And I fell down before Jehovah, as at the first, forty days and forty nights, -- I ate no bread and drank no water, -- because of all your sin which ye had sinned, in doing what is evil in the eyes of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger.
Israel danced around a golden calf while the man who led them out of Egypt lay face down before God, eating and drinking nothing for forty days. Moses retells it decades later, because his people had the wrong idea about why they were still alive and why God was giving them a land.
The chapter strips away any idea that Israel had earned what God was giving them. One writer sums up the argument Moses is making:
In effect he says to the people — don't imagine God will give you the victory because you have deserved it. Then he went on, as the rest of this chapter shows, to remind the people of their great unbelief and sin. They had made the golden calf. They had refused to go up to the land when the spies came back. All this proved that they had no righteousness in which to stand before their God.
How close did Israel come to being destroyed that day, and who kept it from happening?
They had been on the very edge of a dreadful cliff. Another moment might have thrown them over. The intercession of Moses had saved them — the very man they had accused of taking too much on himself. How they had mistaken and misjudged him!
Moses is careful to say he ate and drank nothing. So what kept him alive for forty days?
In Moses' case there was no eating at all, no eating and drinking. It was the presence of Jehovah — His presence and power, enjoyed and applied — that proved its power to sustain. That was so even though the people had to learn that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Surely God's own presence had no less power to sustain the man who was in it than the manna that came down from Him.
The words "because of all the sin that you had committed" explain the posture. Moses was not fasting over his own failure; he carried theirs. Commentators differ on how many times he did this:
He had taken Israel's sin upon himself, as far as a human being could. He had been in complete intimacy with Jehovah, as far as a human being could be. Then he returned as mediator into the very circumstances and separation of the sin-polluted camp. There he lay on his face, took up the case of the people, and prayed for them. Was he in the camp like this for forty days and forty nights? That would mean he stood before Jehovah for this length of time on three separate occasions. Opinions differ.
Moses offers God no excuse for Israel. Every reason he gives comes from God Himself:
Moses based his prayer on the character of God — a most important matter in true mediation between God and man. He pleaded for God's people because they were His. He pleaded because He had redeemed them and brought them out of slavery with His powerful hand. He pleaded because of His promise to the fathers, and because the nations might otherwise say that Jehovah was not true to His word. And he pleaded because they were — despite their sin and their stubbornness — His inheritance, since He had made them so. These were his arguments. He used them while freely admitting how deep Israel's sin was.
God had offered to make Moses into a greater nation. Forty days on his face was Moses' answer.
Moses refuses the offered honour of founding a greater and mightier nation than Israel. He only wants Jehovah to be glorified and Israel to be pardoned, blessed and brought into the promised land. He could not bear the thought of any reproach on that glorious Name so dear to his heart. Nor could he bear to watch Israel destroyed. These were the two things he dreaded. As for his own promotion, that was exactly what he cared nothing about.
For all its beauty, Moses' intercession had a ceiling:
He had only a bleak "perhaps" to leave with them… Moses took the place of intercessor, but he was not perfect in the knowledge of grace. He could only say to the people, "Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin." He could not put away sin. It was altogether different with Christ. He could put away sin. He did make an atonement. There was no "perhaps" with Him.
- Sin. The forty days happened "because of all the sin that you had committed." Israel had no righteousness of their own to stand on.
- Mediator. The people never knew how close judgment came. The prayer of the man they had misjudged saved them.
- Sustained. Moses ate and drank nothing: God's own presence, not bread, kept him alive through it.
- Plea. He excused nothing in Israel. He pleaded only God's redemption, God's promise, God's name and God's inheritance.
- Christ. Moses could only offer a "perhaps" of atonement. Christ put sin away and made it, with no "perhaps" at all.
For I was afraid of the anger and fury wherewith Jehovah was wroth against you to destroy you. And Jehovah listened unto me also at that time.
Deuteronomy 9 is Moses' account of Israel's worst hour: the golden calf, the broken tablets, and a God ready to wipe out the nation. Here he tells them what stood between them and that destruction: his own dread of God's anger, and forty days face down before God.
Israel stood at the border of the land God had promised them. Moses had just told them they were not getting it for their righteousness. The whole chapter is aimed against the idea that they had earned anything.
They had been rebels. They owed their existence to the mercy of God alone, and the intercession of Moses secured that mercy. So they were to understand that God did not give them the good land for their righteousness; they were a stiff-necked people. How humbling it must have been to hear the list of their failures, their rebellion and their complaining against the LORD!
The people at the foot of the mountain never heard what God said at the top. Moses now tells them, and the words are meant to land with stunning force.
How solemn it is to think of what those words revealed! They had come terrifyingly close to national ruin and destruction! How little they knew of all that passed between the LORD and Moses on the top of Mount Horeb! They had been on the very edge of a dreadful cliff. Another moment might have thrown them over. The intercession of Moses had saved them — the very man they had accused of taking too much on himself. And this same man had earnestly asked that, if Israel were not to be forgiven and brought into the land, his own name might be blotted out of the book.
The fear Moses admits to is not fear for himself. It moved him into a second forty-day fast, and it reached beyond the nation to his own brother.
Israel's sin made Moses fall down before the LORD a second time, for forty days and forty nights, without food or water. He did this because he was afraid of the anger of the LORD against Israel. He interceded for them before God, and the LORD listened (vv. 18-19). God was angry with Aaron also, and only the intercession of Moses kept Aaron from judgment (v. 20).
