申命記9:7-29

9:7 你當記念不忘，你在曠野怎樣惹耶和華─你上帝發怒。自從你出了埃及地的那日，直到你們來到這地方，你們時常悖逆耶和華。
9:8 你們在何烈山又惹耶和華發怒；他惱怒你們，要滅絕你們。
9:9 我上了山，要領受兩塊石版，就是耶和華與你們立約的版。那時我在山上住了四十晝夜，沒有吃飯，也沒有喝水。
9:10 耶和華把那兩塊石版交給我，是上帝用指頭寫的。版上所寫的是照耶和華在大會的日子、在山上、從火中對你們所說的一切話。
9:11 過了四十晝夜，耶和華把那兩塊石版，就是約版，交給我。
9:12 對我說：『你起來，趕快下去！因為你從埃及領出來的百姓已經敗壞了自己；他們快快地偏離了我所吩咐的道，為自己鑄成了偶像。』
9:13 「耶和華又對我說：『我看這百姓是硬著頸項的百姓。
9:14 你且由著我，我要滅絕他們，將他們的名從天下塗抹，使你的後裔比他們成為更大更強的國。』
9:15 於是我轉身下山，山被火燒著，兩塊約版在我兩手之中。
9:16 我一看見你們得罪了耶和華─你們的上帝，鑄成了牛犢，快快地偏離了耶和華所吩咐你們的道，
9:17 我就把那兩塊版從我手中扔下去，在你們眼前摔碎了。
9:18 因你們所犯的一切罪，行了耶和華眼中看為惡的事，惹他發怒，我就像從前俯伏在耶和華面前四十晝夜，沒有吃飯，也沒有喝水。
9:19 我因耶和華向你們大發烈怒，要滅絕你們，就甚害怕；但那次耶和華又應允了我。
9:20 耶和華也向亞倫甚是發怒，要滅絕他；那時我又為亞倫祈禱。
9:21 我把那叫你們犯罪所鑄的牛犢用火焚燒，又搗碎磨得很細，以致細如灰塵，我就把這灰塵撒在從山上流下來的溪水中。
9:22 「你們在他備拉、瑪撒、基博羅‧哈他瓦又惹耶和華發怒。
9:23 耶和華打發你們離開加低斯‧巴尼亞，說：『你們上去得我所賜給你們的地。』那時你們違背了耶和華─你們上帝的命令，不信服他，不聽從他的話。
9:24 自從我認識你們以來，你們常常悖逆耶和華。
9:25 「我因耶和華說要滅絕你們，就在耶和華面前照舊俯伏四十晝夜。
9:26 我祈禱耶和華說：『主耶和華啊，求你不要滅絕你的百姓。他們是你的產業，是你用大力救贖的，用大能從埃及領出來的。
9:27 求你記念你的僕人亞伯拉罕、以撒、雅各，不要想念這百姓的頑梗、邪惡、罪過，
9:28 免得你領我們出來的那地之人說，耶和華因為不能將這百姓領進他所應許之地，又因恨他們，所以領他們出去，要在曠野殺他們。
9:29 其實他們是你的百姓，你的產業，是你用大能和伸出來的膀臂領出來的。』」

 ⁷ Remember this and never forget how you aroused the anger of the Lord your God in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against the Lord. ⁸ At Horeb you aroused the Lord’s wrath so that he was angry enough to destroy you. ⁹ When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water. ¹⁰ The Lord gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God. On them were all the commandments the Lord proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.

¹¹ At the end of the forty days and forty nights, the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. ¹² Then the Lord told me, “Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have turned away quickly from what I commanded them and have made an idol for themselves.”

¹³ And the Lord said to me, “I have seen this people, and they are a stiff-necked people indeed! ¹⁴ Let me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.”

¹⁵ So I turned and went down from the mountain while it was ablaze with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands. ¹⁶ When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷ So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes.

¹⁸ Then once again I fell prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight and so arousing his anger. ¹⁹ I feared the anger and wrath of the Lord, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you. But again the Lord listened to me. ²⁰ And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I prayed for Aaron too. ²¹ Also I took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain.

²² You also made the Lord angry at Taberah, at Massah and at Kibroth Hattaavah.

²³ And when the Lord sent you out from Kadesh Barnea, he said, “Go up and take possession of the land I have given you.” But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You did not trust him or obey him. ²⁴ You have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I have known you.

²⁵ I lay prostrate before the Lord those forty days and forty nights because the Lord had said he would destroy you. ²⁶ I prayed to the Lord and said, “Sovereign Lord, do not destroy your people, your own inheritance that you redeemed by your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²⁷ Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness and their sin. ²⁸ Otherwise, the country from which you brought us will say, ‘Because the Lord was not able to take them into the land he had promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.’ ²⁹ But they are your people, your inheritance that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.”

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    摩西在此向以色列人重述過去的事蹟，讓以色列人在一次思考認識自己的景況，反省自己的生命狀態。摩西這樣做就像一位牧者用上帝的眼光來引導自己的羊群，使羊群回顧過去展望未來！

    在教會中，牧者的講道中需要這樣對自己的羊群提醒，因為羊群常常是盲目的，常常著重在自己認為有意義、有好處的事，卻沒有用上帝的眼光來省察自己，來檢討自己。然而上帝給牧者是祈禱與傳道為念，就要有這樣的眼光。這也為甚麼教會要設立專屬的牧者的緣故，好讓牧者在上帝面前尋求上帝對羊群的心意！

    也透過牧者這樣的傳講，讓羊群可以悔改歸向上帝，因為上帝讓我們知道自己的狀態，是要我們離棄過去的罪惡與失敗來跟隨主耶穌，在主耶穌的引導之下繼續行走天路，回到上帝的面前享受上帝同在的福分，在這世界為上帝的救恩做見證，榮耀上帝的名！