Deuteronomy 32:1 ¶ Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
Notice how Moses makes the heavens above him and the
earth below witnesses to what he is about to say. This underscores the
importance to the people of his words.
Deuteronomy 32:2 ¶ My doctrine shall
drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the
tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:
See how Moses uses figures of speech such as a simile
comparing things with as. It is poetic and powerful language.
Deuteronomy 32:3 ¶ Because I will
publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.
We consider the word publish today as a reference to
written materials, like books and articles. At one time it meant to cry, to
announce, to disclose, to proclaim etc. We do not do the text an injustice when
we consider to preach as a synonym.
Think on such verses as Jeremiah 10:6 and Psalm 150:2
declaring the awesome greatness of the God of creation.
Deuteronomy 32:4 ¶ 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.
He is the Rock, uppercase R. Note Paul’s statement
about Christ.
1 Corinthians
10:4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they
drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and
that Rock was Christ.
This is a reference to the following incident;
Exodus 17:5 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before
the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith
thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before thee there upon
the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water
out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the
elders of Israel.
Moses strikes the rock in front of the elders and
water came out of the rock.
Psalm 78:15 He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and
gave them drink as out of the great depths. 16
He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down
like rivers…20 Behold, he smote the
rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread
also? can he provide flesh for his people?
Psalm 105:41 He opened the rock, and the waters gushed
out; they ran in the dry places like a river.
His work is perfect for all his ways are judgment. The
last part of the verse is all one connected statement with colons establishing
the flow. His work is perfect: for all his
ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and
right is he.
I think it can be said that all of creation and all reality
and all events are a judgment of God. He has determined aforehand something and
it is being carried out. God is complete lacking nothing. He is without sin and
is the ultimate truth. Everything with God is just and right as He is.
Deuteronomy 32:5 ¶ They have
corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his
children: they are a perverse and crooked generation.
Here is a contrast between the holiness of God in
verse 4 and the vileness of man here. Here Moses is condemning that generation
of Israelites as crooked and perverse.
Here is crooked defined Biblically by contrast with perverse;
Deuteronomy 4:16 Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a
graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
17 The likeness of any beast that is on
the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, 18 The likeness of any thing that creepeth on
the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth:
19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto
heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the
host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the
LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.
Perverse is defined in Proverbs 8:8 as froward which
is defined in verse 20 as acting in faithlessness as if they had no faith.
Deuteronomy 32:6 ¶ Do ye thus
requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy
father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established
thee?
As God is said to have purchased the Israelite from
bondage in Egypt so has Christ purchased the Christian from God’s judgment with
His own blood.
1 Corinthians
6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God
in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
1 Corinthians
7:23 Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the
servants of men.
Acts 20:28
Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the
Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath
purchased with his own blood.
Hebrews 13:12
Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own
blood, suffered without the gate.
2 Peter 2:1
But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be
false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even
denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift
destruction.
God also reestablishes Himself as Creator of the
Israelites here. They would never have been saved from famine or slavery apart
from God’s perfect will. Israel completely owed its existence as a nation to
the perfect will of God.
Deuteronomy 32:7 ¶ Remember the days
of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew
thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.
As you and I have discussed this will be one of
Israel’s great failings, not teaching future generations about God’s dealings
with their ancestors as they were told to do here and in verses like
Deuteronomy 4:9. We will see again after Joshua dies that they fail in that
crucial assignment as many American Christians did in the early to
mid-twentieth century.
Deuteronomy 32:8 ¶ When the most
High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of
Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children
of Israel.
This fascinating verse confirms that God scattered the
families at Babel. See Genesis 10 and 11. God’s wisdom and judgment separated
the sons of Adam and created the nation of Israel.
Deuteronomy 32:9 ¶ For the LORD'S
portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
Moses speaks of the Israelites as being God’s
inheritance, showing their importance to Him.
There are several verses in the Old Testament about
Israel being the Lord’s inheritance. See 1Samuel 10:1; 14:16; 1Kings 8:51; 53;
Psalm 28:9; 74:2; 106:40 and Jeremiah 10:16.