Moses' own fear turns up again in the New Testament, in a detail Exodus leaves out:
Hebrews 12:21 gives us a detail that Exodus does not mention. The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, "I tremble with fear." Exodus tells us that the people trembled. It also tells us that Moses and Aaron went up into the mountain. Hebrews tells us how he quaked as he did so.
He had nothing in Israel to appeal to. So he appealed to God about God.
In the complete failure of the people soon afterwards (Ex. 32), where they give God up in practice, Moses pleads the name — the revealed character of the LORD. See also Deuteronomy 9:18-29.
God had offered to wipe out Israel and build a greater nation from Moses himself.
Moses refuses the offered honour of founding a greater and mightier nation than Israel. He only wants the LORD to be glorified, and Israel pardoned, blessed and brought into the promised land. He could not bear the thought of any reproach coming on that glorious Name so dear to him. He could not bear to watch Israel destroyed either. These were the two things he dreaded. As for his own advancement, that was the one thing he cared nothing at all about.
The small word "also" says this was not a one-off rescue. Israel survived on intercession that had to be repeated.
How these pleadings remind us of the blessed ministry of our Great High Priest! He ever lives to make intercession for His people. His active intervention on our behalf never stops for a single moment.
The point is not admiration but dependence:
This impresses on Israel how dependent they were on an intercessor. If they had received what they deserved, it would have meant their destruction. Believers today depend in the same way on the intercession of the Lord Jesus. He is why we are borne with and sustained on our wilderness journey through this world.
- Rebels, not winners. Israel's history left them no righteousness to stand on. They owed their existence to God's mercy alone.
- A cliff edge. The nation stood one step from ruin and never knew it. The prayers of Moses pulled them back.
- Fear that prayed. Moses' dread of God's anger did not freeze him. It put him on the ground for forty days without food or water, praying for the people and for Aaron.
- The Name, not the record. Moses had nothing good in Israel to plead. So he pleaded God's own revealed character, and turned down the offer to become a great nation himself.
- Also, and always. The words "that time also" mark intercession repeated. They point on to the Great High Priest, whose intervention for His people never stops.
And with Aaron Jehovah was very angry to destroy him; and I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.
Deuteronomy 9 is Moses' retelling of Israel's worst hour, the golden calf, and here he adds a detail: God's anger fell on Aaron himself. Aaron lived only because Moses prayed — so why was the priest singled out, and what did that prayer do?
The chapter takes aim at Israel's confidence in themselves before they enter the land. Moses is pulling apart the idea that God owes them the victory.
Because God was for them, Israel would have power to destroy the nations completely. Yet God would use that power not because Israel was so righteous, but because the peoples of the land were so wicked. Moses is in effect saying to the people: don't imagine God will give you the victory because you have deserved it. Then, as the rest of this chapter shows, he went on to remind them of their great unbelief and sin in making the golden calf, and of their refusal to go up to the land when the spies came back. All this proved that they had no righteousness in which to stand before their God.
Aaron was not simply swept along with the crowd. The place he held while Moses was on the mountain is why the guilt was his own.
Aaron clearly stands as the responsible head of the people while Moses was away, so a special guilt rests on him. The story makes it plain that he was quick to fall in with what the people wanted. It was the same with Aaron as with Israel: Moses' prayer spared them both from the penalty their sin deserved here and now, but the guilt of that sin before God remained.
God was ready to destroy Aaron. Nothing in Aaron himself changed that.
God was angry with Aaron too, and only the prayer of Moses for him kept Aaron from judgment (v.20). Moses burned the golden calf, crushed it to dust and threw it into a stream (vs.20-21). These two verses describe what happened before Moses' 40 days of fasting and prayer.
Rescue from death did not close Aaron's account with God. Commentators differ here: one says the guilt remained, another says Aaron's sin was forgiven. Either way, God was still dealing with Aaron years later.
Moses later tells us how "the LORD was so angry with Aaron that He was ready to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron" (Deuteronomy 9:20), and God forgave Aaron's sin. But later Moses took his rod and struck the rock at Kadesh. Aaron did not hold his brother back, and so he shared in his disobedience. For this reason God did not let Aaron or Moses enter the promised land... We would think Aaron's idolatry was far worse than his brother's hasty act. But we are reminded again that "self-will" is as bad as the sin of idolatry, since in it we please ourselves instead of God.
Moses saved Aaron's life, yet he could not deal with the sin itself. His own words to the people expose the ceiling of what he could offer.
He had only a cheerless perhaps to leave with them... But Moses, though he stood in the place of one who prays for others, did not know grace perfectly. He could only say to the people, "Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin." He could not put away sin. It was altogether a different thing with Christ. He could put away sin. He did make an atonement. There was no perhaps with Him.
Aaron is Israel's high priest, the man who offers for the people. Here he is the one who needs someone else to pray for him, and that pattern followed him into his office.
Aaron had to offer sacrifices for sins — for the people, and also for himself. Here again we find contrast, not comparison... but reading further in the letter we find that Christ "through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God" (Hebrews 9:14). There is all the difference in the world between Aaron offering for himself and Christ offering Himself.
- Cause — Moses retells the calf story to prove Israel had no righteousness of their own to stand on before God.
- Guilt — Moses names Aaron on his own. Aaron was the responsible head while Moses was away, and he was quick to give the people what they wanted.
- Rescue — One thing alone saved Aaron: Moses prayed for him.
- Limit — Moses could hold back the penalty. But he could only say "perhaps" about atonement, because he could not put away sin.
