Deuteronomy 9:6

"Know therefore, that Jehovah thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiff-necked people. Remember, forget thou not, how thou provokedst Jehovah thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou wentest forth out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against Jehovah. Also in Horeb ye provoked Jehovah to wrath, and Jehovah was angry with you to destroy you. When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which Jehovah made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread nor drink water. And Jehovah delivered unto me the two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which Jehovah spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly."

What a rebellious and stiff-necked people were the Israelites! Throughout the entire O.T., there is one narrative after another of their numerous rebellions against God; and the character manifested by them in the wilderness was evidenced almost countless times afterward. In this single chapter, Oberst pointed out the following references to their rebellions, etc:[15]

(a) Stiff-necked, Deuteronomy 9:6,13

(b) Rebellious, Deuteronomy 9:7,23,24

(c) Corrupted themselves, Deuteronomy 9:12

(d) Provoked Jehovah to wrath, Deuteronomy 9:7,8,22

(e) Believed not God, Deuteronomy 9:23

(f) "Sinned" and "were evil," Deuteronomy 9:18

(g) Quickly turned aside, Deuteronomy 9:12

Based solely upon their conduct, Israel had long ago "forfeited all claims to the favor of God."[16] Moses here mentioned the fact that "from the day they came up out of Egypt," but, of course, their rebellions had started even before their coming up out of Egypt. It was prior to the Exodus that they rejected Moses himself, saying, "Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?" For this reason, it is true as Keil noted that, "The words since the day that thou camest out must not be pressed!"[17]

In the conquest of Canaan, Israel was undoubtedly God's tool, or His instrument, in removing the corrupt civilization that lay festering in the land of Canaan. "The prophets of God, however, proclaimed both the Assyrian and Babylonian empires to be God's tools, `the rod of His anger, and the staff of His indignation' (Isaiah 10:5)."[18] The king of Assyria was even referred to as "God's razor!" (Isaiah 7:20). Now, of course, those evil nations used by God to punish Israel did not know they were being used of God, and in the same blindness Israel here refused to recognize the same principle. But Isaiah also wrote, "Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith?" (Isaiah 10:13,15). The plain meaning of this is that, "The instrument also will suffer God's judgment against sin."[19] Israel became so conceited at having been used for awhile as God's instrument that they never reconciled themselves to the idea that they also would suffer the judgment of God against them when their wickedness reached a "ripeness" that demanded it. Dummelow complained that Deuteronomy 9:9 was actually connected with the second giving of the law (Exodus 34:28),[20] but so what? Does Moses here say it was at the FIRST giving of it? "In this historical review, Moses condenses the narrative and does not follow the strict chronological sequence."[21] Since the people hearing Moses knew all of this already, it simply was NOT necessary to rehearse verbatim all that had occurred.

Day of assembly ..." (Deuteronomy 9:10). "This is a reference to the dreadful day when the people stood before the mount that burned with fire and God spoke directly to Israel."[22]

Finger of God ..." (Deuteronomy 9:10) The word for God here is [~'Elohiym], and not [~Yahweh] (used in the same verse), and, of course, this stands as an irrefutable proof that Moses himself used the two different names for God interchangeably. There are dozens of examples throughout the Bible of the same thing. (See my introduction to Genesis in this series.) Well, of course, the critics, who are married to the nonsense about different names for God meaning different authors or sources, cannot allow this to go unchallenged. What to do with it? Do what they always do with a verse of the Bible that contradicts their theories: (1) make a gloss out of it; (2) declare it to be the work of a "redactor"; (3) it really makes no difference how, JUST GET RID OF IT! This is the way Davies handled it here: "Deuteronomy 9:10 is perhaps a marginal gloss!"[23] Any proof of such a thing? No! Any evidence whatever of any gloss in this chapter? No. It is just another critic trying to make his foolish theory stand up!