Deuteronomy chapter 32

The Song of Moses, continued. The final appeal of Moses. The death of Moses is immanent.

 


 

THE SONG OF MOSES, CONTINUED

 

VERSE 1. Give ear, you heavens, and I will speak. Let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

Give ear. That is, “listen.”

 

VERSE 2. My doctrine will drop as the rain. My speech will condense as the dew, as the misty rain on the tender grass, as the showers on the herb.

 

VERSE 3. For I will proclaim the LORD’s name. Ascribe greatness to our God!

I will proclaim the LORD’s name. Moses will say the Name of the LORD God in public!

 

VERSE 4. The Rock: his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness who does no wrong, just and right is he.

 

VERSE 5. They have dealt corruptly with him. They are not his children, because of their defect. They are a perverse and crooked generation.

 

VERSE 6. Is this the way you repay the LORD, foolish and unwise people? Isn’t he your father who has bought you? He has made you and established you.

foolish and unwise people. Moses sees his own people as foolish and unwise. He was correct.

 

VERSE 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.

Remember the days of old. To understand the present moment, they needed to look to the past.

 

VERSE 8. When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of men, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.

 

VERSE 9. For the LORD’s portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.

 

VERSE 10. He found him in a desert land, in the waste howling wilderness. He surrounded him. He cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye.

He kept him as the apple of his eye. They were the apple of God’s eye. That means they were very special.

 

VERSE 11. As an eagle that stirs up her nest, that flutters over her young, he spread abroad his wings, he took them, he bore them on his feathers.

As an eagle. Like an eagle that soars high above the vultures and crows that try to annoy it, the LORD God will lift us high above our enemies. Don’t lose hope! Read more »

he spread abroad his wings. Moses is speaking metaphorically. The LORD God is not a bird with wings.

he bore them on his feathers. Moses is speaking metaphorically. The LORD God is not a bird with feathers.

 

VERSE 12. The LORD alone led him. There was no foreign god with him.

no foreign god. To be devoted to one deity while acknowledging the existence of other deities is called henotheism.

 

VERSE 13. He made him ride on the high places of the earth. He ate the increase of the field. He caused him to suck honey out of the rock, oil out of the flinty rock;

 

VERSE 14. butter from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the finest of the wheat. From the blood of the grape, you drank wine.

 

VERSE 15. But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he abandoned God who made him, and rejected the Rock of his salvation.

In the kings of the Old Testament, we see powerful examples that power corrupts. That absolute power corrupts absolutely. Read more »

 

VERSE 16. They moved him to jealousy with strange gods. They provoked him to anger with abominations.

with strange gods. They worshipped other gods.

 

VERSE 17. They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods that they didn’t know, to new gods that came up recently, which your fathers didn’t dread.

sacrificed to demons. When people worship other gods, what is it that they are worshipping?

This verse, as well as other verses in the Bible, describes other gods as demons. The demon is masquerading as an other god.

In a biblical worldview, to sacrifice to an other god is to be a demon-worshipper.

In other places, the Bible describes other gods as nothing.

 

VERSE 18. Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful, and have forgotten God who gave you birth.

the Rock. In the desert, a rock gave God’s people life-saving water. Later, the rock was a symbol for the LORD God. In the New Testament, the rock is the Lord Jesus. Read more »

have forgotten God. They had forgotten the One God.

 

VERSE 19. The LORD saw and abhorred, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.

 

VERSE 20. He said, “I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end will be; for they are a very perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.

 

VERSE 21. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.

 

VERSE 22. For a fire is kindled in my anger, that burns to the lowest Sheol, devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.

the lowest Sheol. Sheol is the place of the dead.

 

VERSE 23. “I will heap evils on them. I will spend my arrows on them.

 

VERSE 24. They shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and bitter destruction. I will send the teeth of animals on them, with the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.

 

VERSE 25. Outside the sword will bereave, and in the rooms, terror on both young man and virgin, the nursing infant with the gray-haired man.

 

VERSE 26. I said that I would scatter them afar. I would make their memory to cease from among men;

I would scatter them afar. This will indeed happen. They will indeed be scattered.