- Contrast — Aaron needed prayer, and he offered for his own sins. Christ offered Himself, with no "perhaps" in it.
And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burned it with fire, and crushed it, and ground it very small, until it became fine dust; and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that flowed down from the mountain.
Moses stands at the border of the promised land, reminding Israel of the golden calf they once worshipped. Why does he call the calf their sin, why did he grind it to dust, and why tell the story now?
Moses does not name the object; he names what it was. Older translations read "I took your sin, the calf which you had made." The ESV has "the sinful thing." Israel had to swallow the dust of that calf, and one writer traces what it left behind:
In what follows there is a symbolic action carrying deep practical truths. Their "sin" so became part of them. It was the "original sin" of that era. It hung over them through all the time of their prophets and their kings, and through the whole period they were in the land. They never recovered from its effects. At last, after hundreds of years, this original sin met its due punishment in the Babylonian captivity.
The verse gives two actions in order: fire first, then grinding. But how can gold burn?
Moses burnt the golden calf before he ground it to powder, and this has caused a great deal of discussion. Some have suggested that the image was made of wood and only covered with gold. But the account will not allow this. It says the calf was 'molten' metal, and then shaped more exactly with an engraving tool. It is enough to suppose that fire at least softened the calf, if it did not melt it. It could then be beaten into thin plates, pounded into dust and scattered into the brook.
The guilt belonged to the whole nation, so the idol's ruin was public too:
Israel as a whole was defiled, and as a people had to suffer the shame. So Moses made their god look as contemptible as he could, in front of the whole camp. He put the powder on the water of the stream that flows down from Sinai, and made the children of Israel drink it. He kept back no remains of their god for future idolatry.
The man who had begged God to spare these people was the man who now disciplined them:
Moses had pleaded for the people, and they were not to be destroyed. But the very man who had prayed for them now acted as their ruler, to bring home to them the bitterness of their sin. He burnt the golden calf and then ground it to powder — a humiliating end for the supposed "god" that brought them up from Egypt! And not only this. He also mixed the burnt dust with water and made the people drink their "god," instead of drinking in its honour, as they had been doing.
Removing the idol was not the whole of it. The people had to feel what they had done:
Their sin must not only be put away, but they must taste in themselves the reality of it. Then he insists on separation from evil.
One writer turns it on himself:
He sought to make them feel their sin. If I have gone wrong in the things of God, it is a happy thing when someone brings it home to me. Then I see it, feel it and, in that sense, have to drink it. In this way Israel were forced to admit before God what sinners they had been.
Moses is not retelling old history for its own sake:
God was for them, so they would have power to destroy the nations of the land completely. Yet that power would be used not because Israel was so righteous, but because those peoples were so wicked. In effect he says to the people — Don't imagine God will give you the victory because you have deserved it. Then he reminds them of their great unbelief and sin in making the golden calf, and of their refusal to go up to the land when the spies came back. All this proved that they had no righteousness in which to stand before their God.
- Named. Moses does not call it an image; he calls it their sin — the calf and the guilt were one thing.
- Burnt. Fire came first, then grinding to dust, so that no scrap of the idol survived for future idolatry.
- Swallowed. The people drank the god they had honoured, and tasted in themselves the reality of their sin.
- Unforgotten. That sin hung over the nation through its prophets and kings — the original sin of that era, punished at last in the Babylonian captivity.
- Unrighteous. Moses tells the story at the border for one reason: to prove Israel had no righteousness of their own to stand on before God.
And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, ye provoked Jehovah to wrath.
Near the end of his life, Moses stands before Israel and lists place names: Taberah, Massah, Kibroth-hattaavah. Each name marks a spot in the desert where the nation's behaviour brought God's anger. Moses has a reason for listing them.
This is not random reminiscing. Moses is stripping away any claim that the land was a reward for good behaviour.
Israel had no ground for self-satisfaction, as Moses plainly and faithfully tells them. In the most touching and impressive way he goes back over all the leading scenes of their history, from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea. He points to the golden calf, to the broken tables of the covenant, to Taberah and Massah, and Kibroth-hattaavah. He sums it all up, at verse 24, with these piercing, humbling words: "You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you."
Each name stands for a different complaint, and together they cover the basics of life — food, water, appetite.
Moses then speaks of other cases of Israel's rebellion. First at Taberah (Num. 11:1-10), where they complained about their food. Then at Massah (Ex. 17:2-6), where they complained about the lack of water. Then at Kibroth-hattaavah (Num. 11:32-34), where the Lord showed mercy in giving Israel quails. They responded by greedily eating them, with no recognition of His goodness. … All of this proved Israel to be unworthy of the blessing God was going to give them in the land. How then could they boast that the prosperity given to them was because of their righteousness?
The first name comes from what God sent there — and from how quickly He stopped it.
Because Israel had no definite occasion for this discontent, God sent fire among them in the outskirts of the camp. It does not appear that anyone was burned. God meant the fire to frighten them enough that they would judge their complaining. The people appealed to Moses, who prayed again as an effective intercessor, and the Lord quenched the fire. They named the place Taberah, meaning "you may burn," which was therefore a warning to Israel.
What makes Taberah so exposing is that nothing had gone wrong. No enemy, no shortage, no hardship — and still the murmuring came.
There has been no unusual occurrence. No enemy has appeared. No need has made itself felt. … They murmur about an "evil" they cannot even name. Yet already this murmuring is becoming chronic — it begins to mark their character. Sadly, there is a source of discontent inside the human heart. It does not need circumstances to bring it out. It is important that this is clear at the very beginning. … Apart from circumstances altogether, there is enough within us to make heaven itself a weariness, if we could carry it there.
