NOTES for Deu 9:1-29

Describing the situation, Moses sets the accents with complete clarity: the people receive the land not because of their own righteousness, but because of the wickedness of the peoples who inhabit it at the moment. Here we have the logic of history that stands behind many events, especially conquests, coups, and revolutions. Most often what stands behind all these is not the will of God but, as theologians usually say in such cases, His allowance. In the overwhelming majority of cases God does not take the side of one group against another. He simply steps aside, withdraws, not because He is indifferent to everything, but because, as a rule, He supports neither side. And this is no surprise: in the same overwhelming majority of cases the parties involved in the events have no concern either for God or for His will. God takes no one's side because no one is on His side, and God will not force Himself on those who do not need Him.

With His people, however, the situation is unusual. The people of God are included in history just like all other peoples, and at the same time they are no better, no more righteous, no more spiritual than any other people. But God has a special plan, a special intention concerning His people, and that is what makes His people unusual, distinguishing them from all other peoples of the earth. Of course, the people themselves do not become better merely because God has a particular plan for them, but their path will still differ from the path of any other people on earth. God needs to bring His people to the place where He wants to see them, where He has appointed a meeting with Himself for them.

The path of any other people may be determined by a chain of God's allowances, which for the people themselves will look like accidents and turns of their historical fate, just as happens with a person who, not knowing the way, moves from one accident to another and calls such movement fate. The path of the people of God, however, is in any case determined by God; but it runs among ordinary peoples, such as the peoples who inhabited pre-Israelite Palestine. They were no worse, but also no better, than any other people, and therefore they were subject to the same changes and chances of fallen history as all other peoples. Yet God deprives them of the land not for their special sins, but for the ordinary wickedness characteristic of all fallen peoples. Likewise, He gives His own people the land not for their special righteousness, but because that is His plan. Yet the wickedness of the peoples whom God drives from the land makes such expulsion possible, allowing God to carry out His plan concerning His people.

When reading the Bible, it is not hard to see that the whole history of God's relationship with His people is full of contradictions. On the one hand, there is the covenant-union, the giving of the Torah, the promises made long ago to Abraham and fulfilled by God in all the fullness possible for our world. On the other hand, there is apostasy, spiritual falls, the violation of the commandments given by God, without observance of which the covenant-union loses all meaning. But God does not abandon His people even when the people turn their back on Him.

Why is that so? Out of pity? Or in the hope that the next attempt will be more successful than the previous one? Hardly: God knows His people as a whole and each person individually; He sees what each is capable of and understands that indulgence toward human sinfulness will not help in the struggle against sin. To Him, as to no one else, it is clear that the people will not become different until He Himself remakes them. And yet God remains faithful to the union once concluded. What, then, makes Him keep faith with those who often think of faithfulness last of all? Only one thing is clear: love for those whom He once chose, whom He raised from a tribe into a people, to whom He gave the land promised long ago to Abraham. Otherwise what is happening cannot be explained.

And the same love, perhaps, makes God unwilling to exclude His people from the plan of which, by His election, they once became a part. That is apparently why He often carries out His design not thanks to, but in spite of, the spiritual and moral qualities and efforts of His people. So that He may still save everyone who can be saved.

Reading the Bible, it is easy to be persuaded that all the history of God's relationships with His people is full of contradictions. On one hand, "the union-covenant", the gift of the Torah, the promises, given to Abraham and fulfilled by God in all possible for our world fullness. On the other - apostasy, spiritual decline, the violation of commandments given by God, which their non-observation makes "the union-covenant" to lose generally all its sense. But God does not abandon His people even when the people turn away from Him. Why so? By pity?

Or in the hope that the next attempt will be more successful than the previous one? Hardly: because God knows His people as a whole and every person in particular, He sees who is capable of what and understands that the indulgence to human sinfulness will not help the fight against sin.

It is clear for Him, as in nobody else, that the people will not change, until He Himself does so. And all the same God remains faithful to the union concluded once. What obliges Him to keep the faithfulness with those who think of faithfulness often as a last resort? Obviously one thing: the love to those who He chose once, that He raised from tribe to nation, to whom He gave the land promised to Abraham.

