It is Because of God’s Grace
Hear, O Israel: you are to cross the Jordon today, to go in and dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to the heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of Anakim, whom you have known, and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’ Know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the LORD your God.
He will destroy them and subdue them before you. So, you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the LORD has promised you. –Deuteronomy 9:1-3
Israel is about to enter the Promised Land. Dwelling in that Land are people that are bigger and mightier than is Israel. The Sons of Anak are there. The Sons of Anak were huge. The translators of the Septuagint used the word giants to describe them.
These are the people that the spies of the earlier generation had seen and been so afraid of. Many of the people surely would have remembered that their parents had been afraid of these giants.
“The Anakim were legendary giants. The statement ‘of whom you have heard’ probably refers to the report of the twelve spies of the earlier account in 1:22-28 (see also Num. 13:31-33). [But Israel is not to be afraid.] YHWH is described as ‘a consuming fire’ who will ‘destroy them’ and ‘subdue them before’ the people of Israel.”[1]
Two things are about to happen. The Israelites are about to receive a tremendous blessing. God is going to give them this rich and wonderful land. It is a gift from God, for the people of God, because of the grace of God. The Land is not something that they have earned because they are better or more righteous than the Canaanites. It all of grace.
The other thing that is about to happen is a terrible judgment on the Canaanites. While Israel did not earn their blessing, the Canaanites did earn their judgment.
God will come as a consuming fire. He will do so to remove the Canaanites from the land so that Israel can possess it. But that is not the only reason that God will come in such a fearsome way. He could have simply caused the Canaanites to abandon the land and migrate to another location. God is not just coming to move the Canaanites; he is coming to destroy them. This is an act of righteous judgment for the terrible sins of a truly wicked people.
Israel will not be passive observers to all of this. Moses said that “you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly.” Israel will have to fight to receive their blessing.
This is like the Christian life. It is God who defeats the giants in our lives, the enemies of our soul. It is he who defeats our fears and lusts and hatreds and self-loathing. He will destroy and consume our “sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, and idolatry. [He will wipe out our] “anger, wrath, slander, and obscene talk” (Colossians 3:5-8). And it is God who will bless us with “compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience…forbearance…and love” (Colossians 3:12-14). God will do these things for us.
But we must fight as well. Just as Israel had to drive the giants out of the Land so we must drive the giants out of our lives. We must do whatever it takes to “put to death what is earthly” in us (Colossians 3:5). We must fight, make every effort, do whatever it takes to “put on” godliness.
God also wanted Israel to know that the reason for their being blessed was not because they had earned it or deserved it. It was not because of their own righteousness.
“Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land, whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you. Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land” (9:4-5).
“God warned that the Israelites could not assume that they themselves were being spared for the opposite reason, namely, that they were righteous.”[2] Israel did not earn their blessing by being better or more holy than the Canaanites.
Much has been written about the wickedness of the Canaanites and the justice of God’s judgement on them. But it must also be remembered that Israel was also wicked. What did Israel do after God rescued them and brought them to the holy place where he entered into an intimate relationship with them at Sinai? They created an idol and worshipped it with eating and drinking and sexual immorality (Exodus 32:6). And that was not an isolated, one-time incident. In many cases, Israel showed themselves to be wicked.
In the rest of the chapter Moses reviews the sinfulness of the people. He tells them that they are a stubborn people (9:6). He reminds them that they have been rebellious (9:7). You provoked the LORD to wrath, he said. God was ready to destroy them (9:8). Moses reviewed the incident with the golden calf (9:13-21). Repeatedly the people provoked the LORD. Again, and again they “rebelled against the commandment of the LORD…and did not believe him or obey his voice” (9:22-23). Moses concludes, “You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you” (9:24). It was only because Moses prayed and pleaded with God on their behalf, as a type of Christ the great intercessor to come, that God relented and spared them (9:26-29).
Moses did not tell them these things to humiliate them or make them feel bad. He was not rubbing their noses in their past failures. Moses reminded them of these things to drive home the truth that they are recipients of grace, that God has loved them and been gracious to them. What they deserve is the same thing that the Canaanites were getting. He did not want to humiliate them, but he did want them humbled and to receive the gift that God was giving with gratitude.
So, it must be with us. We must remember that we are unworthy recipients of God’s grace. We must never think that we are better than those who have not come to Christ. We must be humble before the holiness of God, receiving his gifts with gratitude.
Much love, Barry
Adapted from Deuteronomy: Love and Grace in the Law of God, available from Amazon at
[1] Duane Christensen, Word Biblical Commentary: Deuteronomy, 181
[2] George Robertson, Deuteronomy- More Grace, More Love, 83