Why the Lord Will Help Israel
Moses said:
1 Israel, listen to me! You will soon cross the Jordan River and go into the land to force out the nations that live there. They are more powerful than you are, and the walls around their cities reach to the sky. 2 Some of these nations are descendants of the Anakim. You know how tall and strong they are, and you've heard that no one can defeat them in battle. 3 But the Lord your God has promised to go ahead of you, like a raging fire burning everything in its path. So when you attack your enemies, it will be easy for you to destroy them and take their land.
4-6 After the Lord helps you wipe out these nations and conquer their land, don't think he did it because you are such good people. You aren't good—you are stubborn! No, the Lord is going to help you, because the nations that live there are evil, and because he wants to keep the promise he made to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
When Israel Made an Idol
(Exodus 32)Moses said to Israel:
7 Don't ever forget how you kept rebelling and making the Lord angry the whole time you were in the desert. You rebelled from the day you left Egypt until the day you arrived here.
8 At Mount Sinai you made the Lord so angry that he was going to destroy you. 9-11 It happened during those 40 days and nights that I was on the mountain, without anything to eat or drink. He had told me to come up there so he could give me the agreement he made with us. And this agreement was actually the same Ten Commandments he had announced to you when he spoke from the fire on the mountain. The Lord had written them on two flat stones with his own hand. But after giving me the two stones, 12 he said:
Moses, hurry down the mountain to those people you led out of Egypt. They have already disobeyed me and committed the terrible sin of making an idol.
13 I've been watching the Israelites, and I've seen how stubborn and rebellious they are. 14 So don't try to stop me! I am going to wipe them out, and no one on earth will remember they ever lived. Then I will let your descendants become an even bigger and more powerful nation than Israel.
Moses said:
15 Fire was raging on the mountaintop as I went back down, carrying the two stones with the commandments on them. 16 I saw how quickly you had sinned and disobeyed the Lord your God. There you were, worshiping the metal idol you had made in the shape of a calf. 17 So I threw down the two stones and smashed them before your very eyes.
18-20 I bowed down at the place of worship and prayed to the Lord, without eating or drinking for 40 days and nights. You had committed a terrible sin by making that idol, and the Lord hated what you had done. He was angry enough to destroy all of you and Aaron as well. So I prayed for you and Aaron as I had done before, and this time the Lord answered my prayers.
21 It was a sin for you to make that idol, so I threw it into the fire to melt it down. Then I took the lump of gold, ground it into powder, and threw the powder into the stream flowing down the mountain.
22 You also made the Lord angry when you were staying at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-Hattaavah. 23 Then at Kadesh-Barnea the Lord said, “I am giving you the land, so go ahead and take it!” But since you didn't trust the Lord, you rebelled and disobeyed his command. 24 In fact, you've rebelled against the Lord for as long as he has known you.
25 After you had made the idol in the shape of a calf, the Lord said he was going to destroy you. So I lay face down in front of the Lord for 40 days and nights 26 and prayed:
Our Lord, please don't wipe out your people. You used your great power to rescue them from Egypt and to make them your very own. 27 Israel's ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob obeyed you faithfully. Think about them, and not about Israel's stubbornness, evil, and sin. 28 If you destroy your people, the Egyptians will say, “The Lord promised to give Israel land, but he wasn't powerful enough to keep his promise. In fact, he hated them so much that he took them into the desert and killed them.” 29 But you, our Lord, chose the people of Israel to be your own, and with your mighty power you rescued them from Egypt.