 

VERSE 27. were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy, lest their adversaries should judge wrongly, lest they should say, ‘Our hand is exalted, The LORD has not done all this.’ ”

 

VERSE 28. For they are a nation void of counsel. There is no understanding in them.

 

VERSE 29. Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!

consider their latter end. If they had insight, they would realize their future.

 

VERSE 30. How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had delivered them up?

one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight. When we walk with the LORD God, by his grace, we become invincible.

One can defeat a thousand enemies. Two can conquer 10,000 enemies!

 

VERSE 31. For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves concede.

 

VERSE 32. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poison grapes. Their clusters are bitter.

Sodom … Gomorrah. Many people assume that ancient Sodom was destroyed because of homosexual activity. However, the Bible says otherwise. Read more »

 

VERSE 33. Their wine is the poison of serpents, the cruel venom of asps.

 

VERSE 34. “Isn’t this laid up in store with me, sealed up among my treasures?

 

VERSE 35. Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slides; for the day of their calamity is at hand. Their doom rushes at them.”

Vengeance is mine. People often quote that phrase.

 

VERSE 36. For the LORD will judge his people, and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone; that there is no one remaining, shut up or left at large.

 

VERSE 37. He will say, “Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge;

 

VERSE 38. which 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.

 

VERSE 39. “See now that I myself am he. There is no god with me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.

There is no god with me. This verse, as well as other verses in the Bible, describes other gods as nothing.

In other places, the Bible describes other gods as demons. The demon masquerades as other gods.

In a biblical worldview, to sacrifice to an other god is to be a demon-worshipper.

 

VERSE 40. For I lift up my hand to heaven and declare, as I live forever,

 

VERSE 41. if I sharpen my glittering sword, my hand grasps it in judgment; I will take vengeance on my adversaries, and will repay those who hate me.

I sharpen my glittering sword. In the Bible, the word “sword” can often be taken as a euphemism for “the Bible.” Here are the verses about this »

 

VERSE 42. I will make my arrows drunk with blood. My sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the head of the leaders of the enemy.”

I will make my arrows drunk with blood. For the sake of his people under siege, the LORD God will cause their defense to be supernaturally effective.

Their arrows will be drunk with blood; their sword will devour the enemy.

Even the leaders of the enemy will fall prey to their attacks.

 

VERSE 43. Rejoice, you nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will take vengeance on his adversaries, and will make atonement for his land and for his people.

For this verse, the Septuagint reads:

“Rejoice, you heavens, with him, and let all the angels of God worship him; rejoice you Gentiles, with his people, and let all the sons of God strengthen themselves in him; for he will avenge the blood of his sons, and he will render vengeance, and recompense justice to his enemies, and will reward them that hate him; and the Lord shall purge the land of his people.”

 

THE FINAL APPEAL OF MOSES

 

VERSE 44. Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun.

he and Joshua the son of Nun. In the previous chapter, Moses had commissioned Joshua as the new leader.

Now Moses and Joshua are leading the nation together.

 

VERSE 45. Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel.

 

VERSE 46. He said to them, “Set your heart to all the words which I testify to you today, which you shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law.

 

VERSE 47. For it is no vain thing for you, because it is your life, and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, where you go over the Jordan to possess it.”

NIV translation. 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.

This verse is fantastic! Would you consider memorizing it? More great verses to memorize from the Book of Deuteronomy and from the entire Bible.

 

THE DEATH OF MOSES IS IMMANENT

 

VERSE 48. The LORD spoke to Moses that same day, saying,

 

VERSE 49. “Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is across from Jericho; and see the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel for a possession.

see the land of Canaan. Before he dies, Moses needs to climb one more mountain.

From the top of this mountain, he will behold the Promised Land.

 

VERSE 50. Die on the mountain where you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people;

Die on the mountain. On that mountain, Moses will die.

 

VERSE 51. because you trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you didn’t uphold my holiness among the children of Israel.

you trespassed against me. Moses was instructed to speak to a rock. But instead he hit it with a stick.

For that, he suffered a great punishment. He was disbarred from the Promised Land.

 

VERSE 52. For you shall see the land from a distance; but you shall not go there into the land which I give the children of Israel.”

 


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DEUTERONOMY

CHAPTERS: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34

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Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.