If thou shouldest say in thy heart, These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?
The hardest battle can be fought before any army is seen. It starts as a thought the people would say only in their own hearts. Israel is not told to deny the odds. The question is whether the heart will measure the enemy against itself, or against God.
The verse does not stand alone. It sets up a reply, and the reply tells Israel where to look when that thought comes.
They might be tempted to fear these nations because they were greater than Israel. They must not give in to such fear. They must remember well what the Lord did to Pharaoh and Egypt, including the great signs and wonders that proved Him greater than every enemy. God would destroy all the power of those in the land as easily as He dealt with Egypt's power.
Moses never tells Israel that the nations are small. One writer is sharp about comfort that pretends trouble away.
The great remedy for all unbelieving fears is to fix the eye on the living God. This lifts the heart above the difficulties, whatever they may be. It is of no possible use to deny that there are difficulties and opposing influences of all sorts. This will not bring comfort and encouragement to the sinking heart. Some people adopt a certain way of speaking about trials and difficulties. It proves, not that they know God in practice, but that they are deeply ignorant of the hard realities of life.
The count in the verse is correct as far as it goes. Israel was outnumbered. The mistake is that the sum leaves out one figure.
Here lies the precious secret. The eyes are upon God. His power comes in, and this settles everything: "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Moses meets the rising fears in the heart of Israel: "These nations are greater than I." Yes, but they are not greater than the mighty and awesome God. What nations could stand before Him? He had a solemn case against those nations because of their terrible sins. Their guilt was full. The time to settle accounts had come, and the God of Israel was going to drive them out before His people.
An earlier generation looked at the same land and reached the same conclusion. Their story stands as a warning.
What a disgrace their unbelief was! They spoke of their enemies as giants, and of themselves as mere grasshoppers in their sight. "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are." If they had measured the Canaanites by the God who brought them out of Egypt, they would have spoken in another way. But God was not in their thoughts. Caleb and Joshua had no dread of the enemy, and both lived to enjoy the blessing of the Lord in the promised land. Whenever we speak of lack of power, it is to our shame.
The thought starts inside, so the cure must be ready inside before the trouble comes. One writer reads this passage as a standing command about where the soul should look.
We should train our souls to look more at our resources than at our pressures or difficulties. "I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?" The Lord commands this; as, for instance, in Deuteronomy 7:17-19… We should make our hearts familiar with the promises and provisions of grace. Then, when the occasion comes, we may enter the field of battle like Jehoshaphat's army, with the sweet sound of these promises like music in our ears, and that joy will carry us on to victory.
God's answer to this fear is certain, but it is not instant. Israel asks how it could ever drive such nations out; the answer sets the pace.
Israel was a people separated from the nations in the land. They were not to fear them, though those nations were stronger and greater in number. God, who had shown His power in dealing with Pharaoh, was still on their side. He would dispossess them "little by little" — not all at once, but step by step. This is still God's way in dealing with His saints. We do not grasp everything at once.
- Heart — The danger begins as a private thought, not a battle report. God answers it before anyone says it out loud.
- Honest — Moses never denies the odds. Pretending the trouble away shows ignorance of real life, not faith.
- Measure — Fear compares the nations with Israel. Faith compares them with God, and no nation can stand before Him.
- Memory — The cure God gives is memory. What He did to Pharaoh is the guarantee of what He will do here.
- Pace — The outcome is certain, but the ground comes little by little. That is still how God leads His people forward.
fear them not; remember well what Jehovah thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all the Egyptians;
Israel stood at the border of Canaan, facing seven nations bigger and stronger than themselves, and the verse before this one records their honest fear: how can we possibly drive them out? God's answer is not a pep talk but an order to the memory — look back at Pharaoh, then look again at the enemy ahead.
The fear here is a calculation. Israel measured themselves against the nations and came up short. The answer supplies the figure unbelief left out of the sum.
Here lies the precious secret. The eyes are upon God. His power comes in, and this settles everything: "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Moses meets the rising fears in Israel's heart. They say, "These nations are more than I." Yes, but they are not more than the "mighty and terrible God." What nations could stand before Him?
The command to stop being afraid is not a command to pretend the enemy is small. The difficulty stays real. What changes is where the eye rests.
The great remedy for all unbelieving fears is simply to fix the eye on the living God. This lifts the heart above the difficulties, whatever they may be. It is of no use at all to deny that there are difficulties and opposing influences of every kind. That will not bring comfort and encouragement to a sinking heart. Some people have a certain style of speaking about trials and difficulties. It does not prove that they know God in practice. It proves how little they know of the hard realities of life.
Why Pharaoh? Because God had already broken Egypt's power, and the signs that did it proved Him stronger than every enemy.
If they were tempted to fear these nations because they were greater than Israel, they must not give in to such fear. They must remember well what the Lord did to Pharaoh and Egypt, including the great signs and wonders that proved Him superior to every enemy. God would destroy all the power of those in the land as surely and as easily as He dealt with Egypt's power.
Memory here faces forward. What God has already done tells Israel what He will do next.
Remembering the Lord's past dealings with us should strengthen our confidence as we go on… "Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done." And as He has done, so He will do. He has delivered; and He does deliver; and He will deliver. Past, present, and future are all marked by divine deliverance.
God does not tell people to remember things they are in no danger of forgetting. Israel had already proved, at the Red Sea, how fast a rescued people can lose the evidence.
