DEUTERONOMY 32 – THE SONG OF MOSES

This is the song which Moses wrote to bear witness to the calamities which will befall Israel if it sins—and the ultimate joy that will come with our final redemption.

Isaiah 46.9-10: Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no one else; I am God, and there is no one like me,¹⁰ declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure….

This Song encompasses the history of the children of Israel. It reveals the end of the age from the beginning. It is a Song for all who call upon the name of Jehovah and Yeshua. Once again the Chumash is used for some of the commentary.

32 ¶ Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. Moses called upon witnesses that would outlive his and later generations. God’s people would never be able to deny that they had accepted the covenant—therefore Moses appointed heaven and earth, which are eternal to be the witnesses. If Israel should violate the covenant heaven would withhold it rain and earth its produce, according to the ancient Sages. Of course, the punishments are much more severe as stated in Deuteronomy 26, but the idea is that the nation would no longer be blessed by Elohim, but cursed.

² My doctrine (teaching) shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb and as the showers upon the grass. Moses is saying that his teaching, the Torah, should penetrate the nation like life giving rain and like the dew that is even more welcome than rain, because it never inconveniences anyone. Obedience to the Torah, God’s Eternal Law, will make the nation fruitful. It is a tremendous blessing unto a people and nation who study and understand Torah and Law!

³ Because I will invoke the name of the LORD, ascribe ye greatness unto our God. ⁴ The ROCK, whose work is perfect: for all his ways are right; a God of truth and without iniquity, just and upright is he. Moses is telling the nation that God is great and his ways are ALWAYS just and according to what you deserve! The nation should understand the ROCK, (whom we know is Yeshua) is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13.8) whose word is true and unchanging. His word will ALWAYS come to pass. Note how the church today says. “We’re not under the Law” when in fact it is our code of conduct (1 Timothy 1.5-9). God’s Torah is perfect—pointing out the lawless and disobedient sinner.

⁵ They have corrupted themselves, their spot is that they are not his sons; they are a perverse and crooked generation. This corruption is disobedience to THE LAW but is not caused by Elohim. People, not God, are at fault. So many blame God for the negative things which occur to them by others. Don’t blame God, look in the mirror. Understand human sinfulness. That is where the problem lies.

⁶ Do ye thus repay the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is he not thy father that has possessed thee? He made thee and established thee. It is the people, not God, who become vile in their lack of gratitude and rebel against God. Moses is asking how they can be so ungrateful and not consider the consequences of rebellion against Elohim!

⁷ ¶ Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask thy father, and he will show thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee; Moses is urging them/us to consider and reflect on the past, to inquire of those who understand the history of the nation and how God is always in control of events in this world. Moses is pleading with them to take counsel with those who understand the mistakes and falling away of the past generation and how they would suffer. Come back to Me!

⁸ when the most High caused the Gentiles to be inherited, when he separated the sons of men, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.  When God separated the nations at the tower of Babel and scattered them, He divided them into 70 nations and languages. This was done “according to the number of the children of Israel” which are the 70 members of Jacob’s family who went to Egypt (Exodus 1.1-5).

⁹ For the LORD’s portion is his people; Jacob is the measuring line of his inheritance. The children of Israel/Jacob are God’s special portion in this world. Jacob is the measuring line, or rope Elohim uses to measure the nations. A rope is twisted of many strands and Jacob is likened to rope as he combines the strengths of both Abraham and Issac with his own strengths.

¹⁰ He found him in a desert land and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. God tested Israel in the wilderness 40 years until he became loyal to God and would enter the land under Joshua’s leadership. He led them with clouds and glory! Israel (and those grafted in) are the apple of God’s eye!

¹¹ As an eagle stirs up her nest, flutters over her young, spreads abroad her wings, takes them, bears them on her wings,¹² so the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. The eagle is like God taking loving care of Israel, tenderly sheltering and feeding its young. The Lord is the only one who leads Israel, idols and idolatry are not welcomed!

