Not for Thy Righteousness: Deuteronomy 9 and the Delusion of Pride

Israel is standing on the east bank of the Jordan River, looking across at the land God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

What waits over there is enough to make a grown man sit down. There are walled cities that seem to reach the sky. There are giants, the children of Anak, men so big that the whole region had a saying about them.

“Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven, A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak!” (Deuteronomy 9:1-2)

Then God makes them a promise. He will go over first. He will burn through those nations like a consuming fire, and Israel will drive them out quickly.

“Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee.” (Deuteronomy 9:3)

You would expect the next words to be a rallying cry. They are not. Before Israel has crossed the river, and before a single wall has fallen, God sits them down and tells them what they are going to be tempted to say once they win.

“Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee. Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.” (Deuteronomy 9:4-6)

That is a strange thing to say to an army on the eve of battle. But God knew something about Israel’s heart that Israel did not yet see.

He knows the same thing about yours.

“Speak not thou in thine heart”

Look at where the danger lies. God did not say “speak not with thy mouth.” He said speak not in thine heart.

He knew that when the blessing came, Israel would be tempted to look at it and think, There must be something special about me. God brought me in here because I must be that important to Him.

That tendency lives in every one of us. God blesses you, and He blesses you far beyond anything you deserve. Then somewhere in the back of your heart a quiet voice says, Well, I’m doing everything right, and God is showing me favor. That stands to reason.

That is the trap the Pharisees fell into, and God wants to drive it as far from you as He can.

He does not do it to be cruel. God lovingly shows you what you really are, and then He shows you that He chooses to love you in spite of it. He loves you more than you can understand, explain, or comprehend. When you stop and think about that, it blows your mind.

But it also settles something. It is not my righteousness. It is not anything I brought to Him. It is not some offering of mine that was so much better than anybody else’s that I earned His favor.

I have titled this message “Not for My Righteousness,” but you could just as well call it the delusion of pride.

1. You are fascinated with your own righteousness

Mankind wants to put his own righteousness on display. It is our natural tendency to assume there must be something good in us, or God would not have done anything for us.

“The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.” (Luke 18:11)

Hardly anybody prays like that out loud. But turn to Luke 7 and watch how naturally the same thinking comes out of decent people.

A Roman centurion has a servant he loves dearly, and the servant is dying. The centurion sends the elders of the Jews to Jesus, and here is how they make their case:

“And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this: For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue.” (Luke 7:4-5)

He’s worthy. Look at what he has done. He built us a synagogue.

That is exactly how we think. Lord, see everything I have done for You. Maybe because of that You’ll do something for me. You and I would never say that outside. But if you are not careful, it can grow in your heart in secret, until you carry a slight feeling that maybe God owes you a little something for all you have given Him.

Now listen to the centurion himself:

“Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof: Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.” (Luke 7:6-7)

The elders said, He is worthy. The man said, I am not worthy.

“When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick.” (Luke 7:9-10)

Here is something interesting. When Jesus first went with the elders, the Bible never tells you He was going to heal the servant. We assume it. But the healing comes after the centurion answers, Lord, I am not worthy.

That does not mean humility obligates God either. He does not owe you anything when you are humble. But God is looking for that humble response.

Paul puts the same danger inside the church:

“Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.” (Galatians 6:1-3)

The moment you think you will not fall into the snare, and that you are not the kind of person who gets overtaken in a fault, you have deceived yourself. That is when you are most likely to fall.

Solomon saw it too:

“Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?” (Proverbs 20:6)

Isn’t that true? Everybody is quick to talk about what he has done and what he plans to do for God. Look at me. Look at what I’ve done. Nobody wants others to see his faults.

The man who simply does what is right, without boasting about it, is hard to find.

I am not preaching at you from some safe distance. I have fallen into this trap myself. I have caught myself thinking that if I highlight all my good things, and if I cover up my failures and pretend the bad things never happened, maybe God will look on me more favorably.

Every one of us is just as capable of that as anyone else.

2. “Thou art a stiffnecked people”: God knows how to expose your flaws

Go back to Deuteronomy 9:6. God tells Israel it is not their righteousness. Then, to make sure they understand just how unrighteous they are, He adds: for thou art a stiffnecked people.

When I read that, I thought, Whoa.

If God looked at most of us and said, You are a stiffnecked people, we would answer, Whoa, Lord. I’m not that bad. But God shows you what your heart really is and where it actually lies.

