In The Word
Read: Deuteronomy 32:1-47
The Song of Moses
32 “Listen, you heavens, and I will speak;
And let the earth hear the words of my mouth!
2 May my teaching drip as the rain,
My speech trickle as the dew,
As droplets on the fresh grass,
And as the showers on the vegetation.
3 For I proclaim the name of the Lord;
Ascribe greatness to our God!
4 The Rock! His work is perfect,
For all His ways are just;
A God of faithfulness and without injustice,
Righteous and just is He.
5 They have acted corruptly against Him,
They are not His children, because of their defect;
But are a perverse and crooked generation.
6 Is this what you do to the Lord,
You foolish and unwise people?
Is He not your Father who has purchased you?
He has made you and established you.
7 Remember the days of old,
Consider the years of all generations.
Ask your father and he will inform you,
Your elders, and they will tell you.
8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,
When He separated the sons of mankind,
He set the boundaries of the peoples
According to the number of the sons of Israel.
9 For the Lord’s portion is His people;
Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance.
10 He found him in a desert land,
And in the howling wasteland of a wilderness;
He encircled him, He cared for him,
He guarded him as the apple of His eye.
11 As an eagle stirs up its nest,
And hovers over its young,
He spread His wings, He caught them,
He carried them on His pinions.
12 The Lord alone guided him,
And there was no foreign god with him.
13 He had him ride on the high places of the earth,
And he ate the produce of the field;
And He had him suck honey from the rock,
And oil from the flinty rock,
14 Curds of the herd, and milk of the flock,
With fat of lambs
And rams, the breed of Bashan, and of goats,
With the best of the wheat;
And you drank wine of the blood of grapes.
15 “But Jeshurun became fat and kicked—
You have become fat, thick, and obstinate—
Then he abandoned God who made him,
And rejected the Rock of his salvation.
16 They made Him jealous with strange gods;
With abominations they provoked Him to anger.
17 They sacrificed to demons, who were not God,
To gods whom they have not known,
New gods who came lately,
Whom your fathers did not know.
18 You forgot the Rock who fathered you,
And forgot the God who gave you birth.
19 “The Lord saw this, and spurned them
Because of the provocation by His sons and daughters.
20 Then He said, ‘I will hide My face from them,
I will see what their end will be;
For they are a perverse generation,
Sons in whom there is no faithfulness.
21 They have made Me jealous with what is not God;
They have provoked Me to anger with their idols.
So I will make them jealous with those who are not a people;
I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation,
22 For a fire has flared in My anger,
And it burns to the lowest part of Sheol,
And devours the earth with its yield,
And sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23 ‘I will add misfortunes to them;
I will use up My arrows on them.
24 They will be wasted by famine, and emaciated by plague
And a bitter epidemic;
And the teeth of beasts I will send against them,
With the venom of crawling things of the dust.
25 Outside the sword will make them childless,
And inside, terror—
Both young man and virgin,
The nursing child with the man of gray hair.
26 I would have said, “I will wipe them out,
I will remove the mention of their name from humanity,”
27 Had I not feared the provocation by the enemy,
That their adversaries would misjudge,
That they would say, “Our hand is triumphant,
And the Lord has not performed all this.”’
28 “For they are a nation destitute of counsel,
And there is no understanding in them.
29 If only they were wise and they understood this;
If only they would discern their future!
30 How could one chase a thousand,
And two put ten thousand to flight,
Unless their Rock had sold them,
And the Lord had given them up?
31 Indeed, their rock is not like our Rock;
Even our enemies themselves judge this.
32 For their vine is from the vine of Sodom,
And from the fields of Gomorrah;
Their grapes are grapes of poison,
Their clusters, bitter.
33 Their wine is the venom of serpents,
And the deadly poison of vipers.
34 ‘Is it not stored up with Me,
Sealed up in My treasuries?
35 Vengeance is Mine, and retribution;
In due time their foot will slip.
For the day of their disaster is near,
And the impending things are hurrying to them.’
36 For the Lord will vindicate His people,
And will have compassion on His servants,
When He sees that their strength is gone,
And there is none remaining, bond or free.
37 And He will say, ‘Where are their gods,
The rock in which they took refuge?
38 Those who ate the fat of their sacrifices,
And drank the wine of their drink offering?
Let them rise up and help you,
Let them be your protection!
39 See now that I, I am He,
And there is no god besides Me;
It is I who put to death and give life.
I have wounded and it is I who heal,
And there is no one who can save anyone from My hand.
40 Indeed, I raise My hand to heaven,
And say, as I live forever,
41 If I have sharpened My flashing sword,
And My hand has taken hold of justice,
I will return vengeance on My adversaries,
And I will repay those who hate Me.
42 I will make My arrows drunk with blood,
And My sword will devour flesh,
With the blood of the slain and the captives,
From the long-haired leaders of the enemy.’
43 Rejoice, you nations, with His people;
For He will avenge the blood of His servants,
And will return vengeance on His adversaries,
And will atone for His land and His people.”
44 Then Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he, with Joshua the son of Nun. 45 When Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, “Take to your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you will command your sons to follow carefully, all the words of this Law. 47 For it is not a trivial matter for you; indeed it is your life. And by this word you will prolong your days in the land, which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess.”
New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Walking In The Word
God had Moses write a song to teach the people and to remind them and their generations to come of the goodness and mercy of the Lord. It was also meant to warn against the hazards of disobedience and the disastrous consequences of falling away from God. The song had four primary segments: the character of God, the kindness of God to His people, the faithfulness of God to discipline His people’s disobedience, and the retaliation by God against anyone who harmed His people. Later when the people would rebel against God, He would cause this song to be remembered in their hearts.
At the song’s beginning, Moses focused attention on the greatness of God. If people will understand God’s greatness then they would not dare worship false gods. A.W. Tozer wisely said, “The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God.” When people love God enough to stay faithful to obeying His commands and give God thanks for every good thing in their lives, they put God in the right place of first position in their hearts. But when they focus their attention on gaining things of this world and refuse to be grateful to God, then they quickly fall away and become prey to the enemies of sin and complacency.
If God were to write a song about you, what would the lyrics contain? Would it speak of your faithfulness to God, or about your wavering, inconsistency, and disastrous rebellion? Let’s live lives worthy of a song filled with lyrics of faithfulness and devotion.