1 Heare O Israel, Thou shalt passe ouer Iorden this day, to goe in and to possesse nations greater and mightier then thy selfe, and cities great and walled vp to heauen, 2 A people great and tall, euen the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak? 3 Vnderstand therefore that this day ye Lord thy God is he which goeth ouer before thee as a consuming fire: he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them downe before thy face: so thou shalt cast them out and destroy them suddenly, as the Lord hath said vnto thee. 4 Speake not thou in thine heart (after that the Lord thy God hath cast them out before thee) saying, For my righteousnesse the Lord hath brought me in, to possesse this land: but for the wickednesse of these nations the Lord hath cast them out before thee. 5 For thou entrest not to inherite their lande for thy righteousnesse, or for thy vpright heart: but for the wickednesse of those nations, the Lord thy God doth cast them out before thee, and that he might performe the worde which the Lord thy God sware vnto thy fathers, Abraham, Izhak, and Iacob. 6 Vnderstand therefore, that ye Lord thy God giueth thee not this good land to possesse it for thy righteousnes: for thou art a stifnecked people. 7 Remember, and forget not, howe thou prouokedst the Lord thy God to anger in the wildernesse: since the day that thou diddest depart out of the land of Egypt, vntill ye came vnto this place ye haue rebelled against the Lord. 8 Also in Horeb ye prouoked the Lord to anger so that the Lord was wroth with you, euen to destroy you. 9 When I was gone vp into the mount, to receiue the tables of stone, the tables, I say, of the couenant, which the Lord made with you: and I abode in the mount fourtie daies and fourtie nights, and I neither ate bread nor yet dranke water: 10 Then the Lord deliuered me two tables of stone, written with the finger of God, and in them was conteyned according to all the wordes which the Lord had said vnto you in the mount out of the middes of the fire, in the day of the assemblie. 11 And when the fourtie dayes and fourtie nightes were ended, the Lord gaue me the two tables of stone, the tables, I say, of the couenant. 12 And the Lord said vnto me, Arise, get thee downe quickly from hence: for thy people which thou hast brought out of Egypt, haue corrupt their wayes: they are soone turned out of the way, which I commanded them: they haue made them a molten image. 13 Furthermore, the Lord spake vnto me, saying, I haue seene this people, and beholde, it is a stifnecked people. 14 Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and put out their name from vnder heaue, and I wil make of thee a mightie nation, and greater then they be. 15 So I returned, and came downe from the Mount (and the Mount burnt with fire, and ye two Tables of the couenant were in my two handes) 16 Then I looked, and beholde, ye had sinned against the Lord your God: for ye had made you a molten calfe, and had turned quickly out of the way which the Lord had commanded you. 17 Therefore I tooke the two Tables, and cast them out of my two handes, and brake them before your eyes. 18 And I fell downe before the Lord, fourtie dayes, and fourtie nightes, as before: I neither ate bread nor dranke water, because of al your sinnes, which ye had committed, in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord, in that ye prouoked him vnto wrath. 19 (For I was afraide of the wrath and indignation, wherewith the Lord was mooued against you, euen to destroy you) yet the Lord heard me at that time also. 20 Likewise ye Lord was very angrie with Aaron, euen to destroy him: but at that time I prayed also for Aaron. 21 And I tooke your sinne, I meane the calfe which ye had made, and burnt him with fire, and stamped him and ground him small, euen vnto very dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the riuer, that descended out of the mount. 22 Also in Taberah, and in Massah and in Kibrothhattaauah ye prouoked ye Lord to anger. 23 Likewise when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Goe vp, and possesse the land which I haue giuen you, then ye rebelled against the commandement of the Lord your God, and beleeued him not, nor hearkened vnto his voyce. 24 Ye haue bene rebellious vnto the Lord, since the day that I knewe you. 25 Then I fell downe before ye Lord fourtie dayes and fourtie nightes, as I fell downe before, because ye Lord had said, that he woulde destroy you. 26 And I prayed vnto the Lord, and saide, O Lord God, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatnesse, whom thou hast brought out of Egypt by a mightie hand. 27 Remember thy seruants Abraham, Izhak, and Iaakob: looke not to ye stubburnes of this people, nor to their wickednes, nor to their sinne, 28 Lest the countrey, whence thou broughtest them, say, Because ye Lord was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, or because he hated them, he caried them out, to slay them in the wildernesse. 29 Yet they are thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy mightie power, and by thy stretched out arme.