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9
1 Listen, people of Israel! Shortly you're going to cross the Jordan to enter and take over the country from nations that are larger and stronger than you, that have large towns with walls that reach up into the sky. 2 The people are strong and tall; they are the descendants of the Anakim. You all know about them and you have heard the saying, “Who could ever defeat the sons of Anak?” 3 But you should realize that today the Lord your God is going across ahead of you. He is like a consuming fire; he will destroy them and defeat them ahead of you. You will drive them out and quickly wipe them out, just as the Lord promised you.
4 When the Lord your God has driven them out ahead of you, don't say to yourselves, “It's because I'm such a good person that the Lord has brought me here to take over this land.” No, the Lord is driving out these nations ahead of you because they're so wicked. 5 It's not because you're so good or moral that you're going to take over their land. No, it's because of their wickedness that the Lord your God is driving out these nations ahead of you, to keep the promise he made to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6 You'd better believe that it's not because you're such good people that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to own, because you are stubborn, hard-hearted people.
7 Remember how you provoked the Lord your God in the desert! Don't ever forget it! From the time you left the land of Egypt until you arrived here, you've been constantly rebelling against the Lord. 8 At Horeb you provoked the Lord, making him so angry he was about to destroy you. 9 This was when I climbed up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets that recorded the agreement the Lord made with you. I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, and I didn't eat or drink anything.
10 The Lord gave me the two stone tablets on which he'd written with his finger everything he'd told you when he spoke from the fire on the mountain when we were all assembled there. 11 After forty days and forty nights, the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the agreement. 12 The Lord told me, “Hurry! Go down immediately, because your people that you led out of Egypt, are committing a terrible sin. They have disobeyed what I told them so quickly! They have made themselves an idol using molten metal.”
13 The Lord also told me, “I have been watching these people, and they really are stubborn and hard-hearted. 14 Leave me, so that I can destroy them and wipe out their name completely. Then I will turn you into a nation even more powerful and more important than them.”
15 I went back down the mountain while it was still on fire, carrying the two tablets of the agreement. 16 Then I saw how much you had sinned against the Lord your God by making for yourselves a molten calf. You had disobeyed what the Lord had told you so quickly. 17 I threw the two tablets down, smashing them to pieces as you watched.
18 Then I lay down on the ground before the Lord for forty days and forty nights, just as I had before. I didn't eat or drink anything because of all the sins you had committed by doing what was evil in the Lord's sight, making him angry. 19 I was terrified at how angry and furious the Lord was with you. He was ready to destroy you. But once again the Lord listened to me.
20 The Lord was so angry with Aaron he was ready to destroy him, but right then I prayed for Aaron too. 21 I took that abominable thing, the calf you'd made, and burned it. Then I crushed it up and ground it into dust, and I threw it into the stream that descended from the mountain.
22 But you went on provoking the Lord at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah. 23 When the Lord had you leave Kadesh-barnea, he told you, “Go and take over the country that I've given you.”
But you defied the command of the Lord your God. You didn't believe him and you didn't obey him. 24 You have been rebelling against the Lord from the day I first knew you.
25 So I lay down on the ground before the Lord for forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had threatened to destroy you. 26 I prayed to the Lord, saying, “Please Lord, God, don't destroy your people that belong to you, the ones whom you rescued by your great ability and led out of Egypt by your power. 27 Please remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Please disregard the stubbornness of this people and their wicked sin. 28 If you don't, those people back in Egypt will say, ‘The Lord brought them out to kill them in the desert because he couldn't take them to the land he'd promised them, and because he hated them.’ 29 But they are your people, Lord! They belong to you! You led them out of Egypt by your amazing power and might!”

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© 2018 Dr. Jonathan Gallagher