Israel in Egypt had wonderful witness of what God was to them. Plague after plague had swept through that land, and God kept them safe through every one. On the night of the Destroying Angel, the blood on the doorpost sheltered them. The Pillar of Cloud had also begun to lead them out of the land. Still, after all this, when they came to stand between the army of Egypt and the Red Sea, it was all as though forgotten. They feared and murmured.
A verse like this trains the heart in advance. The promises grow familiar before the trouble comes.
We should train our souls to look more at our resources than at our difficulties… The Lord commands this, as He does in Deuteronomy 7:17-19. And what is Romans 8:31-39 but the believer boasting in his resources in the face of every difficulty? We should make our hearts familiar with the promises and provisions of grace. Then, when the occasion comes, we may enter the field of battle like Jehoshaphat's army, with the sweet voice of these promises like music in our ear. That joy leads us on to victory. For "joy is strength," as Nehemiah told the congregation.
This is not a one-off encouragement. The same two words follow God's people through every stage of their history.
The people of God hear this word every time they have to deal with the enemy. They heard it in Egypt, on the edges of the wilderness, and in Canaan under Joshua. They heard it in the years of ruin that marked the kingdom of Israel, and again after the exile. And when Israel lay in the "lowest pit" and cried to God in their distress, the Lord answered, "Fear not."
- Recalculate — unbelief compares itself with the enemy. Faith adds God to the sum, and the enemy's size stops deciding the outcome.
- Remember — the cure for fear is not courage worked up from within. It is a look back at Pharaoh, the power God has already broken.
- Refocus — nobody pretends the difficulty is small. The eye moves to the living God, and the heart rises above trouble that is still real.
- Rehearse — hearts forget fast, as the Red Sea showed. Make the promises familiar before the battle, not during it.
- Repeat — "Fear not" is God's standing word to His people in every era, from Egypt to after the exile.
the great trials which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the powerful hand, and the stretched-out arm, whereby Jehovah thy God brought thee out so will Jehovah thy God do unto all the peoples whom thou fearest.
Israel is about to enter a land held by stronger nations. Moses answers their fear with a memory — what their own eyes watched God do to Egypt — and treats that rescue as proof for the battle still ahead.
Israel's fear is spelled out a few lines earlier: "These nations are more than I." One writer sets God's greatness beside those numbers.
Here lies the precious secret. The eyes are upon God. His power is brought in, and this settles everything. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" By his precious ministry, Moses meets the rising fears in Israel's heart: "These nations are more than I." Yes, but they are not more than the great and awesome God. What nations could stand before Him? He had a solemn dispute with those nations because of their terrible sins. Their wickedness was full. The reckoning time had come, and the God of Israel was going to drive them out before His people.
Moses never tells Israel the enemy is imaginary. The same writer is sharp about people who comfort others by pretending troubles do not hurt.
Some people have a way of talking about trials and difficulties. It proves, not their practical knowledge of God, but their deep ignorance of the hard realities of life. They would like to persuade us that we ought not to feel the trials, sorrows and difficulties of the way. They might as well tell us we ought not to have a head on our shoulders or a heart in our chest.
So the encouragement rests somewhere other than in the absence of enemies.
How did Moses seek to encourage the hearts of his brothers? "Do not be afraid," he says. But why? Was it that there were no enemies, no difficulties, no dangers? No — but "the Lord your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God." That is the true comfort and encouragement. The enemies were there, but God is the sure resource.
The trials, signs and wonders are not listed for nostalgia. They are proof already given, and the closing promise carries that proof forward into the land.
If they were tempted to fear these nations because they were greater than Israel, they must not give in to such fear. They must remember well what the Lord did to Pharaoh and Egypt, including the great signs and wonders that proved Him superior to every enemy. God would destroy all the power of those in the land as effectively and as easily as He disposed of Egypt's power.
One writer sets out the two ways a heart can do the sum.
What unbelief does is to compare ourselves and our own strength with circumstances. What faith does is to compare God with circumstances… Caleb and Joshua compared these sons of Anak with God — what did it matter, then, whether they were giants or grasshoppers? They spoke the language of faith. It was no reasoning about circumstances; it was simply saying, Greater is He that is for us than all that can be against us.
One writer reads the psalm about lifting the eyes to the hills and points straight back to this passage.
We should train our souls to look more at our resources than at our pressures or difficulties. "I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?" The Lord commands this, as, for instance, in Deuteronomy 7:17-19… We should make our hearts familiar with the promises and provisions of grace. Then when the occasion comes we may enter the field of battle, like Jehoshaphat's army, with the sweet sound of these promises like music in our ears. That joy will lead us onward to victory. For "joy is strength," as Nehemiah told the congregation.
The believer has an Egypt of his own to remember.
"When He bares His arm, who can withstand His might?" The chariots and the horsemen of Egypt, and the waters of the Red Sea, were nothing to the Lord… "Your eyes," said the Lord, "have seen what I did in Egypt." Yes, cries the Christian, our eye of faith has seen His power and His grace too. He delivered us from the present evil world, whose bondage once made us groan, almost despairing of freedom.
- Eyes that count. Fear measures the enemy against ourselves. The nations really were more than Israel, but never more than God.
- Eyes that remember. The signs and wonders proved God superior to every enemy. The land would fall as easily as Egypt fell.
- Eyes that compare. Unbelief measures self against circumstances. Faith measures God against them, and giants or grasshoppers stop mattering.
- Eyes that lift. Learn God's promises before the battle. Then you march in with them sounding in your ears, and joy is strength.
- Eyes of faith. Nobody pretends the difficulty away. The enemies were real, yet God stood in their midst, and the same arm that broke Egypt has delivered us.