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For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.

Not Because of Israel’s Righteousness 9  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.  2 The people are strong and tall—Anakites! You know about them and have heard it said: “Who can stand up against the Anakites?”  3 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. 4 After the Lord  your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “The Lord  has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord  is going to drive them out before you.  5 It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord  your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  6 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. The Golden Calf 7 Remember this and never forget how you aroused the anger of the Lord  your God in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against the Lord .  8 At Horeb you aroused the Lord ’s wrath so that he was angry enough to destroy you.  9 When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord  had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water.  10 The Lord  gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God. On them were all the commandments the Lord  proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly. 11 At the end of the forty days and forty nights, the Lord  gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.  12 Then the Lord  told me, “Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have turned away quickly from what I commanded them and have made an idol for themselves.” 13 And the Lord  said to me, “I have seen this people, and they are a stiff-necked people indeed!  14 Let me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.” 15 So I turned and went down from the mountain while it was ablaze with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands.  16 When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the Lord  your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord  had commanded you.  17 So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes. 18 Then once again I fell prostrate before the Lord  for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the Lord ’s sight and so arousing his anger.  19 I feared the anger and wrath of the Lord , for he was angry enough with you to destroy you. But again the Lord  listened to me.  20 And the Lord  was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I prayed for Aaron too.  21 Also I took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain. 22 You also made the Lord  angry at Taberah, at Massah and at Kibroth Hattaavah. 23 And when the Lord  sent you out from Kadesh Barnea, he said, “Go up and take possession of the land I have given you.” But you rebelled against the command of the Lord  your God. You did not trust him or obey him.  24 You have been rebellious against the Lord  ever since I have known you. 25 I lay prostrate before the Lord  those forty days and forty nights because the Lord  had said he would destroy you.  26 I prayed to the Lord  and said, “Sovereign Lord , do not destroy your people, your own inheritance that you redeemed by your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.  27 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness and their sin.  28 Otherwise, the country from which you brought us will say, ‘Because the Lord  was not able to take them into the land he had promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.’  29 But they are your people, your inheritance that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.” New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Exodus 32–34 tells the original story on which this chapter reflects with selective detail. Three times the Lord warns Israel that their victory over the Anakites was not because of Israel’s righteousness. Review the actual terms used of Israel in this story: stiff-necked, rebellious, corrupt, turned aside. Verses 22 and 23 throw in four other examples to add to the appalling story of what was going on at the bottom of Mount Horeb while Moses was at the top receiving the rules of the covenant which were to guide Israel. These emphases on the wickedness of the Anakites and the provocative idolatry of Israel are the spectacles through which we should view the conquest narrative. Does this story guide you in any confrontation with ‘Anakites’ in your own discipleship?

Use your remaining time to reflect on the picture given in this chapter about Moses the intercessor. If you have a computer available, search for ‘Michelangelo Moses’ and look at the statue of Moses at San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome. What look like horns are probably the sculptor’s attempt at rays of brightness. Moses was a huge figure, as this chapter shows. In verse 14 the Lord says, ‘Let me alone,’ but Moses refuses to leave the Lord alone. He ignores the Lord’s offer to make him a replacement for Abraham and funnel his promises in future through him, Moses. He argues with the Lord and finishes with a ninefold reminder in verses 26–29 that Israel is his people. Moses was a teacher1 and he is called a prophet;2 but here he is a suffering servant, flat on his face for days and nights at a time before the Lord, arguing, pleading, remonstrating, repudiating God’s repudiation of his people. He prays for Aaron, too, who cuts such a pathetic, cowardly figure in the story of the golden calf.3

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