Remember, It’s Not About You (Deuteronomy 5-13)

A Few Thoughts to Consider

Have you ever been around someone who takes credit for everything?

This can be very off-putting, and we tend to recognize this tendency more in others than ourselves. Because this is humanity’s default, God has a warning for his people in Deuteronomy 9. After his opening speech in chapters 1-4, Moses repeats the Ten Commandments in Chapter 5 and calls on the people in Chapter 6 to love God with all their hearts, souls, and might. Following some further warnings in Chapters 7-8, we arrive at Chapter 9. After reassuring Israel that he will be with them despite the giants they will face, God makes this powerful caveat.

⁴ When the Lord your God drives them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘The Lord brought me in to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.’ Instead, the Lord will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness. ⁵ You are not going to take possession of their land because of your righteousness or your integrity. Instead, the Lord your God will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness, in order to fulfill the promise he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ⁶ Understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.

One of the greatest ways to drive God away is to take credit for what he has done. We do this in a million different ways. We take pride in how we’ve performed at work, what we’ve done for others, or the great life we’ve given to our family. We lose sight of the fact that every good thing in our life is a gift from God and take pride in our righteousness. As Duane Christensen notes:

In this context “righteousness” means our right relationship with God and the divine favor and protection that relationship brings. For Israel to speak of “my righteousness” (9:4) was to claim ownership and control of God’s free gift. Such presumption on Israel’s part was a direct assault on God’s grace and a profound forgetting of the great commandment in 6:5. It was also a forgetting of their own history.^[1] 

Christensen goes on to say, “The human condition is such that we tend to legitimate God’s gracious acts in our behalf as our just reward.”^[2] We take credit for what he has done and left to our own devices, we are naturally a “stick-necked people.” As Robert Alter notes, the phrase “stiff-necked people” is probably a “suggestion of ridged pride: instead of bowing the head when submission is appropriate, the stiff-necked person remains presumptuously, defiant, erect.”[3]

A key indicator that pride has seeped into your life is when you live in a constant state of discontent. You complain more than you should, grumble about what you don’t have, and act as though life is always against you. The remedy for pride is gratitude. It’s waking up each day realizing you are nothing without God and have everything you need because of him.

“Our righteous acts do not produce salvation but are, in fact, evidence of our salvation.”^[4]

A Meditation to PRAY

Praise | I praise you for that your righteousness is pure and your judgments are true. Any blessings I receive are not a result of my own righteousness but because of your grace and mercy.

 Release | I release any false sense of self-righteousness. It isn’t by works that I am saved but by your grace. I can be a “stiff-necked person,” yet you have chosen to love and sustain me. I give you any pride that may blind me to my dependence on you.

 Ask | I ask for a humble spirit to recognize my own failings and look to you for redemption. Teach me to be grateful for everything you have given me so I may better serve you and reflect your love in this world.

 Yield | I yield to your will, O God, acknowledging that I am nothing without you, and you alone are my provider. Let my life be a testament to your goodness and grace, not to my own merit.

A Challenge to Act Like Christ  

Isaiah 64:6 says, “all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment,” or “filthy rags.” “The word filthy is a translation of the Hebrew word iddah, which literally means ‘the bodily fluids from a woman’s menstrual cycle.’ The word rags is a translation of begged, meaning ‘a rag or garment.’ Therefore, these ‘righteous acts’ are considered by God as repugnant as a soiled feminine hygiene product.”[5]

Ephesians 2:1 says we were dead in our trespasses and sins before going on to say,

⁴ “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! ⁶ He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”

Without Christ, we have nothing. With him, we have everything.

^[1] Duane L. Christensen, Deuteronomy 1–21:9, Revised, vol. 6A, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Thomas Nelson, 2001), 181.

^[2] Duane L. Christensen, Deuteronomy 1–21:9, Revised, vol. 6A, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Thomas Nelson, 2001), 181.

[3] Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (The Five Books of Moses), vol. 1 (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2019), 650.

[4] "Filthy Rags - What is the Meaning of Filthy Rags in the Bible?" GotQuestions.org, https://www.gotquestions.org/filthy-rags.html.

[5] "Filthy Rags - What is the Meaning of Filthy Rags in the Bible?" GotQuestions.org, https://www.gotquestions.org/filthy-rags.html.