What is happening can not be explained otherwise. And the same love certainly obliges God not to exclude His people from this plan, which due to his election was once part of. That is why, apparently, He realizes His intention, and often not because of, but in spite of the spiritual and moral qualities and the efforts of His people. In order to save all the same every person, who can be saved.

Characterizing the people of God from the very beginning of their history, the author of the book of Deuteronomy puts very harsh words into Moses' mouth about this people. Of course, while reading them one can recall much: the unbelief in success that the people showed already in Egypt, the story with the golden calf, and the refusal, immediately after the Exodus, to conquer the land promised by God, although that was quite possible.

And also that constant grumbling and dissatisfaction, that constant desire to turn back to Egypt, which accompanied the people throughout their whole journey from Egypt to Transjordan. And later history, the history of life on the land promised by God and conquered by the people with God's help, was by no means rich either in faithfulness to God or in obedience to Him.

In essence, throughout the whole pre-exilic period the faithful among the people of God formed not the majority, but a minority. One has to admit that the whole history of the people really confirms the words of the Torah cited here. But then a natural question arises: why, with all this, does the Jewish people still remain the people of God? And why, if they are the people of God, did their spiritual path turn out to be so winding?

Of course, from the very beginning God wanted to see His people as a community of the faithful. But achieving this proved not easy: a historical remelting in the Babylonian furnace was required in order to reach the goal.

And yet the Jewish people remained the people of God throughout their whole history, because the covenant-union that God made with them remained unbreakable, at least on God's side. And among the people there was always preserved, to use the language of the prophets, a remnant that kept faithfulness to God even when, speaking in human terms, there was no sense in doing so. Acting otherwise was impossible.

Of course, at any moment God could have started everything over. At any moment He could have begun a new history of another union with another people. But there are no guarantees that this other history would have been better than the one we know: this takes place in a fallen world, and there is nothing to be done about that, unless one sets the goal of not saving the world that exists, but creating the world anew. So God can only act as He does act, carrying out His plan with the people who are there. And along the way He prepares His people for the tasks that await them ahead.

Characterizing the people of God from the beginning of its history, the author of the Book of Deuteronomy puts in the mouth of Moses the very harsh words, which characterize these people. Of course, by reading them, it is possible to remember many things: and this incredulity to success, which demonstrated the people in Egypt again, and the history with the golden calf, and the refusal of the conquest of the completely possible immediately after the Exodus land promised by God. And still - this constant grumbling and discontent, this constant desire to turn back, to Egypt, which accompanied the people all the time during it way from Egypt to Transjordan.

And the further history, the history of the life on the land promised by God and conquered by the people with God’s help, not abounded at all neither faithfulness to God, nor obedience to Him. In fact, throughout the period before captivity the faithful in the people of God were not the majority, but the minority. It comes to admit that the whole history of the people really confirms the words of the Torah. But then rises a natural question: why with all this the Jewish people still remain the people of God? And why, if they the people of God, their spiritual way has proved so tortuous? Of course, God wanted to see from the beginning His people as a community of faithful. Here is, just to obtain that was not so easy: a historical remelting in the Babylonian boiler was needed to reach the goal.

But all the same the Jewish people remained the people of God throughout its history: indeed, this union-testament, which God concluded with Him, remained inviolable, at least from God’s side. And in the people was always maintained, expressing by the prophetic language, the remnant that remained faithful to God even when thinking humanely, there was no sense in it. And it was impossible to act otherwise.

God could at any time begin everything again, He could at any time begin a new history of another union with another people. But there is no guarantee that this other history would be better than the one that we know: because it takes place in the fallen world, and here there is really nothing to do, if only to put oneself the purpose not to recreate the world again, but to save the one that is. And it remains to God only to act, as He acts, realizing His plan with people, who are there. And along prepare His people to the resolution of the tasks that wait ahead.