Study Desk

"No, do not be afraid of those nations, for the Lord your God is among you, and he is a great and awesome God.

The Lord your God will drive those nations out ahead of you little by little. You will not clear them away all at once, otherwise the wild animals would multiply too quickly for you.

"You must burn their idols in fire, and you must not covet the silver or gold that covers them. You must not take it or it will become a trap to you, for it is detestable to the Lord your God.

Do not bring any detestable objects into your home, for then you will be destroyed, just like them. You must utterly detest such things, for they are set apart for destruction.

Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands.

For all these forty years your clothes didn't wear out, and your feet didn't blister or swell.

Think about it: Just as a parent disciplines a child, the Lord your God disciplines you for your own good.

For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land of flowing streams and pools of water, with fountains and springs that gush out in the valleys and hills.

When you have eaten your fill, be sure to praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.

For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in,

He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good.

"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.

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.

This happened when I was on the mountain receiving the tablets of stone inscribed with the words of the covenant that the Lord had made with you. I was there for forty days and forty nights, and all that time I ate no food and drank no water.

Then the Lord said to me, ‘Get up! Go down immediately, for the people you brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned away from the way I commanded them to live! They have melted gold and made an idol for themselves!'

There below me I could see that you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had melted gold and made a calf idol for yourselves. How quickly you had turned away from the path the Lord had commanded you to follow!

"Then, as before, I threw myself down before the Lord for forty days and nights. I ate no bread and drank no water because of the great sin you had committed by doing what the Lord hated, provoking him to anger.

The Lord was so angry with Aaron that he wanted to destroy him, too. But I prayed for Aaron, and the Lord spared him.

"That is why I threw myself down before the Lord for forty days and nights—for the Lord said he would destroy you.

"As for me, I stayed on the mountain in the Lord 's presence for forty days and nights, as I had done the first time. And once again the Lord listened to my pleas and agreed not to destroy you.