We've been studying Deuteronomy 9 in which Moses cautions the congregation not to forget the time they made an idolatrous image. It's important for them to remember this incident because they're being given a land that has been inhabited by idolatrous people and they must take care not to fall into idolatry there themselves. Remembering how close they came to disaster is intended to help them avoid coming close to it again when they take over the promised land which is filled with pagan altars and pagan images.
In yesterday's passage Moses recounted being told by the Lord, while he was on the mountain with Him, that the people had made an idol. This is where we pick up today. "And the Lord said to me, 'I have seen this people, and they are a stiff-necked people indeed! Let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.'" (Deuteronomy 9:13-14) The Lord said, "Let me alone," because Moses was pleading with Him on behalf of the Israelites. But Moses didn't give up on them and neither did the Lord. The Lord could have destroyed all of them except Moses and his family and still kept His promise to Abraham to make his descendants into a great nation, since Moses was a descendant of Abraham. But the Lord knew Moses would intercede for the people; Moses was a humble man who wanted all Israel---not just his own family line---to inherit the land. The Lord knew Moses would intercede and the Lord knew He would hear Moses' prayers.
Aren't we thankful the Lord hears prayers on our behalf? And aren't we thankful He doesn't give up on us? He could say of each of us, "They are a stiff-necked people" because we all have chosen at times to deliberately disobey His instructions. Yet He has had mercy on us. Moses reminds the congregation that the Lord has had mercy on them and that they owe all their thanks to the Lord for the prosperity they will enjoy in the promised land. They aren't to ever begin thinking, "The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness." (Deuteronomy 9:4) To settle into this line of thought would lead to an attitude of pride, as we discussed yesterday, and pride leads to sin because pride tells us we deserve blessings---that we've earned them. Pride causes us to have too much confidence in the flesh when it comes to resisting sin, for we are unable to live godly lives in our own puny strength. Pride drives a wedge between us and the Lord who is the source of strength. So Moses is saying, "Don't forget how close to destruction you came! You could easily fall that far from grace again. You must be on guard against the temptation of idolatry or else the Lord, who is removing the pagan nations of Canaan for their idolatry, will also remove you from the land for the same reason."
Remember how sinful our lives were before we came to faith in the Lord? The propensity for that kind of living is still in our carnal flesh even though our spirit is willing to be obedient to the Lord. The things that tempted us before our conversion may still be an area of weakness for us and if we do not stay on guard and rely on the Lord to resist then we could fall back into some old habits. That's why we must never boast pridefully about our own strength. That's why it's so dangerous to start thinking, "The Lord provides for me and rescues me from troubles because of my righteousness." Remember how close we came to destruction when we didn't have a relationship with the Lord and when we lived in opposition to Him? We didn't save ourselves from our old lives of sin; the Lord saved us. We don't keep ourselves saved; the Lord keeps us saved. Now that we have been saved, the Lord is the one upon who we must rely to keep from falling into old habits and behaving like we are not the children of God.
Moses hurried down the mountain upon hearing that the people had made an idolatrous image. "So I turned and went down from the mountain while it was ablaze with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands. When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way the Lord had commanded you. So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes." (Deuteronomy 9:15-17) Before Moses went up on the mountain to receive the tablets written by the finger of God, the Lord had laid out the terms of the covenant He wanted to make with Israel and Moses had relayed these terms to the people. The people accepted the terms, saying, "We will do everything the Lord has commanded." So the Lord put the terms of the covenant in writing. But before Moses returned to camp with the tablets, the people had already broken the covenant. That is why he broke the tablets. As we talked about when we studied this incident, I don't think Moses threw them to the ground in a fit of anger. I don't think he acted outside of the will of God when he did this. I think he did it to signify that the people had not kept their end of the bargain, for the Ten Commandments begin by instructing man to have no God but the Lord and to make no type of idolatrous image.
But all is not lost. As we move on through Chapter 9 tomorrow we'll find out that when Moses made intercession for the people he lay prostrate on the ground before the Lord and fasted for forty days and forty nights. Moses was pleading for those forty days and nights for the Lord not to destroy the people and the Lord's wrath was turned away from them. As Moses will say, "The Lord listened to me."
Moses was the mediator of the first covenant God made with man. Moses loved the Lord and he loved the people and he relayed the Lord's offer to the people and relayed the people's acceptance to the Lord. In this same way, the Lord Jesus Christ is the mediator of the new covenant God has made with man. Jesus loves God the Father and Jesus loves all mankind. He has brought God and man together under a covenant that depends not upon works but upon faith. We cannot keep the Ten Commandments, much less the entire law. But who can and who did, thus living a completely righteous life? The Lord Jesus, who can impute righteousness to us for our faith in Him. The offer God makes to us under the new covenant is to believe on His Son and the sacrifice He made as propitiation for our sins. Our acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord is how we accept the offer God makes and how we enter into covenant with Him.
The Apostle Paul, in his letter to his fellow Israelites, explained the setting aside of the first covenant and the establishing of the second covenant like this: "The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming---not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said: 'Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You prepared for Me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings You were not pleased.' Then He said, 'Here I am---it is written about Me in the scroll---I have come to do Your will, my God.'" (Hebrews 10:1-7) The quote in verse 7 is derived from Psalm 40 which was written by David. Paul is telling his readers that although sacrifices were made in accordance with the law, sacrifices could not eternally make clean the person who brought them. These sacrifices pointed toward a greater sacrifice that was coming---a sacrifice which could cleanse once and for all. When Paul says the Lord was "not pleased" with sacrifices and offerings he means the first covenant did not fully satisfy the needs of man or the heart of God. The Lord wanted to provide us with a permanent means of salvation and with a new covenant in which we do not have to bring such offerings year after year after year. Instead He provided us with a means of salvation that is by faith alone in the sacrifice of the One who gave Himself for us.
Paul concludes his explanation like this: "First He said, 'Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not desire, nor were You pleased with them'---though they were offered in accordance with the law. Then He said, 'Here I am, I have come to do Your will.' He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." (Hebrews 10:8-10)
Christ is the mediator of the new covenant between God and man. (Hebrews 9:15) We are all lawbreakers and we all need someone to intercede on our behalf. Moses performed intercessory work for Israel but he could not provide a sacrifice capable of cleansing them from their sins once and for all. Instead they had to offer the atoning sacrifices prescribed by the law and accept on faith that the Lord extended forgiveness and mercy to them until the next year when the atoning sacrifice was made again. "But when the set time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship." (Galatians 4:4-5) The law was good but the sacrifices prescribed by the law could not do what the sacrifice of God's Son did. The old covenant was good but the new covenant is better. The new covenant is satisfying and pleasing to God in a way the old covenant was not. And the new covenant pleases and satisfies our hearts in a way the old covenant could not. Moses was a type of Christ in the Old Testament, but because he was only a human being like everyone else, he could not make a sacrifice to save mankind. I think he would have if he could have; he loved Israel that much. But at the right time and in the right way, God sent His Son who was fully God and fully man at the same time, and He made the sacrifice capable of saving us to the uttermost forever.
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