THE SONG OF MOSES - DEUTERONOMY 32

　

1. Introduction, with summoning of witnesses. 32.1-3
“Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. Let my teaching drop as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew, as raindrops on the tender herb, and as showers on the grass. For I proclaim the name of the Lord: Ascribe greatness to our God.

2. Summary accusation of Israel’s disloyalty. 32.4-6
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. “They have corrupted themselves; they are not His children, because of their blemish: a perverse and crooked generation. 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?

3. Recital of YHVH’s loving actions on Israel’s behalf as the basis of the charge. 32.7-14
“Remember the days of old, Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you: When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance. “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. As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings, so the Lord alone led him, and there was no foreign god with him. “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; 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.

4. Indictment of Israel as disloyal. 32.15-18
“But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; you grew fat, you grew thick, you are obese! Then he forsook God who made him, and scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger. They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not fear. Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, and have forgotten the God who fathered you.

5. Declaration of the decision to punish Israel. 32.19-25
“And when the Lord saw it, He spurned them, because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters. And He said: ‘I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faith. They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God; they have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols. But I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation; I will move them to anger by a foolish nation. For a fire is kindled in My anger, and shall burn to the lowest hell; it shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. ‘I will heap disasters on them; I will spend My arrows on them. They shall be wasted with hunger, devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction; I will also send against them the teeth of beasts, with the poison of serpents of the dust. The sword shall destroy outside; there shall be terror within for the young man and virgin, the nursing child with the man of gray hairs.

6. YHVH recognizes a risk to His honor. 32.26-27
I would have said, “I will dash them in pieces, I will make the memory of them to cease from among men,” Had I not feared the wrath of the enemy, Lest their adversaries should misunderstand, Lest they should say, “Our hand is high; and it is not the Lord who has done all this.”’

7. YHVH reverses Himself and cancels Israel’s punishment and punishes Israel’s enemies. 32.28-42
“For they are a nation void of counsel, nor is there any understanding in them. Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had surrendered them? For their rock is not like our Rock,
Even our enemies themselves being judges. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah;
Their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of cobras. ‘Is this not laid up in store with Me, sealed up among My treasures? Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; their foot shall slip in due time; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things to come hasten upon them. For the Lord will judge His people And have compassion on His servants, When He sees that their power is gone,and there is no one remaining, bond or free. He will say: ‘Where are their gods, The rock in which they sought refuge? Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, And drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise and help you, and be your refuge. ‘Now see that I, even I, am He, and there is no God besides Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; nor is there any who can deliver from My hand. For I raise My hand to heaven, and say, “As I live forever, if I whet My glittering sword, and My hand takes hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to My enemies, and repay those who hate Me. I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the heads of the leaders of the enemy.”

"Because I will publish the name of the Lord: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." Deuteronomy 32: 3-4

"And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thy judgments are made manifest." Revelation 15:3-4

Moses said: "Just and right" are God’s "judgments." Deuteronomy 32
The Lamb says: "Just and true" are "thy judgments." Revelation 15.

The Song of Moses is the one given by Moses to Israel the day that he died. It is called the Song of Moses and also the Song of the Lamb, because the Lamb later confirms that same Song to us. When we combine his Song with the Song of the Lamb, the Son of God, that is a duet that will long live in our hearts and memories. There is an unforgettable beauty and melody that lingers to all who hear it. There were two songs given by Moses, forty years apart, one at the crossing of the Red Sea and the other was the song Moses’ sang the day that he died.

Song of Moses after Red Sea

The first song of Moses was a song of triumph and of God’s judgment on His enemies. The song sung after the crossing of the Red Sea is recorded in Exodus 15:1-19. Both Moses and the children of Israel sang this together. This song will be sung at the end of the Millennium, after all the people of God have passed the Second Death. It is a song of deliverance for God’s people and judgment against their enemies.

Israel Taken into Captivity

Whereas the Song of Moses and the Lamb proclaims God’s judgments and punishments against His own people. When that work is done, He receives His chastened people and then punishes the enemies of His people.

Israel Persecuted

The Song of Moses and the Lamb is a two-fold punishment. This, therefore, pertains to both the Jewish and Gospel Ages. It is similar to the Major Prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel who pronounced judgments against Israel but also against their enemies. Because it covers two ages it became the Song of Moses and the Lamb. The real Song of Moses is the one that he sang the day that he died. The Lord then took him. This song contains the parting message of one of the greatest servants of God that ever lived, our Lord Jesus being excepted. It is this song that the Lamb also sings.

Moses visited each of the tribes before he offered this song. No doubt he had many wonderful things to tell each tribe. There were personal ties and warm friendship involved in this last exchange as well as very serious exhortations. Moses was a Prophet, and as a Prophet sometimes there is unhappiness about knowing things which will come to pass. It had been revealed to Moses what would happen at his passing. He knew things that were heavy on his heart. How could these predictions be true of them and their children? Surely, they would be better for all the experiences they had shared with Moses. Perhaps these things would happen way down the road. And to a certain extent that was true. We read in Joshua 24:31: "And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the Lord, that he had done for Israel." For eighty years after Moses, the children of Israel at least made some effort in keeping God's law.

Israel turned to worshipping Moloch

How true that prophecy was. One of the tragedies of life is in the fact that one generation cannot give to the next generation their wisdom. How often parents see their children take a course they know will bring them sorrow and pain, and yet they are powerless to change matters. It seems every generation wishes to make mistakes of their own choosing. How often youth feels strong and impervious to life’s pitfalls, only to be taken in the snare that countless millions who preceded them had fallen into.
Thank God for the resurrection when all mankind will have a chance to relive life with personal knowledge of the consequences of sin, when peer pressure will always be to do the will of God. By the spirit of prophecy Moses gave the children of Israel an awesome lesson that was never to be forgotten. The dangers lurked down the road, when they entered the land and would become comfortable and full. That is when they would relax their disciplines, and that is when temptations to be like the people round about would take hold of them. While these words of Moses served as a witness against them, more importantly, they would be a consolation to those who took the wrong course in departing from the Lord.

These words are an indictment against Israel, but also a consolation. Yes, Israel, like the prodigal son, would in the end find it must return to the Father’s house, thoroughly humbled, thoroughly chastened, but oh so glad to return to the house of the Father. The Lord will have compassion on His people. I am sure they did not start out to do this. However, leaving their steadfastness to the Lord, little by little, they were beguiled until they had debased themselves to such a wretched condition. However, He did not to cast them off forever, but rather he wanted to make them jealous. We read in Deuteronomy 32:36: "For the Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone, and there is none remaining, bond or free." Yes, the Lord will vindicate both His natural people and His spiritual people.

The lesson for all of us is that none of us is worthy of His grace. We all have moments of falling away and rebellion. The Lord is gracious toward us. His judgments are true, His chastisement purifies us. Judgment begins at the house of God. We love Him because He first loved us.

After He disciplines and purifies His people, He punishes His enemies. The Day of Atonement, for us, is our Day of Redemption--but for the enemies of God it is the day of wrath as revealed in the Book of Revelation.