Massah means temptation. The complaint there had two targets: Moses, and God Himself.
Massah is always translated peirasmos, temptation. This temptation was against God, while the strife or reviling was against Moses more directly. Tempting the LORD in the desert meant saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?" To unbelievers this may look like a small offence. In the eyes of God and of faith it is very serious. Had He not broken the pride and power of Egypt on behalf of His poor unworthy people? Had He not brought them out of the house of slavery in triumph, their Guide and their Rearguard, to live among them and be their God?
The third name marks the place where God answered a craving and the answer turned into judgment.
The end of the chapter shows the LORD's generous provision in sending the flesh they had wanted. But the Lord's anger burned against them, and while they were eating a great plague broke out. There was no repentance. They fell greedily on what God had provided. It was only to satisfy their craving; they did not see the giver behind the gift. The rebellious, stubborn heart was still there, unrepentant, using for their own destruction what the Lord had given. That is why the judgment was so severe. … Kibroth-hattaavah means "graves of lust."
Moses does not soften Israel's record. Yet it is not the last thing God says about this same people.
Israel had gone through the wilderness with constant failure. But at the end of the forty years' journey, when Satan resists their entry into Canaan, God does not see iniquity in them. Moses had said of them in these very plains of Moab, "You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you." But God sees no iniquity; He sees no perverseness.
- Remember — Moses names three failures on purpose. Remembering what we are cures the idea that the blessing ahead was earned.
- Taberah — the fire fell where there was no hardship at all. The discontent came from inside, not from circumstances.
- Massah — the sin was the question "Is the LORD among us or not?", asked by people He had just rescued in triumph.
- Kibroth-hattaavah — they got what they craved, and buried their dead there. A gift taken without repentance turns into judgment.
- Yet — at the end of the journey God saw no iniquity in this same people. The record humbles, but it does not have the last word.
And when Jehovah sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up and take possession of the land which I have given you, ye rebelled against the word of Jehovah your God, and ye believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice.
Moses stands with a new generation on the edge of the land. He takes them back to the worst day in their history. At Kadesh-barnea God told them to go up and take the land. They refused. The verse names two failures at once: a command refused and a Person disbelieved.
The tragedy at Kadesh was not that the land looked bad. It was that God had spoken and they would not move. Writing on the parallel account in Deuteronomy 1, one commentator notes that the spies had done nothing to justify their fear:
He reminds them that they themselves had asked for the spies to be sent. The spies showed them the fruit of the land and testified that it was good. Still they would not go up. "Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God." There was no excuse whatever. Their hearts were clearly in a state of outright unbelief and rebellion. The mission of the spies, from first to last, only made this fully plain.
The verse names two failures — they did not believe Him, and they did not listen to His voice. One commentator traces the disobedience back to the unbelief behind it:
It is not the flagrant disobedience of the law through human tradition, but unbelief — the source of all disobedience. So in the words the Holy Spirit uses, unbelief and disobedience differ only by a shade. The former is the root of which the latter is the fruit.
Another writer, commenting on the spies' report, says plainly what that unbelief did to God:
They could not deny that the LORD's promise was true. They carried the evidence of it on their shoulders while they carried unbelief in their hearts... Unbelief slanders God; it is an insult to the Lord.
One commentator rules out every softer explanation:
It is of the highest importance to note that unbelief kept Israel out of Canaan. Hebrews 3 settles it: "So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief." Not because the time had not yet come — simply because of unbelief. They ought to have entered. They were responsible to do so; and they were judged for not doing so. The way was open. Faith's judgement, spoken by faithful Caleb, was clear and certain: "Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it." They were as able then as they could ever be. The One who had given them the land was the source of their power to enter it and take it.
Chapter 9 is not a scolding for its own sake. It is medicine for a particular disease:
This chapter and the first eleven verses of chapter 10 aim at the spirit of self-righteousness... They had been rebels and they owed their existence wholly to the mercy of God... How humbling it must have been to hear the list of their failures, their rebellion and their grumbling against the LORD! ... Self-righteousness is an abomination in God's sight. True faith and obedience means a true humility.
One commentator weighs the cost of that refusal:
The journey from Horeb, by the way of Mount Seir, to Kadesh-barnea takes eleven days. Eleven days! And yet it took them forty years! How was this? We need not travel far for the answer. It is only too like ourselves. How slowly we get over the ground! What windings and turnings! How often we have to go back and travel over the same ground again and again. We are slow travellers, because we are slow learners.
If their record was this bad, on what ground could they go in at all? Moses answers by reaching back past Sinai:
What then remained? Well, there was the promise to Abraham, confirmed later to Isaac and Jacob. It carried no conditions for them to fulfil. That remained, and that is what Moses pleaded before God, as verse 27 of this chapter shows. The patriarchal covenant was one of grace.
- Root. Unbelief is the root; disobedience is the fruit. The two words in this verse describe one heart, not two faults.
- Fruit. Refusing a clear command was not caution but rebellion — with the good land in view and no excuse whatever.
- Reach. Unbelief insults God Himself. It carries the proof of His promise in its hands and still treats Him as untrustworthy.
- Result. Eleven days became forty years. Slow learners make slow travellers, going over the same ground again and again.
- Remedy. They had no righteousness left to plead. Only the promise to Abraham, which carried no conditions, could bring them in. That is why this chapter attacks self-righteousness and leaves mercy standing alone.
