Deut 32:3-6, 10-14, 18
SS Lesson for 10/09/2022
Devotional Scriptures: Rev 15:1-3
Worship, lament, praise, and joy are reflected through the songs of Scripture. These songs give voice for people of God to express complex feelings about life and the nature of following God. In the concluding chapters of Deuteronomy, the Israelites were taught a song for their future. As the book of Deuteronomy comes to a close, Israel’s leader, Moses, was on the verge of death. As a result of the impending change of leadership, Moses spoke publicly for the final time. The result is several smaller speeches and songs (found in Deuteronomy 29:2–33:29) that serve as the dramatic conclusion to his ministry. At first Moses reminded the Israelites to remember and accept the stipulations of God’s covenant (Deuteronomy 29–30). This covenant was based on God’s love for his people and their responding love and commitment to him (see 4:37–40; 5:2–3; 6:5–6; 7:9; 11:1; 13:4). A failure to adhere to God’s requirements would result in dramatic negative consequences for Israel (see 28:15–68). In addition, Moses’ speech included a statement on his successor (31:1–8), a recitation of the law (31:9–13), and a prediction of the future (31:14–29). In the midst of Moses’ speeches, he presented a song for the people (Deuteronomy 31:30–32:43). The song is reminiscent of psalms that celebrate the people’s relationship with God (examples: Psalms 78; 105; 106). Just as the psalms were meant for singing, so was this song of Moses (Deuteronomy 31:19, 21–22). The three divisions of the song speak to the scope of the Israelites’ relationship with God. God’s loyalty is contrasted with their sinfulness (Deuteronomy 32:1–14). As a result, negative consequences are certain (32:15–35). However, forgiveness, healing, and protection can still be attained (32:36–43).
And he said to them: "Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe — all the words of this law.
(Scriptural Text from the New King James Version; cross-references from the NIV)
3 For I proclaim the name of the Lord: ascribe greatness to our God.
4 He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He.
5 "They have corrupted themselves; they are not His children, Because of their blemish: A perverse and crooked generation.
6 Do you thus deal with the Lord, O foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father, who bought you? Has He not made you and established you?
6 "I the Lord do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.
5 The Lord within her is righteous; he does no wrong. Morning by morning he dispenses his justice, and every new day he does not fail, yet the unrighteous know no shame.
1 I will sing of the Lord's great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. 2 I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you established your faithfulness in heaven itself.
9 The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him;
25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
5 All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. 6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you
17 I thought in my heart, "God will bring to judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time for every deed."
7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?
6 Many a man claims to have unfailing love, but a faithful man who can find?
2 All a man's ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs the heart.
15 He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight.
10 As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
10 "He found him in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.
11 As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings,
12 So the Lord alone led him, and there was no foreign god with him.
13 "He made him ride in the heights of the earth, that he might eat the produce of the fields; He made him draw honey from the rock, and oil from the flinty rock;
14 Curds from the cattle, and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs; and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, With the choicest wheat; And you drank wine, the blood of the grapes.
2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
3 But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.
9 if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.
6 Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you.
11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.
19 And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
18 Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, and have forgotten the God who fathered you.
16 So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.
11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
9 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. 10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds.
19 Nevertheless, God's solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: "The Lord knows those who are his," and, "Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness."
7 the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
45 So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven.
10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Moses called on the whole earth to listen to what follows (Deuteronomy 32:1-2). The subject of this song would be God. The "name" of God is the expression of His character as He revealed this. The purpose of the song is that everyone would recognize God as the great God He is and that His people would respond to Him appropriately. By comparing his teaching to rain and dew, Moses was saying it would be a life-giving blessing to the Israelites. Rain and dew were major sources of blessing in the Promised Land, and their absence created serious problems for the inhabitants. The description of God as the Rock (Deuteronomy 32:4; Deuteronomy 32:15; Deuteronomy 32:18; Deuteronomy 32:30-31) occurs first here in Scripture, but it appears many times later. This metaphor pictures God as a reliable refuge for His people on whom they could build and who had been solidly faithful to them.
One Old Testament scholar called the Song of Moses "one of the most impressive religious poems in the entire Old Testament." [Note: W. F. Albright, "Some Remarks on the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy XXXII," Vetus Testamentum 9 (1959):339-46.] It contrasts the faithfulness and loyal love of God with the unfaithfulness and perversity of His people. As other important poems in the Pentateuch (e.g., Genesis 49; Exodus 15; Numbers 24), it also teaches major themes.
"The song embraces the whole of the future history of Israel, and bears all the marks of a prophetic testimony from the mouth of Moses, in the perfectly ideal picture which it draws, on the one hand, of the benefits and blessings conferred by the Lord upon His people; and on the other hand, of the ingratitude with which Israel repaid its God for them all." [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, 3:464.]
