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Israel to Remember How They Did Not Obey

¹ "Hear, O Israel! You are crossing over the Jordan today to take the land that belongs to nations greater and stronger than you, with big cities with walls as high as heaven. ² The people there are strong and tall, the sons of Anakim. You know of them and have heard it said, ‘Who can stand in front of the sons of Anak?' ³ But know today that it is the Lord your God Who is crossing over before you as a fire that destroys everything. He will destroy them and bring them down before you. So you may drive them out and be quick to destroy them, just as the Lord has told you. ⁴ But after the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say in your heart, ‘The Lord has brought me in to take this land because I am right and good.' It is because of the sin of these nations that the Lord is driving them out in front of you. ⁵ It is not because of your being right with God that you are going to take their land. But it is because of the sin of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out in front of you. By this the Lord is proving that He keeps the promise He made to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ⁶ Understand that it is not because you are right with God that the Lord your God is giving you this good land for your own, for you are a strong-willed people.

⁷ "Remember and do not forget how you made the Lord your God angry in the desert. You have gone against the Lord from the day you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place. ⁸ Even at Mount Sinai you made the Lord angry. The Lord was so angry with you that He would have destroyed you. ⁹ I went up the mountain to receive the pieces of stone, the Laws of the agreement which the Lord had made with you. I stayed on the mountain forty days and nights. I did not eat bread or drink water. ¹⁰ Then the Lord gave me the two pieces of stone written by the finger of God. On them were all the words the Lord had spoken with you on the mountain from the fire on the day of the meeting. ¹¹ At the end of forty days and nights the Lord gave me the two pieces of stone, the Laws of the agreement. ¹² Then the Lord said to me, ‘Get up. Hurry and go down from here. For your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become very sinful. They have been quick to turn away from what I told them. They have made a false god for themselves.' ¹³ And the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen these people. See, they are strong-willed. ¹⁴ Let Me alone, so I may destroy them and destroy their name from under heaven. I will make you into a nation that will be greater and stronger than they.' ¹⁵ So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire. The two pieces of stone of the agreement were in my two hands. ¹⁶ And I saw that it was true that you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves a calf out of gold. You had been quick to turn away from what the Lord had told you. ¹⁷ So I took the two pieces of stone and threw them from my hands, and broke them in front of your eyes. ¹⁸ Then again I fell down before the Lord for forty days and nights. I did not eat bread or drink water, because of all the sin you had done. You did what was sinful in the eyes of the Lord and made Him angry. ¹⁹ I was afraid of the anger of the Lord which was burning against you to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me again. ²⁰ The Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. So I prayed for Aaron at the same time also. ²¹ Then I took your sinful thing, the calf you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it. I ground it into pieces until it was as fine as dust. And I threw its dust into the river that flowed down from the mountain.

²² "You made the Lord angry again at Taberah, Massah and Kibroth-hattaavah. ²³ The Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go and take for your own the land I have given you.' But you went against what the Lord your God told you to do. You did not believe Him or listen to His voice. ²⁴ You have gone against the Lord from the day I first knew you.

²⁵ "So I fell down before the Lord and lay forty days and nights, because the Lord had said He would destroy you. ²⁶ I prayed to the Lord, saying, ‘O Lord God, do not destroy Your people, Your chosen nation, whom You have set free by Your power and brought out of Egypt with a strong hand. ²⁷ Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Do not look at the strong will or sin or wrong-doing of these people. ²⁸ Or the land You brought us from may say, "The Lord was not able to bring them into the land He promised them. Because He hated them, He brought them out to kill them in the desert." ²⁹ Yet they are Your people, Your chosen nation, whom You have brought out by Your great power and Your long arm.'