Israel’s Rebellions Reviewed

Topic: Rebellion
Passage: Deuteronomy 9:12–29

November 19, 2021

Commentary

While Moses was praying, God told him to perform a twofold responsibility (vv. 12-21):

      1.   To stop the apostasy of making the golden calf.

      2.   To make intercession for the divine execution of the people of God.

Moses reminds his people that when he came down from the mountain, he broke the two tablets of the Ten Commandments because the people had sinned (vv. 15-17). Then he reminds them that he had interceded before God. He identifies the guilt of the present congregation with their fathers who had sinned, again condemning their self-righteousness (vv. 18-20). He identifies Aaron as one who was to have been destroyed because of disobedience. Even though Aaron was not yet a high priest, he was condemned because he had been one of the leaders of Israel. The details of how they had to get rid of the golden calf are not coincidental (v. 21). Moses wants to remind them of their rebellion.

Moses gives a list of other occasions when Israel had rebelled against God. (vv.  22-24). The list is not arranged chronologically but begins with the smaller offenses and progresses to the more serious rebellion. The tragedy of rebellion is not so much in the act, but in the attitude of the heart. He begins with the smaller offenses and progresses to the more serious offenses. Moses prays and asks God to deliver Israel because of how it will look in the eyes of the other nations (v.v. 25-29).

Application

The Israelites main problem was that they looked to their own limited resources instead of trusting God and following Him. It is easy for this same thing to happen to me today. I must admit that I have a rebellious streak in my life, but Christ wants to give me victory.

Deuteronomy 9:12– 29 (NET)

12 And he said to me, “Get up, go down at once from here because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have sinned! They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them and have made for themselves a cast metal image.” 13 Moreover, he said to me, “I have taken note of these people; they are a stubborn lot! 14 Stand aside and I will destroy them, obliterating their very name from memory, and I will make you into a stronger and more numerous nation than they are.”

15 So I turned and went down the mountain while it was blazing with fire; the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands. 16 When I looked, you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God and had cast for yourselves a metal calf; you had quickly turned aside from the way he had commanded you! 17 I grabbed the two tablets, threw them down, and shattered them before your very eyes. 18 Then I again fell down before the Lord for forty days and nights; I ate and drank nothing because of all the sin you had committed, doing such evil before the Lord as to enrage him. 19 For I was terrified at the Lord’s intense anger that threatened to destroy you. But he listened to me this time as well. 20 The Lord was also angry enough at Aaron to kill him, but at that time I prayed for him too. 21 As for your sinful thing that you had made, the calf, I took it, melted it down, ground it up until it was as fine as dust, and tossed the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain. 22 Moreover, you continued to provoke the Lord at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth Hattaavah. 23 And when he sent you from Kadesh Barnea and told you, “Go up and possess the land I have given you,” you rebelled against the Lord your God and would neither believe nor obey him. 24 You have been rebelling against him from the very first day I knew you!

25 I lay flat on the ground before the Lord for forty days and nights, for he had said he would destroy you. 26 I prayed to him: O, Sovereign Lord, do not destroy your people, your valued property that you have powerfully redeemed, whom you brought out of Egypt by your strength. 27 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; ignore the stubbornness, wickedness, and sin of these people. 28 Otherwise the people of the land from which you brought us will say, “The Lord was unable to bring them to the land he promised them, and because of his hatred for them he has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.” 29 They are your people, your valued property, whom you brought out with great strength and power.