From time to time, we can slip into a subtle kind of pride. That pride makes us think we are better than those whom we condemn. We become stubborn and unchanging when our pride takes hold of our thinking.  It’s a slippery slope that must be checked because on that slide, we will end up just like the ones we condemned when our pride took control. 

One of the many things I appreciate about Moses was his straightforwardness regarding Israel’s sins. He told them like it was, pulling no punches. Moses spent several chapters explaining how God had rescued Israel. He explained how easy it was for the people to make a golden calf to worship a demon instead of worshipping the Living God. 

Moses confronted the people’s attitude when he spoke about their redemption, “After the Lord your God has done this for you, don’t say in your hearts, ‘The Lord has given us this land because we are such good people!’ No, it is because of the wickedness of the other nations that he is pushing them out of your way” (Deuteronomy 9:4).

Moses then spoke directly to the people’s pride, “It is not because you are so good or have such integrity that you are about to occupy their land. The Lord your God will drive these nations out ahead of you only because of their wickedness, and to fulfill the oath he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (vs. 5).

Moses would not allow the people to think more highly of themselves than they should. On both sides, with God’s people and the enemies that occupied the land, evil was present in both camps. What made Israel different was the promises God made to them and His oath to fulfill His promises despite Israel’s sin. 

Then Moses revealed what was preventing them from fully understanding what was happening to them: “You must recognize that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land because you are good, for you are not—you are a stubborn people” (vs. 6). 

The word “stubborn” means to be stiff-necked. A stiff and stubborn neck kept Israel from turning their eyes around to look at themselves and see the evil being revealed in their lives.

It takes a humble heart to see our lives as God sees us. In His love, the Lord will reveal evil in His people to keep us humbled, especially in those times when we want to shift blame for what’s happening in the world around us, when God’s people are doing the very same thing.  

Sight is the evidence of our faith, even if that sight reveals that our sins are just like the sins of those we have labeled as our enemies. Only God’s willingness to fulfill His promises can save us from ourselves and from the sins we have failed to see in our own lives.