Thou shalt not say in thy heart, when Jehovah thy God thrusteth them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness Jehovah hath brought me in to possess this land; but for the wickedness of these nations doth Jehovah dispossess them from before thee.
Israel stood on the edge of Canaan with victory promised. Before a single city fell, Moses told them what they must never say to themselves afterwards: that the land came to them because they deserved it.
The danger is not in the battle but in what the heart says afterwards.
But our treacherous and deceitful hearts are prone to forget where the strength and victory come from. That gives moral force, value and timeliness to the warning of God's faithful servant. He spoke it to the hearts and consciences of his people: "Do not say in your heart" — this is where the mischief always begins.
This may sound like an unlikely temptation. The warning itself proves otherwise.
How terrible to think that we are capable of saying in our hearts such words as, "For my righteousness!" Yes, reader, we are capable of such glaring folly. Israel was capable of it, and so are we, because we are made of the very same material. We know they were capable of it, because God warned them against it. The Spirit of God does not warn against phantom dangers or imaginary temptations. We really can turn God's actions on our behalf into an occasion for self-congratulation. Instead of seeing in those gracious actions a reason for heartfelt praise to God, we use them as a reason for exalting ourselves.
The verse gives its own reason for the eviction. One writer explains it with a picture from renting property.
God was about to drive out the seven nations, in the exercise of His righteous government, on the ground of their wickedness. Every landlord has a perfect right to evict bad tenants. The nations of Canaan had not only failed to pay their rent, as we say; they had also damaged and defiled the property so badly that God could no longer endure them. So He was going to drive them out, quite apart from who the incoming tenants were. Whoever was going to get the property, these dreadful tenants had to go.
God waited a long time before that judgment fell. The same rule would later apply to Israel itself.
The Scriptures plainly present the conquest of Canaan as an example of God's positive judgment after all patience had already proved useless, as in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah. It also shows His power against the enemies of His nature, purposes and people, and His faithfulness to His people. God told Abraham that his descendants must go down and live in Egypt for a long time, because the sin of the Amorites was not yet full; and this happened. Leviticus 18 puts the same truth in the strongest possible way: the land vomits out its inhabitants, and God warned Israel that it would spit them out too if they defiled it. Israel was fully warned and told the principle on which it was done. It is a great public sample of God's full judgment in the earth.
If Israel's own record gave them no claim, something else did — and it reaches far beyond Canaan.
What then remained? Well, there was the promise to Abraham, confirmed to Isaac and Jacob, and it carried no conditions that they had to fulfil. That remained, and Moses pleaded it 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 His dealings with Israel reach their end. That new covenant rests on the death and resurrection of Christ, and on this basis the Gospel goes out today, as 2 Corinthians 3:6 shows. It is the "everlasting covenant," as we see in Hebrews 13:20.
A person can break this warning and still sound thankful.
When we dwell on the effect in ourselves, and not on the source in God, we show the spirit of the Pharisee without realising it. The Pharisee (Luke 17) began by giving thanks — "I thank you, O God." What marks a pharisaic spirit is not the failure to thank God for our blessings. Its essence is this: instead of saying, "I thank you for what you are," it says, "I thank you for what I am." The Pharisee thinks of the grace given, and is lifted up. He does not think of the grace which gives, and which forgives.
- Heart. God forbids a claim made silently, inside. That is where the trouble starts — after the victory, not during the battle.
- Wickedness. The nations lost the land because their evil had become unbearable. God evicted them like a landlord evicting tenants who wreck the property.
- Patience. The judgment fell only after long patience had proved useless. It stands as a public sample of God's judgment in the earth.
- Promise. Israel's one claim was the promise to Abraham, which carried no conditions. Writers trace that covenant of grace on to the new covenant and the gospel.
- Thanks. The alternative to "for my righteousness" is not silence but praise — thanking God for what He is, not for what I am.
Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thy heart, dost thou enter in to possess their land, but for the wickedness of these nations doth Jehovah thy God dispossess them from before thee, and that he may perform the word which Jehovah swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Moses stands with Israel at the border of Canaan. He removes every reason they might give for being there. He gives two causes — the wickedness of the nations, and the oath God swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Neither one lies in Israel.
The danger is a sentence spoken in the heart, not an outward act.
What ignorance of our own hearts! How terrible to think that we are capable of saying in our hearts such words as, "For my righteousness!" Yes, reader, we are truly capable of such foolishness. Israel was capable of it, and so are we, since we are made of the very same material. We know they were capable of it, because they received that warning. And the Spirit of God does not warn against imaginary dangers. We are truly capable of turning God's actions on our behalf into an occasion for self-satisfaction.
God drove the Canaanites out as an act of His government. One writer pictures Him as a landlord with bad tenants.
Every landlord has a perfect right to evict bad tenants. The nations of Canaan had not only failed to pay their rent, as we say. They had also damaged and defiled the property so badly that God could no longer put up with them. So He was going to drive them out, quite apart from who the incoming tenants were. Whoever was going to take possession of the property, these dreadful tenants had to go. The iniquity of the Amorites had reached its highest point. Nothing was left but for judgment to take its course.
That judgment came only after long patience. And the same standard hung over Israel's own head.
God told Abraham that his descendants must go down and live in Egypt for a long period, because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full. And this happened. God clearly told Israel the cause of that judgment... Leviticus 18 states this truth in the strongest possible way. It warns Israel not to fall into the same detestable practices. "The land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. You shall therefore keep my statutes... lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you." So God let a people ripen to the full height of their wickedness. Then He used them to show His righteous anger and power. He fully warned Israel and made the principle behind it plain.
