FRAMEWORKS:
Deuteronomy 32: The Song of Moses
CONTEXT
Part
6: Ch.31-34 Moses Finale
Ch.31
– Succession, the Law & Warning
Ch.32
– The Song of Moses
Ch.33
– Moses blesses the tribes
Ch.34
– The Death of Moses
v.1-43
Moses Song for the Future
v.44-47
Moses recites the Song & warns the people
v.48-52
The Lord instructs Moses to die on Mount Nebo
[Preliminary
Notes: we will leave the preliminary descriptions to
be sufficient to highlight what the song says. Remember, it will
be available to be a testimony against them AND a warning to them,
to take steps to get their national life right before the Lord.]
v.1-43
Moses Song for the Future
v.1,2
Moses calls for his words to be heard & have effect
v.1
Listen,
you heavens, and I will speak;
hear,
you earth, the words of my mouth.
v.2
Let
my teaching fall like rain
and
my words descend like dew,
like showers on new grass,
like
abundant rain on tender plants.
v.3,4
He declares the greatness of the Lord
v.3
I
will proclaim the name of the Lord
.
Oh,
praise the greatness of our God!
v.4
He
is the Rock, his works are perfect,
and
all his ways are just.
A faithful God who does no wrong,
upright
and just is he.
v.5,6
He warns of their rejection of the Lord
v.5
They
are corrupt and not his children;
to
their shame they are a warped and crooked generation.
v.6
Is
this the way you repay the Lord
,
you
foolish and unwise people?
Is he not your Father, your Creator,
who
made you and formed you?
v.7-9
He calls them to remember how the Lord established them
v.7
Remember
the days of old;
consider
the generations long past.
Ask your father and he will tell
you,
your
elders, and they will explain to you.
v.8
When
the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,
when
he divided all mankind,
he set up boundaries for the peoples
according
to the number of the sons of Israel.
v.9
For
the Lord 's
portion is his people,
Jacob
his allotted inheritance.
v.10-12
He reminds them how the Lord brought them here
v.10
In
a desert land he found him,
in
a barren and howling waste.
He shielded him and cared for him;
he
guarded him as the apple of his eye,
v.11
like
an eagle that stirs up its nest
and
hovers over its young,
that spreads its wings to catch them
and
carries them on its pinions.
v.12
The
Lord
alone led him;
no
foreign god was with him.
v.13-15
He reminds them how the Lord had blessed them with abundance
v.13
He
made him ride on the heights of the land
and
fed him with the fruit of the fields.
He nourished him with honey from
the rock,
and
with oil from the flinty crag,
v.14
with
curds and milk from herd and flock
and
with fattened lambs and goats,
with choice rams of Bashan
and
the finest grains of wheat.
You drank the foaming blood of the
grape.
v.15
Jeshurun
grew fat and kicked;
filled
with food, they became heavy and sleek.
v.15-18
He points out how they have gone astray
They
abandoned the God who made them
and
rejected the Rock their Saviour.
v.16
They
made him jealous with their foreign gods
and
angered him with their detestable idols.
v.17
They
sacrificed to false gods, which are not God –
gods
they had not known,
gods
that recently appeared,
gods
your ancestors did not fear.
v.18
You
deserted the Rock, who fathered you;
you
forgot the God who gave you birth.
v.19-21
He reveals the Lord's response
v.19
The
Lord
saw this and rejected them
because
he was angered by his sons and daughters.
v.20
‘I
will hide my face from them,' he said,
‘and
see what their end will be;
for they are a perverse generation,
children
who are unfaithful.
v.21
They
made me jealous by what is no god
and
angered me with their worthless idols.
v.21-25
He warns of the Lord's disciplinary judgement
I
will make them envious by those who are not a people;
I
will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding.
v.22
For
a fire will be kindled by my wrath,
one
that burns down to the realm of the dead below.