¹³ He made him ride on the high places of the earth that he might eat the fruits of the field; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock and oil out of the strong flint ¹⁴ butter of cows and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs and rams of the sons of Bashan (or fruitfulness) and goats with the fat of kidneys, of wheat; and thou didst drink the blood of the grape, pure wine. God would be bringing them into the Land and enable them to defeat all their enemies and enjoy the booty of the conquest. These verses are a way of describing the defeated cities, fortresses, and kings. Remember: God allowed His people to conquer these nations because of their wickedness (Genesis 15.16). This is the Biblical pattern. God allows nations to conquer His people when they sin and turn from Him.

¹⁵ ¶ But Jeshurun (the upright one) waxed fat and kicked; (thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou hast covered thyself) and forsook the God who made him and lightly esteemed the strong One of his saving health. This is the first time in Scripture that Israel is called “Jeshurun”, from the meaning; upright, straight, and just. Israel is supposed to not deviate from these high standards demanded by God. Wealth and prosperity is a serious challenge to a person and a nation. People are prone to indulge in lust and sin when they are too wealthy. Jeshurun became FAT!

¹⁶ They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger.¹⁷ They sacrificed unto devils, not to God, to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came from nearby, whom your fathers feared not. The descent into sin worsens: The nation angers God by worshipping strange gods, sacrificing their children to them, and performing such acts as sodomy which Elohim, the Creator, regards as abominable. They bring offerings to the gods and demons of this wicked world which their ancestors scorned.

¹⁸ Of the strong One that begat thee thou art unmindful and hast forgotten the God that travailed for thee. This sounds very much like the state of America in these perilous times!

¹⁹ ¶ And when the LORD saw it, his wrath was kindled because of his sons and of his daughters. God’s wrath is stirred. It is unusual for the Torah to specify daughters, which in this case refers to what will happen in Jeremiah 44 when the women of the nation were fanatic in their pursuit of idols. We often see women involved in witchcraft and the occult in our day.

²⁰ And he said, I will hide my face from them; I will see what their end shall be: that they are a generation of perversities, sons without faith. God is saying that they were raised to be good and live righteously but they have turned away and angered Him.

²¹ They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities; and I also will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with foolish Gentiles. The Biblical pattern: They have turned to their own ways and now God allows the Gentile nations to act as his chastisement upon them. They will be subjugated by nations who have no cultural or moral worth, just as they have chosen to become. This is the pattern and cycle of nations and all humankind.

²² For fire shall be kindled in my anger and shall burn unto the lowest part of Sheol (the grave) and shall consume the earth with her fruit and burn up the foundations of the mountains. What is founded on the mountain? Jerusalem, the home of the Temple…it will be destroyed in that day.

²³ I will heap evils upon them; I will spend my arrows upon them.²⁴ They shall be consumed with hunger and devoured with burning heat and with bitter destruction; I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.²⁵ The sword without and terror within shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs. This is a vivid description of the destruction of war between nations. It is the Biblical pattern of the manner in which God allows the nations to do unto others. If the nations decide to not obey Torah they will follow their own laws and war never ends. It is the story of human kind. The Torah is spiritual. As such, when disobeyed it becomes man doing unto man—and man’s way is not God’s Torah way.

²⁶ ¶ I said I would scatter them in pieces: I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men,²⁷ if I did not fear the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should become vain and lest they should say, Our high hand has done this and not the LORD. The scattering of the Tribes was the result of turning away from their true God. The Northern Kingdom lost their identity among the Gentiles (Hosea) never to be heard from—but we know who they are. Causing their remembrance has to do with the exile of Benjamin and Judah. Jews were regarded as an insignificant people until they became a nation again in 1948. God did not allow them to become extinct…the nations would have thought it was their power that wiped them out—but God will not allow it. His WORD will not allow it. Everything the Bible says about Israel has been verified by HIS-STORY.

²⁸ For they are a Gentile void of counsel, neither is there any intelligence in them.²⁹ O that they were wise, if they were prudent, they would understand their latter end! ³⁰ How could one chase a thousand and two put ten thousands to flight if their strong One had not sold them, and the LORD had not delivered them up?³¹ For their ROCK is not as our Rock, and even our enemies are judges of this. The nations who conquered Judah and Israel are conceited believing they conquered them by their own invincibility. It had to be God who allowed the enemy to succeed if a thousand put ten thousands to flight? It was the Lord who allowed it due to Judah and Israel’s sin. The nations ROCK is not the ROCK of God’s people. God will eventually bring the nations to account for their cruelty to Judah/Israel. Hitler and his regime are a prime example in modern times.

