God’s requirements for obedience: Deuteronomy 10–12

Moses isn’t slow to remind the Israelites of just how close they’d come to destruction more than once, especially after the golden calf incident:

^{Deuteronomy 10:10-11} 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. Then the Lord said to me, ‘Get up and resume the journey, and lead the people to the land I swore to give to their ancestors, so they may take possession of it.’

It was only Moses reminding God of how it would look to the outside world that saved the rebellious Israelites from the consequences of their rebellion:

^{Deuteronomy 9:28} If you destroy these people, the Egyptians will say, ‘The Israelites died because the Lord wasn’t able to bring them to the land he had promised to give them.’ Or they might say, ‘He destroyed them because he hated them; he deliberately took them into the wilderness to slaughter them.’