AP

Deuteronomy 9:1-3  Hear, Israel: You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky.  The people are strong and tall – Anakites!  You know about them and have heard it said: “Who can stand up against the Anakites?”  But be assured today that the LORD your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire.  He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you.  And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly, as the LORD has promised you.

The key reality in these verses is, “He will … as the LORD has promised you”.  Moses is reminding God’s Chosen People of the 40 years they spent wandering aimlessly in the wilderness because they had allowed the report of 10/12 of the men who were sent out to ‘spy out the land’, way back at the very outset of their journey, to influence them rather than trusting what Joshua and Caleb had said about God’s promises (see Numbers 13 and 14).

Moses is not denying the accuracy of the report that the inhabitants are ‘greater and stronger than us’, or that they are in ‘large cities that have walls up to the sky’, or that ‘the people are strong and tall – Anakites’!  What he is saying is that the LORD’s faithfulness to all his promises will always over-ride anything that mere men, even Anakites, might try to scheme and plan against him to counter these promises.

As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Now these [OT] things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.” (1 Corinthians 10:6).  This can be quite a challenge for us when the Lord is leading us along a path that means we might face many difficulties.  The Israelites are in a particularly culpable position, because they had experienced God’s power at work big-time in their crossing of the Red Sea, and his miraculous daily provision for them in the wilderness.

Having written this, I am also aware of many experiences I have had that leave me without excuse for doubting God’s faithfulness to his promises!  So, while I am secretly judging the people of Israel for their failure to tust God in the face of the evidence of his overwhelming and unambiguous power and faithfulness in his providential care for them, I look in the mirror of God’s Word, as the Apostle James requires me to do (James 1:23-25), and I am conscious pf my own sin that needs addressing and confessing!

And I am reminded of Jesus’ challenging words in the Sermon on the Mount: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.  Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:1-5)

– Bruce Christian