³² Therefore, their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are very bitter. God’s people had become like Sodom and Gomorrah. They became wicked like them and suffered the same punishment. The difference was that God’s people repented and forgiven—Sodom and Gomorrah were totally destroyed because they did not.

³³ Their wine is the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps. ³⁴ Do I not have this laid up in store, sealed up in my treasuries? Didn’t Israel realize they could not hide their sins from God? They were given clear warning in Leviticus 28 and Deuteronomy 26.

³⁵ Vengeance and recompense are mine, in the time when their foot shall slide; for the day of their calamity is at hand and that which is determined upon them makes haste. When the time comes that the past generation cannot protect them “when their foot slides” God’s punishment will come quickly. This portion of the Song ends the dire prophecies of chastisement. Moses is now about to reveal how God will comfort them after their punishment and repentance.

³⁶ For the LORD shall judge his people and repent himself for his slaves when he sees that their power is gone, and there is none shut up or left. After God has finished with his chastisement which his judgment has decreed, he repents Himself for his slave because He recognizes their helplessness and dependency on Him. His great love for His people is abundant when they repent and return.

³⁷ And he shall say, Where are their gods, their strong one in whom they trusted, ³⁸ who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you, and be your protection. Our God does not punish merely out of anger. The punishment/chastisement is to provide atonement for sin and repentance back to loyal service towards God. At the end of days God will cry out, “Where are your gods? And they will return to Him.

³⁹ ¶ See now that I, I am he, and there are no gods with me; I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; and there is not one that can deliver out of my hand. God tells all Israel that only He is God. Some argued that there was a god of death and a god of life that the same God could not possibly both harm and heal. NO God says…I AM He, only ONE.

⁴⁰ When I shall lift up my hand to the heavens and shall say, I live forever,⁴¹ if I whet the resplendence of my sword and my hand takes hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to my enemies and will recompense those that hate me. God says He will turn His anger on those who persecute His people calling them “My enemies.” He allowed them to chastise His people but they were excessively cruel. Now they are the enemy and will be judged.

⁴² I will make my arrows drunk with blood and my sword shall devour flesh, in the blood of the slain and of the captives of the heads, in revenge as an enemy.⁴³ Rejoice, O ye Gentiles, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his slaves and will render vengeance to his enemies and will reconcile his land, to his people. God judges the enemies of His people swiftly. The other Gentile nations will also rejoice as they recognize Israel’s greatness and praise them for being God’s faithful slaves/servants. The land was always Israel’s inheritance. Even though Israel rebelled against GOD which caused them great suffering in the end the nations will be punished for hating God’s people and God. His people preserved HIS WORD throughout all their history. It is proper the nations are punished for rejecting Torah.

⁴⁴ ¶ And Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Joshua, the son of Nun.⁴⁵ And Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel; Joshua stood beside Moses as the successor who would lead the nation into the promised land.

⁴⁶ and he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I protest against you today, to command them unto your children and keep and fulfil all the words of this law. We should instruct our children in the word and service towards God. As the children are instructed so the nation will succeed or fail. We see this issue today in the awful things being normalized and taught to little children.

⁴⁷ For it is not a vain thing for you because it is your life; and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, which ye shall pass the Jordan to inherit. Torah/Bible study is LIFE and will prolong the life of a nation. Moses was exhorting them to remember how they got here.

⁴⁸ And the LORD spoke unto Moses that same day, saying ⁴⁹ Climb up into this mountain Abarim, unto Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho, and behold the land of Canaan, which I give as inheritance unto the sons of Israel,⁵⁰ and die in the mountain which thou shalt climb and be gathered unto thy peoples, as Aaron thy brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered unto his peoples, Elohim orders Moses to ascent Mount Nebo that he might see the promised land. This will be Moses burial place.

⁵¹ because ye trespassed against me among the sons of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, because ye did not sanctify me in the midst of the sons of Israel.⁵² Yet thou shalt see the land before thee, but thou shalt not enter there to the land which I give the sons of Israel.