Deuteronomy 9:7

Deuteronomy 9:7 says, Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD.  Moses reminded the people that even though they were God's chosen people that He had delivered out of bondage in Egypt, they had remained a rebellious people.  As followers of Christ, we can be and too often are as well.  Still, they remained His chosen people because of Who He was, and so will we if we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.  Verse eight adds, Also in Horeb ye provoked the LORD to wrath, so that the LORD was angry with you to have destroyed you.  Still, there was a time when God became angry enough at their rebellious nature to destroy them, and we need to pray that we as Christians never make Him that mad.  Verse nine continues, When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water:  Moses said that this occurred while he was up on the mountain receiving God's law, during which time he neither ate nor drank for forty days.  Moses represented God to them, and they hadn't seen him for forty days, so they rebelled.  If we begin to feel that God isn't with us today, we need to draw closer to Him and not rebel against Him.  Verse ten states, And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.  Moses said God delivered to him the two tablets of stone with the Ten Commandments written on them by God's finger.  Today, the Ten Commandments should be written in our hearts by God.  Verse eleven adds, And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the LORD gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant.  Moses said at the end of the forty days that God gave him the two tablets of the covenant.  I don't believe that it took God forty days to write the Ten Commandments on the stones, but it was a time for Moses and the people of Israel to prepare themselves spiritually to receive them.  Verse twelve continues, And the LORD said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image.  Mose said God told him to arise and quickly get down the mountain because the people which he had led out of Egypt had corrupted themselves and made a golden image to worship.  The people of Israel may not have known what God was doing, but He knew what they were doing.  We may at times wonder where God is in a particular situation, but He always knows where we are.  Verse thirteen declares, Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:  Moses said God told him that He had seen this people and they were a stiffnecked people.  We need to make sure that as followers of Christ God never sees us the same way.  Verse fourteen adds, Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they.  Though God had chosen the people of Israel to be His people, He was ready to blot them out and choose a different people to work through.  We can never believe that we are special to God simply because of where we were born whether we obey God or not.  It takes a personal relationship with God to make us special to Him, and at this time the people of Israel did not have one.  Verse fifteen says, So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands.  Moses said he went down the mountain with the two tablets of stone and the mountain burned with fire.  This should have gotten the attention of the people of Israel.  I believe that God will always get our attention if we turn away from Him and start to chase after false gods.  Verse sixteen adds, And I looked, and, behold, ye had sinned against the LORD your God, and had made you a molten calf: ye had turned aside quickly out of the way which the LORD had commanded you.  Moses said that he then saw that they has made a molten calf to worship, quickly turn away from God in spite of what all He had done for them.  We will never be able to find anything that will be able to replace God in our life, even if we don't understand what He is doing at the moment.  Verse seventeen continues, And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes.  Moses said he threw the two tablets down and broke them.  We cannot allow the actions of others to cause us to become angry and break God's law if we are followers of Christ.