It will devour the earth and its
harvests
and
set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
v.23
‘I
will heap calamities on them
and
expend my arrows against them.
v.24
I
will send wasting famine against them,
consuming
pestilence and deadly plague;
I will send against them the fangs
of wild beasts,
the
venom of vipers that glide in the dust.
v.25
In
the street the sword will make them childless;
in
their homes terror will reign.
The young men and young women will
perish,
the
infants and those with grey hair.
v.26,27
Yet for fear of being misunderstood He held back
v.26
I
said I would scatter them
and
erase their name from human memory,
v.27
but
I dreaded the taunt of the enemy,
lest
the adversary misunderstand
and say, “Our hand has triumphed;
the
Lord
has not done all this.”'
v.28-30
He reveals their misunderstanding
v.28
They
are a nation without sense,
there
is no discernment in them.
v.29
If
only they were wise and would understand this
and
discern what their end will be!
v.30
How
could one man chase a thousand,
or
two put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
unless
the Lord
had given them up?
v.31-35
Their ungodliness is a poisoning resource that will bring doom
v.31
For
their rock is not like our Rock,
as
even our enemies concede.
v.32
Their
vine comes from the vine of Sodom
and
from the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are filled with poison,
and
their clusters with bitterness.
v.33
Their
wine is the venom of serpents,
the
deadly poison of cobras.
v.34
‘Have
I not kept this in reserve
and
sealed it in my vaults?
v.35
It
is mine to avenge; I will repay.
In
due time their foot will slip;
their day of disaster is near
and
their doom rushes upon them.'
v.36-38
The Lord will show the futility of their unbelief
v.36
The
Lord
will vindicate his people
and
relent concerning his servants
when he sees their strength is gone
and
no one is left, slave or free.
v.37
He
will say: ‘Now where are their gods,
the
rock they took refuge in,
v.38
the
gods who ate the fat of their sacrifices
and
drank the wine of their drink offerings?
Let them rise up to help you!
Let
them give you shelter!
v.39-43
No one can withstand the Lord's Judgment
v.39
‘See
now that I myself am he!
There
is no god besides me.
I put to death and I bring to life,
I
have wounded and I will heal,
and
no one can deliver out of my hand.
v.40
I
lift my hand to heaven and solemnly swear:
as
surely as I live for ever,
v.41
when
I sharpen my flashing sword
and
my hand grasps it in judgment,
I will take vengeance on my adversaries
and
repay those who hate me.
v.42
I
will make my arrows drunk with blood,
while
my sword devours flesh:
the blood of the slain and the captives,
the
heads of the enemy leaders.'
v.43
Rejoice,
you nations, with his people,
for
he will avenge the blood of his servants;
he will take vengeance on his enemies
and
make atonement for his land and people.
[Notes:
If you need to, go back over the sections of this song
as we have marked them out to see the warnings here.]
v.44-47
Moses recites the Song & warns the people
v.44
Moses
came with Joshua son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song
in the hearing of the people.
v.45
When
Moses had finished reciting all these words to all Israel,
v.46
he
said to them, ‘Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared
to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey
carefully all the words of this law.
v.47
They
are not just idle words for you – they are your life. By
them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan
to possess.'
[Notes:
So yes, Moses has declared it before the people and
challenges them to instruct their children to ensure they keep
the Law else this warning will come on them as judgments on them
in the Land.]
v.48-
52 The Lord instructs Moses to die on Mount Nebo
v.48
On
that same day the Lord
told Moses,
v.49
‘Go
up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, opposite Jericho,
and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their
own possession.
v.50
There
on the mountain that you have climbed you will die and be gathered
to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and
was gathered to his people.
v.51
This
is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of
the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of
Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites.
v.52 Therefore,
you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter
the land I am giving to the people of Israel.'
[Notes:
Moses has done his job as shepherd of these sheep and
as they prepare to enter the Land, leaving him behind, he is to
leave them and go up on Mount Nebo in the mountainous range nearby,
where his time on earth will cease.]