Ye have been rebellious against Jehovah from the day that I knew you.
Moses stands at the edge of the promised land, finishing a long review of Israel's history. His summary is not flattering. So why was God about to give them the land at all?
The words do not stand alone. They are the total at the bottom of a long list of failures Moses has just read out.
Israel had no ground for self-satisfaction, as Moses most plainly and faithfully instructs them. He goes over in their ears, in the most moving way, all the leading scenes of their history from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea; he refers to the golden calf, to the broken tables of the covenant, to Taberah and Massah and Kibroth-hattaavah; and sums it all up, at verse 24, with these sharp, humbling words.
Moses is not just venting. The whole section has a target: the idea that Israel had earned anything.
This chapter and the first eleven verses of the tenth are aimed against the spirit of self-righteousness... They had been rebels and they owed their existence wholly to the mercy of God, and that was secured by the intercession of Moses... How humbling it must have been to hear the list of their failures, their rebellion and their complaining against the LORD! And Moses added to it, which must have cut them to the very heart... How easy it is for our poor hearts, not different from theirs, to forget all we were, and that we owe all we are to the grace of God.
The verse sits inside Moses' argument about why God was giving them Canaan. He removes every reason they might claim to deserve it.
God was for them, so they would have power to destroy the nations in the land completely. Yet that power would come, not because Israel was so righteous, but because the peoples of the land were so wicked. In effect he says to the people — Don't imagine God will give you the victory because you have deserved it. Then he went on... to remind the people of their great unbelief and sin in making the golden calf, and their refusal to go up to the land when the spies came back. All this proved that they had no righteousness in which to stand before their God.
The people hearing this had never known what happened between God and Moses on the mountain. Moses tells them now.
How their hearts should have been moved to their very deepest depths by those tremendous words: "Let me alone, that I may destroy them!" How solemn to reflect on what those words revealed — how close they had come to national ruin and destruction! How ignorant they had been of all that passed between the LORD and Moses on the top of Mount Horeb! They had been on the very edge of a terrible cliff. Another moment might have thrown them over. The intercession of Moses had saved them — the very man they had accused of taking too much on himself. How they had misjudged him! God had offered this very man the chance to become the head of a greater and mightier nation than Israel — and he had refused it.
On the day Moses said this, God was saying something else about the same people.
"He has not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither has He seen perverseness in Israel." It was there, but God would not see it. He looked on the Sacrifice and counted righteousness to them. At that very moment Moses was standing down in the plain among the people, saying, "You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you"! This is the second great principle, justification.
(The older translation quoted here reads "iniquity" and "perverseness"; the ESV has "misfortune" and "trouble".)
This was not God missing what was there.
God says this by the mouth of Balaam, a witness to the truth against his own will. What a testimony! What wonderful grace! What perfection in the ways of God! God sees rightly; He makes no mistakes. He speaks the truth according to the perfection of His infinite understanding; and it is because it is infinite that He can see no iniquity in the redeemed people. How could He see any in those who are washed in the blood of the Lamb?
- The verdict. Moses ends a long list of Israel's failures with one summing-up sentence about all the years he had known them.
- The aim. The chapter targets self-righteousness. They had to hear what they were before they entered the land, and our hearts are no different from theirs.
- The ground. The land came because those nations were wicked — never because Israel had any righteousness to stand on.
- The rescue. They stood at the edge of destruction without knowing it. The intercession of the man they had misjudged is what saved them.
- The other verdict. While Moses spoke in the plain, God said He saw no iniquity in Jacob. That is not blindness. It is justification — God looking at the sacrifice.
So I fell down before Jehovah the forty days and forty nights, as I fell down; for Jehovah had said he would destroy you.
Moses stands before a new generation on the edge of Canaan and retells the worst moment in their history. He lay on the ground for forty days and nights, because God had said He would destroy them. Why did the nation survive at all? And what kept its leader face-down for so long, with no food and no water?
The chapter is not a history lesson but an argument against self-congratulation. Israel was about to receive a land they had done nothing to earn.
With God on their side, Israel would have the power to destroy the nations in the land completely. Yet God would give that power, not because Israel was so righteous, but because the peoples of the land were so wicked. He is really saying to the people: don't imagine God will give you the victory because you have deserved it. Then, as the rest of this chapter shows, he went on to remind the people of their great unbelief and sin in making the golden calf, and of their refusal to go up to the land when the spies came back. All this proved that they had no righteousness to stand on before their God.
The people below never saw what happened on the mountain.
How solemn to think what these words revealed — how terribly close they had come to national ruin and destruction! How little they knew of all that passed between the Lord and Moses on the top of Mount Horeb! They had been standing on the very edge of a terrible cliff. One more moment might have thrown them over. The prayer of Moses had saved them — and he was the very man they had accused of taking too much authority on himself.
This is what real intercession costs. It also shows who can pray this way.
Moses prayed with more success than Abraham did. He kept praying until God answered. For forty days, night and day, without food or drink, he pleaded. Israel had sinned a great sin, but Moses went to the Lord for them… He had given up the wealth of Egypt for these people, and now he was ready to sacrifice his very soul for their sakes… Yet the true intercessor is the man who has this spirit of self-sacrifice. A selfish man's prayers will circle round himself and stay inside his own interests. He will not have the heart to think of others and pray for them.
Commentators differ on how many forty-day periods Moses spent before God. What they agree on is the way he pleaded — and not one of his arguments rested on Israel's record.
