Deuteronomy 9 Devotional

Not Because You Were Good

“Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.”Deuteronomy 9:6 (BSB)

Three times in three verses, Moses insists on the same thing. When God drives out the nations, Israel must not tell themselves it happened because of their own righteousness (9:4-6). The nations are judged for their wickedness, and Israel receives the land because God keeps the promise he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (9:5).

To make the point unmistakable, Moses recalls the golden calf. While God was giving the covenant on tablets of stone, the people were making an idol at the foot of the mountain (9:12, 16). Then Moses lay before the LORD forty days and nights, pleading not on Israel's record but on God's own promise and reputation, reminding him that these were his own people, redeemed by his power (9:26-29). And the LORD listened (9:19). Paul says God saved us in the same way, not by righteous deeds we had done but according to his mercy (Titus 3:5). You do not have to pretend to deserve what God gives. You can receive it as mercy, and thank him for it.

To think about: Is there a gift from God you have quietly started to think you deserved, and how would receiving it as mercy change you?