Deuteronomy 32:10 ¶ 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.
Here poetic language is used to describe how the
people of Israel were created as a nation. It is important to note that God
kept Israel as the apple of his eye, an idiom we know as referring to the
affection one has for a beloved, favorite child or lover. It is used again in
Proverbs 7:2; Psalm 17:8; Lamentations 2:18; and Zechariah 2:8. Moses when
called was not only in a physical waste and howling wilderness but in a
spiritual waste and howling wilderness as I have explained the nature of
ancient religion. Let’s read a few verses without comment to get to a sad
conclusion. Look at the blessings God will bestow on the Israelites and then
look in verse 15 at how they treated God.
Deuteronomy 32:11 ¶ As an eagle
stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings,
taketh them, beareth them on her wings:
Deuteronomy 32:12 ¶ So the LORD
alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.
Deuteronomy 32:13 ¶ He made him ride
on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields;
and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;
Deuteronomy 32:14 ¶ Butter of kine,
and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and
goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of
the grape.
Deuteronomy 32:15 ¶ But Jeshurun
waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art
covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and
lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
Christ is said to be that Rock, uppercase R, in
1Corinthians 10:4. Success and prosperity did not lead the Israelites to gratitude
or thanksgiving but to disdain and contempt for the God who saved them as those
things have done to American Christians and Americans in general.
Deuteronomy 32:16 ¶ They provoked
him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to
anger.
Their idolatry is predicted and their apostasy is
foretold here.
Deuteronomy 32:17 ¶ They sacrificed
unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods
that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.
The use of the word, demons, as opposed to devils here,
in some modern Bibles is a sad mistake. The Greeks called their gods Daemons
from which we get the word demons but they could be good or bad and to have a
daemon influence you was not necessarily a bad thing. But we know they are
devils and not good in any sense of the word. Catering to them is rejecting
God’s authority over you. They do exist so pretending they do not leaves you
vulnerable to their oppression. This verse links devils to gods. Worship cannot
be divided. God does not accept competing claims to your obedience and worship.
Paul said;
1Corinthians 8:5 For though there be that are called
gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,)
6 But to us there is
but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him;
and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
Deuteronomy 32:18 ¶ Of the
Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that
formed thee.
Deuteronomy 32:19 ¶ And when the
LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons,
and of his daughters.
Deuteronomy 32:20¶ And he said, I
will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for
they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no
faith.
Deuteronomy 32:21 ¶ They have moved
me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to
anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those
which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish
nation.
Deuteronomy 32:22 ¶ For a fire is kindled
in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth
with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
Clearly, the Holy Spirit is here suggesting that there
are levels of Hell. Notice that this is also the place where the fallen angels
from Genesis are imprisoned. See 2Peter 2:4. The Hell there is from the Greek
word Tartarus for the place of the damned. But there is not enough evidence in
the Bible for us to surmise what the purpose of having such a structure of Hell
is. This is God’s terrible wrath.
Let’s read the rest of this curse of judgment.
Deuteronomy 32:23 ¶ I will heap
mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them.
Deuteronomy 32:24 ¶ They shall
be burnt 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.
Deuteronomy 32:25 ¶ The sword
without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin,
the suckling also with the man of gray hairs.
Deuteronomy 32:26 ¶ I said, I would
scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from
among men:
Deuteronomy 32:27 ¶ Were it not that
I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave
themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our
hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this.
Deuteronomy 32:28 ¶ For
they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there
any understanding in them.
Deuteronomy 32:29 ¶ O that they were
wise, that they understood this, that they would consider
their latter end!
Deuteronomy 32:30 ¶ How should one
chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had
sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?
Deuteronomy 32:31 ¶ For their
rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies
themselves being judges.
Deuteronomy 32:32 ¶ 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:
Deuteronomy 32:33 ¶ Their
wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.
Deuteronomy 32:34 ¶ Is not this
laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?
Deuteronomy 32:35 ¶ To
me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide
in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and
the things that shall come upon them make haste.
Jonathan Edwards used this verse in his great sermon,
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
Deuteronomy 32:36 ¶ For the LORD
shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth
that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or
left.