Moses set this song in the form of a lawsuit in which Yahweh leveled a charge against Israel. This form is very common in many of the writing prophets’ oracles. [Note: See G. Ernest Wright, "The Lawsuit of God: A Form-Critical Study of Deuteronomy 32," in Israel’s Prophetic Heritage, pp. 26-67.] Its central theme is "Israel’s apostasy and God’s threatening judgment." [Note: Sailhamer, The Pentateuch . . ., p. 475. For more information on the text of chapter 32, see Patrick W. Skehan, "The Structure of the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 32:1-43)," Catholic Biblical Quarterly 13:2 (April 1951):153-63. James R. Boston argued for the origination of this song in the time of Hezekiah or Josiah, as have many other critical scholars, in "The Wisdom Influence upon the Song of Moses," Journal of Biblical Literature 87 (1968):198-202.]
Israel, on the other hand, was "perverse and crooked" (Deuteronomy 32:5). Moses also called God the Father of the Israelites (Deuteronomy 32:6) whom His people had repaid with corrupt behavior for His many gifts. Such a response was despicable in the ancient East.
The writer graphically described God’s choice and care of Israel in these verses. [Note: See David E. Stevens, "Does Deuteronomy 32:8 Refer to ’Sons of God’ or ’Sons of Israel’?" Bibliotheca Sacra 154:614 (April-June 1997):131-41, for a discussion of this textual problem. He concluded that "sons of Israel" is the preferred reading. Michael S. Heiser argued for "Sons of God" in "Deuteronomy 32:8 and the Sons of God," Bibliotheca Sacra 158:629 (January-March 2001):52-74. I prefer the "Sons of Israel" reading.] Of all the nations of the earth Israel had experienced the greatest blessing. This is the last of 16 times Moses challenged the Israelites to remember in Deuteronomy, beginning in Deuteronomy 4:10. The desert place where Yahweh found Israel was Egypt (Deuteronomy 32:10). The pupil of the eye (lit. the little man of the eye, Deuteronomy 32:10) is the part a person protects most carefully (cf. Psalms 17:8; Proverbs 7:2). The "apple of the eye" is an English idiom meaning anything that one holds very dear or cherishes greatly.
Israel’s rebellion against her Father stands in stark contrast to God’s gracious care. "Jeshurun" (Deuteronomy 32:5; cf. Deuteronomy 33:26; Numbers 23:10) means "upright one" or "righteous nation." This pet name reminded Israel of her holy calling. As an ox, Jeshurun had become unresponsive due to the fatness she had gained as a result of God’s blessings.
"The chiastic structure by which Deuteronomy 32:4-14 match Deuteronomy 32:15-18 in reverse suggests the reversal of Israel’s pledges of covenant commitment to the Lord." [Note: Merrill, Deuteronomy, p. 416.]
"The ’jealousy’ of God [Deuteronomy 32:21] is not a spirit of pettiness prompted by his insecurity, but righteous indignation caused by the disloyalty of his people to his covenant grace . . . The jealousy of Israel, however (see next line), will be envy because of God’s lavish attention to another nation [cf. Romans 11:11]." [Note: The NET Bible note on 32:21.]
God would discipline Israel because of her rebellion. He would make the punishment fit the crime (Deuteronomy 32:21). The nations referred to as being "not a people" (Deuteronomy 32:21) are those that had no divine calling as a people as Israel did. There is no other nation like Israel in the sense that it is the people of God. Fire (Deuteronomy 32:22) is the symbol of God’s wrath and judgment (cf. Deuteronomy 4:24; Exodus 3:2; Hebrews 12:29).
Israel’s unfaithfulness would not thwart God’s purposes for her, however. God would use other nations to discipline His people, but He would judge them too (cf. Habakkuk 1-2). The Old Testament writers compared Israel to Sodom and Gomorrah many times (Deuteronomy 32:32), but they never compared the heathen nations to those wicked cities.
"One of the well-known sermons in American history was preached by Jonathan Edwards in 1741 from this verse [Deuteronomy 32:35] and particularly from this clause: ’In due time their foot will slip.’ The sermon subject was ’Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.’ Edwards thought that the verse was directed at the unbelieving Israelites, but his application of it reached to all wicked people." [Note: Kalland, p. 212.]
The biblical writers also represented God frequently as a warrior hero who engaged in battle for Israel against her enemies (Deuteronomy 32:41-42; cf. Psalms 7:13). Loving God indicates faithful covenant obedience (cf. Deuteronomy 5:10; Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 7:9; Deuteronomy 10:12; Deuteronomy 11:1; Deuteronomy 11:13; Deuteronomy 11:22; Deuteronomy 13:3; Deuteronomy 19:9; Deuteronomy 30:6; Deuteronomy 30:16; Deuteronomy 30:20). Hating Him describes those who either have no covenant relationship with Him or who live in rebellion against Him (cf. Deuteronomy 5:9; Deuteronomy 7:10; 2 Chronicles 19:2; Psalms 81:15; Psalms 139:20-21).
