Deuteronomy 9 NLT
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. 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. 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. (4-6)
Sometimes people are offended by the grace that God showed to Israel. They wonder, “why of all the nations did He choose them and destroy others?” Moses makes it clear that He chose them because of His grace and not because of their goodness. In fact, they were as wicked (in some ways) as the nations they were displacing. Yet, God chose to save and love and use this wicked nation in order to demonstrate His grace and mercy to the rest of the world. We should remember that in our own lives. God is interested in His glory, and that is why He shows us grace. Don’t ever be tempted to think that there is something particularly good about you that caused the Lord to choose you and work in your life. No, just like the Israelites we are a “stubborn people.”
God works in our life because that is His will and purpose. However, we sometimes secretly think that He is using us because there is something wonderful about us. On the contrary, we are wicked, wretched, helpless people who are hopelessly loved by a wonderful and good God. His saving us says more about His grace than it does about our goodness. God chose the most stubborn of nations to be His people because their un-usefulness uniquely positioned them to be an even greater demonstration of His glory. God’s choice to save us is exactly the same. We sometimes wonder, “Why doesn’t God save some famous actor or singer so that they can be an even greater witness for Him?” The reason is that it would become more about them than about Him and He refuses to share His glory with another. This is good news for us because it means that nobody is too wretched to be saved and used. In reality, the lower the better… that sure was good news for me.
