Three chapters aimed straight at pride. Moses tells Israel three times over that they are not getting the land for being good — they are a stiffnecked people with a long record of rebellion, and he lists it. Then, having cleared away every ground for self-congratulation, he gives the plainest summary in the book of what God actually wants, and where it has to start: the heart.
A study in Deuteronomy 9-11 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 9 min read
Not For Thy Righteousness
“Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land… Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.”
Deuteronomy 9:5-6
Moses says it three times in a few verses, and the third time he adds the sting: “for thou art a stiffnecked people.” Israel is inheriting the land because of the Canaanites’ wickedness and God’s promise to the fathers — not as a reward. The moment a blessing is treated as earned, it has been misunderstood. Paul says the same to Gentile Christians grafted in: “be not highminded, but fear” (Romans 11:20).
Ye Have Been Rebellious From The Day That I Knew You
“Ye have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.”
Deuteronomy 9:24
Moses will not let them soften their own history. He walks back through the golden calf — the forty days on his face, the broken tables, the ground calf scattered on the water — and through Taberah, Massah, Kibroth-hattaavah, Kadesh. An honest look at the record is the cure for self-righteousness. You cannot boast about a rescue while remembering how badly you needed it.
What Doth The LORD Thy God Require Of Thee
“And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes… for thy good?”
Deuteronomy 10:12-13
The whole demand of God, boiled down: fear Him, walk with Him, love Him, serve Him — wholeheartedly — and keep His commandments, “for thy good.” Micah would compress it further still (“do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God,” Micah 6:8). It is not a lighter standard than the whole law; it is the whole law, seen from the inside.
Circumcise The Foreskin Of Your Heart
“Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward.”
Deuteronomy 10:16-17
The outward sign of the covenant was never the point. God asks for the same cut to be made on the heart — the hard, resistant part taken away, the stiff neck bent. Paul draws it straight into the gospel: “circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter” (Romans 2:29). And chapter 11 shows why a soft heart matters so much: the land itself “drinketh water of the rain of heaven” — unlike Egypt with its river, Canaan depends on God for rain, so “the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it.” A people living in daily dependence had better have a heart that trusts. Moses sets it before them as a choice: “a blessing and a curse” (Deuteronomy 11:26). The next study takes up where that blessing is to be sought — one place, one altar.
