The Song of Moses: Deuteronomy 32 (4)

Opening Prayer: Deuteronomy 32.29-31
Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this,
That they would consider their latter end!
How could one chase a thousand,
And two put ten thousand to flight,
Unless their Rock had sold them,
And the LORD had surrendered them?
For their rock is not like our Rock,
Even our enemies themselves being judges.

Sing Deuteronomy 32.29-31
(Sagina: And Can It Be)
Let now the people all be wise, and know that God is their Rock and Lord.
Let them no longer His ways despise, but turn and follow in His Word.
In Him is victory full and free; no god like Him could ever be.
Refrain, v. 3
I will proclaim our Savior’s fame, and sing the greatness of His Name.

Today’s Text: Deuteronomy 32.22-31

Preparation
1. How does God show His displeasure against His people?

2. What would the people be wise to do at such a time?

Meditation
God threatens to unleash His anger against His people as they turn from Him to the idols of their neighbors (v. 22). His people will deserve the fiercest wrath and judgment He can muster: disasters, war, hunger, pestilence, wild beasts, and more (vv. 22-24). They will be destroyed from without and know only terror within when God comes to judge them (v. 25).

So intense will God’s wrath be that, were it not for the mocking and boasting of His enemies, He would blot Israel out of His memory altogether (vv. 26, 27). He will not give His enemies a chance to boast, as though they, and not He, had brought about the destruction and captivity of the nation of Israel (v. 27).

God’s people have rejected His counsel and thus have lost all understanding of right, good, and their holy, set-apart purpose (v. 28). God does not delight in judging His people. He longs for them to wake up, smell the coffee, and consider their purpose and end (v. 28). He wants them to recover from their straying and stupor without His having to discipline them so harshly. Yet He will sell them to their enemies until they return to Him, recognizing and confessing Him as their Rock (v. 31).

If God’s people had taken Moses seriously, and had learned and sung this song, and passed it on to the generations that succeeded them, these terrors might have been enough to keep Israel from drifting from the counsel and understanding of Lord to embrace things and idols instead. If we learn to sing this song, it might help to keep us from straying from Him as well.

Treasure Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
Anger comes in many forms: immediate rage, a slow burn, passive aggression, gaslighting, and permanence. All of it is unpleasant; and it is never a happy thing to be on the receiving end of it. We know angry people and we can be angry people. Sometimes others’ rage or ours is understandable and perhaps even justified; and we are given guidance as to how to deal with it (Eph. 4.26). In this passage (Deut. 32.22), God’s anger toward His people was justified and terrifying. “For a fire is kindled in My anger, and shall burn to the lowest hell; it shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.” God shouts out, “For who is like Me? Who will arraign Me? And who is that shepherd who will withstand Me?” (Jer. 50.44) Can you hear and feel the rumble of His anger? Me too, and frankly I don’t want to be on the receiving end of it. Singing and remembering the song of Moses is a good start. Obedience to and love for God follows; and then knowing and rejoicing that Jesus stands in between God’s terrifying wrath and us. “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed…the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Is. 53.5,6).

Reflection
1. Is it hard for you to think of God as being angry? Does God still get angry about sin? How should knowing that affect our attitude toward sin?
 
2. How can believers help one another to keep from falling under the discipline of the Lord?

3. We need to deal with our sins continuously, lest we build up a pattern of departing from the Lord by degrees. How would you counsel a new believer to do this?

The cause is assigned why God had almost blotted out altogether the memory of the people, viz., because their faculty was incurable: for He does not merely indicate that their conduct was rash and inconsiderate, because they lacked reason mid discretion: but that they could be by no means brought to their senses, and, in fact, that not one drop of sagacity existed in them. John Calvin (1509-1564), Commentary on Deuteronomy 32.28

Let Your face shine on me, O God, for I seek Your face to help me…

Closing Prayer: Deuteronomy 32.22-28
Ask the Lord to search your heart, that He might bring to light any hardness against Him, show you any sins harboring in your soul, and lead you to repentance and renewal.

Sing Deuteronomy 32.22-28
(Sagina: And Can It Be)
Then is the wrath of God inflamed; He brings disasters, blight, and woes,
Judging the people who bear His Name, and counting them among His foes.
Dangers without and terrors within shall strike His people for their sin.
Refrain, v. 3
I will proclaim our Savior’s fame, and sing the greatness of His Name.

But for the boasting of His foes, the Lord would dash and destroy His own;
He would abandon them to their woes, and leave them to struggle all alone.
For they His counsel have despised and turned from Him to live in lies.
Refrain, v. 3
I will proclaim our Savior’s fame, and sing the greatness of His Name.

T. M. and Susie Moore

Listen to our summary of last week’s study in Deuteronomy by clicking here. You can download all the studies in the series by clicking here. And check out our current ReVision series on encouragement.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All quotations from Church Fathers from Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy: Ancient Christian Commentary Series III, Joseph T. Lienhard, S. J. ed. in collaboration with Ronnie J. Rombs, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2001). All quotations from John Calvin from John Calvin, Commentaries on The Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Order of A Harmony, Rev. Charles William Bingham M. A., tr. and ed. (Edinburgh: The Calvin Translation Society, 1863. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (available by clicking here).