DEUTERONOMY 32: ENDING ON A HIGH NOTE – by By Sonny Islas; check out the complete teaching here!
INTRODUCTION: We are now in Deuteronomy 32 where we’ll find Moses ending on a high note. He goes out with a bang in my book as He ends His ministry with a song/poem (Ch. 32) followed by a blessing (Ch. 33). Then in Ch. 34, Moses dies, his body is buried by God and his soul is reunited with the faithful ones who have before him - in heaven a.k.a. Abraham’s bosom.
DEUTERONOMY 32 (Subtitled: The Song of Moses)
Starting with DEUTERONOMY 31:30; 32:1-30.
“Then Moses spoke (not sang) in the hearing of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song until they were ended:
Vs. 1 “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.”
Moses calls both heaven and earth, angels, demons, and mankind to listen up. All of creation was to be his audience and rightly and so, because this song has to do with just how awesome our Creator God is and yet how utterly disregarded He was (and is) by Israel and most of His sinful creatures.
In verse 4, Moses calls God “perfect, just, truthful, righteous and upright” and in verse 5, he speaks of Israel (and by extension all of humanity) as being the exact opposite of God’s perfect nature - as “corrupt.’’
Vs. 2 “Let my teaching drop as the rain, My speech distills as the dew, as raindrops on the tender herb, and as showers on the grass.”
Moses wanted his Theocentric (God-centered) teaching to be received with eagerness - like dry and cracked ground would receive rain showers. As you know, rainwater produces life, beauty, and growth.
This is the positive effect that God’s Word produces in the lives of those who receive it with gladness – those who “let” the waters/teaching do its work. Your spiritual growth and usefulness will always be connected to how you drink up – God’s Word – or not.
Vs. 3 For I proclaim [declare] the Name of the Lord: ascribe (assign or credit) greatness to our God.
And this is what Moses does in verse 4. Moses sees God as the highest subject, the most important person and for this reason, Moses makes much of God and we should too. Moses is calling everyone to make it their business to “ascribe greatness to our God.” For us all to mentally, and verbally, acknowledge God’s matchless person and power.
Vs. 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.”
God being called “the Rock’’ means that God is firm, faithful and immutable (unchangeable), like a rock. Unlike sinful humanity – that is feeble, flaky, unpredictable, two faced, unreliable etc. God will always be God – perfectly just, all loving, all merciful, all wise, all powerful, all good, all holy etc. So, Dwayne Johnson is not “The Rock.” He’s a pebble. Our God is THE ROCK!
Vs. 5 “They have corrupted themselves; they are not His children, because of their blemish: a perverse and crooked generation (See also PHIL 2:15).
By the way – these are the exact same words that Jesus used to describe His generation – 1st Century Israel. God was here referring to the 1st generation that He killed off in the wilderness because their staunch unbelief and flat-out wicked hearts. God has always called those who truly love Him and obey Him (imperfectly) His children and those who don’t He says of them that they are not His children.
They may be children of Abraham [according to the flesh] but NOT God’s children (JOHN 8:37-44).
The Pharisees tried to use this “we’re the children of God because we’re the biological children of Abraham card,” and Jesus shot it down. He told them “if you were the true children of God and Abraham, “You would love Me – not want to murder Me.”
1 JOHN 3 tells us who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil:
1 JOHN 3:10We are all God’s creatures/creation, but we are not all God’s children.
In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.”
Vs. 6 Do you thus deal with the Lord, O foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father, who bought you [this refers to God bringing Israel out of slavery in Egypt]? Has He not made you and established you?
1 CORINTHIANS 6:20 says,Spiritually speaking - God brought us from the slave market of Satan and sin.
“For you were bought at a price [speaking of the blood of Jesus]; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s [belonging to God].”
God says to Israel’s leaders in:
MALACHI 1:6He Moses reminds Israel: Yahweh has been a Father to you, He made (created) you and established you as an actual nation among nations. With divine laws, holy leaders (not always) and a plot of land (the promised land).
“A son honors his father, And a servant his master. If then I am the Father, Where is My honor? And if I am a Master, Where is My reverence? Says the LORD of hosts To you priests who despise My name…” All of their offerings were corrupt. All of their religious ways were corrupt.
Vs. 7 “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:
Godly parents should have biblical answers as well as church leaders; “elders”
God wanted Israel to never forget all that God had done for them. To never forget His greatness and His goodness toward them. And if they were to forget, they were to inquire about God by going to their parents and leaders (you guys can come to me anytime with questions). God loves when we look back at His great works in the Bible and in our lives. He also loves when we desire to grow in the knowledge of who He is and what He’s like.
Our responsibility as parents and spiritual leaders is to faithfully, and accurately pass down biblical truth to our children. Skip Heitzig says that “the gospel message is always just one generation from being extinct.
When I thought about the word ask in this verse, I thought about three useful resources. Two on YouTube “Ask pastor Tim.” And “Ask pastor John.” And a website called “Got Questions.com”
Vs. 8-9 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. 9 For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance.
Moses is referring to GENESIS 10 and GENESIS 11 when God confused the people by giving them all new languages at the tower of Babel, which then caused them to spread out a create new people groups and nations – God’s original plan to be fruitful, multiply and subdue the entire Earth, not just Babylon (Moses is referring to how God divided Canaan for the 12 Tribes of Israel).
These next verses speak of God’s initial love and care for Israel:
Vs. 10-14 “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 (This could be referring to when Jacab was on the run from his brother Esau. But it’s also referring to how God saw Israel during the wilderness wanderings). 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 (at first, they made a golden calf – but God quickly shut that false worship and religion down). 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.”
These next verses speak of how Israel took advantage of God’s goodness in a negative way: And how God promises to severely judge them for it. Why? Because again God is The Rock – He is unchanging. He is always loving as we read, but He is also always Just – which means that He loves, and that He punishes - if He needs to. He’s too good to let evil go undealt with.
For more on this chapter from DEUTERONOMY 32:15-52 check out the commentary on this very long chapter, check out what David Guzik has to say! Click here to read his commentary!
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