Deuteronomy 9:1

_HEAR, O ISRAEL: THOU ART TO PASS OVER JORDAN THIS DAY, TO GO IN TO POSSESS NATIONS GREATER AND MIGHTIER THAN THYSELF, CITIES GREAT AND FENCED UP TO HEAVEN,_ THIS DAY - means this time. The Israelites had 40 years before reached the confines of the promised land, but were obliged, to their great mortification, to return. But now were they certainly to enter it. TO POSSESS NATIONS GREATER AND MIGHTIER THAN THYSELF - (see the note at Deuteronomy 7:1.) No obstacle could prevent their possession: neither the fortified defenses of the towns nor the resistance of the gigantic inhabitants, of whom they had received from the spies so formidable a description. CITIES GREAT, AND FENCED UP TO HEAVEN. Oriental cities generally cover a much greater space than those in Europe; because the houses often stand apart, with gardens and fields intervening. They are al

1._Thou art to pass over Jordan this day. _The whole of this passage contains an eulogy on the gratuitous liberality of God, whereby He had bound the people to Himself unto the obedience of the Law. But this (as we have already seen) ought to have been a most pressing stimulus to incite the people, and altogether to ravish them to the worship and love of God, to whom they were under so great obligation. The design of Moses, then, was to shew that the Israelites, for no merit of their own, but by the signal bounty of God, would be heirs of the land of Canaan; and that this entirely flowed from the covenant and their gratuitous adoption; in order that, on their part, they should persevere in the faithful observation of the covenant, and so should be the more disposed to honor Him. For it would be too disgraceful that they, whom God had prevented by His grace, should not meet Him, as it wer...

1-6 Moses represents the strength of the enemies they were now to encounter. This was to drive them to God, and engage their hope in him. He assures them of victory, by the presence of God with them. He cautions them not to have the least thought of their own righteousness, as if that procured this favour at God's hand. In Christ we have both righteousness and strength; in Him we must glory, not in ourselves, nor in any sufficiency of our own. It is for the wickedness of these nations that God drives them out. All whom God rejects, are rejected for their own wickedness; but none whom he accepts are accepted for their own righteousness. Thus boasting is for ever done away: see Ephesians 2:9; Ephesians 2:11; Ephesians 2:12....

CHAPTER IX _The people are informed that they shall shortly pass over_ _Jordan, and that God shall go over before them, to expel the_ _ancient inhabitants_, 1-3. _They are cautioned not to suppose that it is on account of their_ _righteousness that God is to give them that land_, 4-6. _They are exhorted to remember their various provocations of the_ _Divine Majesty, especially at_ Horeb, 7-14; _and how Moses interceded for them, and destroyed the golden_ _calf_, 15-21. _How they murmured at_ Taberah, 22;...

The lesson of this chapter is exactly that of Ephesians 2:8, “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.” In referring to their various rebellions, Moses here, as elsewhere, has regard not so much for the order of time as to that of subject. (Compare Deuteronomy 1:9 note.) Such reasons as convenience and fitness to his argument sufficiently explain the variations observable when the statements of this chapter are minutely compared with those of Exo. 32–34. In these variations we have simply such treatment of facts as is usual and warrantable between parties personally acquainted with the matters....

EXPOSITION DISSUASIVES FROM SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS. DEUTERONOMY 9:1 Israel might acknowledge that it was of God's free gift that they possessed the land of Canaan, and yet might flatter themselves by thinking it was because of their righteousness and goodness that the gift was bestowed. To guard against this, _Moses _tells them that not because of their righteousness would God go before them and drive out the mighty peoples that then occupied the land, but because of the wickedness of these peoples themselves were they to be extirpated (Deuteronomy 9:1). He further reminds them of their transgressions in the past, and how they thereby came under the Divine displeasure, and were saved

HEAR, O ISRAEL,.... A pause being made after the delivery of the preceding discourse; or perhaps what follows might be delivered at another time, at some little distance; and which being of moment and importance to the glory of God, and that Israel might have a true notion of their duty, they are called upon to listen with attention to what was now about to be said: THOU ART TO PASS OVER JORDAN THIS DAY; not precisely that very day, but in a short time after this; for it was on the first day of the eleventh month that Moses began the repetition of the laws he was now going on with, Deuteronomy 1:3, and it was not until the tenth day of the first month of the next year that the people passed over Jordan, Joshua 4:19 which was about two months after this: to go in and posses

5. WARNING AGAINST SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS AND THEIR PREVIOUS FAILURES Chapter S 9:1-10:11 _ 1. The warning (Deuteronomy 9:1)_ 2. The failures of the past (Deuteronomy 9:7) 3. The intercession of Moses (Deuteronomy 9:25) 4. The results of the intercession (Deuteronomy 10:1) This chapter and the first eleven verses of the tenth are aimed against the spirit of self righteousness. First there is the warning. This is followed by their shameful history of the past, which showed that a boast of being righteous, or having any righteousness had to be positively excluded in their

DEUTERONOMY 9:1_ a_. Israel's victory over the Canaanites due to the wickedness of their foes and Yahweh's promise. Deuteronomy 9:6. stiffnecked: lit. hard, _i.e._ obstinate, of neck (Exodus 32:9). The figure is that of an animal which refuses to take the yoke. Deuteronomy 9:7_ a._ PROVOKEDST. TO WRATH: DEUTERONOMY 4:25 * where a Heb. verb of different meaning is similarly translated....

THIS DAY: i.e. it is declared this day that, &c. Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Subject), App-6, where the action is put for the declaration concerning it. Punctuate thus: "Hear,. Israel this day", &c. See note on Deuteronomy 4:26. NATIONS. Put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Subject), App-6, for the countries inhabited by them....