What is the meaning of Deuteronomy 9:5? It is not because of your righteousness or uprightness of heart God opens with a sober reminder: the Israelites have no moral leverage over Him. • Deuteronomy 9:6 echoes, “Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness… for you are a stiff-necked people.” • Romans 3:10-12 affirms that “There is no one righteous, not even one.” • Titus 3:5 stresses that salvation comes “not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy.” By stripping away every claim to personal merit, the Lord keeps Israel—and us—dependent on grace alone. that you are going in to possess their land Possession of Canaan is presented as a gift, not a prize earned. • Genesis 15:18 sets the geographical boundaries long before Israel exists as a nation. • Exodus 33:1 shows God promising, “Go up to the land I swore… I will give it to your descendants.” • Joshua 24:13 later records God saying, “You ate from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.” The land grant is rooted in divine generosity, not military prowess or moral superiority. but it is because of their wickedness Canaanite culture had reached a tipping point of corruption. • Leviticus 18:24-28 warns Israel not to copy the detestable practices that “defiled” the land and led to its inhabitants being “vomited out.” • Deuteronomy 18:9-12 lists child sacrifice, sorcery, and occultism as reasons “because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out.” • 2 Peter 2:6 illustrates the same principle with Sodom and Gomorrah—judgment falls when wickedness ripens. God’s justice requires dealing with sustained, unrepentant evil. that the LORD your God is driving out these nations before you Israel is not the primary actor; the Lord is. • Exodus 23:27 promises, “I will send My terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation.” • Joshua 23:9-10 recounts how “the LORD has driven out great and powerful nations for you… one of you routed a thousand, because the LORD your God was fighting for you.” • Psalm 44:3 adds, “It was not by their sword that they took the land… it was Your right hand.” Divine initiative, not human strategy, secures victory. to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob The ultimate motive is covenant faithfulness. • Genesis 12:7; 22:16-18 show God vowing land and blessing to Abraham’s line. • Exodus 2:24 notes, “God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” • Luke 1:72-73 celebrates Christ’s coming “to show mercy to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath He swore to our father Abraham.” God’s integrity guarantees fulfillment, irrespective of Israel’s fluctuating obedience. summary Deuteronomy 9:5 dismantles self-righteous pride and spotlights God’s character. Israel receives the land not because they are good, but because God judges Canaan’s evil and honors His unbreakable covenant with the patriarchs. The verse magnifies divine grace, justice, and faithfulness—reminding every generation that blessings flow from God’s mercy, not human merit. |
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