God knows exactly what to bring into your life when you start walking around up here, thinking you are something He ought to be impressed with. He knows how to show you that you are way down here. He knows how to bring you back to reality, and quickly.

Sadly, God has had to do that with me more often than I wish. But He loves me enough to do it. He shows me my faults so that I will come back to reality and walk in humility instead of pride.

You and I have plenty of flaws we think are hidden. We think nobody knows about them, or that God does not much care. But God has a way of bringing those things to light. Moses warned the men of Gad and Reuben about it:

“But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.” (Numbers 32:23)

It does not matter who you are. It does not matter if you have spent a whole life doing right. You can think a little bit of wrong will not matter in the middle of all that good. But your sin will find you out.

Watch it happen to the Pharisees in John 8. They were proud of who they were, of their heritage and their legacy:

“They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?” (John 8:33) “They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.” (John 8:39)

They believed they had it together. They thought they were the right ones, and important because of their standing. Then Jesus said this to the people who were certain they were the only ones living right:

“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44)

You can fall into that same trap just as easily. Maybe you go to the right church, and praise God if you do. Maybe you live an obedient life. That still gives you no license to act as though you are more special or more important than anyone else.

Remember where you came from. Every human being born into this world is born in sin. We are all children of the devil until we are born again.

Jesus said it plainly in Luke 8:

“For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad. Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have.” (Luke 8:17-18)

Don’t miss the end of that verse: even that which he seemeth to have.

You may be able to fool the world. You may put on a front good enough that everyone thinks you have it all together. But if it is not real, you will lose what you thought you had. You never really had it to begin with.

3. Not for thy righteousness, but by favor you never earned

Every believer will tell you that God’s grace is unmerited, that there is nothing you can do to earn it.

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;” (Titus 3:5) “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

You believe that. But how it works its way into the way you live can be a different story. God had to remind Israel that it was not their righteousness, and He has to remind you and me as well. You and I need to live in such a way that we never begin to think God’s favor proves we are better than somebody else.

Here is what Hezekiah wrote after the Lord raised him up from his sickbed:

“Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.” (Isaiah 38:17)

Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. What amazes me is that God does not hold against you what He has already forgiven. When you received the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, He forgave you of all sin, past, present, and future. He may remind you from time to time where He brought you from, so that you will not fall into pride. But He does not hold it against you.

I still make mistakes, and when I do, I pay the consequences. Praise the Lord, you and I will never lose our salvation. But we can hurt our fellowship with Him.

There is a day coming when even that will be over:

“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

They’re gone. All of it.

I look forward to that day more than I can tell you. On that day I will never sin against Him again. I will never be tempted to be lifted up with pride, and never tempted to think of myself as more righteous than someone else. I will never disappoint Him that way again.

What an awesome God, that He would love you enough not only to forgive you, but to wipe it all away.

“The LORD had a delight in thy fathers”

Keep reading past chapter 9. The rest of that chapter is a long reminder of Israel’s rebellion: the molten calf, the provocations, and the times God nearly destroyed them. Then chapter 10 opens with God sending them on toward the land anyway.

“And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?” (Deuteronomy 10:12-13) “Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD’s thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is. Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.” (Deuteronomy 10:14-15)

One chapter, God says thou art a stiffnecked people. The next, He says the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them.

That is what amazes me more than anything. Even after I have made mistakes and disappointed Him, He still chooses to love me. He still chooses to use me. That is not because I had something special to offer, or some good quality He needed.

God does not need anything I have. But He wants me.

He owns the heaven and the heaven of heavens and everything in the earth. He lacks nothing. And He delights in you.

You cannot wrap your mind around that. Once you see what you really are, and how wrong it is to be lifted up with self-righteousness, you are left asking why God would delight in you at all. It ought to amaze every one of us.

Back on the bank of the Jordan

Picture Israel again on the east bank of the river, with the giants across the water and God’s promise ringing in their ears.

Somewhere ahead of you there is a land God is going to give you. It may be a prayer answered, a burden lifted, a home held together, or a ministry that bears fruit. When it comes, you will be tempted to speak in your heart.

What will you say there?

Will you say, For my righteousness?

Or will you say, Lord, I am not worthy?

He already knows.

So do you.

Adapted from a message preached from Deuteronomy 9:1-6.