to accept the yoke of God), in spite of the myriad provocations Moses attributes to his people, and in spite of their corruption, Moses tells his people that they will soon possess nations greater than they can possibly imagine. They will reach the Promised Land, “Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart…,” nor even because of the wickedness of the Hittites, the Amorites, Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; they will reach the Promised Land because of the promise God made to Abraham 400 years before.
Moses and his people are the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites except for one thing: their faith in God. They are not rewarded for anything about themselves, and Moses makes abundantly clear to his people that they could not possibly do anything to deserve the Promised Land.
This passage is about giving of ourselves; it’s about the differences between what we deserve and what we are given; it’s about the power of faith and the power of promises.
James Buchan
