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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Thursday, 1 May 2025:
Deuteronomy 9:1, 6 – Go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you…. Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people.
Humility is at the heart of Christian faith. How easy is it for us to lose sight of our total dependence on God’s mercy and grace. Today, we read how God was going to lead the Israelites to a victory they could never have achieved without Him so He would be glorified through them. However, God also knew that the Israelites would grow prideful in the success He provided them, as if they had anything to do with it. Similarly, we have a tendency to grow prideful, which leads to self-righteousness and self-centeredness. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:11)
- James 4:6 — But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
We are saved by grace. God gives grace to the humble, not to the prideful. God opposes the prideful. Jesus began His public earthly ministry with these words: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3) Only when we truly appreciate the totality of our moral and spiritual bankruptcy, will we truly be amazed by grace and ready to experience the fulness of life in Christ. What pours out of a person is what is inside of them. The mark of a person who is truly filled with the grace of God is graciousness. A person who is saved by grace can only live by grace and give grace to all others, loving as Christ loved, forgiving regardless the personal cost.
Pride makes us judgmental of others and unforgiving, and Jesus reserves some of his harshest condemnation for those who would receive mercy, grace, and forgiveness from God but then refuse to give the same to others. Therefore, Jesus teaches us to pray to the Father, ‘Forgive us of our sins in the same way we forgive others.’ In our reliance on grace, we have no right to offer anything other than grace to those who offend us in some way. See how many the Bible reiterates this point as we continue to read this year.
Deuteronomy 9:4 — Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, “It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,” whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you.
Moses anticipates Israel’s tendency to credit themselves for their blessings, and he warns them not to interpret success as proof of moral superiority. Again, we are saved and sustained not because of our own goodness, but because of God’s mercy and faithfulness. Any spiritual progress or favor in life must be received with humility, not self-congratulation.
Deuteronomy 9:7 — Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord.
This call to remember past failures is not about shame, but about cultivating humility and honest self-awareness. Christians are to recall not only God’s faithfulness but also our own tendencies toward sin, in order to stay grounded in grace. Remembering our rebellion keeps us from boasting and helps us extend mercy to others who fall.
Deuteronomy 9:13 — Furthermore, the Lord said to me, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stubborn people.”
God’s assessment of human nature is piercingly honest. Stubbornness, pride, and rebellion are not just occasional behaviors—they are characteristics deeply rooted in the human heart. The Christian life, therefore, requires continual surrender and transformation by the Holy Spirit. We cannot reform ourselves; we must be remade by God.
Deuteronomy 9:18 — Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger.
Moses’ intercession here is a model of Christlike leadership. He pleads with God not for his own sake, but on behalf of a rebellious people. This foreshadows Christ, who intercedes for us even in our sin. It also challenges Christians to take seriously the ministry of intercession—for our families, our churches, and even those who have gone astray.
Deuteronomy 9:29 — For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.
Our identity is rooted not in their performance but in God’s choosing, deliverance, and power. We belong to God because He chose us and redeemed us—not because we deserved it. When we truly grasp this, our lives become marked by humility, worship, and a longing to live in obedience not to earn God’s favor, but in gratitude for it.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 1 May 2025: Consider your pridefulness. Watch out if you view yourself as humble. Repent, receive forgiveness, and give forgiveness to others unconditionally. Observe how much grace you naturally give to others as an indicator of how appreciative you really are for the grace you have received through Christ. – “Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” (Luke 7:47)
- Philippians 2:5-8 — Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Defenders Bible Reading Plan 