Was he in the camp like this for forty days and forty nights? That would mean three separate periods of this length before the Lord, and opinions differ on it. There is no question, though, about the way he pleaded for Israel, and that is the more useful point. Moses built his prayer on the character of God. That is a most important matter when a man truly stands between God and people. He pleaded for God's people because they were His. He pleaded because God had redeemed them, and had brought them out of slavery with His powerful hand. He pleaded because of God's promise to the fathers. He pleaded because the nations might otherwise say that the Lord was not true to His word. And he pleaded because, in spite of their sin and their stubbornness, they were His inheritance — He had made them so. These were his arguments, and he used them while fully admitting how deep Israel's sin was.
God had offered to start over with Moses alone. Lying there for forty days was his answer.
Moses turns down the honour he is offered — to be the founder of a nation greater and mightier than Israel. All he wants is for the Lord to be glorified, and for Israel to be pardoned, blessed and brought into the promised land. He could not bear the thought of anyone bringing reproach on that glorious Name, so dear to his heart. He could not bear to watch Israel destroyed either. These were the two things he dreaded. As for his own promotion, it was the one thing he cared nothing about.
Israel survived only because someone stood between them and God. Commentators say believers stand in the same place today.
…this impresses on Israel how much they depended on an intercessor. If they had gotten what they deserved, it would have meant their destruction. Believers today also depend on the intercession of the Lord Jesus. Through it God bears with us and holds us up on our own wilderness journey.
- Cause — Moses lay down because God had said He would destroy them; the sin was real, and so was the sentence.
- Cost — Forty days and nights, no bread, no water. He kept praying until God answered. Intercession is self-sacrifice, not sentiment.
- Ground — He argued from God's redemption, God's promise to the fathers, God's name among the nations. Not one word defended Israel.
- Cross — God offered him a nation of his own and he refused. He wanted God glorified and Israel spared, nothing for himself.
- Consequence — They stood on the brink and never knew it. What kept them was an intercessor — the same thing that keeps believers now.
I prayed therefore to Jehovah, and said, Lord Jehovah, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a powerful hand.
Moses is retelling the worst moment of Israel's history. After the golden calf, he lay before the Lord for forty days and nights, because God had said He would destroy them. This verse gives the words he prayed. He had nothing good in the people to offer, so everything hangs on the ground he chose instead.
The whole chapter attacks the idea that Israel earned the land. Moses piles up their failures on purpose. Only one explanation is left for their survival: mercy, reaching them through a man who prayed.
This chapter and the first eleven verses of chapter ten attack the spirit of self-righteousness... They had been rebels. They owed their existence entirely to the mercy of God, and the intercession of Moses secured it. So they were to understand that God did not give them the good land for their righteousness. They were a stubborn people... How easy it is for our poor hearts, not different from theirs, to forget all we were and that we owe all we are to the grace of God.
Moses wants Israel to feel how much hung on one man's prayer. And the need did not end with Israel.
...to impress on Israel how dependent they were on an intercessor, for if they had gotten what they deserved it would have meant their destruction. Believers today also depend on the intercession of the Lord Jesus, who bears with us and sustains us on our own wilderness journey through this world.
God had offered to wipe Israel out and build a greater nation from Moses himself. His prayer begins "do not destroy." He wanted nothing that cost the people their lives or brought shame on God's name.
What amazing words for a human being to speak to the living God! What powerful pleading for Israel! How completely he set himself aside! Moses turns down the honour of becoming the founder of a nation greater and mightier than Israel. He only wants the Lord to be glorified, and Israel pardoned, blessed and brought into the promised land. He could not bear the thought of anyone bringing shame on that glorious Name, so dear to his heart. Nor could he bear to watch Israel destroyed.
Moses does not say Israel will do better. He points away from the people altogether, to two things God had already done.
Moses' prayer at the time was not based on any hope that Israel would improve their conduct. It rested on two great facts. First, God had claimed Israel as His own inheritance by redeeming them from slavery in Egypt (v.26). Second, their fathers were Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and God had given them His unconditional promise (v.27).
Notice the pronouns in the verse: your people, your heritage, you have redeemed. Every argument Moses makes describes something God did, not something Israel is.
Moses based his prayer on the character of God. That matters greatly when someone truly stands between God and man. He pleaded for God's people because they were His. He pleaded because God had redeemed them and brought them out of their chains with His powerful hand. He pleaded because of God's promise to the fathers. He pleaded because the nations might otherwise say that the Lord was not true to His word. And he pleaded because they were — despite their sin and their stubbornness — His inheritance, since He had made them so to be. Those were his arguments, and he used them while admitting the full depth of Israel's sin.
"Whom you have redeemed" is more than feeling. It is a title of ownership. A people God redeemed belong to Him, and that claim reaches further than Israel.
We are His. If God brought Israel out of Egypt, that iron furnace, we are the subjects of a more wonderful and more spiritual redemption. For Israel, this was the first argument of the law. For us, it speaks above all of His claim on us.
Moses lay on the ground for forty days, pleading for a guilty people. Commentators see in it a picture of a ministry that never pauses.
And oh, how welcome all this must have been to the heart of God! How refreshing to Him were those earnest, loving pleadings of His servant! How much more in keeping with His mind than the intercession of Elijah against Israel, hundreds of years afterwards! How they remind us of the blessed ministry of our Great High Priest! He always lives to make intercession for His people, and His active work on our behalf never stops for a single moment!
