Deuteronomy 9:4

_SPEAK NOT THOU IN THINE HEART, AFTER THAT THE LORD THY GOD HATH CAST THEM OUT FROM BEFORE THEE, SAYING,_ _ FOR MY RIGHTEOUSNESS THE LORD HATH BROUGHT ME IN TO POSSESS THIS LAND: BUT FOR THE WICKEDNESS OF THESE NATIONS THE LORD DOTH DRIVE THEM OUT FROM BEFORE THEE._ Speak not ... saying, For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land. Moses takes special care to guard his countrymen against the vanity of supposing that their own merits had procured them the distinguished privilege. The Canaanites were a hopelessly corrupt race, and deserved extermination (Leviticus 18:24: cf. Genesis 15:16); but history relates many remarkable instances in which God punished corrupt and guilty nations by the instrumentality of other people as bad as themselves. It was not

4._Speak not thou in thine heart. _He now more plainly warns the people not to exalt themselves in proud and foolish boasting. If they had not been naturally so depraved and malignant, it would have been sufficient to point out God’s grace in a single word; but he could not induce them to gratitude except by correcting and destroying their pride. He therefore takes away this stumblingblock, in order that God’s generosity might be conspicuous among them. “To speak in the heart” is equivalent to reflecting or conceiving an opinion. Wherefore Moses not only reproves the boasting of the lips, but that hidden arrogance, wherewith men are puffed up, when they take to themselves the praise which is due to God. Moreover, he not only prohibits them from ascribing it to their own valor, that they had routed their enemies, and gained possession of the land, but also from imagining that this was the...

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....

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

SPEAK NOT THOU IN THINE HEART,.... Never once think within thyself, or give way to such a vain imagination, and please thyself with it: AFTER THAT THE LORD THY GOD HATH CAST THEM OUT FROM BEFORE THEE; to make way for the Israelites, and put them into the possession of their land; which is to be ascribed not to them, but to the Lord: SAYING, FOR MY RIGHTEOUSNESS THE LORD HATH BROUGHT ME IN TO POSSESS THIS LAND; such a thought as this was not to be secretly cherished in their hearts, and much less expressed with their lips; nothing being more foreign from truth than this, and yet a notion they were prone to entertain. They were always a people, more or less, from first to last, tainted with a conceit of their own righteousness, and goodness, which they laboured to establish, and were ready to attribute all the good things to it they enjoyed, and nothing is more natural to men, than to fa...

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....

WICKEDNESS. Hebrew. _rash'a_. App-44....

_Speak … in thine heart_ See on Deuteronomy 8:17. _thrust them out_ See on Deuteronomy 6:19. _For my righteousness_ Here ethical: contr. Deuteronomy 6:25. _whereas for the wickedness … from before thee_ The whole clause is wanting in LXX B and seems a gloss or expansion anticipating the next _v_. and weakening the connection (Valeton, Dillm., Driver, Steuern., Berth.)....

DISCOURSE: 198 AGAINST SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS AND SELF-CONCEIT Deuteronomy 9:4. _Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the Lord thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord doth drive them out from before thee. Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand, therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiff-necked people_. MAN is a dependent creature: he has nothing of his own: he can do nothing: he can control no e