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DEUTERONOMY
CHAPTER 32

1 Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. 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: 3 Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.

God had told Moses that this song would be a "witness against" the people (Deuteronomy 31:19).
God calls heaven and earth to hear His Word (verse 1).
God's Word is like rain and dew which water the earth and make it fruitful (verse 2).
The Word of God proclaims Him to be the ONLY God - THE one of true "greatness." (Verse 3).

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.

God IS perfect. And His work is perfect. He is a ROCK (unmovable) and incorruptible.
It's interesting to note that Jesus is referred to as "the Rock" in many Scripture verses (Romans 9:33, 1Corinthians 10:4, 1Peter 2:9 to name a few).
We Christians should never forget that the Bible proves that the God of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New Testament.

5 They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation. 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?

People corrupt themselves when they do not acknowledge God as CREATOR and PROVIDOR.

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. 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. 9 For the LORD's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.

Even when people turned away from God, and He destroyed the earth with a flood, and repopulated it - God was THINKING of Israel; and He was preparing a place in the earth for them.
The elders understood the providence of God and how He disbursed Noah's sons, then called Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob.
God worked through CENTURIES just to give the Israelites this land.
God has worked through centuries for Christians to have salvation and inherit eternal life through Jesus Christ.

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. 11 As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: 12 So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.

God led this nation from nothing to something, taking them from a "wilderness," just as an eagle does with her young (see Exodus 19:4).
It was God alone Who led them, there was no other needed (because there is no other). It is therefore God alone Who should be revered, worshipped, honored, glorified, and followed.

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; 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. 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.

God, by providential care, provided Israel with the abundance of food and the comforts of life (verses 13-14).
Now the song begins to take on a prophetic nature. When the nation was prosperous, and needed nothing, they began to "kick" (rebel) from God. The way they rebelled is described as "lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation." To take God lightly is the same as rebellion.

16 They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger. 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. 18 Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. 19 And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.

Still looking forward in prophetic manner, God says they "provoked Him to jealousy" by offering to "strange gods."
Once again, let me say there IS NO OTHER GOD. Idols represent only the imaginations of man.
God is "jealous" of the worship we should give Him.
We are created by God (verse 18) and "reborn" by His Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). Let us not forget that.
Because when God sees people giving His worship to something else, then He "hates" them! (verse 19).

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. 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. 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. 23 I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them. 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. 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.

When people worship idols, God does not "hide" His face from beholding them; but from helping them.
It angers God to see this perversion of man's worship ("froward" - verse 20).
Now God will cause them to be jealous (verse 21). He will use a foolish nation to chastise them (verse 21).
When one generation OMITS serving God rightly, the next generation commits sins of gross immorality.
God's purpose and design for heaping "mischiefs" upon them is to TURN them from superstition to truly following Him.
Actually the "mischiefs" are a RESULT of the sins of apostasy and idol-worship (see Jeremiah 2:19).
Hopefully, when we sin and experience the consequences of sin, our hearts are convicted and we return to God in repentance.

26 I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men: 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. 28 For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. 29 O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!

When a nation forsakes God it is certainly without counsel (verse 28). If it were not for God's great love, Israel (and all the world) would have been totally destroyed.
Wisdom is found in considering the END of things rather than only the beginning of them. The END of superstition and idol-worship is ETERNAL DEATH!

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? 31 For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. 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: 33 Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.

The only way another nation could ever chastise Israel is when God "sells" them (verse 30). And the only reason for which God would allow these things is that they turned their backs on Him.

34 Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures? 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. 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.

God withholds "vengeance" and "recompense" from the corrupt nations in order that he may USE them to chastise Israel. But vengeance and recompense is "laid up in store," and one day God will pour it out (see Revelation 16:1).

37 And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted, 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. 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. 40 For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.

Those who trust in other gods will find it fruitless in the end.
God is the ONLY God. Our God is an AWESOME God! He has the power of life and eath (verse 39, and John 1:1-4).
God also has the power of "wounding" and "healing." In other words, it is God's RIGHT to do as He sees fit with each person, and no one can alter His decisions (verse 39). See Psalm 51:8 and 1Corinthians 12:7-9.
God lives forever, and forever is the SAME (verse 40 and Hebrews 13:8).

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. 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. 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.

Those who trust in the Lord "rejoice" that He will one day avenge Himself of those who have been enemies to Him and to His people (verses 41-42).
At the same time, we can "rejoice" that God will have mercy upon His people (verse 43).

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.

Moses "taught" this son to the people (see also Deuteronomy 31:22).
Moses' exhortation to the people was "observe to do" (verse 46) all the words of God.
Additionally it is "life" for us to follow God's Word. The real meaning of life is found when we surrender to the Lord and follow His will as outlined in His Word (verse 47).
SEE WHAT A SONG TEACHES US!!
A song ought to be THEOLOGICAL!

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.

God's use of Moses is almost ended. He will be granted the privilege of passing on "blessings" to Israel (Deuteronomy 33), then he must die.
It is fitting that at death we are reminded of our sins. Sin is the reason for death.
Our greatest sin is failing to "sanctify" God among others (verse 51).
Because of God's Holy Spirit indwelling, we (Christians), like Moses, can see what the world would be like if everyone followed God. We have the "sight" of a PROMISED LAND. But we are unable to enter there because of sin - ours & others.
However, death is the door to the REAL "Promised Land." The land where there is no more sin, no more sickness, no more sorrow, no more fighting, no more tears and no more death!

Please continue to follow with us daily in Bible study.