Deuteronomy 9 Study Notes

9:13-14 The Lord could carry out his threat and still be true to the Abrahamic promise that his seed would never end by preserving Moses. The Exodus narrative records Moses’s intercession in response to the threat. God made this threat on two different occasions (Ex 32:9-14; Nm 14:12).

9:15-17 Moses’s shattering of the tablets was more than an act of justifiable rage. Just as the commandments now lay in a thousand pieces, so Israel had smashed the covenant seemingly beyond repair. It also anticipated the shattering of the calf image to signify the removal of idolatry from the nation (v. 21).

9:18-20 Moses’s acknowledgement that the Lord listened to him and averted his intended wrath teaches not only that Moses was a faithful advocate but that God hears the prayers of those who earnestly intercede with him for others (Jms 5:13-18).

9:21 The disposition of the sinful calf revealed the impotence of idols and dramatized how anything that competes for the worship of the true God is to be dealt with. Moses’s example had to be repeated many times in Israel’s history (1Kg 15:13; 2Kg 11:18; 18:4; 23:4).

9:22-24 The three place names in v. 22 have ominous meanings. Taberah (Nm 11:1-3) means “blaze.” Massah (Ex 17:1-7) means “testing.” Kibroth-hattaavah (Nm 11:31-34) means “graves of craving.”

9:25 This picks up from v. 18.

9:26-27 Moses’s prayer that the Lord would remember his servants rose not out of any fear that he would no longer retain them in his consciousness but out of a desire that he would act to keep his covenant promises to them. “Remember” when in reference to God always carries with it an implicit response or action.

9:28 Moses appealed to God’s concern for the honor of his name. God had acted so far to show the nations what kind of God he was. See Moses’s intercession in Nm 14:13-16.

9:29 For Israel to be God’s inheritance meant that they belonged to him (7:6) and also that he belonged to them, a unique relationship that gave each of them exclusive claims on the other.