Justin Houtz

Deuteronomy 9, 2 Corinthians 13

DateVersionReading Plan
June 11, 2025ESV (2016)OT/NT Plan 2025 – 2027

Deuteronomy 8

Observation & Interpretation

Moses spoke to the people and told them that they were to cross over the Jordan that day and dispossess nations greater than they. The sons of Anak were tall, but they were to know that the LORD would go over before them as a consuming fire to subdue them before His people. The people were not to think that their dispossession of the land was due to their righteousness but rather that it was because of the wickedness of the nations and in order that the LORD would confirm the word He swore to their fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and Jacob. They were not to forget how they provoked the LORD to anger in the wilderness and that they had been rebellious against the LORD from the day they came out of Egypt.

Moses recounted his ascent of the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant God made with them. Moses remained on the mountain and fasted from bread and water forty days and forty nights. The LORD gave him the tablets and told him to go back down the mountain because the people had acted corruptly. Moses recalled how the LORD intended to kill the people for their stubbornness, to blot out their name from under heaven and make of Moses a greater and mightier nation. Moses came down the mountain to find that the people had made themselves a golden calf and turned aside from the way the LORD had commanded them. He threw the two tablets down from his two hands, broke them before the eyes of the people and lay prostrate before the LORD as before, eating no bread or water for forty days and forty nights. Moses was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the LORD bore against the people, ready to destroy them. The LORD was also angry with Aaron, so Moses prayed for him at the same time. Moses took the calf that the people had made, burned it with fire, crushed and ground it to a fine dust and threw the dust into the brook that ran down the mountain.

Moses spoke of other instances in which the people provoked the LORD to wrath and that they had been rebellious against the LORD from the day he knew them. It was because of this that he lay prostrate before the LORD for forty days and forty nights because the LORD had said he would destroy them. Moses prayed to the LORD not to destroy His people lest the land from which they were brought would say that the LORD was unable to bring them out of the land He promised them. This people were His heritage whom He had brought out by His great power and outstretched arm.

Application

Moses fasted for forty days and forty nights both when on the mountain to receive the tablets and also in response to the people provoking the LORD to anger in fashioning the golden calf. Both instances reflect a self-sacrificial, contrite posture before the LORD that we would do well to share. While fasting is not overtly commanded in the Bible, we read of it often enough to be considered a worthy practice of spiritual discipline. It has been some time since I have fasted (due largely to daily supplements requiring to be taken with food), but in reading of Moses’ fasting, I feel prompted to explore this as a more regular activity.

2 Corinthians 13

Observation & Interpretation

This was the third time Paul was coming to the Corinthian church and, when he did, he sin that was being propagated must be rightly investigated, namely, that charges must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. Paul warned those who sinned before and all others that, if he came again, they would not be spared. They sought proof that Christ was speaking in Paul but Paul assured them that He was not weak in dealing with them. Christ was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. Likewise, Paul and his company were weak in Him but in dealing with the church they would live with Him by the power of God. Paul “means that when he visits them, he will demonstrate the mighty power of God in dealing with those who were sinning. They said he was weak and contemptible; he will show them he can be strong in exercising discipline!” (BBC)

Paul exhorted the church to examine themselves to see if they were in the faith. “Paul is not telling the Corinthians to engage in self-examination as a proof of their salvation. Rather he is asking them to find in their salvation a proof of his apostleship. There were only two possibilities: either Jesus Christ was in them, or they were disqualified, spurious” (BBC). Paul expressed his gladness in being weak when they are strong and that it was their restoration for which he prayed. “It was with their perfecting in view that he wrote this Letter to them. He would rather write while absent from them that these results might be secured, than that being present he should have to use sharpness, as authorized by the Lord.” (BBC)

As a final greeting, Paul told the brothers to rejoice, aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace and the God of love and peace would be with them. They were to greet one another with a holy kiss, “a characteristic greeting among Christians in the days of the apostles.” (BBC). Paul closes with a benediction that mentions all three persons of the Trinity. Quoting Lenski, the BBC says, “With the picture of the great apostle spreading his hands over the Corinthians with this profound New Testament benediction his voice sinks into silence. But the benediction remains upon our hearts.”

Application

On Paul’s words regarding the weakness of Christ in crucifixion but living by the power of God, the BBC says, “Our Lord was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. So His followers are feeble in themselves, yet the Lord demonstrates His power through them.” A mark of a transformed heart is the welcoming embrace of weakness, knowing that in this the power of God is perfected.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank You that You look with favor upon those who approach You with genuine contrition. Father, we are in no wise righteous or deserving of such favor, but You are gracious to listen and provide in Your Son for our every need.

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