Deuteronomy 32:37 ¶ And he shall
say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted,
Deuteronomy 32:38 ¶ Which did eat
the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink
offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection.
Elijah will make a similar query when confronting the
priest of Baal later.
1Kings 18:26 And they took the bullock which was
given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning
even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor
any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made. 27And it came to pass at noon, that
Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he
is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure
he sleepeth, and must be awaked.
Deuteronomy 32:39 ¶ See now that
I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I
kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there
any that can deliver out of my hand.
Notice the clear use of even as a connection between
two synonymous things or two things that are identical. Other examples would
be;
Genesis 6:17 And, behold, I, even I,
do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the
breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall
die.
Galatians 4:14 And my temptation which was in my
flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of
God, even as Christ Jesus.
Now, see the thoughts of this verse here;
Job 5:18 For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and
his hands make whole.
Psalm 18:31 For who is God
besides the LORD? And who is the rock except our God?
Psalm 50:22 Now consider
this, you who forget God, lest I tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:
Isaiah 45:5 I
am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee,
though thou hast not known me:
Deuteronomy 32:40 For I lift up my
hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.
Isaiah 57:15a For thus saith the high and
lofty One that inhabiteth eternity…
Our God has no beginning and no end. He is before and
after all things. Eternity is limitless time going ahead and behind. It is
infinite either way.
Deuteronomy 32:41 If I whet my
glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance
to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me.
Spoken figuratively as God needs no physical sword to
enact judgment on any living being. The word whet means to sharpen. See the
Biblical definition you can find by cross-referencing;
Ecclesiastes
10:10 If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge,
then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct.
Deuteronomy 32:42 I will make mine
arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and
that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning
of revenges upon the enemy.
God permitted mankind to march into apostasy and then
gently drew one man out of the mess and created a people for Himself through
which He would come to announce salvation to the entire world. But make no
mistake about it. God’s judgment is not wimpy nor is it easy. There is only one
choice, God. The consequence of turning your back on your Creator is utter and
complete destruction.
Deuteronomy 32:43 Rejoice, O ye
nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his
servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful
unto his land, and to his people.
Deuteronomy 32:44 And Moses came and
spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Hoshea the
son of Nun. 45 And Moses made an
end of speaking all these words to all Israel: 46 And he said unto
them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day,
which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this
law. 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,
whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.
Deuteronomy 32:48 And the LORD spake
unto Moses that selfsame day, saying, 49 Get thee 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 unto the children of Israel for a possession: 50 And die in the
mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as Aaron thy
brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people: 51 Because ye
trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of
Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified me not in the
midst of the children of Israel. 52 Yet thou shalt see
the land before thee; but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I
give the children of Israel.
Hoshea is another spelling of Joshua in English as
Hebrew did not have the J sound. It can be said to be Oshea as well. Of course
we know him as Joshua.
This brings us to an important point about the modern
cult name from modernistic Christians for God; Yahweh. No one knows how YHWH
was pronounced. Ancient Hebrew didn’t have vowels. You supplied them when you
spoke like we pronounce Blvd as Boulevard. In today’s Hebrew the Tetragammeton,
YHWH, the name of God, would be Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey. In English since the Middle
Ages, when the J sound appeared in our language, we have used Jehovah as our
pronunciation of God’s name which is then written respectfully as LORD, all
caps, over 6,000 times for us. Yahweh is a trendy name for modern Christians
but has no relevance either historically or religiously except as a rejection
of tradition and a rejection of our Bible. We know that God’ s name is I AM
THAT I AM from Exodus 3:14 because He says so. Jehovah means, according to
Strong, “The self-existing or eternal One.”
Anyway, whether Joshua, son of Nun’s name is written
as the above or as Jehoshua, it is the Hebrew version of Jesus in Greek.
All the variations of the name including the name Isaiah
have to with salvation.
We get some additional information about what happened
to Moses’ body after his death later.
Deuteronomy 34:5 So Moses the servant of the LORD died
there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. 6And he buried him in a valley in the
land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto
this day.
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