"Again it can be seen that the text portrays the Torah as God’s gift of life to his people in much the same way as the Tree of Life was put into the midst of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:8-17). Just as obedience to the Lord’s command not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was the key to their access to the Tree of Life (Genesis 2:16-17), so obedience to the Lord’s command in the Torah was to be the key to Israel’s ’living long in the land’ that God had prepared for them." [Note: Sailhamer, The Pentateuch . . ., p. 476.]
This song was one more instrument God used to teach His people to obey Him along with Moses’ sermons, the rituals, the monuments, etc. (Deuteronomy 32:46-47).
"It will . . . act as a mnemonic, an aid to memory, because during the intervening period it will have lived unforgotten in the mouth of the reader or hearer, ready to come to mind when the troubles arrive. Poetry is thus a kind of time bomb; it awaits its hour and then springs forward into harsh remembrance. . . . It will live in their minds and mouths, bringing them back, whether they like it or not, to the harsh memory of the desert sojourn. Once learned it will not easily be forgotten. The words will stick, they will be importunate, they will not let us alone." [Note: Harold Fisch, Poetry with a Purpose: Biblical Poetics and Interpretation, p. 51.]
The lesson this song teaches is that when God’s people forget His gracious goodness to them and turn away from Him to follow idols, they can expect discipline. When God appears to withdraw His blessings we should not question His ability or motives but examine the state of our relationship with Him.
This verse is the closing bracket that surrounds the song in the text (cf. Deuteronomy 31:30). It probably does not indicate a second recital of the song. Both the introductory and concluding verses simply state the circumstances in which Moses and Joshua communicated the song to the nation.
Moses addressed the Israelites again after he had taught them his song. He urged them to take to heart not only the words of the song but all the words of the law, namely, the entire covenant text of Deuteronomy (cf. Deuteronomy 17:19; Deuteronomy 27:3; Deuteronomy 27:8; Deuteronomy 27:26; Deuteronomy 28:58; Deuteronomy 29:29; Deuteronomy 31:12; Deuteronomy 31:24). He pointed out that these words were not flippant or offhanded matters of human opinion (Deuteronomy 32:47) but words that would lead to their living (cf. Deuteronomy 8:3; Deuteronomy 30:20).
This narrative section of Deuteronomy relates a final exhortation that Moses gave the Israelites and an announcement of his death that he received from the Lord.
The same day Moses gave his song to the Israelites God directed him to prepare for his death (Deuteronomy 32:48; cf. Numbers 27:12-14). Mt. Nebo is one of the peaks in the Abarim range that stands to the east of the Arabah northeast of the Dead Sea. This mountain range runs generally from north to south. People in that culture associated heights with nearness to deity, so perhaps both Aaron and Moses died and were buried on mountains to symbolize their nearness to God. [Note: Merrill, Deuteronomy, p. 430.]
God permitted Moses to see the whole land of Canaan even though his sin at Kadesh prevented him from entering it.
"The Lord had told him to speak to the rock (Numbers 20:8), the mere act of speaking being designed to demonstrate the power of God who creates by the spoken word. To strike the rock was to introduce an interruptive element and thus to diminish the significance of the powerful word. By doing this, Moses betrayed not only anger and disobedience but he correspondingly reflected on the God whom he served by implying that God could not bring forth water by the divine word alone." [Note: Ibid., p. 429.]
Moses’ sin lay in his failure to honor God as He deserved. This is essentially the warning of the Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32:1-43). Moses had failed God as Israel had failed Him. Moses warned Israel about failing Him again in the future.
(Adapted from URL:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/dcc/deuteronomy-32.html)
Throughout church history, believers have expressed their joys, doubts, fears, and hopes in songs. These songs of worship have shaped believers into spiritually mature disciples of Jesus. Singing should not be a kind of sedative that numbs us. Rather, our singing should include repentance with praise and self-examination with satisfaction. Only in that way can singing shape us as people of God. On the surface, the nature of the song in today’s text is rather cynical; it highlights the failure of the people of Israel. Yet the song’s pointed nature leads to a declaration of hope. God’s salvation will transform and sustain, if only people remember his steadfast commitment to them. As a result, God’s people can sing of his mighty deeds, all while confessing our their own failure to appreciate them. That same sort of forgetfulness can plague Christians today when we forget that our salvation is a gift from God as he draws us into his kingdom. We did not earn that citizenship; it was given to us freely. God sustains us when we recite the story of our faith and live out its implications in our lives.