It's Not About You

The children of Israel were about to enter and conquer the land of Canaan. It would be a monumental job. They were trying "to dispossess nations greater and mightier" than them who lived in "great cities fortified to heaven" (Deuteronomy 9:1). Their foes were "great and tall," renowned as unconquerable (9:2).

The amazing thing is that Israel would win, and God told them that before they even started to fight. Joshua 12 lists the thirty-one kings who were quickly defeated by Israel. Some of those victories, like Jericho, were unusual, as the walls of the city collapsed before Israel. Some were strategic, like the feigned retreat and deadly ambush at Ai. Some were daunting, like the five kings who banded together and all came at once. Some were routine and laborious, just another battle on another day.

Israel was not a nation with a grand military tradition. They had not reached the size that would require an army until they were in Egypt, and at that time they were slaves. They left Egypt without military might, training, or supplies. They wandered in the wilderness for forty years and had a few skirmishes during that time, but were most often isolated. It seemed unlikely that such a poorly-trained and poorly-equipped army could win any battle, but they decisively won battle after battle until the nations around them lived in dread and fear.

What a thrill those conquests must have been! How exciting for the soldiers to come home and tell their stories! How easy it could have become for those men to consider themselves great warriors and strategists! Ah, but now they have gone a step too far. In fact, Israel was not made of great warriors and strategists. It was not Israel who accomplished those great and improbable victories.

Before they even started the conquest, God warned them about such lofty thinking. "Do not say in your heart when the LORD your God has driven them out before you, 'Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land'" (9:4). "It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess the land" (9:5). "Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people" (9:6).

Israel was not going to conquer the land because of her own merits. God repeatedly told them so, and verse 6 particularly drives that point home by reminding them that they weren't all that righteous themselves. Verses 7-29 further develop that idea. Israel neither deserved the land of Canaan, nor did she procure it through her own strength.

Israel's possession of Canaan was not about them. It was about God. God was the one who decided that Israel would inherit Canaan, God was the one who made it possible, and God had His own plans and purposes for the conquest. Two primary divine motives are revealed in this passage.

God's first divine motive was to reveal His own character. God was going to drive out the heathen nations "in order to confirm the oath which the LORD swore to [Israel's] fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" (9:5). God was going to give Israel the land because He had said He would. The fulfillment would display God's truthfulness and His faithfulness to His word. God wanted to show His might on Israel's behalf so that the heathen nations would know of the true God. By the time Israel arrived in Canaan, the residents already lived in fear because they had heard of the mighty power of God.

God's second divine motive was specifically to reflect on His holiness. Israel was not getting the land because they were righteous; rather, the other nations were losing their land because they were wicked. "But it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is dispossessing them before you" (9:4). "But it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD your God is driving them out before you" (9:5). God allowed the wicked nations time and opportunity to repent, but when they did not, His holiness could not allow them to continue to prosper. Ironically, the same motivation would later cause God to remove His own unrighteous people from their land and give it to other wicked nations. Babylon and Chaldea didn't get the land because they were righteous, but because Israel was wicked.

God's motives reveal that Israel wasn't granted the land because of her own merits. It wasn't primarily about Israel. God's actions reveal that even the conquering of the land was not by Israel's own merits. If Israel had any idea of conquering the land by her own might, she was sadly mistaken. The conquering was all about God also.

"It is the LORD your God who is crossing over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you" (9:3). "When the LORD your God has driven them out before you" (9:4). "The LORD your God is driving them out before you" (9:5). This concept should have been obvious to any clear-headed observer. God made the walls of Jericho collapse after the people merely walked around them and blew trumpets. God made the men of Ai believe the trap and leave their city completely unguarded. God threw hailstones from heaven that killed more enemies than Israel's soldiers did. God made the sun stand still to provide a day long enough to finish a battle. God made city after city fall without a single survivor. It wasn't Israel who accomplished such amazing exploits. It was God.

When God works in the lives of His children, whether in blessing or trial, that work is not exclusively for those individuals. Rather, God is demonstrating His character and bringing Himself glory. Man is so small in the entire process. God is big.