Deuteronomy 9:3,4 - He who goes before you

9:3

So looking at the enemy, at the task that lay ahead of them, things seemed bleak. The prospects were not good. But there was one other factor to be taken into account, and that was God. He would go ahead of them like a devouring fire. And He would subdue and defeat the opposition before them. “And you will drive them out ...” So yet again we see that when God does something, His people also do it. He involves us in almost everything that He does, but without Him we can do nothing. “You will annihilate them quickly”, this needn’t be seen as contradictory to the early word that they would conquer the land little by little. When it was time for a victory, the victory would come quickly,

9:4

So they need not, and must not, fear the external threat. But this would be followed by the internal threat. Once they had conquered the land, their hearts would tell them that it was because of their righteousness that the Lord had brought them to the Promised Land. Now this would clearly be a ridiculous thought, but we are all capable of it! The later part of this chapter will remind them how ridiculous a notion this would be, the people were anything but righteous. Notice that the thought does not discount God, but says He acted on their behalf because of their righteousness. We then get the reason why God was evicting the current occupants. It was because of the wickedness of the people in the land, it was a judgement upon them. Sometimes these conquests are viewed as “genocide”. This is wrong. It is judgement upon the current occupants because of their wickedness.