- Ruined — Israel had no righteousness to offer. The whole chapter attacks self-righteousness. Their survival came down to mercy alone.
- Redeemed — Moses pleads what God had already done in Egypt. A people He bought out belong to Him, and that is the strongest argument in the prayer.
- Retained — "Your heritage" is God's own naming of them. He made them His, and their sin does not unmake it.
- Represented — One man stood between a guilty people and judgment. He refused every honour offered to him alone, and they lived.
- Reaching us — The same pattern holds now. An intercession that never stops for a moment carries people whose redemption is greater than Egypt's.
Remember thy servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not at the stubbornness of this people, nor at their wickedness, nor at their sin;
Forty years later, Moses retells the prayer that kept Israel alive after the golden calf. The prayer says nothing in Israel's favour, which raises the question: if the nation had nothing to plead, what did Moses plead?
The prayer stands on two facts, and neither one is about Israel's behaviour:
Moses' prayer at the time was not based on any hope that Israel would improve in their conduct. It rested on two great facts. First, God had claimed Israel as His own inheritance by redeeming them from slavery in Egypt (v.26). Second, there was the fact of who their fathers were — Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to whom God had given His unconditional promise (v.27). So he asked God to remember these servants of His and turn His eyes from the stubbornness of Israel.
Moses falls back on a promise made long before Israel's failure:
What then remained? Well, there was the promise to Abraham, confirmed to Isaac and Jacob. It had no conditions attached that they had to fulfil. That remained, and that Moses pleaded before God, as verse 27 reveals. The covenant with the fathers was one of grace. God will make it good in the "new covenant" promised in Jeremiah 31, when He brings His dealings with Israel to their end. That new covenant rests on the death and resurrection of Christ, and on that same basis the Gospel goes out today, as 2 Corinthians 3:6 shows. It is the "everlasting covenant," as we see in Hebrews 13:20.
Israel's failure under the law did not cancel what God had promised to Abraham:
They failed under the law, as the sin of the golden calf (Exodus 32) showed. This, however, did not touch the promises to Abraham. Moses' intercession (Exodus 32:13) rests on these promises and on the oath of God. Only because of them did Israel come into the land at all.
Moses names the sin plainly and still asks God to look away from it. That leaves Israel no ground for thinking themselves better than anyone else:
Surely, as they looked back over all these things, they might well see how foolish the words were: "For my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land." How could the makers of a metal idol talk like that! Should they not instead see and feel and admit that they were no better than the nations about to be driven out before them? For what had made them to differ? The sovereign mercy and electing love of their covenant God.
Israel knew nothing of this prayer while it was happening:
How little they knew of what passed between the Lord and Moses on top of Mount Horeb! They had been standing at the very edge of a terrible cliff. One more moment could have thrown them over. The intercession of Moses had saved them — the very man whom they had accused of taking too much upon himself. How they had mistaken and misjudged him!
Commentators read Moses here as a picture of someone else who pleads for failing people:
And how welcome all this must have been to the heart of God! How refreshing to Him were those earnest, loving pleadings of His servant! How much more in tune with His mind than Elijah's prayer against Israel, hundreds of years later! And how they remind us of the blessed ministry of our Great High Priest! He always lives to intercede for His people, and His action on our behalf never stops for a single moment.
- Remember — Moses asks God to recall the fathers, not the nation. The prayer rests on who Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were to God, not on what Israel had become.
- Unconditional — God's promise to the fathers set no terms for Israel to keep. That is why it still stood after the golden calf.
- Look away — Moses names the stubbornness and the wickedness. He does not deny the sin. He asks God to fix His eyes elsewhere.
- Land — Israel entered Canaan on the strength of that older promise and God's oath. Their own righteousness had nothing to do with it.
- Intercession — a prayer they never heard saved them, and the man they had misjudged prayed it. Commentators see in it the ministry of the Great High Priest, who never stops pleading for His people.
lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say, Because Jehovah was not able to bring them into the land which he had promised them, and because he hated them, he hath brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.
Moses is retelling the forty days he spent lying before God after Israel made the golden calf. This verse gives the boldest line of his prayer: if God destroys the nation now, Egypt will draw its own conclusion. So what can a person plead when the people he prays for deserve nothing? Moses points not to their record but to God's name.
Moses does not defend Israel's conduct. He points to what the nations would conclude if the story ended in the desert.
After making this plea, Moses dared to remind the Lord that He had brought the people out of Egypt because of the covenant He made with their forefathers, before the law was given at Sinai. Now the law had been given, and they had failed under it completely. If God destroyed them at this point, the Egyptians and the other nations would misread it. They would take it to mean that God was unable to finish His work and bring them into the land He had planned for them.
The verse names two slanders, not one: that God lacked the power, and that He acted out of hatred. Moses answers both by naming whose people they are.
Moses used another powerful argument in verse 28. If God destroyed Israel in the wilderness, the Egyptians would say that God was not able to bring Israel into the promised land. They would say He had hated Israel instead, and killed them. Yet, despite all their miserable failure, Moses reminded God that the people of Israel were His own people, His inheritance. He had brought them out of Egypt by His great power (v.29). Would He cancel the worth of that work by destroying them?
The prayer expects nothing from Israel's future. It stands on two things already true.
Moses' prayer at that time was not based on any hope that Israel would improve their conduct. It rested on two great facts. First, God had claimed Israel as His own inheritance by redeeming them out of slavery in Egypt (v.26). Second, their fathers were Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and God had given them His unconditional promise (v.27). So he asked God to remember these servants of His, and to turn His eyes away from Israel's stubbornness.
