Deuteronomy 9:26

Deu 9:26 I prayed therefore unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

Ver. 26. I prayed.] And he had a hard tug of it; but prayer is the best lever at a dead lift.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Deu_9:26; Deu_9:29

I prayed therefore unto the Lord, and said, O Lord God, destroy not Thy people.

A covenant people

This prayer brings out in its greatest strength a contrast which goes through the Book of Deuteronomy, and through the whole Bible. The Israelites are the people of God, His inheritance, redeemed by His mighty hand. They are stubborn, stiff-necked, wicked. One all-important contrast suggests itself the moment we open the Scriptures. They do not set forth the history of man seeking for God, but of God seeking for men. In the Book of Exodus we have very distinct records of the life of Moses, but no one could possibly think that it was the object of that book to give us a biography of him or of any other man. Moses is called out by God to know His name and to do His work; that is the account which he gives of himself. This was his holiness; he was separated, set apart by God to act as His minister. He who set him apart revealed to him His character--showed him that righteousness, and not self-will, was governing the universe. To separate Moses the righteous man from Moses the deliverer of the Israelites is impossible. He could not have been righteous if he had not fulfilled that task, he could not have been righteous if he had not testified in all his acts and words that God, not he, was the deliverer. We miss the whole meaning of the story--the saintship of Moses disappears altogether--if we try to conceive of him apart from his people. It was a holy nation because God had called it out, had chosen it to be His, had put His name upon it. The family of Abraham was signed with Gods covenant, and was declared to be holy. Was it not so actually? Was it only so because Jacob was the head of it, or because Joseph was a member of it? The Scripture is careful to preserve us from any such feeble notions. It forces us to see that Joseph was better than his brethren, just because he identified himself with the family, and they acted as if they did not belong to it; because he believed that God had chosen it, and they forgot that He had; because he did, and they did not, believe it to be holy. The nation of Israel was told that the invisible God was actually their king; that He had brought them out of the house of bondage; that He was with them in the wilderness; that He would be with them in the promised laud. Supposing any Israelite to believe this, he was a strong, brave, free man; he could overcome the enemies of his land; he could tread his own underfoot. See, then, how reasonable the prayer was which I have taken for nay text. Because Moses regarded the Israelites as a holy and chosen people, redeemed by Gods own hand; because he believed that this description belonged to the whole covenant people at all times; therefore he felt with intense anguish their stubbornness, their wickedness, and their sin. Had they not been a holy people he would not have known in what their sin consisted. It was the forgetfulness of their holy state--the choice of another--which he confessed with such shame and sorrow before God; it was because they had gone out of the right way, forgetting that they were a nation, each man preferring a selfish way of his own--each thinking that he had an interest apart from his neighbour, apart from the body to which he belonged--that they needed his intercession and Gods renewing and restoring mercy. And Moses could ask for that restoring mercy; he had the power to pray, because he was sure that he was asking according to Gods will, because he was sure that he was asking that that which resisted His will might be taken away. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.)

Moses at the highest level of his ministry

Here we learn what Moses was--in spite of his imperfections--in the sight of God and men; and to what place of honour he attained among that great cloud of witnesses whose lives pass before us in Scripture. In this part of his history which he recounts he stands conspicuous.

I. In his zeal for the Divine honour.

1. Moses had been, forty days and nights on Sinai in the Divine presence, receiving revelations of Gods mind and will The people had become impatient, had forgotten the near presence of God, and fell away from Him. When Moses came near the camp, on descending from the mount, the idolatrous Scene that met his gaze roused him to anger, and he broke the tables of the law which he had brought from the mount, and only at his intercession the people were saved.

2. God has given His people many proofs of His goodness, condescension, etc. But around are many evidences of languor, of lukewarmness, and even of apostasy. If not outwardly, then in heart many, have turned back from God. Should not a holy indignation fill the breasts of Gods true servants; should not they, and all who belong to the Lord, strive against this defection, call those sins by their right names, etc.? There are situations in which such a zeal should characterise the office-bearers of the Church and all true members of the same.

II. In his earnest entreaty for his people.

1. He fell down before the Lord, etc., in earnest prayer for the people, as he had often done. So earnest that he asked that he himself might be blotted out of the book God had written if their sins were not forgiven (Exo_32:32). And his effectual fervent prayer was answered.

2. How like in spirit to the great apostles prayers was the prayer of Moses! (Rom_9:3.) If we go through the books of holy writ we see what may be done through prayer. The prayers of a Samuel, Hezekiah, Isaiah, Daniel, and the prayers of our Lord (Heb_5:5-7) all encourage to earnest prayer. Oh, that we could pray as earnestly and believingly as a Monica, a Luther, etc., or as Moses here prayed for his people! that we could wrestle in prayer for the lost and erring, for every soul sunk in sin, and remind God of His gracious promises, etc.! In these days, where means and ways must be considered whereby the channels of a true spiritual and moral life may be laid among the people, prayer and supplication are chief means. Let us use them earnestly. (Albert Kyphe.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Deu 9:26-29. Redeemed through thy greatness — The greatness of thy power and goodness, which appeared most eminently in that work. Remember thy servants Abraham, &c. — That is, thy promise made and sworn to them. They are thy people — Whom thou hast chosen to thyself out of all mankind.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9:26 The Lord redeemed Israel from their bondage in Egypt by his own gracious efforts on their behalf.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(26) I prayed therefore . . . and said.—The words that follow are very similar to those which are recorded in Exo_32:11-13. Moses appears to be alluding to his first intercession here, before he descended from Sinai for the first time.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26–29. And I prayed, etc.] details his intercession. Cp. Exo_32:11-13, JE, but probably editorial. Here the deuteronomic additions are which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness (greatness in Pl. passages Deu_5:24, here and Deu_11:2); look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness (the masc. noun, while the fem. is used in Deu_9:4-5), nor to their sin; great power and stretched out arm (see on Deu_4:34); and there are some variations.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say,.... The land of Egypt, the inhabitants of it:

because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them; the land of Canaan, the inhabitants of it being so mighty, and their cities so strongly fortified. Here Moses expresses his concern for the glory of God, and the honour of his perfections, and makes that a fourth argument why he should not destroy them:

and because he hated them, he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness; out of Egypt, a plentiful country, into a wilderness where nothing was to be had; but his choice of them for his inheritance, his redemption of them out of bondage and misery, the care he took of them, and the provision he had made for them in the wilderness, clearly showed that they were not the objects of his hatred, but of his love.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Through thy greatness, i.e. through the greatness of thy power, which appeared most eminently in that work, as is noted, Deu 9:29.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vers. 26-29. In these verses the substance of Moses" intercession is given, and it is substantially in agreement with the account in Exodus. Moses pleaded with God not to destroy that people which was his own, which he had redeemed for himself and brought out of Egypt; besought him to remember their pious ancestors, and not to look on the stubbornness and sin of the people; and urged that the Divine honor was concerned in their being conducted to Canaan, and not let perish in the wilderness.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Through thy greatness - Through the greatness of thy power, which appeared most eminently in that work.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

redeemed

(See Scofield "Exo 14:30").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.