Deuteronomy 9:5 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.
There are so many people who think they are much better than they really are, much more important, much more attractive. The reality is that most of us are average. That is the way it works. Everyone can’t be the best. Only one is the best, the rest of us tend toward the middle. Statistics 101!
We tend to want to believe our own public relations campaigns about ourselves. We turn on our self-help tapes and listen and believe. Being positive is one thing, but believing a hyped up message is just foolishness. Most of us are average!
Israel had believed a very hyped up message about themselves. They were slaves, delivered from slavery by the LORD, not by their own ability to form a rebellion and overthrow their oppressors. They were not part of the French or American Revolution’s. They were just slaves, and often wanted to go back to slavery instead of moving forward with the LORD.
And now as they are about to enter the Promised Land, Moses reminded them of their past. They have been rebellious since their beginnings. Within a handful of days, they had made an calf idol and had begun worship services. The parted waters of the Reed Sea were quickly forgotten.
But let’s not be too quick to condemn them. How often have we failed to be obedient? What would our history recited sound like if Charlton Heston was reading it? Would we sound any better than Israel?
Our text is found right before Moses begins to recite the Golden Calf incident. He wants to bring them to their knees in shame and repentance. He wants them to own up to what they have done. It is only in their humility that they can find strength.
How often do we try to start from a position of strength? But the way to survive is to come to the LORD from a position of weakness and poverty of spirit. The Israelites brought nothing to the table except an inflated view of self. They were nothing. The LORD was everything.
So why would the LORD choose Israel if they were such a bunch of rebels? Two things. The LORD had promised, and He keeps HIs promises. And the second reason was that the other nations were far worse than they were. Israel was bad, but those nations were worse.
I think sometimes in our relativistic moral world we forget just how horrible people can be. We read about it in the headlines, another school shooting, another gang related shooting spree and innocents killed. We think to ourselves, we would never do things like that, so we must not be so bad after all.By comparison, we are doing pretty good.
We are just like Israel, so the LORD has to point out their own shortcomings, their own rebellions, so that the can see the grace and mercy of God. The LORD worked in Israel, in part, to show the nations, not the superiority of their moral actions, but the holiness of the God they served. The LORD showed up and carried out His will.
Let us not presume that the blessings that are in our lives is because we are somehow better than others. We don’t know the reasons for these blessings. They are certainly not in our lives because we have earned them, anymore than the coming victories in the communal life of Israel was because they were better than. On the contrary, they were only receiving the blessings because of the LORD’s promises. He kept His word.
The Arnold Journey 