If Israel's merit is ruled out, something must take its place, and the second half of the verse supplies it.
The people were reminded that their possession of the land of Canaan was simply in fulfilment of God's promise to their fathers. This placed the matter on the most solid basis — a basis that nothing could ever disturb.
That promise was made long before the law existed, which is why obedience was never the price of the land.
But then what about the law? Did that make any difference? None at all, as far as God's gift and promise are concerned. Four centuries before the law came, God Almighty settled and established the great transaction with Abraham His friend — settled and established forever. So nothing can possibly touch it. God set no legal conditions before Abraham. It was all pure and absolute grace. He gave the land to Abraham by promise, not by law in any form.
Moses does not stop at the warning. The rest of the chapter goes through their record.
This chapter and the first eleven verses of chapter ten strike at the spirit of self-righteousness. First comes the warning. Then comes their shameful past. It showed that in their case every boast of being righteous had to be ruled out. So did every claim to have any righteousness at all. They had been rebels, and they owed their existence wholly to the mercy of God... Our hearts are no different from theirs. How easily we forget all that we were, and that we owe all we are to the grace of God.
A record like this looks like a locked door. One writer asks whether it is, and where that leaves us.
Could the enemy, the accuser, take up everything Israel had done and make it a barrier to their entering the land? Could he stop us getting into heaven? For this is heaven for us. He could not... What is man's place with God? Lowliness. And when that is so, all his delight is in being nothing and receiving everything.
- Not for your righteousness — the verse gives two reasons for Israel's entry: the sin of the nations, and the oath to the fathers. It rules out a third — anything in Israel.
- The cause outside them — God evicted the Canaanites as bad tenants who had ruined the property. His patience had let their wickedness ripen to the full.
- The gift behind them — the land rested on a promise God made to Abraham four centuries before the law. He attached no conditions, so nothing can touch it.
- The mirror before them — the same land that spat out its earlier peoples could spit out Israel too. Leviticus 18 aimed that warning at them.
- The result in us — the record of failure never bought the inheritance, so it cannot cancel it either. What it kills is the inward sentence "for my righteousness."
Know therefore that Jehovah thy God doth not give thee this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiff-necked people.
Moses has just told Israel that the land ahead is not a prize they earned. Here he presses the point home: they are not going in because they are good, and their own record proves it. The verse raises two hard questions — if not for their righteousness, then on what ground? And how can God settle a "stiff-necked people" in His good land at all?
The danger is not spoken out loud. It is what the heart says to itself after the victory:
But our treacherous and deceitful hearts are quick to forget where the strength and the victory come from. That is why the warning words of God's faithful servant carry such moral force, value and timeliness. He spoke them to the hearts and consciences of his brothers: "Do not say in your heart" — this is where the mischief always begins — "after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, saying, 'It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land.'"
The rest of the chapter is Moses' evidence. He reminds them of their own record:
Then, as the rest of this chapter shows, he reminded the people 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.
Israel's merit did not bring them in. So why were the nations sent out? Their own wickedness — and that was settled without reference to who moved in next:
Every landlord has a perfect right to evict bad tenants. The nations of Canaan had not only failed to pay their rent, as we say. They had also damaged and defiled the property so badly that God could no longer endure them. So He was going to drive them out, whoever the incoming tenants might be... Waiting any longer would have meant approving the most terrible practices. That was morally impossible.
So what made Israel different from the people they were replacing? Nothing in themselves:
Surely, as they reviewed all these things, they could see the utter folly of these words: "It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land." How could people who made a metal idol talk like that! Should they not instead see, feel and admit that they were no better than the nations about to be driven out before them? For what had made them differ? The sovereign mercy and electing love of their covenant God.
In justice, being stiff-necked is a reason for God to stay away. In grace, through a mediator, it becomes a reason to ask Him to come near:
If it were only a matter of justice, His coming among them could only destroy them, because they were "a stiff-necked people." But the moment He speaks of grace, through the mediator, that same stubbornness becomes a reason to ask for His presence... This is deeply beautiful. A stiff-necked people needed the boundless grace and endless patience of God. No one but He could bear with them.
Moses' verdict here is not God's last word about Israel. One writer shows how a very different verdict on the same people can be true at the same time:
Moses states what the people were in their nature and practical ways; God declares what they are in His sight, because of the blood of atonement. Notice, God does not say there is no iniquity in Jacob, but that "he has not beheld it." There was plenty of it. But they were a redeemed people, sheltered under the blood of the Lamb... He could not see both the iniquity and the blood shed to wash it away.
(The older translation of Numbers 23:21 reads "He has not beheld iniquity in Jacob"; the ESV reads "He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob.")
The lesson is not only for Israel:
Mercy alone had saved them and brought about their restoration. How easily our poor hearts, no different from theirs, forget all we were and that we owe all we are to the grace of God. Self-righteousness is detestable in God's sight. True faith and obedience means true humility.
- Not merit. The land was never wages. Moses forbids Israel even to think, "Because of my righteousness."
- Not partiality. God removed the Canaanites for their own wickedness — bad tenants evicted, whoever moved in next.
- But mercy. What made Israel differ was not their record but the sovereign mercy and electing love of their covenant God.
- Even stiff-necked. Justice would answer their stubbornness with destruction. Under grace, through a mediator, that same stubbornness becomes a reason to ask for God's presence.
- So humility. Moses tells them what they are in themselves. God tells them what they are under the blood. Together these truths leave no room for self-righteousness.