Moses builds his case on who God is, without pretending the people are better than they are.
Moses based his prayer on the character of God. That matters greatly in true mediation between God and man. He pleaded for God's people because they were His; because He had redeemed them and brought them out of chains by His powerful hand; because of His promise to their fathers; because the nations might otherwise say that Jehovah did not keep His word; and because they were His inheritance, despite their sin and their stubbornness, since He had made them so. These were his arguments, and he used them while fully admitting how deep Israel's sin was.
Moses pleaded neither Israel's need nor their repentance. One writer takes that straight into how we end our own prayers.
Israel's sin was deep, and God had threatened to take their inheritance away. How instructive it is, then, to be shown the true ground on which we may ask for mercy and forgiveness. It is not our need, great as that may be. It is not even repentance, however heartfelt and true. It is the glory of God, the honour of His name... When we pray, and after we have made our requests known and asked our Father for forgiveness, do we take in all that "for the sake" or "in the name of Jesus Christ" means? Or is it just a closing formula in our minds?
God had offered Moses a nation of his own. This prayer is the sound of that offer being refused.
Moses refuses the honour offered him — to be the founder of a nation greater and mightier than Israel. All he wants is that Jehovah should be glorified, and that Israel should be pardoned, blessed and brought into the promised land. He could not bear the thought that anyone might bring reproach on that glorious Name, so dear to his heart. Nor could he bear to watch Israel destroyed.
One writer hears in these pleadings a reminder of a greater intercessor.
How they remind us of the blessed ministry of our Great High Priest! He always lives to intercede for His people, and His active help on our behalf never stops for a single moment.
- Name. If Israel died in the desert, Egypt would call God too weak, or too hateful, to finish what He started.
- Not merit. The plea rests on a redemption already done and a promise already given to the fathers. It expects nothing better from Israel.
- Not excuses. Moses argues from God's character, and he admits how deep the people's sin runs.
- Not our need. The true ground for asking mercy is the honour of God's name. That is what praying "in the name of Jesus Christ" means.
- Not himself. Offered a nation of his own, Moses wanted only God glorified and Israel brought in. He reminds us of the High Priest whose intercession never stops.
They are indeed thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out with thy great power and with thy stretched-out arm.
Moses is praying for a nation that had just made a golden calf. This verse is the last line of that prayer. Everything rests on two facts he puts before God: whose people these are, and whose power brought them out of Egypt.
Before this last plea, Moses walks Israel through their own history. One writer sums up why:
In effect he says to the people — Don't imagine God will give you the victory because you have deserved it. Then, as the rest of this chapter shows, he went on to remind them of their great unbelief and sin in making the golden calf. He also reminded them of their refusal to go up to the land when the spies came back. All this proved that they had no righteousness in which to stand before their God.
Moses does not soften the charge. He has just admitted there is nothing in the people to plead.
God had spoken of Israel to Moses as your people, the ones you brought out of Egypt. Moses hands the words straight back, and one writer finds the exchange striking:
And then how touching and beautiful to notice the way Moses insists that the people were Jehovah's inheritance, and that He had brought them up out of Egypt. The Lord had said, "Your people, whom you brought out of Egypt." But Moses says, "They are Your people, and Your inheritance, whom You brought out." This is exquisite.
(His translation says "inheritance" where the ESV says "heritage.")
If Israel had nothing of its own to plead, on what ground could Moses ask for mercy? One writer answers:
Faced with such deep sin, and with God threatening to disinherit them, how instructive to see the true ground of appeal for mercy and forgiveness. It is not our need, however great. It is not even repentance, heartfelt and true. It is the glory of God, the honour of His name, the written pledge of His faithfulness to those who are under the blood. For this He puts away the sins and failures of His own people.
One writer points to the promise Moses names in verse 27, and to the reason it still held:
What then remained? Well, there was the promise to Abraham, confirmed to Isaac and Jacob. It had no conditions attached that they had to fulfil. That remained, and that is what Moses pleaded before God, as verse 27 reveals. The covenant with the fathers was one of grace. God will make it good in the "new covenant" that Jeremiah 31 predicts, when His dealings with Israel reach their end.
One writer asks what made Israel different from the nations they were about to displace:
What had made them different? The sovereign mercy and electing love of their covenant God. And where did their rescue from Egypt, their food in the wilderness, and their entrance into the land come from? Only from the eternal stability of the covenant made with their fathers.
God had offered Moses a nation of his own. His prayer never mentions it:
Moses refuses the honour he is offered, of founding a nation greater and mightier than Israel. All he desires is glory for Jehovah, and pardon, blessing and the promised land for Israel. He could not bear the thought of anyone bringing reproach on that glorious Name, so dear to his heart. Nor could he bear to watch Israel destroyed.
The same writer sees this prayer pointing beyond Moses:
How they remind us of the blessed ministry of our Great High Priest! He always lives to make intercession for His people. His active help on our behalf never stops for a single moment.
- No claim. Moses had already shown the people had no righteousness to stand in. So his plea rests on nothing they had done.
- God's claim. God called them Moses' people. Moses handed them back: they are God's people, God's heritage.
- God's arm. Rescue from Egypt, food in the wilderness, entry into the land — every step was His doing, not theirs.
- God's promise. Behind it all lay the covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — pure grace, with no conditions for Israel to meet.
- God's name. The true ground of appeal is never our need, nor even sincere repentance, but the honour of His name. That is the ground our Great High Priest pleads for us, without pause.